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1 Year Since Retirement
About this Episode
Justin retired 1 year ago today!
What did he do? How does he feel? Did the numbers work out as expected?
Luckily for you, he’s dropped all the answers to that in the show with the highlights below.
Read on for Justin’s notes:
Numerical Highlights from Year 1:
- Averaged around $2500/mo or $30k/yr spending
- Networth increased by ~400k ($1.7M -> $2.1M)
- Continued to save money
- 4% SWR + Passive Income = ~13k/mo or $156k/yr if I wanted
Retirement Feelings Explained:
- Relaxed: just being yourself and no corporate coating,
- Awkward: Realizing every American interaction with someone starts off with work followed by me trying to explain the situation and balancing the outward perception from <oh poor thing is jobless> to <this prick trying to flaunt how good he has it>
- Proud: as someone who is often hard on themself for not sticking to things, financial independence took real commitment for ~9 years.
- Scared: that I’ll have great ideas I want to try, memories I want to make, relationships I want to strengthen, or things I want to discuss… but discover that those I want to do it with don’t want those things at all
- Relieved: After a year, I find similarities to the relief I felt over telling everyone I gave up alcohol. Saying aloud that I’ve done something that 99% of people will never do felt very weird at first, but then I adjusted to that 1% weirdo being my story, and the people who truly care about me let you be that 1% weirdo. And that exchange ends with a lot of relief.
- Responsible: I feel a responsibility to push the people I love the most to take ownership of their financial lives
- Satisfied: Not from a mentality that everything that needs to be accomplished is accomplished. My sense of satisfaction comes from knowing that the first year of retirement was worth every decision and delayed gratification even if it’s the only year of financial freedom I ever get.
Detailed Breakdown of Year 1 Activities:
December 2023
- Hosted my niece for a week in Austin
- Made custom laser engraved gifts for my mom and good friend
- Tried Franklins BBQ and Interstellar BBQ for the first time
- Planned and purchased everything for a kitchen remodel
- Saw several movies
- Redesigned ripped dip packaging
- Attended consumer product goods meetups
- Went to the trail of lights
- Did a baby kangaroo feeding experience
- Redesigned my Dad’s upstairs to be a sudo apartment in Mississippi
- Ripped up old flooring and prepped concrete for staining
- Replaced all the windows in the flip
- Spent two weeks in Mississippi
- Enjoyed Christmas with my family
- Tons of workouts
January 2024
- Two weeks in Mississippi
- Someone hit and totaled my Tesla
- Redid Kitchen in Leslie’s family beach house
- Lots of other projects there like replacing all the hardware for the doors
- Spent a week on the Texas coast
- Saw several movies
- Lots of cooking
- Lots of workouts
- Dove into Ninja Creamis
February 2024
- Spent two weeks on the Texas coast
- More beach house remodeling
- Went to the Austin Symphony
- Took the train to Dallas
- Completed the purchase of my New (to me) Tesla Model Y
- Spent a couple of days with my best friend in Dallas
- Spent a week in Mississippi
- Lots of remodeling on the flip house
- Attended a Rodeo
- Took my niece to a concert in Nashville
March 2024
- Spent two weeks in Mississippi
- Played golf
- Replaced doors and painted the exterior of the flip house
- Drove back to Austin
- Tried a new boxing class
- Did my first Dexa scan (10.1% body fat)
- Spent a week in Miami
- Attended Ultra music festival
- Went to two additional concerts
- Drove back to Texas Coast
April 2024
- More remodeling on Texas beach house
- Found outfits for our engagement (surprise to Leslie)
- Made pies/desserts for Leslie’s Brother’s 50th birthday
- Spent two weeks in Portugal
- Got engaged
- A quick trip to Paris
- Volunteered for Preservation Austin home tour
- Spent a week in Puerto Vallarta
May 2024
- Hosted my parents in Austin
- Threw an engagement party
- Another trip to the Texas Coast
- Yoga wellness day trip
- DeadMau5 show in Austin
- Spent 10 days in Chicago
- Attended Beyond Wonderland music festival in Chicago
- Tons of catching up with friends, sporting events, new restaurants, museums etc
June 2024
- 4 more days in Chicago
- House sitting for Leslie’s brother
- 10 days in Mississippi
- More work on the flip house
- Cookout for Father’s Day
- Consumer Product Goods event
- Spent a week in Alaska
- Took a private plane flight around the glaciers and mountains
July 2024
- Spent two weeks across Oregon/Washington
- Odesza concert at The Gorge on the 4th of July
- Oregon Coast stay
- Clamming
- Exploring Portland
- Berry Picking
- Beautiful hikes
- Highland cow experience
- House sitting for Leslie’s Brother
- Week in Puerto Rico
August 2024
- Traveled to southern Mississippi
- Attended my Aunt’s wedding
- Spent a couple of days with my Aunt
- Spent over two weeks in Africa
- Hiked Kilimanjaro
- Did African Safari
September 2024
- Boat day Lake Austin
- Knocked off some local Austin restaurants from the wishlist
- Began planning our 6 month international trip
- Started taking running more seriously
- Mississippi State vs Texas football game
- Hosted friends from Mississippi
- Kygo concert
October 2024
- F45 photoshoot
- Celebrated Rhonda’s birthday
- Staycation downtown Austin
- Maggie Rogers concert
- ACL
- Domdolla concert
- Baking spree (first biscuits, high protein desserts)
- Started building cookbook
- Vintage culture concert
- Ride along in a rally car
- Leslie 10yr college reunion
November 2024
- Austin Networking getaway weekend
- Wedding Expo
- Hosted 5k / Friendsgiving
- Spent 11 days in Dallas with my best friend
- Creed concert
- Hyrox race
- 4 days in Mercury Texas for Thanksgiving
- Wooli concert
It’s obvious that Justin didn’t get bored in retirement or feel as though he was just sitting around being worthless.
We hope you enjoyed this detailed breakdown and case study of what a real example of retirement looks like.
If you found value in the episode, please share it with a friend!
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