Happy New Year everyone!
Wow, it’s 2025 already?
I still remember Dec 31, 1999, waiting and welcoming the new millennium, (and worrying about all those dire Y2K predictions) and here we are, 25 years later. It’s hard to believe those “babies” born in 2000 are turning 25 this year.
Geesh, where did the time go? I sure feel old reminiscing but at the same time, I still feel quite young. Isn’t that weird?
2024 was a big year for me in terms of travelling, both personal and work. I had the opportunity to visit the following cities & countries:
- Taiwan – Taipei, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung
- China – Shenzhen
- Honk Kong
- USA – San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, New York, New Jersey, Atlanta, Rochester, Minneapolis
- Denmark – Copenhagen, Billund, Ribe
- Sweden – Malmo, Lund
- France – Paris, Valence, Macon
- Japan – Tokyo, Osaka, Sendai, Nagoya, Yokohama
- Iceland – Reykjavík, Vik, Kirkjubæjarklaustur, Selfoss
I may do just as much travel this year and rack up miles and points. Airline and hotel status are a funny thing. It’s nice to have status but it only means that you have been travelling and away from home too much. It’s a double-edged sword.
In the first half of 2024, I was dealing with residual back pain from 2023 so it somewhat prevented me from walking long distances and doing intense workouts. It also made travelling a little bit more challenging. Fortunately, thanks to physio, stretching, and looking after myself, I have put those back problems behind me…..hopefully, permanently.
The experience reminded me how important health is. Having all the money in the world won’t do you any good if you aren’t healthy enough to use and enjoy that money. Therefore, I have paid more and more attention to eating healthily and exercising regularly.
When it comes to work and this blog, I continue to try to figure out the optimal work-life balance. I’m still far from perfect but it remains very much a work-in-progress.
Work-life balance is especially more challenging when I have a full-time job in high tech and have to work with folks all around the world. Since I was still primarily working from home in 2024, sometimes the “work” and “home” times blurred and merged into one another. For example, quite often I’d start the day at 7 AM with meetings with European colleagues and clients. Then at the end of the day, I would have another meeting at 6 PM or 7 PM with Asian colleagues or clients. Trying to find time to take breaks throughout the day to ensure I didn’t end up doing 12+ hours days often was a further challenge.
Although we started going back to the office more often throughout 2024 (around two to three times a week), I still preferred working from home (in 2025 there’s now a return to office mandate so now we have to go into the office three days a week).
The key benefit of going into the office is to get face-to-face interactions. Collaboration and whiteboarding are easier and more effective in face-to-face settings, but dealing with rush-hour traffic is something I don’t enjoy at all. Like most things, there are upsides and downsides to any work model, be it full-time office, full-time work at home, or hybrid. As a one-car household, there are also a lot of logistics that we have to figure out before I head into the office.
When it comes to financial independence, I know in the blog intro I stated that our dream is to become financially independent and live off dividends by 2025.
If I recall it correctly, I randomly picked 2025 six or seven years ago because I wanted a year that ended with either a zero or a five. Back then, I thought 2020 was too early and 2030 was too late, so I ended up picking 2025 as the middle ground. (The great Canadian compromise!)
Well, here we are, 2025.
Does that mean we are ready to pull the trigger, call ourselves financially independent, and live off dividends?
Well, not exactly.
Although technically we can be financially independent if we really want to, Mrs. T and I aren’t quite ready to declare that we want to cross the so-called “finish line.”
At just over $57,000 in dividend income in 2024 and the goal of over $60,000 this year, we don’t have quite “enough” dividends to live off and sustain our current lifestyle. If we were to do that, we’d need to rely on some form of part-time income.
The reality is that we are not in a rush.
We know we will get there in the not-so-distant future. We are simply coasting, working on ourselves, and preparing for the next stage in our lives.
For the most part, 2025 will be very similar to what I wrote at the beginning of 2024:
- Continue the earn-save-invest strategy we have done for many years
- Continue building our dividend portfolio and generate over $60,000 in dividends in 2025
- Grow our cash wedge and build up some saving buffers
- Enjoy life while we can – spend time with my family, travel, and explore the world when the opportunities arise
- Enjoy what’s available in our local community
- Continue setting annual goals and resolutions for myself – and monitoring them
- Learn new skills and explore
Looking back to 2024, I’m glad that I started curling again in September. I used to curl for a few years during high school and really enjoyed that experience. I have been talking about getting back to curling for many years but somehow never got my butt in gear.
What finally got me to start curling again? The kids and I went to the local farmers market in August and I came across a booth about curling. After talking to the people at the booth, I learned about the Learn to Curl program and decided to sign up.
I quite enjoy curling. It may seem boring to some people and may not be all that physically challenging. I enjoy the social aspect of talking to other curlers. I also enjoy the strategic part of the game (I’m a planner and a thinker, so that shouldn’t come as a surprise). Although curling isn’t as physically intensive as say basketball or lifting weights, sliding, throwing rocks, and sweeping do require a good amount of physical endurance and coordination. I plan to continue with my curling adventure this year.
Back to financial independence and living off dividends. I have mentioned to Mrs. T a few times about stepping back at the end of 2026 or early 2027 for various reasons:
- It would mark the 20th year I’ve been with the company. That’s quite a milestone
- It would give us a couple more years to build up more dividend income and a larger cash buffer
- I’m not quite ready to stop working full-time just yet
Stop working completely has never been part of our financial independence plan. The plan has always been to work on some functions to keep ourselves busy. I envision myself spending more time working on the blog, being more active, getting back to photography, learning a few other hobbies, taking on some passion projects, volunteering, and perhaps working part-time.
However, whenever I have a conversation with Mrs. T about stepping back in two years or so, she always asks me the following:
- Why would you want to work part-time? Is it just to make sure we have additional income? What kind of part-time work do you want to do? Working at Starbucks? Working at Walmart? Are you going to enjoy such part-time work?
- What do you mean by spending more time working on the blog? Are you going to publish more articles per week? Would you burn out and not like blogging as a result?
- You talked about maybe starting a podcast or a YouTube channel. Do you know how much time it would take to edit a podcast or a YouTube video? It seems to entail more work than writing blog posts.
- What new hobbies do you want to learn?
- Do you plan to pick up photography again? Do you want to shoot more portraits and weddings? Or landscapes? Maybe sports?
- Are you just going to spend more time at the gym when you don’t work full-time?
As usual, Mrs. T asks very good questions and somehow, I don’t really have great answers to her questions.
So looking forward, I believe 2025 is going to be a year wherein I do some soul-searching to understand what I want post-full-time-work in about two years in the future. How do I want to structure my day-to-day schedule? Do I want a set schedule? Do I want to simply wing it every day and have lots of flexibility?
There are lots of questions I need to answer for myself.
I feel fortunate that we are where we are financially which affords me the opportunity and ability to ask these questions.
More pondering and reflecting will be needed throughout 2025.
What are your plans for 2025?
Those are good questions Miss T asks.
However, have you asked her about her fear of you retiring, and not making money to provide for the family anymore? I think it’s important to ask her how much fear she has. Because biologically or evolutionary wise, it makes sense for one partner to keep pushing the other partner to keep on working forever to provide for the survival of the family.
But she also works right? So maybe she doesn’t want to feel the pressure of being the sole provider. It’s worth asking her about this as well and understanding whether her friends are sole providers or stay at home spouses or dual income households.
I feel like I have been reading you wanting to retire for years now. I would say, ask your wife these questions and just go for it. You can always go back to work if things don’t work out after a year or two of FIRE.
You can do it! No regrets!
Sam
Hi Sam,
Although Mrs. T earns income from her doula work, I’m the prime income provider right now. So not, she doesn’t have the pressure of being the sole provider. If I call it quit, we’ll be both fully FIRE’d.
Yes, going back to work after a year or two of FIRE is always a possible backup plan.
Your posts are always such good reads Bob!
I was just curious how long each update typically takes you. Do you find it hard to put the time into your posts when you’ve likely been on a screen for most of the day for your full-time job?
Hi Stu,
Thank you very much. I’d say each post takes me at least 2 hours to write, some post that require more research would take longer.
Bob, you’re on a great track. With the present market, gains alone must out strip your yearly income. My father retired and started his own business, did that for a decade before he finally ‘stopped’ working. He wished he had done it sooner. Driven individuals usually have trouble slowing down. When you do you’ll find plenty to keep you busy. At the moment the young ones fill that role.
McGill big 3, google it, do it. Your lower back will thank you. Being a west coast guy, cold water plunge in the ocean, best thing ever. Have been at for 3 years, no longer get sick. Want a free boost to your day, can’t say enough good things about it.
David
Thansk David. I think most people when looking back always wished they had stopped working sooner.
Will take a look at McGill big 3 and cold water plunge.
Retiring is such a big decision, so take your time. After I had been retired for a few months, I realized the early morning alarm and commute had resulted in chronic fatigue for years. Waking up naturally now is amazing!
Some people are fortunate to be in professions that allow for a semi-retirement with reduced hours. Part time, but the same hourly wage. I wasn’t in one of those professions, so didn’t retire until we could financially afford it.
However, I have missed work, so have volunteered my time on short term projects requiring research and analytics. It has been great because it keeps my mind active, but it provides the flexibility to work when I want. Not having regular hours and appointments is the freedom retirement provides. My day revolves around walking/hiking now, not the other way around.
I hope you continue with your blog, you are such an inspiration! I look forward to hearing if your portfolio evolves when in retirement. All the best!
Hi Laura,
Thank you for your perspective. There’s definitely a lot of “learning” & “preparation” to be done for retirement. Volunteering to work on short term projects sounds like a great way to keep your mind active. 🙂
Thanks Bob, we live in a strata, so the volunteer work has been to help out our community. You and Mrs T. have many interests to take you into retirement. And retirees can adapt and thrive with a less hectic pace.
Those are some great questions from Mrs. T. It’s great to have a plan, but it’s worth recognizing that sometimes not having a plan is the point.
Imagine if you didn’t go to the farmer’s market and see the curling booth. You probably wouldn’t be doing curling again today. I found that those are the kinds of happy circumstances that happen more often when you don’t have a regular 9-to-5 job. It doesn’t always work out that way, but there will be new twists and turns in life that are impossible to envision now.
Interesting point Lazy Man and Money. I guess you can’t plan everything. 🙂
I reread my comment and I probably should have given more value to trying to plan though. They really were great questions. I wish I had tackled them before I left software engineering.
Have some plans in place is a good idea. But you’re right, some things happen in life happen by chance and you can’t plan for them. 🙂
Mrs. T certainly has some great questions for you.
I retired 18 months ago. Initially I explored part time work opportunities, but quickly realized
that I really didn’t want to work for someone else again. I was simply worried about not having enough to do in retirement. It took a while to find my stride, but now the days are quite busy again.
Just no early morning alarms anymore!
Financially I’m further ahead than when I stopped work.
I have the *problem* of having to learn how to spend on ourselves after being frugal all of our lives.
That’s still a work in progress.
Best of 2025 Bob!
No early morning alarms sound wonderful. Interesting to hear that you explored part time work opportunities initially but didn’t proceed with that.
Learning how to spend is an important skill. Thank you for your on-going support.
I find that a struggle as well. We are 29 but saved just shy of 100k last year. Really need to start spending but it’s not easy. I guess figuring this out early is better than later I have more time!
Keep up the good work. You motivate, inspire and educate so many people. Feel proud about that. I always worded it that I wanted to work/invest enough to have the money working for me. Perhaps you could get into politics and manage the debt that is strangling our future.
Two opposites money compounding growth for you or against you.
Thank you Paul, I appreciate your kind words. Have no interest at all to get into politics. 🙂
Just a note there is a typo in your first paragraph. Should be 2000 not 2020.
Oops, thanks for pointing it out. Fixed it.