It’s our 1 year anniversary!

Yeah, 1 year old!
Yeah, 1 year old!

I can’t believe it but it was a year ago that we decided to start this blog. It was a Friday off, and we were enjoying some coffee, on our sort of a “date morning” where we get 30-40 minutes to just catch up and talk about whatever and not be dealing with two demanding little humans. I love ’em, but man!. That week, our conversation was all about our FIRE plans. We’d been discussing it for real, because my brain finally accepted that, “Yes, yes we CAN do this and it’s not a pipe dream!” I was mainly quizzing Mrs. SSC about the intricacies, when she mentioned other blogs she had found that had kids and were in our situation, like Mixing Maroons and Big Guy Money.

I’d recently begun to dig around ol’ Mister Money Moustache and find that not everyone on there was an uber ER extremist, and that was heartening. This was when he was still cranking out posts regularly with his “clown car” and “sheeple” bravado if you can call it that, but all of his posts were great food for thought. They reaffirmed that I don’t need things to be happy, and trying to acquire things to achieve happiness is not a sustainable or healthy lifestyle. It had been a turning point a year or so earlier when I’d broken myself of my, “oh shiny! buy-now, oh shinier, buy now, oh! more shiny! Buy, buy, buy!” sort of lifestyle.

Exploring different blogs, I realized that “hey, everyone has their own thing going on, and our plan is going to be our plan.” Like everyone out there, they all have their strategy to get to FIRE and we have ours. I also realized there shouldn’t be a hangup with our plan being different from everyone elses, because, well it should be different, it’s ours. Reminded me of Full Metal Jacket a little, “This is our FIRE plan! There are many like it, but this one is ours!”  Hahaha….

You WILL retire early, or so help me!!!
You WILL retire early, or so help me!!!

I remember the newby-ness of WordPress, and it seemed so foreign. Yet, I still get SO frustrated when I add a picture that has been turned the right way up, and I’ve snagged it the right way up and re-saved it the right way up, only to have WP turn it sideways when it gets emailed out, GAH!!!!! WTF WordPress?! Anyone else get that? Like this pic (although it will probably look right today).

Yep, that's my favorite mug to drink coffee from.
Yep, that’s my favorite mug to drink coffee from.

How do you fix it? GAH!!!!! But I digress…

It’s been 52 weeks and there have been 69 posts, and 682 comments! I can’t believe there are 69 posts, I mean a year ago I would have thought, what kind of crap serious financial gobbeledy-gook insights do I have? I don’t pay attention to that stuff, I rarely even know the price of oil within $20 and that’s my OWN industry, what views will I have to put out there? All the wrong kind, let me tell you. I know how to burn through money, make bad decisions, and live it up, above my means with the best of ’em!

So at least in the beginning, that was my voice and how I wrote. I find I still gravitate towards that sometimes, but I find it easier now to understand where those bad habits came from, why I felt that they were justified, and what it took me to break them. If I figure out how to put that all out there coherently in under 10,000 words, you’ll hear about it. It’s a twisted story my friends, but maybe one day… Besides, I’m sure more than a few of you have probably had your own version of the same experiences. Maybe we could start a “Before FI” series – Oooohhhh….

Now, I just like to write about what’s on my mind, and how our FIRE FFLC affects everything and a lot of our seemingly little decisions can affect that date. It’s also made me realize that while financial security and a constant paycheck is great, it ain’t everything. I’d rather take a chance and walk away from my industry and career while I’m just getting to that “show me the money” stage to have more time to get to make memories with my wife and kids. Having those little guys around has made the ER goal even more concreted into my brain because I’d love to have more time with them.

I got to spend the last weekend with my 2 yr old daughter, it was just us, and except for Friday, we didn’t even leave the house. We gave each other multiple “haircuts”, threw balls across the house, and each time she’d say “one more time throw ball!” and about 15 times later she went to go do something else. We played dress up with her baby dolls, and had lots of tea parties. Heck, we didn’t even get out of our pajamas all of Saturday and Sunday. We had a blast just getting to hang out and be, and cook, and play chase, and do what we wanted. When I dropped her off Monday morning at daycare, she was crying and sobbing, and I felt like it too, because I’d much rather have another day getting to hang with her than go to work.

A lot can change in a year, and I can’t even begin to guess what a year from now will look like in our household, much less many of yours. Steve at Think Save Retire is planning on being done in 2016, and looking at Even Steven Money’s Financial Independence Day list, a LOT of you guys, that I follow anyway, are looking at 2017! It should make for some interesting reading, while I’m in my office… Hahaha!

Until then, I’ll keep cranking out some posts and thoughts and do my best to keep it entertaining. I can’t say there won’t be more song and music analogies in there, because I do love music and find lots of ways to relate lyrics into real life, if you hadn’t noticed. 🙂 Thanks for a great year, and thank youall for putting out the great content you do that keeps me  coming back for more. You all have been super supportive, helpful, and dang interesting to follow and get to know!