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“Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.” – Steve Jobs
I never truly understood the meaning of those words until now.
Recently, a friend who’d recently been tested for a serious genetic disorder noticed Wanderer has the same physical traits.
This genetic disorder weakens your heart and blood vessels, causing them to eventually rupture, it’s a life threatening disease with no cure. And the condition worsens as you age.
Left untreated, the average life expectancy is only 40.
And if this test comes back positive, there’s a 50% chance we will pass it on if we have kids.
I spent last night lying awake, staring at the ceiling.
A million excuses ran through my head. A million excuses to convince myself why he COULDN’T possibly have that horrible disease.
But when morning came, I came to the cold realization that I couldn’t pretend anymore. We had to get him checked out.
And so while we wait, in shitty suspense, I want to tell you this:
Don’t waste your life.
Your fancy car. Your expensive house. Your prestigious job.
None of that matters when you die.
The only thing that matters is…
Living a life with no regrets.
And the only way to do that is to live a life you CHOOSE, not someone else’s.
Because this is what I realized as I lay awake at night unable to sleep.
According to a Palliative nurse, the Top 5 Regrets of the Dying are:
“I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
Your deathbed is where you see how many of your dreams have gone unfilled. And realizing you haven’t honored even half of these dreams is the hardest of all. And that’s why Wanderer and I are grateful we realized all our dreams.
“I wish I hadn’t worked so hard.
After leaving the rat race, we realized how much of our lives would’ve been thrown away had we continued running the rat wheel.
Now that there’s a very real chance that Wanderer could have a life-threatening disease, I’m SO glad we aren’t doing that anymore. I don’t miss a single second of work.
“I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings”
One of the best parts of becoming Financially Independent is the ability to be 100% authentic. We didn’t have to give in to banks and promote their shitty mutual funds to make money. We didn’t have to tone down our voice to appease advertisers. We could be our authentic selves and truly help people rather than keep our feelings bottled up.
I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
Back when we were running the rat race, when choosing between hanging out with friends or working, we chose working every single time. But now we choose friends instead.
I wish that I had let myself be happier.
I used to always tell myself “I’d be happy if…” and “if only I had..” all the time. But since we retired, those thoughts haven’t crossed my mind at all. We’re just happy all the time.
So even though, we could be getting bad news any day now, we know that we’ve lived this life to THE FULLEST with NO REGRETS.
So whatever the test results come out to be, we say, fuck ‘em. You’re not going to bring us down. Nothing can bring us down.
And that’s the most powerful thing about Financial Independence.
It frees you up to live a life with NO REGRETS.
And we aren’t the only ones who benefited from this.
One of my early retiree friends, Tom, recently had a scary health issue where he, no joke, went temporarily blind for a few days while on vacation in the Philippines.
When he came back, he understandably ran straight to his doctor, who promptly found a tumor in his brain that was cutting off his optic nerve.
We were all devastated, as you can imagine. But he just shrugged it off and said “Meh, if it’s my time to go, it’s okay. I’ve already travelled the world and done everything I’ve ever wanted to do. No regrets.”
Luckily, that tumor turned out to be benign.
A similar thing happened to our friend, Winnie, from gocurrycracker.com. Despite being perfectly healthy, abnormal tissue was found in her cervix, an indicator for cervical cancer. She’s my age.
As scary as that whole experience was, Winnie ended up getting the surgery to remove the abnormal cell growth, and is now completely cancer-free (for those gals who haven’t gotten a cervical exam recently, go get one now!).
But Joe Dominguez, best-selling author of “Your Money or Your Life” wasn’t so lucky.
He died of cancer at the ripe young age of only 58. But even then, when he got the diagnoses, he made quirky cards for friends that said,“Joe Dominguez has been given a clean bill of death. Please direct your attention to the living and to the things that need to be done.”
His story changed my life and is the main reason why I’m so fascinated with “Your Money or Your Life”. So you can see why I’m beyond honoured to meet his wife and co-author, Vicki Robin at this year’s Chautauqua Ecuador .
If you’ve lived such a kick-ass life that even cancer and death can’t scare you, you’re basically invincible.
But if you’re spending all your time working just to make money to pay for expensive houses and things you don’t need to impress people you don’t care about, how can you be living a life with no regrets?
You CAN’T take any of those things with you when you die.
But if you live a life with no regrets, here are the things you CAN take with you:
The knowledge that you’ve lived a life true to yourself, instead of one dictated by someone else.
The knowledge that you’ve accomplished your dreams.
The knowledge that you did something good in this world.
And the knowledge that you spent your one precious life with the people you love. People who love you for who you are, and not the fancy things you can buy them.
Now THAT is a life worth living
You only have one life to live, so live it with no regrets. Because you never know how much time you have left….
Update: The results from the first set of tests are back and they’re good! *Breathes sigh of relief*. Thank you all so much for your prayers and kind thoughts. You rock!
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I don’t know what to say, but this is very well written as usual. I wish you both the best. Thank you for sharing.
That Chautauqua is going to be awesome.
Thank you! And yes, this is going to be a very special Chautauqua!
So true. I hate the mindset the big spenders have about early retirees. They ask “what if you saved all that money for nothing and sacrificed quality of life, then you get hit by a bus?”.
I’m more worried about the opposite situation – working harder than I need to all my life, saving and accumulating many millions and dying at my desk at 58 due to some latent disease I didn’t know I had (or finding out I had some cancer and face the same fate as Joe Dominguez).
At least as an early retiree I’ve been able to enjoy 3.5 wonderful years so far, so if that bus is destined to hit me I’ll know I had at least 3.5 stress free years to spend with friends and family (and travel the world to some extent 🙂 ). That’s more than many folks get (even if you aren’t dead at 60 or 65, many people aren’t able to do what they could in their 30’s).
Hope The Wanderer ends up testing negative for that disorder or if he does have it perhaps it’ll mutate and give him superpowers instead.
I find the term ‘quality of life’ funny – what does it even mean??? Replacing all your furniture with fancier stuff every couple of years (I seem to have a lot of extended family that do this… I’m still using my grandfather’s couch from the 1960’s)? For me, quality of life means being able to choose to travel at least a couple times a year regardless of what’s going on (eg. having a baby this spring, still planning and booking plenty of trips for after!)
If you’ve sacrificed ‘quality of life’ (as defined by big spenders) to save money and travel/experience life then you’re not exactly going to have any regrets if you’re hit by a bus, are you?
Thanks! I’m hoping for superpowers as well 🙂
It is a cliché but worth saying it again: Health is everything.
That’s why I have been wary of permanently relocating to another country without making sure I have all the insurance I would need.
(P.S. Best of luck to you guys. I’m sure the tests would come negative.)
Thanks. Yes, health is definitely something people take for granted until they no longer have it. Gotta live life to the fullest!
Best wishes for a negative test result.
FYI I discovered that the executives for a large multinational used to only have an average 18 month life expectancy after they retired.
They would spend their entire life sacrificing other things and working instead, only to find that 18 months of retirement is all that they would get – the shock to their system of all that overwork catching up on them.
Having had a less than brilliant 2016 health wise myself, due to many years of long hours catching up, it has pushed me towards FI and focusing on what matters for the next chapter.
I never understood why people want to give up their lives for corporations. If you’re going to sacrifice you time and health, at least do something worthwhile with it like savings lives or discovering a cure for cancer.
Hope your health gets better soon! Becoming FI has made health scares like this a lot easier to deal with. It’s comforting to know we’ve done everything we’ve wanted to do.
Hi FC,
This is the well-said statement.
Live life to the fullest and there is no regret.
WTK
Love the quote by Jobs:
“Sometimes life’s going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did.”
I also love this one by Isak Dinesen:
“I think these difficult times have helped me to understand better than before how infinitely rich and beautiful life is in every way, and that so many things that one goes worrying about are of no importance whatsoever.”
Nice. It’s good to look at the bright side. Sometimes we all need a wake up call to realized how precious our time on Earth is. If we’re satisfied with our lives, carry on. Otherwise, make a change.
Wow. Really saddened for both of you. My prayers are that Wanderer’s results are negative. Your message is spot on, Firecracker. Having had a heart attack at the age of 40, I quickly learned what was important (life, happiness), what I could control (lifestyle, work, saving, where I lived and with whom), and what was out of my hands (shit that hits like a f-ing freight train).
Godspeed to you and Wanderer. May your travels never cease.
Thanks, Red Badger. Sorry to hear about your heart attack. Glad you are okay though. Sometimes we all need a reality check to realized how precious our time is.
Powerful post today Mrs. FireCracker. Good luck to you both. I hope it works out.
I often ask myself what I would do if I only had a year to live…and inevitably I answer it the same way every time — Spend time with my family in a warm sunny place. Eating delicious food and try to live out my remaining days with as little stress as possible.
Apart from the ‘warm and sunny’ bit, I’m already doing most of that!
Contemplating these ‘mortal’ thoughts isn’t fun, but helps me believe I’m on the right track. No regrets!
Thanks, Mr. Tako. I’m glad that you are living life with no regrets! We are so fortunately that FIRE lets us do that.
Yikes! I hope everything goes well for Wanderer’s test. I’ll keep you in my thoughts. My uncle retired and then shortly after that found his kidneys were starting to fail. Now he’s tethered to dialysis and is slowly wasting away. I don’t want to be like that.
Oh no. So sorry to hear about your uncle. That sucks. 🙁 We have to remind ourselves to live every minute to the fullest and have no regrets.
Kristy,
Don’t feel bad yet. There are a lot of perfectly healthy, tall and skinny guys out there. If it turns out that it is not the case, and he does indeed have a connective tissue disorder, it’s not a death sentence…
The 40 year thing is for the worst case scenario, for the most severe forms of the condition. There are many variations, and some people, although have the physical characteristics, have only slightly enlarged aortas…
I would go get checked with a cardiologist, do an echo for peace of mind. Waiting to hear back for some good news! 🙂
Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. *fingers crossed the results turn out negative*
Totally agree that you’ve both done the right thing, both in living for the moment and in getting W checked out.
I just wanted to agree that chances are, Wanderer is fine. It’s a rare disease, and while I’ve seen a few cases of Marfan’s, none of them had aortic dissection. For example, this paper estimates a rate of 0.17% aortic events/year (http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/125/2/226). I realize this may not be comforting to everyone, but you two like math and facts, so it may help.
Big hugs and best wishes.
That does help. Thanks, Melissa!
I’m hoping for the best for Wanderer.
I’m always torn on how much or how hard to work. Ought I bust my ass until age 40 to retire early? Or ought I make some sort of pivot now, to what will very likely be a lower income sort of employment, but, hey, maybe I’ll like that better?
Things get weird with the finish line in sight.
Anyway, it’s always a good reminder to live life today and not wait around for a better time.
Before I quit, I was terrified and almost fell into the “one more year” syndrome. Now, I’m SO glad I didn’t wait. Because you never know what’s going to happen.
Basically, when people look at their lives, if they are not afraid to die tomorrow, then they should continue doing what you’re doing. Otherwise, they need to make a change. It’s that simple. Easier said than done though.
I am inspired by your attitude and emboldened to crank up my savings rate even higher in hopes of accomplishing an early retirement (…this is the first year my wife and I will both max out our 401k accounts).
My parents retired at 61 and spent five amazing summers on their cozy little canal houseboat kicking around small villages and cities in Western Europe before undiagnosed late-stage cancer took my mom last October. I’m so glad you’re addressing the potential now. Please get screenings as needed later in life.
Incidentally, if it’s Marfan, a buddy with it whom I’ve known for the last twenty years is living an amazing and productive and comfortable life. Best wishes!
Thanks. So sorry to hear about your mom 🙁 Life can be a complete bitch that way. I’m glad she got to enjoy some travelling before she passed though.
I applaud your goal to crank up your savings rate. Once you get going it gets easier because you see your progress as you move closer towards FI. And it’ll be SO worth it in the end.
I’ve been reading your blog for ages and don’t usually comment… But I will be keeping my fingers crossed for you both.
But as you have already said, no matter what happens I’m sure you will both be OK!
Cheers!
Thanks, Tracy!
Our thoughts and prayers are with you guys. It’ll work out no matter what the test says.
We had our own brush with “what if you get hit by a bus” because well, I got hit by a car. It’s what actually prompted us to start blogging and it cemented exactly this sentiment and solidified why we’re choosing this path.
What we came to realize is that if something does happen, we’ve set up our loved ones. So, even if we don’t get to enjoy it, that’s worth while as well.
But the fact is: keep not giving a f*ck and doing life your way. Because that’s the very best thing you could do.
Yikes! That’s scary but I’m glad you’re okay though. And on the bright side, it did help you evaluate what’s really important in life.
And yes, living life how we choose to live it is the best feeling in the world.
Thank you for sharing. Thoughts with you guys.
Thanks, Brandon.
I have blessed by your advice and experiences. I hope that your mate gets better.
Thanks, Hernan.
I’m grateful for every day that I’m alive and healthy.
Last year, a friend told me that a guy we went to school with (a nice guy) had died of a rare brain cancer. He had died 8 years ago, and I just found out. He was in his late 20s.
In the mid 2000s a fellow working in my industry had retired in Whistler to enjoy skiing with his new wife. But a short while after, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and died within months. He was 37 years old. When he posted about his retirement on our industry forum, we were envious and happy for him. I’m his age now and on the cusp of retirement.
Going to live for today.
I sincerely hope everything works out for you guys.
Oh no. So sorry to hear about your friends. 🙁 It’s so hard to lose people but ESPECIALLY hard when they pass away so young. The only thing that can be done is to live a fulfilling life. Everything else we have no control over.
Thanks for your kind words, Tommy, and happy for you that you are on the cusp of retirement.
Dear Kristy,
Our family’s thoughts and prayers are with you, intending that this is nothing and you can continue on your blissful way ?.
Thank you for your contribution to our family happiness. I am home with our miracle baby planning ways to stay home as long as possible and perhaps forever-especially after a call from a dedicated colleague where she got a bold red letter email telling her to come to a disciplinary meeting without telling her what it was all about or any warning! Life is too precious.
Can’t wait to hear you at the Canadian Investors conference. Stay strong,
Alison, miracle ? and ? daddy
Hi Alison,
Thanks for the kind words and congrats on your miracle baby!
After this health scare, it really sunk in how grateful and relieved I am to have retired early. Life is too precious to waste and we must spend as much time with our loved ones as possible.
Hope everything works out and you get to stay home and be with your baby forever and ever 🙂
Following you for quite a while. Have my fingers crossed for good news.
Per Financial Panther’s last posting and answers about FI being like “life insurance”. It can also be a form a “life assurance”, as you guys have documented for everyone. Being FI and doing what you have wanted to do, assures that you live your life and do the thing that really matter for you.
Best of luck.
Well said. Yes I absolutely agree with you and FP that FI is life insurance AND life assurance. We have zero regrets and I’m so relieved we got to live the life of our dreams.
But if you live a life with no regrets, here are the things you CAN take with you:
The knowledge that you’ve lived a life true to yourself…
The knowledge that you’ve accomplished your dreams.
The knowledge that you did something good in this world.
And the knowledge that you spent your one precious life with the people you love…
——————————
Perhaps this sound too idealistic. I have all of those things, yet something is still missing.
Is this life? That’s it???
A lot of times I feel like I am staring into the abyss, more than a little curious about what is on the other side. Maybe there is nothing on the other side, but I still would like to find out for sure.
Best regards.
Me not so much. I like being alive 😛
Jokes aside, I think fulfillment and happiness means different things to different people. For me, as long as I have all the things I mentioned above, I have zero interest in seeing what’s on the other side. It can’t possibly beat what I already have 🙂
In your case, if you feel like something is missing, maybe it’s time to make a change and try different things to see what would fill that missing piece? I don’t have the answer, but you won’t either unless you look for it.
Just remember you have both achieved more in a few short years than most achieve in their entire lives.
Every day you choose how and where you will spend your time, without having to worry about how you will pay for it. If that isn’t “making it” then I don’t know what is.
I hope the test returns a favourable outcome, good luck with the uncomfortable wait ahead.
Thanks! I do find lots of comfort in knowing that we’ve done everything we’ve wanted to do. Very fulfilled and happy 🙂
I have a genetic predisposition to a bad, very rare disease, And it has changed my outlook on life. Its why I strive so hard to reach FIRE, because I know there will be a point in my life where i will not be able to hold a full time job while dealing with surgerys. FIRE is even more crucial, as it allows you to live the life you should, regardless of any illnesses you may incur. People dont understand that getting to 65 scott-free isnt the norm anymore. I cannot afford to sink all my funds into a house, if it would make it so that I cannot enjoy the possibly limited time that I have.
Oh no. Sorry to hear that 🙁 It’s scary but I’m glad that it changed your outlook on life. We can’t change the shitty things that happen to us, but we can change how we live our lives.
I’m totally with you on the not sinking everything into a house and enjoying the limited time you have. We ALMOST fell into that trap but am SO relieved we didn’t. Now, I’m grateful for every second we spend together living our dreams with no regrets.
Thanks for the well written sentiments and reminders. And please, keep us in the loop. We’re all in this together. All of us FI nerds. Stay strong. Sending positive vibes your way, guys!
Thanks for the positive vibes, MickL! FI nerds unite!
My fingers will be crossed for good news for Wanderer. I spent a chunk of my career as a hospice RN and cared for many seriously ill people, young and old. One elderly, tiny little farm woman dying of bladder cancer worried ceaselessly that her “many sins” would doom her. A few weeks before she died though she had a “visitation” (dream, maybe?) where angels shared with her the “meaning of life” and that was that our ONLY duty in life is to love and care for one another. Her mood lightened and she spent her final days telling anyone who was listen that literally nothing matters except that we love and take care of each other.
I don’t recall every patient I’ve cared for but I will always remember her sharing the meaning of life. You and Wandered figured it out at a much younger age! Good luck and keep us posted.
“…angels shared with her the “meaning of life” and that was that our ONLY duty in life is to love and care for one another.”
That is beautiful, Barb! Thank you so much for sharing it with us.
Thank you for sharing. I hope the results are in your favor.
You guys are an inspiration more than ever, showing us all how to lead a life with freedom. Keep on doing what you love no matter what.
Thanks, Zoe!
First: I am holding you both in my heart during this time. Thank you so much for this post and the video. My husband and I had an epic marriage. He died suddenly and I have tried to continue with our philosophy of life reinvention and continuing to “show up and dance”. As I have read your posts I have, of course, been interested in the mechanics of the money. But I have been more struck by your love story and the joy with which you live your lives. Rich or poor, almost no one can find that immutable magic.
I teared up reading this comment. 🙁 I’m so sorry to hear about your husband, Sue. I really hate the fact that stupid fate had to take him away from you, but I love your amazing, positive attitude of continuing to “show up and dance”. Inspiring and beautiful.
Thank you for sharing and inspiration.
I wish you all the best and now I really regret that I changed my plans and decided to pay off my debt first before making any plans to travel 🙁 I really wanted to go to Chautauqua…
Thanks for the kind words and well wishes! I appreciate the sentiment, but debt definitely comes before Chautauqua. You should be very proud that you paid it off! That is a huge achievement and I hope you celebrated.
And don’t worry, there will be future Chautauquas 🙂
I have many symptoms of Marfan’s including tall, thin, wingspan wider than my height, long fingers, myopia, multiple connective tissue problems such as spontaneously collapsed lung, fingers that are easily dislocated (fun time putting them back in socket by myself), a torn plantar fascia, and a borderline enlarged aorta. I’ve never been genetically tested, instead I regularly see a cardiologist and an eye doctor to monitor the aorta and eye problems which I believe are the critical issues. So far so good after monitoring for 15+ years.
I’ve suspected Marfan’s since my 20s after the collapsed lung, but I’m still going strong at 50. Early retired 10 years ago.
All the best wishes for Wanderer, hope he tests negative.
Health insurance is key in FIRE…
Yikes! Sorry to hear about all the health problems 🙁 On the plus side, I’m very relieved that you are going strong at 50 and have enjoyed 10 years of retirement!
Thanks for the well wishes. I’m hoping that it all works out.
It is kind of a long list, and I forgot to include some issues like a detached retina that I found very early during annual exam and had treated, but really not as bad as it sounds. Issues happened over a span of over 25 years so didn’t have much impact on my life. These days I just have 2 additional exams every year for cardiologist and eye.
It hasn’t limited my activity or travel at all. I played basketball daily until around 45, had to give that up due to connective tissue injuries. But can still work out daily with non-contact sports. Who does contact sports at 50 anyway?
Michael Phelps suspects he has Marfan’s. It gave him superhuman powers.
That’s good to know 🙂 Yeah I don’t see Wanderer being too heartbroken (no pun intended) about being prohibited from contact sports so that’s good.
Haven’t heard about Phelps having Marfan’s but I did read an article about a basketball player who had to stop playing for 2 years to fix his heart. I think he’s back in the game now though.
My thoughts and prayers for you and your family. Love your outlook on life and you sharing your journey with us. Praying all will be well!
Thanks, Cesar!
Prayers for you and wanderer. Genetic predisposition still doesn’t dictate one’s lifespan necessarily. All the best wishes.
Thank you!
Thank you for sharing your very personal story with us. Very inspiring words.
Yikes! Sorry to hear about this. Did Wanderer have a weird moment, and the friend noticed? Or did the friend just come out of the blue and freak Wanderer out with what s/he noticed? Are you at liberty to share what the signs of this disease are and what the disease is called? It may help others who have no idea.
I’m always wondering about the best way to detect something early to hopefully catch early and treat properly.
But if you read stuff on the internet, you would think you had every bad disease out there!
Best of luck!
Sam
Without getting into all the nitty gritty details, basically the friend noticed he has some physical characteristics that in of themselves aren’t a huge deal, but when added together is high probability for the disease. I’m REALLY hoping he’s wrong. But we need to wait for test results to be sure.
Fingers crossed that it’s just a coincidence. Either way, it’s a good wake up call to gain some perspective on life.
Thanks for your concern, Sam! Really appreciate it 🙂
Waiting for the result can be very tough. Best wishes to both of you; I hope Wanderer’s test will show negative!
Thanks, Roadrunner!
When I started medical school they introduced the whole class to our first patient. She’s had undiagnosed Marfan’s (I shouldn’t assume, but I’m just following others here) and had an aortic Dacron graft. Doing great. Last year I diagnosed a forty year old man with a dissection. He also did great.
Here’s hoping for a negative test, but even these undiagnosed folks with the worst complications do fabulously.
That’s good to know. Thanks, snowcanyon!
When I started medical school they introduced the whole class to our first patient. She’s had undiagnosed Marfan’s (I shouldn’t assume, but I’m just following others here) and had an aortic Dacron graft. Doing great. Last year I diagnosed a forty year old man with a dissection. He also did great.
Here’s hoping for a negative test, but even these undiagnosed folks with the worst complications did fabulously.
Here’s a prayer from 10,000 miles away to keep Wanderer and you hale and healthy in body, mind and spirit ? Don’t know if you are a spiritual person, but faith does wonders in times like these. Besides, you both have a great attitude towards life anyway and are living the life others can only dream. Hope to see the next post from Wanderer declaring his test results were nothing big to worry about.
Thanks TFR! Prayers are always appreciated 🙂 This was a good time for us to reflect on our lives and realize that no matter what happens, we’re exactly where we want to be.
Hope all goes well with Wanderer’s test. You make a great point about living life with no regrets and admire you guys and the other FIRE folks for eschewing the traditional route, grabbing life by the horns and living it…whereas many people just watch other people’s lives on reality television. I’ve been obsessed with FIRE but I’m not sure I can get there as quick. I can be a bit of complainypants as MMM would call it. Living in a high cost place like NYC with a family is tough. I could move but both my wife’s parents and my parents live here…and I guess there’s that Asian filial duty thing or my mom’s guilt trips =)
LOL. My mom is the QUEEN of guilt trips 🙂 Ah, good old Asian filial devotion. Hopefully we can benefit from some of that sweet sweet guilt tripping when we get old.
I think in your case, the trade off to be close to family is worth it. And remember you don’t have to do the RE part of FIRE. Getting to the FI part and working part-time is a perfectly valid solution for most people. It will make a world of difference when you can have more free time to spend with your family. Not everyone should or needs to travel the world like we do. That’s a personal decision 🙂
Wow, thank you for sharing. Certainly easy to forget to live instead of committing our life/time to various aspects that are, in retrospect, not so important. (E.g. corporations, commuting, materialism, etc.)
I hope all turns out well for you both.
My only ‘edit’ about the 5 regrets of the dying – spending time with friends. Just make sure they are solid friends. You drift apart for a reason (different lifestyle, they are envious of your FIRE achievement). Friends can be supremely over-rated and, in a way, a suck on your life.
(Hopefully i’m not anti-social! Maybe I should just get a dog instead of a watch 😉 )
We’ve been lucky to have some wonderful friends, many of whom I consider my second family 🙂 But yes, I agree that some “friends” are really not worth your time. They fall out of the “friends” circle fairly quickly, so I generally don’t waste much brain energy thinking about them.
I was not aware until today. My prayers goes to you both.
Thanks, Glynesm. Appreciate it 🙂
I am so sorry to hear about Wanderer! I hope the diagnosis will be negative and that you can both continue on your FI life journey. I know two people with Marfans and they are both in their 60’s, so it is possible to live a long and healthy life regardless. I enjoy your blog very much and your travel stories especially. You are both so lucky to be spending time in Southeast Asia. I love Malaysia and Thailand. The inexpensive nature of both places really is just a bonus to such beatiful places. It is a fabulous part of the world. Sending my thoughts and prayers to you both for long and healthy lives from snowy Haifax, Nova Scotia.
Thanks, Jonathan! Appreciate the concern and prayers 🙂
Health is an interesting issue for the vagrant lifestyle. After leaving Canada, people will need to get private healthcare insurance. You of course could skip insurance and take your chances but you are exposing yourself to significant financial risk if you get insured abroad. You can get in a car accident (I have been to South East Asia and driving there is terrifying), you could sick, you could be assaulted… Shit happens no matter how careful you are. And you can buy private healthcare insurance for a relatively low price at your age (assuming you have no serious pre-existing conditions) but that cost will increase dramatically as you age and eventually will become cost prohibitive to a $40k CAD annual budget. And if you decide to get pregnant, you’ll be looking at huge medical bills. Of course, you could return to Canada, plug back into medicare, have a child, and then leave again but then you’re just freeloading of the Canadian taxpayers which really isn’t cool. I have a lot of interest in the health care insurance issue because I left Canada too. I have my own healthcare insurance so I’m okay but my Canadian parents cannot join me permanently because they can’t afford longterm private healthcare insurance. They are literally chained to Canada because of the cost of foreign healthcare. It’s an important issue millenials should consider before becoming stateless.
*correction: “injured” abroad not “insured” abroad (Is there a way to edit my post?)
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I just use travel insurance. $1500 for a year.
And what I’ve found is that health care costs a FRACTION of what it costs in North America, so that fear is entirely unfounded.
Besides, OHIP allows you to travel for 2 years (2 1-year blocks at a time) without losing coverage. It differs by province, but check with your health insurance office.
I am glad to hear He is okay!
Your guys’ website/blog has helped me immensely!
Thank you!