The last couple of years have been wild. I can’t complain — I’ve been lucky — but I’ve also had more to give than time to write. Blogging had to take a back seat for a while. Uncertainty can add some spice to life, but it also throws you out of a routine. Do you lean into it, or try to fight it?
Those opening lines took too long to land. Writing with flow takes regular practice. Work emails don’t count—especially mine, which are short and to the point.
Anyway, I’ll try to sum up what I’ve been doing and whether all this uncertainty will pull me back to this much-neglected blog.
After the big promotion in early 2019, I thought I might speed up my path to early retirement. Fast forward three years and I’m well past my target date. Turns out I haven’t missed much.
In March 2020 I almost quit after getting fed up with bad management. I told my boss I’d had enough. Being stuck behind committee-driven decisions makes me crazy. Then, two weeks later, the coronavirus lockdowns hit. I was effectively benched for almost two months.
By May I was hitting a daily steps goal like a pro. There are perks to a surprise pause, I guess. Because I wasn’t written off, another team picked me up and I was back to work. No complaints — the new boss was a good fit and I finally had the autonomy that makes a job bearable.
Less than a month into the new role, my dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The next seven months were some of the hardest I’ve known as I became a caregiver for someone with a terminal illness. I learned a lot about patience, resilience, forgiveness — especially forgiving myself — and about the brutal reality of cancer.
Before my dad could move here for treatment, George Floyd was killed and the riots that followed unfolded just miles from where we live. It was a scary, tense summer full of mixed emotions.
Uncertainty had become the new normal. We made it through 2020, though. That year also made me see how much my privilege shaped my view of early retirement and financial goals — those things felt almost irrelevant when buildings were burning nearby. I had neither the time nor the motivation to write personal finance posts that year.
My dad passed away in January after fighting that awful disease. I’m proud of how stubborn he was, and it taught me how precious time is. There’s also a kind of grace in letting go of the things you love when life pulls the rug out from under you.
In mid-2021 work shuffled me around again as my boss moved up and I got another new manager. Re-orgs are part of corporate life — mostly a way to shake things up while stressing people out. New boss was a decent person, just not the right fit for me. Dealing with ongoing uncertainty was starting to feel like a research topic in some imaginary program.
Could I just retire? By the numbers, probably. But pride and habit keep pulling me back to work. Also, the pandemic was still uncertain, so who knows what an early retiree could expect? We trust the math when things are calm and doubt it when storms come. That’s human behavior and basic economics at play.
Writing did get easier after the tenth paragraph, which was a relief. One good way to handle uncertainty is to act. I supported rebuilding small businesses affected by the 2020 riots with corporate-matched donations. I also pushed for a meaningful raise and got it in early 2021 — another reason early retirement can be hard to pull off.
Ukraine became my top charitable focus after the invasion in February. All the sponsored post money over the last two years didn’t go into my beer fund; I donated it, with corporate matches, to international charities like UNICEF. Years ago I almost joined the Peace Corps and would have been sent to Ukraine in 2002. I figure I can make up for that missed chance by supporting families now.
I miss writing here regularly. It’s fun and oddly therapeutic — it helps me stay grounded. I’m working out how best to contribute to my community and support my family. The blogging community I respect also feels like a group of friends (Carl, that’s you if you’re reading).
Thanks for sticking around. Time to take action.