Author: Mrs. DINK on a Bus

My Vacation Recovery

Hey there, friends! As I posted last week on my Instagram page, I didn’t release a blog post last Friday because I was on vacation. I didn’t want the hassle and stress of trying to release a blog post on vacation. So I didn’t! It was freeing.

What I did do was decide to take a recovery day on the tail end of my vacation. I had great intentions to write a complete blog post on that day, to be able to release it today as usual. However, the universe had other plans in mind. So today, I bring you instead a short blog post with some pictures from our vacation and some musings on my first experience with a “vacation recovery day.” Because that’s all I’ve got in me this week. And I’m letting that be ok. I hope you enjoy!

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What Did You Love To Do As A Kid?

Whenever I’m in a situation where I’m explaining to someone that I plan to (sooner rather than later) downshift when it comes to work, they are immediately baffled. Almost every time, without fail, I get some version of the same question: “but what would you do with yourself if you weren’t working?!”

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Letting Go Of Perfection

Can you believe it’s already February?! Where did January even go? I hope everyone’s February is off to a good start!

Since the start of the New Year, I’ve been writing a lot on the blog about my goal process and how I reflect on goals from the previous year before I set new ones. Because of this, I’ve found myself reflecting on my journey with perfection: how it has affected me, how it’s changed, and how it’s made me who I am.

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Why I Said Goodbye To Facebook…And Why I Returned

Since I didn’t release a blog post as usual last Friday, I’m coming to you mid-week with a bonus post!

As I wrote in my last post, I am prioritizing friends and family this year. My mom fractured her tibia (the larger of the two bones in the leg) right before the holidays. Since she lives alone, my brother and I have been taking turns staying with her and helping take care of her while she recovers. One of the benefits of my remote job is that I can work from anywhere! So, I spent last week in my childhood home helping my mom, and it brought me so much joy. This is what financial freedom is all about for me.

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This Year I’m Prioritizing Friends and Family

Ah, January. A long month with 5 whole weekends in it. The month right after the holiday season. Some may think of it as a let-down month. Others may subscribe to the Blue Monday way of thinking (did anyone else not hear about Blue Monday until this year?). And even others yet may be so focused on their New Year’s Resolutions that they don’t have time to be down. For sure, January is one of the harder months for me, especially living up in cold, dark Vermont at this time of year. And although I’ve never gotten into setting resolutions, I do set yearly goals, and I just happen to do them in January or late December because that’s when I find I have the most time to reflect. With a busy holiday season, this year I got to setting my goals a bit late, and I was surprised by what I discovered.

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How Slow FI Has Influenced My Anxiety

I have wanted to write a post about my anxiety for awhile now, because it is such a big part of my life, but it felt vulnerable and never felt like the right time. Plus, as a personal finance blog, I didn’t want to write about something too non-personal-finance-related. However, if you’re a regular reader of the blog, you know my posts aren’t much about my numbers and are more about the lifestyle that the principles of slow FI (financial independence) allow. And so much of what slow FI is all about is more than just money. Then, I had a bit of an a-ha moment with my anxiety over the holidays that I felt was worth sharing. And I decided it was time. If you’re interested in hearing more about my journey with anxiety and how slow FI has influenced it, I hope you’ll read on.

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Money Goals With A Spouse

Well, in case you missed it folks, 2023 has arrived! Although I’m not a fan of New Years’ Resolutions, I am a big proponent of goal setting, and I happen to set my goals around the start of the New Year. Thanks to a busy holiday season, I’m just now starting the process of reflecting on 2022 and beginning to think about my goals for 2023. While there will be more to come on those details, today I’m starting with another goal-related post. I’m reflecting on how my goals have changed now that there’s another human being in my life: my spouse. I sometimes forget that it was just me and me alone for so long. I did some good work on myself before Mr. Dink came along, and it’s sometimes surreal to think about how different my goals would be if I was still single. Does anyone else feel this way?

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Harness The Power Of Enough

Well, I had planned to post this last Friday, like I always do, but the Vermont winter weather had other plans. Although we only lost power twice for 30 minutes each (many of our friends and neighbors were without power until Christmas Day!), we did lose cable and internet, and hadn’t gotten it back by the time we left for a mini vacation to Portland, Maine. So, I’m posting this now with some free hotel Wi-Fi. Such is life, right? We roll with the punches.

When I had originally planned to post this, Christmas was arriving in two days (for those who celebrate), and the blanket term “holiday season” was officially upon us (doesn’t it seem to get longer and longer each year?!). I wanted to bring you this short post with some musings for you to ponder (or not, my feelings totally won’t be hurt) on what is “enough”. This holiday season, I’ve been thinking a lot about this concept, and how we can harness it on our FI (financial independence) journeys.

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Is Slow FI The Ultimate Form Of Quitting?

Before recently, I had always felt one main emotion whenever the subject of quitting came up: shame. Growing up, my parents never wanted me to quit anything. Even though I did quit things, it was always such a big deal. They had to sit me down and ask me my reasons for quitting. Was this really what I wanted? If it was, well, then they were going to make it really hard for me to quit. They made sure I knew that they wouldn’t do it for me, I had to “let down” the person or thing I was quitting myself. Just their attitudes seemed to be saying that quitting was bad. Thus, enter shame. But I was listening to a podcast recently that turned all of this prior thinking on its head.

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My Yoga Hack (And Other Last Minute Frugal Holiday Gift Ideas)

If you can believe it, we’ve got just over 2 weeks until Christmas is here! The holiday really feels like it snuck up on me this year (but, let’s be real, I say that every year). I’ve been wanting to write about my yoga hack for awhile now, because I love it so gosh-darn much, and when I was thinking about how I would write this post one morning in the shower (where I do some of my best thinking), I realized with it being close to the holidays that it could also make for a great holiday gift. That led me to thinking about all the other ways I hack around the holidays (that has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?), and thus this post was born. I hope you enjoy it, especially you frugal, last-minute shoppers!

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