Some Thoughts on Coronavirus and Early Retirement

With 2020 over halfway through, and a pandemic being the focus of the majority of it, here are some of my thoughts on Coronavirus and early retirement, how it’s impacted us, and how the system we’ve built is working out.

The COVID Diaries, Day 6: Isolating in 400 Square Feet

A lot of people are baffled by how we can live comfortably in a 400-square-foot studio even during normal times, let alone during a plague outbreak. “How do you not strangle each other?” is a common question we get. “Who’s going to get thrown off the balcony first?” is getting a little more common now that we’re isolating and spending even more time here. It’s actually not a problem for us, for a few key reasons.

The COVID Diaries, Day 5: Grocery Shopping

It’s pretty amazing how much can change in a week.

The COVID Diaries, Day 4: Food

Food is likely the third biggest pandemic-related concern around right now, right after financial catastrophe and dying a horrible death. We’ve found a few ways to address the growing problem.

The COVID Diaries, Day 3: Mental Health

Dealing with living through a global pandemic is pretty tough mentally in addition to the other ways it sucks. We’ve started a few habits to maintain our sanity during many days of not leaving our apartment, and having a constant stream of terrifying new updates from the outside world.

The COVID Diaries, Day 2: Financials

After a few expected day-one hiccups, I am now comfortably settled in as a home-based receptionist. It’s a bit strange for both of us to be home working, but we seem to be pretty good at mostly ignoring each other during the work day, except when we converge for lunch. A little surprising in a one room, 400 square foot apartment, but fortunate.

The COVID Diaries, Day 1: Introduction

This series is my attempt to cover our lives during the unprecedented global pandemic of COVID-19. I’ll be talking about our day to day lives, thoughts, activities, finances, and of course, the isolation experience. This is a fantastic day to start a project like this because….

I’m officially working from home! And here we all thought receptionists couldn’t work remotely.

A FIRE-Style Money Diary

We recently did a FIRE article and money diary for WealthBar, where we’ve held our investments for several years. For a peek into FIRE-style life, you can check it out at https://blog.wealthbar.com/fire-money-diary/

Exploring Alternatives Mini-Documentary

–Written by Cel

Several months ago, we were approached by a couple that runs a YouTube channel called Exploring Alternatives. Their channel is about Canadians who have “alternative lifestyles”: people who are “living in small spaces like tiny houses, vans, RVs, sailboats, and who are exploring long-term travel, minimalism, zero waste living, renewable energy, and much more. ”

As we are frugal, relatively minimalist, and are shooting for early retirement, they wanted to do a video about us, which we happily agreed to. It took a while for it to be filmed, edited, and ready for publication, but it came out earlier this month. Here is the link to the video, which is about 9.5 minutes long.

About Financial Independence Scams…

This one is going to be a bit of a downer.

Apparently, the world of network marketing, AKA multi-level marketing, AKA pyramid schemes, has noticed the increasing public interest in financial independence and early retirement, and started co-opting the language and terminology used in FIRE circles as a way to scam people. I have not personally encountered this, but in the last few months, it’s come up a lot in personal finance and early retirement oriented forums and groups. So let’s delve into this and take a look at what exactly these creeps are doing, and how to avoid them.