Tread Lightly, Retire Early

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Tag: beliefs

Posted on April 22, 2019April 22, 2019 by Tread Lightly, Retire Early · 32 Comments

Tread Lightly Q&A On Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! I had a hard time deciding what to write about today because it feels like such an important one. As you all have probably - hopefully - figured out by now, I'm a little bit obsessed with living a sustainable life (hey, it's even the name of this blog). Because of that,…

Posted on December 24, 2018 by Tread Lightly, Retire Early · 23 Comments

No Santa: The Christmas Tradition We Don’t Celebrate

December babies tend to either love the holidays or hate them. Growing up, birthdays tend to blend into Christmas celebrations; presents are often combined, birthday parties are moved or sparsely attended thanks to the obligations of the invitees. And yet, I have always loved the Christmas season as well as my birthday, even though there…

Posted on October 15, 2018 by Tread Lightly, Retire Early · 74 Comments

Sustainability Is More Important Than Retiring Early

The natural gas explosion I mentioned last week ended up being a much smaller deal than the headlines first made it sound, and everything is back to normal as far as garbage service and home natural gas usage. Whenever some acute situation requires changes to daily lives, be it a break in the natural gas…

Posted on April 23, 2018April 10, 2019 by Tread Lightly, Retire Early · 89 Comments

Ten Simple Changes For A More Sustainable Life

Sustainable living is something that comes naturally to me at this point in my life. I majored in environmental science, studied the sustainable built environment and sustainable food and agriculture in graduate school, worked as a park ranger for 6.5 years, and I currently work for a company that builds affordable, green buildings. When we…

Posted on December 15, 2017December 15, 2017 by Tread Lightly, Retire Early · 16 Comments

Friday’s Frugal Five (30th Birthday Week)

I’ve been told as I get older I won’t love birthdays so much, but so far it hasn’t happened. I turned thirty this week, so basically I’m now finally a real adult. I actually love having a mid December birthday because there’s usually a lot going on for the holidays, and for an extrovert like…

Posted on August 21, 2017August 22, 2017 by Tread Lightly, Retire Early · 13 Comments

Old timer (dog) troubles

Our dog Ellie just turned seven years old last week. SEVEN. I feel like we just brought her home last year. We adopted her when she was five months old and "only" fifty pounds. We tend to be suckers for the animals that are less likely to be adopted (ferret with adrenal disease, bearded dragon…

Posted on July 29, 2017December 31, 2017 by Tread Lightly, Retire Early · 10 Comments

Microlending and the intention-action gap 

I don't know if it's because I'm turning 30 this year, or because my son is getting older and I'm getting some time back in my life, but I have been looking deeply at a lot of areas of my life. While I may not have a "before I turn 30" bucket list like I've…

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Final sunset while on our trip to Orcas Island over Memorial Day weekend last month. We stayed at West Beach Resort in a glamping tent cabin for the first time ever. It wasn’t cheap - almost $200 for the night - but the experience was so much fun and we really enjoyed ourselves. The rest of the trip was with family in a big Airbnb, so we went all out for the final night just the three of us. . Otherwise, we did a decent job on the rest of our expenses for the month, with our grocery bill coming in at under $300 for the first time all year! Restaurant and vacation food spending was higher (though normal), but I was pretty dang proud of us on the grocery front. More in the post about how we made that happen. . I also did something extra special for a friend this past month, and I decided to share the details about that giving. I am always hesitant not to seem like I’m “showing off” when it comes to things I do for others, but if I can inspire someone else to do the same, then that awkwardness of sharing is completely worth it. Above all else, love people, and use your actions to show it. . Want all the details about our finances this month? Real numbers (though I do keep back what we pay on the mortgage + daycare for some small bit of privacy on the internet) and how we achieved a 44% savings rate in May even while splurging on some special travel. *link in bio* . . . . . #orcasisland #sanjuanislands #islandsunset #financialfreedom #debtfreecommunity #financialindependence #financialindependenceretireearly #fire #choosefi #budget #womenspersonalfinance #savemoney #frugaltravel #glamping We now have enough strawberries in the yard on a single day to have enough to make milkshakes! We did this a handful of times over last summer with different berries as they ripened and the kiddo remembers it as one of the best parts of summer. Even better, he got to share it last night with a couple of his friends, and you could just see how proud he was to share “his” garden’s produce. . He loves to help in the garden and in the kitchen, and I hope has he grows these memories will stick with him - not just of relaxed days in the sunshine at home, but also of being tied in to the fluctuations of the seasons and the understanding that strawberries just don’t happen in the middle of winter, that food just tastes better in season. . . . . . . #homegrownstrawberries #homegrown #urbanhomestead #frugalliving #gardening #pnwgardening #frontyardgarden #gardenwithkids #zerowasteliving #zerowaste #growyourownfood #frugal #homemademilkshakes Tuesday afternoon I had the opportunity to walk the six miles home from work because my husband picked up the kiddo. I considered taking the bus and then goes to the gym instead, but the day was just too lovely to spend on the bus. . . And then I considered the $2.75 bus fare I’d have to spend instead of the free walk, and that sold it for me. As silly, small about perhaps, but thanks to @reachingforfi a while back sharing her creation of a “found savings” bank account, I’ve done the same, so that $2.75 has been deposited there. . Without that intentionality of moving the money immediately into savings, I’ve in the past tricked myself into thinking I’ve “saved” a lot more than I actually have. Money would not get spent in one place, but then I would look back at the end of the month and I wouldn’t actually have saved any more because if just got spent on other things. . So far, my “found savings” account is small, but $2.75 here and $10 there are going to add up to real numbers over time. And it’s better incentive for me to forgo those “it’s just five dollars” temptations because I know they’re adding up to so much more. . Do you have a “found savings” account? Have you ever considered opening one? . . . . #debtfreecommunity #financialindependence #financialindependenceretireearly #frugalliving #moneysavingtips #savings #womenspersonalfinance #walkhomefromwork #walkingcommute #personalfinance #choosefi I met Liz back in November of last year at the inaugural Cents Positive. While I was so excited to meet blogger friends in person, again or for the first time, I really hadn’t given a lot of thought to the other women who would be attending the event, considering well over half of them were not bloggers (there were perhaps twenty or twenty five bloggers of more than eighty women who attended the weekend). . . Other than bloggers, I had only met one other person in real life who had retired by their mid fifties or earlier, and that was my husband’s godfather, who travels with us often. Obviously, there are many others who have also done so, but since the majority don’t talk about it publicly, we don’t really get to know them in the same way. . . At Cents Positive though, I met a number of women who had pulled the trigger on early retirement, and many others who were along all different places in their journey to financial independence. Liz was one of them. She retired in the summer of 2017 and, as I found out through conversations that weekend and then later through email and then text, she hasn’t worked a day since. . . The idea that everyone who “retires early” find some encore career or other source of income (ahem, like blogging) is perpetuated by the fact that those are the people who tend to write about it publicly. The ones who aren’t blogging or sharing online are simply living their lives, oftentimes very much off line. . . Eventually, I asked Liz if she would write a blog post for me here, and I was thrilled when she said yes. We’ve talked about a number of overlapping interests, mostly gardening and sustainability (they have an electric car and solar panels and are using gray water to water their garden), but this post today is specifically about the numbers. She tracked her finances closely through 2018, her first full year of early retirement, and she shared them with me here, as well as some snippets about her life since she walked away from her corporate career. (Link in bio). . . . . . . #financialindependence #financialindependenceretireearly #womenspersonalfinance #fire #choosefi #earlyretirement #retired #workoptional #debtfreecommunity Financial Independence For All. . . Women are joining, and changing, a movement that has been white and male. . We aren’t just joining the FIRE community (hello, Vicki Robin and the publication of Your Money or Your Life originally back in 1992), but we certainly are changing it for the better. . I know I shared the online version a couple days ago but there is something extra surreal about seeing my name in the print edition of The New York Times. And of all the things I could see my name attached to, this article about women and financial independence is probably the best thing I could have ever hoped for. . “Meet The Women Of The Financial Independence Community,” the blog post and evergreen list of women’s financial independence and personal finance bloggers, has been my most read post since I started blogging two years ago, for darn good reason. And with its inclusion here, the women listed there are ALSO getting some pretty awesome press as well. There’s nothing I love better than seeing all the referrals go out to so many amazing women writing about money and FIRE, truly shifting the tone of the community to one that is supportive and inclusive, where it doesn’t matter your sexual orientation, family structure, skin color, or career track; there’s a blog (or many) that women can read to find a story that sounds more like their own. And now those stories are being seen by so many new people this week, and that makes my heart so happy. . “Before I found you, I thought I was the only one out here!” . . “We all deserve... to see the dream is possible.” . . “I saw there were women with debt and kids that are doing it so why not me?” . . To anyone who thinks representation doesn’t matter, this is why. . . @charlottecowles @richandregular @our_nextlife @bgrpiggy @bgrkitty @frugal_asian @steppingstonestofi @nytimes . . . . . #financialindependence #financialindependenceretireearly #financialfreedom #debtfreecommunity #womenspersonalfinance #debtfree #personalfinance #frugalliving #frugality #inclusion #blackwomeninfinance #womeninfinance #womenbloggers #choosefi #firecommunity I’m in The New York Times this morning talking about women in the FIRE movement. From first publishing my list of bloggers a year and a half ago to having a (very) well written article in a major news publication talking about the very same thing - thanks to @charlottecowles for writing such a fabulous piece. I’m a bit in shock, and so, so thankful that I get to be a part of lifting up women’s voices in this wonderful personal finance community. I can’t wait to see what we do next 🔥 . . . . . S/o to the other ladies featured: @our_nextlife @richandregular @bgrpiggy @bgrkitty @frugal_asian @steppingstonestofi . . . . . #financialindependence #financialfreedom #debtfreecommunity #womenoffi #fire #earlyretirement #womenempowerment #frugalliving #financialindependenceretireearly #choosefi #personalfinance #womenspersonalfinance

Tread Lightly, Retire Early

Tread Lightly, Retire Early

Recent Posts

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  • Friday’s Frugal Five (2019 – Week 23)
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  • Friday’s Frugal Five (2019 – Week 22)
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