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You are here: Home / Guest Posts / Trish and Stan take an Intrepid Sailing Voyage

Trish and Stan take an Intrepid Sailing Voyage

by jlcollinsnh 25 Comments

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January 10, 2015

Trish’s Caribbean Report

Part I: This is island life.

I’m sitting under a couple of coconut palms, in a rattan chair, a view of the ocean in the distance. There are black and yellow butterflies on the red hibiscus flowers, and a lizard is watching me. In the tree beyond the terrace, I hear small yellow birds arguing noisily. I’m drinking a Carib beer and it’s barely 1 pm.

We’re in an Airbnb villa in the East End of Tortola for the next few days. A few hours ago, we got off of a 44’ catamaran which we shared for a week (a WEEK!) with 6 people we’d never met before:

Davide, from Milano, Mike, an Australian studying in Wisconsin, Yelena, from Croatia, now working in Phoenix, Karen and Mitch, both from the SF Bay area, and skipper Dean, originally from Dorset, England.

Everyone was roughly half our age. A good group, but we weren’t in charge of the sailing – Dean was, we just helped.

(The lizard is still staring at me. Not sure what it expects-)

We sailed from island to island, snorkeled often, went scuba diving, hiked up mountains, told stories over rum drinks in thatched restaurants, hoisted sails, picked up moorings, dropped anchor, and did most of the cooking ourselves on board.

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We visited Trellis Bay, Beef Island, Norman Island, Peter Island, even stayed overnight off Marina Cay – many of the same names I remember from the trip in 1960.

The winds were strong at times, and we were glad someone else was in charge of the boat. But it gave us a good start on our sailing adventure – Stan steered, we all helped reef sails and ran around in dinghies.

I was amazed at how many other boats are in the marinas – it’s like a National Park on Memorial Day Weekend. Every popular marina is full.

But in bays where you have to anchor, or where there’s no bar, it’s pretty empty.

Out in the water, too, there is little traffic, but most people want a “good” spot for the best restaurants and bars. There is some serious partying going on out there, although our group was pretty relaxed and low-key.

By the end of the week, our clothes were salty and used, the trash was full and the water tanks empty, towels refused to dry anymore, we had bruises from bumping into boat parts as we hurtled along in high winds, and we managed to eat all the food and drink all the rum.

Everyone else has to head home to work today and back to “real life” – we get to stay.

Going back to the beginning:

The first 2-3 days, we stayed in St.Thomas. It’s hopping, and crowded and busy and up to 4 cruise ships dock on a day. Some of those cruise ships carry as many as 7500 passengers. (!) Yikes.

My favorite place was an old hotel on the beach called the “Island Beachcomber”, where Mom and Dad had regular rooms when Xanadu was built. An aging but graceful property. With good memories. Still, ready to leave and get sailing after 2-3 days.

Took the ferry over to Road Town, Tortola, more relaxed but still busy. Did I mention I found a scorpion in the bathroom sink?

The West End is more chic, our area is pretty local, goats and chickens running around, potholes and small roadside tire repair shops, no glitz. So we’ll spend a couple days here to catch up on emails, do laundry, recharge camera batteries and begin to actually study our sailing books. The week on the boat went so quickly! Amazing.

DSC01798

Part II: Learning to Sail.

January 15 – 5 pm. After 2 days of “Keelboat” We are bruised, and sore, and tired, but – we actually did it!

I think both of us were pretty nervous about the whole thing – and justifiably so.

It was physically demanding, out there on the “high seas”, winds 20-25 knots, waves, and us in a simple little 24’ boat, heeling like crazy, water nearly reaching the edge of the boat, no idea what we are supposed to be doing.

Our instructor was a young Swede named Tim, who usually races big professional carbon-fiber boats, so he was perfectly at home, while I was in a fair panic about holding the rudder, bouncing up and down and all around.

Stan and I hoisted the sails, climbing up on the cabin trunk, manned the sheets, the tiller, tacked and jibed and tacked again, each time scrambling from one side of the boat to the other, ducking under the boom, did 180’s and PIW (person in water) rescues – and we actually retrieved the fender (the fake man overboard) each time!

I didn’t think it could be done.

We rounded buoys, aimed for islands, and we would figure out how to get there, and what we needed to do. It was up to us to set the course and take the necessary actions.

We docked at the fuel dock, on sail only, left the pier backwards, sailed (without an engine) between the mega catamarans – without incident, navigated the harbor entrance coming and going several times, avoided several high-speed ferries and a tanker, and a number of motoring yachts. We even brought the sailboat back and moored it beside another one, coming up perfectly parallel before we tied ours to it.

We attached and raised the sails, took them down, and did all the necessary knots in the sails.

And now – we are physically and mentally beat. What a workout! I mean, even just climbing in and out of these boats takes some thinking for us.

I was a bit worried before we started – we both were. Were we up to this? There were NO small sailboats out between the islands, much less one with a 60 and 65 year old learning to sail.

Even this morning, we discussed it – we were both pretty apprehensive after Day 1. But, like with scuba diving, I knew Day 2 would be better. And it was. So last night, we were pretty beat.

We met the instructor on the 36’ boat this morning – to learn how to use the winches – I thought: Yikes! How can Stan and I EVER hope to control this massive piece of equipment? All by ourselves? And not kill ourselves and others in the process?

But the day went well, and we did a LOT.

Tim gave us a pretty thorough workout. Of course, he’s 28, fit, and he’s been sailing since he was 7. He has no idea how clueless we are. And how hard it is for us. He just stands up in the steeply heeling boat, at what seems to us to be a death-defying 45 degree angle, calmly talking, while we are desperately trying to hold onto something and not fall out of the boat. Wow.

I am rather proud of us.

DSC01749

We tacked back and forth thru the marina, on sail alone, in our small motor-less comparatively tiny boat – thru all these mega yachts and mega catamarans, incredible wealth on display – and were able to find our way thru them, as crowded as they were, without hitting anything.

That part was really easier than I expected.

It was the heavy wind and waves and heeling that made me uncomfortable at first. But soon I realized that the waves mean little – it is all a question of wind. I didn’t know that.

And knowing who has the right of way and how to avoid other boats, what you’re supposed to do when 2 vessels come close to each other.

We met situations – and Tim would let us figure out how to get out of them on our own. How to de-tangle a twisted jib, how to recover from a missed tack and an uncontrolled jibe. We did a LOT. When we said good-bye to Tim, we were sweaty and salty and exhausted.

And so now we’re “home”, after negotiating the Tortola traffic, driving on the narrow roads, left- hand side, with the wheel on the American side, with crazies passing us on hairpin turns, up and down mountains, and having to maneuver, only an inch to spare, mirrors pulled in, thru the steep jungle road past another car, just to get to our place. *whew*

Stan is icing down his bruises (they are rather stellar, blue-violet and red-violet, and huge-) and I’m off to a hot shower. Then a glass (probably we’ll finish the bottle) of rose from Provence (a find in the chandlery) and we’ll be in bed by 9, as usual.

Tomorrow we take our sailing exam.

Here’s the weird part:

The exam is only required for people who want to charter boats. (We hope to get our International License, which gives us the option to charter in other countries.)

However:

If you BUY a boat – even a huge, 72’ mega-yacht with all the fancy instruments, gadgets and trimmings – there is no licensing requirement to drive the thing. You can get out there and just – GO.

This is a rather scary thought.

20150115_142547

There are a LOT of boats here. Mostly docked in a marina.

What happens is – someone buys a boat, and leases it back to a company as a charter, so they can count it as a business. This helps defray their cost, and they can write their own vacation off as a “business” expense.

So a lot of these boats are charters. Most people come down for just a week or two a year, if that. They bring some of their friends, but they’re not in practice. So they just motor along, and never even put up their sails! They don’t really know how to sail.

It’s more of a huge “party barge” – for a good vacation. (And it is!)

So when we sailed – with sail only – into the fuel dock, we got all sorts of cheers from the guys with mega yachts who had used their motors to get in there. They wouldn’t have been able to do what we did.

The world is a funny place.

 

A note from jlcollinsnh:

The above report came to me as emails from my pal Trish. The photos are also hers.

Close readers of this blog will remember her as one of the two who kidnapped me back in the mid-1970s while I was riding my bicycle around Ireland. She and Wolfgang, her then accomplice and now ex-husband, grabbed me out of my comfortable B&B in Dingle, stuffed me into the back of their VW Bug and hauled me up to Galway. Much pub crawling, music listening and hay-loft sleeping ensued, until they finally kicked me loose to make my own way back to my bicycle.

We have, of course, been friends ever since.

She has lived and worked all over the world, including Iran where they fled the revolution with the clothes on their backs to Germany and on to Liberia where they arrived the day of the revolution there to soldiers with automatic weapons milling about their house.

It was in Africa that she learned to fly and then…

…well then there is simply too much more adventure to recount here.

Fortunately, she has written a book:

It is filled with her stories and gorgeously illustrated with her own rather stunning watercolors. If you read closely, you’ll even find one or two that concern me.

Or you can check out some of her work here.

So, understanding all this, it is no surprise that she and Stan are now learning to sail with an eye on buying and living on a boat that they might very well sail around the world.

Pesimist:optomist quote

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Filed Under: Guest Posts, Travels

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Comments

  1. Chris @ FlipADollar says

    January 22, 2015 at 8:14 am

    Well now I’m jealous. We just watched Wolf of Wallstreet (ridiculous) and you guys are living the life. Only you don’t seem to need the stress induced work!

    Great photos. The views are much better than the snow I’m currently looking at outside my window!

    Reply
    • jlcollinsnh says

      January 31, 2015 at 4:18 pm

      Great movie!

      As for T&S, They really are living the life. Always have, far as I can tell.

      Some people just seem to make it happen. It’s what makes her book so damn amazing.

      Reply
  2. Jeremy says

    January 22, 2015 at 9:35 am

    Hi Trish! Hi Stan!

    This made me really miss the BVIs. The rum, the scenery, the wind… did I mention the rum? The sailing life is a good life. Did you make it to the Baths?

    Please tell me you are going to sail around the world. I would love to follow that story. Let us know if you need some crew 😉

    Reply
    • jlcollinsnh says

      January 31, 2015 at 4:19 pm

      That’s what we need!

      A high seas blogging platform! 🙂

      Reply
  3. Ryan M says

    January 22, 2015 at 9:57 am

    That looks like a beautiful place to spend some time and have an adventure. I really enjoyed reading about the experience. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • jlcollinsnh says

      January 31, 2015 at 4:21 pm

      Me too, Ryan…

      Helps to pass these bitter cold NH winter days….

      Reply
  4. Mark from Org County says

    January 22, 2015 at 3:35 pm

    What a great post! Sounds so challenging and these people are pushing their envelope, but it sounds like they have lived their lives that way. I recently read Jeremy’s post re sailing and it sounds like a blast. Way to go Trish and Stan! ( also re “display of wealth” they have the wealth of time and experiences. Rather have that than a billion dollars!)

    Reply
    • jlcollinsnh says

      January 31, 2015 at 4:20 pm

      Hey Mark…

      Maybe you or Jeremy could put up a link here to that post?

      Thanks!

      Reply
  5. Lucas says

    January 22, 2015 at 9:35 pm

    Jim,

    This is a test comment – since users reported problems commenting.

    Reply
  6. jlcollinsnh says

    January 22, 2015 at 10:26 pm

    Just heard from Trish.

    She and Stan both passed.

    She says she’ll be around here to check out the post, but you know how these boat-bums are…. 😉

    Reply
  7. Trish says

    January 26, 2015 at 6:57 am

    Trish here, on a day on land. (This sailing stuff is hard work! No wonder pirates had rum!)

    Jim hijacked my newsletter and posted it – thank you all for the kind comments!

    What Jim failed to mention was – a lot of the credit for being able to take this wild adventure belongs directly to him and his blog.

    I ran my own company for years – and it was only on reading his advice on VTSAX and that 4% stuff that I clearly realized: I no longer have to “generate wealth”. I don’t have to work.

    Yikes. This was a massive epiphany. I had no idea. As a business owner, I knew how to run my business, but what did I know about “financial independence”?
    Wish I’d known those things 20 years earlier!

    So, in short, I sold the business.
    Found a couple on Trustedhousesitters.com to take care of the cat and the house.
    Now I’m sitting in the tropics, palm trees, coral reefs, and today, they’re going to let us out on our “own” boat for a week.

    Still can’t quite believe they’re going to trust us with it…out on the open seas!
    Yikes – again. I’ll keep you posted after we return!

    Reply
  8. m says

    January 29, 2015 at 10:55 am

    Amazing! I’m still some years from retirement and we keep adding kids to the mix, but I first became enamored of the sailing life when someone on MMM linked to the bumfuzzle blog. I drove my wife crazy with sailboat talk for 6 months or so, and now this is here.

    I’d be very interested in learning more about the process that you went through Trish. What type of training, how you found the instructors, cost, and plans for what to do with your license.

    Then in ten years I can try to talk my wife into taking some young teenagers around the world on a sailboat in our ER.

    Reply
    • jlcollinsnh says

      January 31, 2015 at 4:23 pm

      What a great experience for your kids!

      I would have loved to have had my parents do something like that.

      As it happened, our next door neighbors actually did it. This back in the 1960s. All the talk was how wacko they were.

      Mmmm…

      I’m not sure they were the wackos…

      Reply
      • Max says

        February 1, 2015 at 4:38 pm

        Your neighbors didn’t happen to be Herb and Doris Smith, did they?

        Reply
        • jlcollinsnh says

          February 1, 2015 at 5:51 pm

          So long ago I don’t remember their names.

          But, no, those don’t ring a bell…

          Where were they from?

          Reply
  9. Mark from Org County says

    January 29, 2015 at 11:59 am

    Hey M, check out the podcast called Family Adventure Podcast if you haven’t already. It is all about people taking time out of their lives to do epic adventures and some knew nothing about sailing before coming up with the idea. It starts out with a 4 year old announcing it but then goes into the Dad real quick. I think it is episode # 38 that finally someone interviewed the host and how his families adventure unfolded.

    Reply
    • jlcollinsnh says

      January 31, 2015 at 4:24 pm

      Hey Mark…

      Sounds cool. Please put up the link to it, if you still have it. Thanks!

      Reply
      • Mark from Org County says

        January 31, 2015 at 9:45 pm

        Jim: I hope I did this correctly. SEE below:
        This is the post Jeremy did about sailing that I also found enjoyable.
        http://www.gocurrycracker.com/want-sail-around-world/

        And here is the link to the Podcast called Family Adventure Podcast. This one is about the host himself being interviewed which is different as normally he interviews others about their adventures.
        http://www.familyadventurepodcast.com/hemingway/#more-1049

        Reply
        • Jeremy says

          January 31, 2015 at 11:10 pm

          Thanks Mark!

          I think people would also enjoy the Bumfuzzle story
          http://www.bumfuzzle.com/adventures/

          Reply
      • jlcollinsnh says

        January 31, 2015 at 10:09 pm

        Perfect!

        Thanks!

        Reply
  10. Max says

    February 1, 2015 at 2:13 pm

    This is my dream. To spend a year or two cruising after reaching FIRE. I hope to eventually convince the wife to join me…..

    Reply
  11. Trish says

    March 17, 2015 at 2:15 pm

    Trish here.
    Jeremy (GoCurryCracker)’s post is almost exactly what we experienced in the BVI – we even wound up chartering roughly the same boat! The BVI is a great place to learn. The seas are pretty calm, the islands are close together, and there are a lot of people doing it.
    Despite my initial misgivings, it’s not that difficult.

    Since then, (about 2 months ago), we’ve made it down to the Grenadines, stopping at islands along the way. Here, the sailing is slightly more challenging, the islands are a bit further apart, and if it’s possible, it’s even more beautiful than the BVI. The people are very friendly, and it’s less expensive.

    As for buying a boat and living on it, the jury is still out.

    I rather like the idea of returning a boat to a charter company and letting THEM deal with the maintenance and hurricanes. (And there is a LOT of maintenance!) Then we move on to the next island by ferry, unencumbered except for our backpacks. There’s something to be said for that freedom.

    Also, I find it is relaxing to spend time “on the hard” from time to time.

    The floor doesn’t move, I don’t have to jump to close the hatches when it rains, and things don’t go sliding off the kitchen counter continually. Best of all, I can draw.

    On a boat, when it’s windy, cooking can be surprisingly challenging, and drawing impossible.
    So we’ve been renting cottages between sailing. Exploring the islands from the “land” side.

    As you can see, the subject definitely needs more research.
    And that calls for another glass of rum and fresh pineapple juice….

    Reply
    • jlcollinsnh says

      March 18, 2015 at 6:51 pm

      Hey Trish…

      Thanks for the update!

      So, are you roaming around the islands by charter boat or on ferries or some combo of the two?

      Reply
      • Trish says

        March 19, 2015 at 8:52 am

        Ahoy!
        Yes, bareboat charter, ferry, small plane, jeep taxi, rental car, cabin charter, dingy, local airline and via “money bus”.

        I don’t usually count places, but I did yesterday, just for fun.
        I think we’ve been to over 40 islands! Each one surprisingly different. Everyone’s so proud of their own island, and they really want us to like it, too. It’s fun.

        -I could get used to this.

        Reply
  12. Casey "Father Ounce" says

    April 17, 2015 at 11:54 am

    Hello. Great post. I found you via a MMM forum post. Looking at pictures, you look familiar. Did you hike a section of the Appalachian Trail in 2004, while your boat was in port?

    Casey ‘ Father Ounce ‘ Burnett

    Reply

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    • ►January(2)
      • Chautauqua - Ecuador 2017 open for reservations
      • Chautauqua - United Kingdom: August 2017
  • ►2016 (22)
    • ►December(3)
      • Season's Greetings and other cool stuff
      • Angel Investing, or Angel Philanthropy?
      • Mr. Bogle and me
    • ►November(1)
      • Where did you learn about money?
    • ►October(2)
      • Buy Your Freedom; Rent the Rest
      • So, what do you drive?
    • ►September(2)
      • Stocks -- Part XXX: jlcollinsnh vs. Vanguard
      • A visit to the Frugalwoods
    • ►August(1)
      • What the naysayers are missing
    • ►July(1)
      • Reviews of The Simple Path to Wealth; gone for summer
    • ►June(2)
      • The Simple Path to Wealth is now Published!
      • A peek into The Simple Path to Wealth
    • ►May(1)
      • It's better in the wind. Still.
    • ►April(3)
      • Cool things to check out while I'm gone
      • Stocks — Part XXIX: How to save money for college. Or not.
      • Help Wanted: The Book
    • ►March(1)
      • F-You Money: John Goodman v. jlcollinsnh
    • ►February(2)
      • Q&A - V: The Women of Amphissa
      • jlcollinsnh gets a new suit
    • ►January(3)
      • Chautauqua 2015 Reviews, 2016 registration open
      • Case Study #15: The Scavenger Life -- Freedom first, then Financial Independence
      • 3rd Annual (2015) Louis Rukeyser Memorial Market Prediction Contest results, and my forecast for 2016
  • ►2015 (18)
    • ►December(2)
      • Q&A - IV: Strawberry Patch
      • Seasons Greetings! and other cool stuff
    • ►October(2)
      • Personal Capital; and how to unload your unwanted stocks and funds
      • Stockchoker: A look back at what your investment might have been
    • ►September(2)
      • Case Study #14: To Dream the Impossible Dream (and then realize it)
      • Hotel Living
    • ►August(1)
      • Mr. Market's Wild Ride
    • ►June(4)
      • Gone for Summer, an important note on comments and random cool stuff that caught my eye
      • Around the world with an Aussie Biker
      • Case Study #13: The Power of Flexibility
      • Stocks — Part VIII: The 401(k), 403(b), TSP, IRA & Roth Buckets
    • ►March(2)
      • Stocks -- Part XXVIII: Debt - The Unacceptable Burden
      • Chautauqua October 2015: Times Two!
    • ►February(2)
      • YNAB: Best Place to Work Ever?
      • Case Study #12: Escaping a soul-crushing job before you're 70
    • ►January(3)
      • Case Study #11: John, a small business owner in transition
      • Trish and Stan take an Intrepid Sailing Voyage
      • 2014 Annual Louis Rukeyser Memorial Market Prediction Contest results, and my forecast for 2015
  • ►2014 (29)
    • ►December(2)
      • Diamonds and Happy Holidays!
      • Micro-Lending with Kiva
    • ►November(3)
      • Chautauqua February 7-14, 2015: Escape from Winter
      • Stocks -- Part XXVII: Why I Don’t Like Dollar Cost Averaging
      • Jack Bogle and the Presidential Medal of Freedom
    • ►October(3)
      • Tuft & Needle: A better path to sleep
      • Nightmare on Wall Street: Will the Blood Bath Continue?
      • Help Wanted
    • ►September(1)
      • Chautauqua 2014: Lightning strikes again!
    • ►August(2)
      • Stocks -- Part XXVI: Pulling the 4%
      • Stocks -- Part XXV: HSAs, more than just a way to pay your medical bills.
    • ►July(3)
      • Stocks -- Part XXIV: RMDs, the ugly surprise at the end of the tax-deferred rainbow
      • Summer travels, writing, reading and other amusements
      • Moto X, my new Republic Wireless Phone
    • ►June(1)
      • Stocks -- Part XXIII: Selecting your asset allocation
    • ►May(1)
      • Stocks -- Part XXII: Stepping away from REITs
    • ►April(3)
      • Q&A III: Vamos
      • Q&A II: Salamat
      • Q&A I: Gaijin Shogun
    • ►March(2)
      • Top 10 posts
      • Cafe No Se
    • ►February(4)
      • Chautauqua 2014 preview, closing up for travel and other random cool things that caught my eye of late.
      • Case Study #10: Should Josiah buy his parents a house?
      • Case Study #9: Lars -- maximizing some good fortune and considering "dollar cost averaging"
      • Case Study #8: Ron's mother - she's doin' all right!
    • ►January(4)
      • roundup: Some random cool things
      • Stocks — Part XXI: Investing with Vanguard for Europeans
      • Case Study #7: What it looks like when everything financial goes wrong
      • 1st Annual Louis Rukeyser Memorial Market Prediction Contest 2013 results, and my forecast for 2014
  • ►2013 (41)
    • ►December(4)
      • Closing up for the Holidays, see you in 2014
      • Betterment: a simpler path to wealth
      • Case Study 6: Helping an ill and elderly parent
      • Stocks -- Part XX: Early Retirement Withdrawal Strategies and Roth Conversion Ladders from a Mad Fientist
    • ►November(3)
      • Death, Taxes, Estate Plans, Probate and Prob8
      • Case Study #5: Zero to 2.6 million in 25 years
      • Case Study #4: Using the 4% rule and asset allocations.
    • ►October(3)
      • Republic Wireless and my $19 per month phone plan
      • Case Study #3: Let's get Tom to Latin America!
      • The Stock Series gets its own page
    • ►September(2)
      • Case Study #2: Joe -- off to a fast start!
      • Chautauqua 2013: A Week of Dreams
    • ►August(1)
      • Closing up shop plus an opening at Chautauqua, my new podcast, phone, book and other random cool stuff
    • ►July(1)
      • They Will Kill You For Your Shoes!
    • ►June(4)
      • Stocks -- Part VIII-b: Should you avoid your company's 401k?
      • Shilpan's Seven Habits to Live More with Less
      • Stocks -- Part XIX: How to think about money
      • My path for my kid -- the first 10 years
    • ►May(5)
      • Why your house is a terrible investment
      • Stocks — Part XVIII: Investing in a raging bull
      • Dining with the Ghosts of Sarah Bernhardt and Alfons Mucha
      • How we finally got the house sold
      • Stocks — Part XVII: What if you can't buy VTSAX? Or even Vanguard?
    • ►April(4)
      • Greetings from Prague & a computer question
      • Swimming with Tigers, a 2nd chance on the Chautauqua, a financial article gets it wrong and I'm off to Prague
      • Storage, Moving and Movers
      • Homeless, and a bit on the strategy of dollar cost averaging
    • ►March(4)
      • Wild Turkeys, Motorcycles, Dining Room Sets & Greed
      • Roots v. Wings: considering home ownership
      • How about that stock market?!
      • The Blog has New Clothes
    • ►February(5)
      • Meet Mr. Money Mustache, JD Roth, Cheryl Reed & me for a Chautauqua in Ecuador
      • High School Poetry, Carnival, cool ads and random pictures that caught my eye
      • Consignment Shops: Best business model ever?
      • Cafes
      • Stocks -- Part XVI: Index Funds are really just for lazy people, right?
    • ►January(5)
      • Social Security: How secure and when to take it
      • Fighting giraffes, surreal landscapes, dancing with unicorns and restoring a Vanagon
      • My plan for 2013
      • VITA, income taxes and the IRS
      • How to be a stock market guru and get on MSNBC
  • ►2012 (53)
    • ►December(6)
      • See you next year....until then: The Origin of Life, Life on Other Worlds, Mechanical Graveyards, Great Art, Alternative Lifestyles and Finding Freedom
      • Stocks -- Part XV: Target Retirement Funds, the simplest path to wealth of all
      • Stocks -- Part XIV: Deflation, the ugly escort of Depressions.
      • Stocks Part XIV: Deflation, the ugly escort of Depressions.
      • Stocks -- Part XIII: The 4% rule, withdrawal rates and how much can I spend anyway?
      • How I learned to stop worrying about the Fiscal Cliff and you can too.
    • ►November(2)
      • Rent v. owning: A couple of case studies in Ecuador
      • So, what does a month in Ecuador cost anyway?
    • ►October(4)
      • See you in December....
      • Meet me in Ecuador?
      • The Podcast: You can hear me now.
      • Stocks -- Part XII: Bonds
    • ►September(6)
      • Stocks -- Part XI: International Funds
      • The Smoother Path to Wealth
      • Case Study #I: Putting the Simple Path to Wealth into Action
      • Tales of Bolivia: Calle de las Brujas
      • Stocks -- Part X: What if Vanguard gets Nuked?
      • Travels in South America: It was the best of times....
    • ►August(1)
      • Home again
    • ►June(4)
      • Yellow Fever, closing up shop for the summer and heading to Peru y Bolivia
      • I could not have said it better myself...
      • Stocks -- Part IX: Why I don't like investment advisors
      • Happy Birthday, jlcollinsnh; and thanks for the gift Mr. MM!
    • ►May(6)
      • Stocks -- Part VIII: The 401K, 403b, TSP, IRA & Roth Buckets
      • Mr. Money Mustache
      • The College Conundrum
      • Stocks -- Part VII: Can everyone really retire a millionaire?
      • Stocks -- Part VI: Portfolio ideas to build and keep your wealth
      • Stocks -- Part V: Keeping it simple, considerations and tools
    • ►April(6)
      • Stocks -- Part IV: The Big Ugly Event, Deflation and a bit on Inflation
      • Stocks -- Part III: Most people lose money in the market.
      • Stocks -- Part II: The Market Always Goes Up
      • Stocks -- Part 1: There's a major market crash coming!!!! and Dr. Lo can't save you.
      • You can eat my Vindaloo, mega lottery, Blondie, Noa, Israel Kamakawiwo 'Ole, art, film and a ride on the Space Shuttle
      • Where in the world are you?
    • ►March(7)
      • How I lost money in real estate before it was fashionable, Part V: Sold! and the taxman cometh.
      • How I lost money in real estate before it was fashionable, Part IV: I become a Landlord.
      • How I lost money in real estate before it was fashionable, Part III: The Battle is Joined.
      • How I lost money in real estate before it was fashionable, Part II: The Limits of the Law.
      • How I lost money in real estate before it was fashionable, Part I: Impossibly Naive.
      • You, too, can be conned
      • Armageddon and the value of practical skills
    • ►February(6)
      • Rent v. Owning Your Home, opportunity cost and running some numbers
      • The Casanova Kid, a Shit Knife, a Good Book, Having No Regrets, Dark Matter and a bit of Magic
      • What Poker, Basketball and Mike Whitaker taught me about Luck
      • How to Give like a Billionaire
      • Go ahead, make my day
      • Muk Finds Success in Tahiti
    • ►January(5)
      • Travels with "Esperando un Camino"
      • Beanie Babies, Naked Barbie, American Pickers and Old Coots
      • Selling the House and Adventures in Staging
      • The bashing of Index Funds, Jack Bogle and a Jedi dog trick
      • Magic Beans
  • ►2011 (22)
    • ►December(1)
      • Dividend Growth Investing
    • ►November(2)
      • The Mummy's head, Particle Physics and "Knocking on Heaven's Door"
      • "It's Better in the Wind" or why I ride a motorcycle
    • ►October(1)
      • Lazy Days and School Days
    • ►July(2)
      • The road to Zanzibar sometimes goes thru Ecuador...
      • Johnny wins the lotto and heads to Paris
    • ►June(16)
      • Chainsaws, Elm Trees and paying for College
      • Stuff I’ve failed at: the early years
      • Snatching Victory from the Jaws of Defeat
      • The. Worst. Used. Car. Ever.
      • Top Ten reasons your future is so bright it hurts my eyes to look at it
      • The Most Dangerous Words Your Customer Can Say
      • How not to drown in The Sea of Assholes
      • What we own and why we own it
      • The Ten Sales Commandments
      • My ever so formal and oh so dry CV
      • How I failed my daughter and a simple path to wealth
      • The Myth of Motivation
      • Why you need F-you money
      • My short attention span
      • Why I can’t pick winning stocks, and you can’t either
      • The Monk and the Minister
Blogroll
  • Can I Retire Yet?
  • ChooseFI
  • Go Curry Cracker
  • Fiology
  • Mad Fientist
  • Millennial Revolution
  • Mr. Money Mustache
  • The Power of Thrift

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