Hi Jim, thanks for stopping by.

Thanks for the tip on Bigger Pockets. I had another friend mention that a while back but I had forgotten to go check it out. Bookmarking that now! Even though I’m pretty well diversified within the stock market, I want to make sure that I split up the pie chart so that some of it works outside of that paradigm. Sam at Financial Samurai had a really good post about that.

I only have one kid (6-year old daughter) and I’m putting away just a little bit for her college education. I may try to contribute more as we get closer to retirement if I’m ahead on my numbers or through any work I do on the side (like my blog) once I do quit my job. I try to remember that they can get loans for school – you can’t get loans for your retirement.

Also, I’m a big advocate of real estate rental properties. I currently have a single family and a duplex, but I’m hoping to get 2-3 more duplexes before I quit the job. It makes me feel a little better considering my distrust for the stock market. Since you mentioned you’re in research mode, I would strongly suggest checking out Bigger Pockets. It’s free and they have some excellent podcasts, webinars, forums, etc… it’s really awesome!

Good luck to you!

— Jim

Hey, I did see your comment the other day and replied to it. I thought I had it set up where I only have to approve a person once. Will investigate…

We’ve also been talking about trading in suburban life for a quite little mountain town. I grew up in Chattanooga (which is quite a bit bigger than what I want) and love having access to everything within an hour drive. One of these days!

Anyway, enjoyed reading this a lot and in many ways is why we are taking our family to the mountains to live in two years time.
Seeing the joy our kids get out of long hikes, kayaking down the river, swimming in river swim holes is hard to put down on paper.

I only wish more people could see what is out there and it is free.

It’s so cool to hear my daughter already talking about wanting to be a camp counselor. She’s been to camp for two summers and four of the Alumni weekends with us. I guess it’s in her DNA at this point!

It’s still kind of amazing to me that I got to do it for as long as I did. I suppose I went through a Peter Pan phase in my mid twenties. I’ll have to write the ten year college plan post at some point too :). I wish everyone could experience a little bit of that. Our planet would probably be in a lot better shape if we all got to develop a little appreciation for the outdoors. Hopefully, I can pass it on to more than just my kids!

Thanks for stopping by! Glad you found me.

We’re a work in progress with the spendiness. Definitely have some good weeks and some bad but like you say, we’re slowly making a change here and a change there. We’re already in a lot better position than we were two years ago. Definitely feeling good about the big picture progress!