2022: A Year of Bold Moves

Reflecting Back

Are you the person who feels nostalgic when you approach the end of the year? I am. There is something about the year coming to a close where I feel the need to reflect back and retrace my steps. It’s the way I honor everything that happened in the year, good and bad.

Let me just say, 2022 was a good year. One year ago we were in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida for a family Christmas trip. On the plane ride down I listened to episode 355 of the Choose FI podcast featuring Dominick Quartuccio. Dominick spoke about how to make bold moves. Bold moves scare you and move you outside your comfort zone. I knew 2022 was the year of bold moves.

Side note: If you are looking for a kick in the pants to make bold moves at any point, I highly encourage you to listen to the podcast episode. It’s relevant any time, not just the end of a year.

Our Bold Moves

A New Addition

There is nothing like getting an 8-week old puppy to kick off your year! After losing our first dog of 11 years in October 2021, we were ready to become a family of three again. We picked up our mini-Goldendoodle puppy on January 14th. The puppy stage has been a wild ride! It’s hard to imagine something so cute can be such a terror. When we thought about our lifestyle over the next several years we knew we needed a flexible, easy-going dog to become our adventure pup. He adores people and loves to walk and hike with us. So far, so good.

Working Less & Identity Shifts

I knew I would make bold moves regarding my career in 2022. I just wasn’t clear on what they would be.

After I stopped my all-or-nothing thinking, the first bold move came near the end of February. I requested a 60-day leave of absence and was quickly approved to be off work in April and May 2022. This time off was life changing.

Before I returned to work in June, I requested to work on a very part-time basis, approximately 10 hours per week. This was approved as well. I was able to focus more the parts of Human Resources I truly loved, including coaching. Despite only working a few hours each week and focusing on the type of work I enjoyed most, as the year progressed I still didn’t feel “pulled” to the work I was doing.

I had to come to terms with the fact my career in Human Resources was not the work I needed or wanted to do anymore. After 15+ years in HR, I’m still processing my feelings around releasing this part of my identity… And beginning anew.

In November, I took my biggest bold move of the year when I officially quit my “dream” job.

Yup, you read that right. Learn more about how I decided to quit my successful career, and what I learned since quitting.

Making FI Friends

One of the most unexpected surprises to come out of 2022 was all the amazing people we met through the FI community.

In April we attended our first Camp Mustache Midwest, basically a facilitated 3-day get together for people to learn more about topics related to the FIRE movement and connect with others in the community. Attending camp was a bold move, and far outside our comfort zone! We slept in bunk houses with 15 other people like elementary school kids. But, it was amazing! We met people from all over, from all stages of FIRE. We loved it so much that we signed up for the next one held in our area in April 2023!

We also started attending more of our local FIRE meetups, which were great to meet people in smaller groups. We attended FI case studies and discussed finances openly with other like-minded people. It was so freeing. In August, we pushed ourselves and presented our own FI Case Study, which required us to be very open and vulnerable. Despite how scary it felt leading up to sharing our financial picture, we don’t regret a minute of it!

Through the meet ups we began getting together with other people in the groups. Diania Merriam of EconoME says, “FI is better with friends.” She’s so right! It feels amazing to surround ourselves with our “people.”

Starting the Blog!

After years of envisioning how cool it would be to start a blog, on June 7th I took the bold move to purchase our blog domain. I have no background in anything website-related. Step by step we slowly figured it out together. It was a cool experiment to see how each of us brought knowledge and curiosity to make the blog happen. I brought ideas for the content and social media, while he brought ideas for the name and created our logo, as well some tech support! In August I decided to pay for an online SEO course, which was interesting to go back to a “beginner” status and learn something entirely new.

Now that I am without W2 employment, I’m excited to have more time to focus on the blog!

Starting a Business

We aren’t the type who make quick decisions. We think, we ponder, we discuss. We weigh the pros and cons. We think some more. Then we act.

After meeting others in the FI community who had their own businesses, one random day around July 4th he opened an LLC. We didn’t even have a specific plan for what we’d do with an LLC, but it felt right.

Bold moves may not always make sense to others in the moment, but are experiments to help you decide what direction you want to go.

Real Estate Ventures

He’s always been interested in real estate opportunities. We’ve mulled over rental properties, but after years of thinking about it, we hadn’t pull the trigger. Our opportunity to dive into the real estate world came in August, when he discovered real estate syndications through Bigger Pockets. Wouldn’t you know, we used our LLC to invest in two different syndications in 2022!

Travel & Adventure

Our boldest move of 2022 was going on a month-long trip in our RV in May. We managed a 6-month old puppy, he worked about 20-hours per week, and we moved locations every 2-5 days. We hit amazing places like Sioux Falls, Badlands National Park, the Black Hills, Rocky Mountain National Park, and the Gateway Arch.

This trip occurred only because I took the bold move to request a 60-day leave of absence. Once you start making bold moves your action compounds and you create space for other opportunities to materialize. This is truly the magic of bold moves!

In 2023 we will share more about what we learned from a month on the road in our RV!

In July I traveled with my mom to the Upper Peninsula in Michigan, where she grew up. I had never traveled with just my mom before, so this was in fact a bold move for me. Sadly, upon arriving in Marquette I became very sick, so we had to turn around and drive back. Yup, 2022 was the year we all finally got COVID. We’re going to try a re-do in 2023.

We took a two-week California road trip with his parents, helping them check-off a retirement bucket list trip. We hit LA, Highway 1 to Monterey, Yosemite National Park, Napa, and ended in San Francisco. IMO, any time you travel with family you are making a bold move!

Less of a bold move, we closed out our travel adventures by enjoying nearly two weeks in New River Gorge National Park and Preserve. We experienced the most perfect fall weather, with tons of hiking and exploring.

Closing Out the Year

2022 was a good year. We honor all the bold moves we made, and look forward to more along our journey as we transition into 2023!

We have so much exciting content to share in the upcoming year.

Thanks for being here, and Happy New Year!