Finally, a post.

This might be my longest stretch without posting since the inception of this blog. No, no, no, I haven’t forgotten about Happily Disengaged. Quite the opposite really. I think about my lack of writing here often. Each time I think about how I should be writing here, but then cast the thought off so that I can justify doing something else, it’s as if I place a small pebble into my pocket. A pebble of guilt. A pebble of a thought or idea. Now my pockets are swollen and heavy with pebbles, and I must empty them out onto this blank white screen before me for relief.

With this most recent stretch of no posting, sometimes the thought pops into my mind:

Should I just end this blog? Should I let it to go dark like so many other FIRE blogs? Have I just run out of things to write about?

Yes, the thought does cross my mind, but so do other irrational thoughts of craziness from time to time. I have no intention of giving up on the blog. For now, the lights will stay on, but my posting will likely be a bit irregular. This blog has always been a creative and stress relieving outlet for me. I think back to when I was most active here, it was during my most miserable and hopeless time at work. Writing here during those times was a form of therapy for me. My employer had me working in a department I didn’t want to be in. The work was isolating and computer heavy. I felt trapped by my salary and awesome work schedule. Covid took the fun out of everything else.

At that time in 2021, FI couldn’t come fast enough.

Well, four years later, here I am. I’ve hit my FI Number (albeit a leaner one than I think I want). I can call it quits tomorrow, if I wanted.

As all things tend to do when time and aging is involved, things have changed.

I’ve changed.

I’m not in a hurry to retire anymore. There’s no rush to quit work, actually, I’m quit happy at the moment with my work situation. Yes, there’s frustrating days at work. Days where I look out the window and wish I could just leave in the middle a meeting. Those days don’t happen as much as they used to. Even on those days, I don’t have this feeling that I’m being overlooked or not appreciated, like I did at my last company. I really enjoy the role I have at work, one of mentoring, and cruising at a higher altitude so that I can make big picture decisions. Summed up, I just like being a boss at work, the person making or agreeing to the decisions, with the trust and responsibility that goes with it from my superiors.

I wonder if I’m enjoying it more because I know the end of this chapter is near. I appreciate the little things. I’m constantly wondering what little things I might miss from this work life. I try to soak in the details for later in life. And all that mindfulness makes me appreciate it more. Like enjoying a flower in bloom; the colors, the vibrancy, the scent, just knowing it will wither and die soon somehow makes it better and makes me feel more alive.

I’m in the final stages of this work chapter. I feel it. My work flower has bloomed and now it is a matter of time before it begins to wither and die. I’m enjoying the fruits of everything I was working towards before I even knew about FIRE.

Where my company sends me next will play a huge role in my next move. I’ll be done with this project early next year and then it’s on to the next one…maybe.

I’ve been lucky with my short commute; crossing the bay bridge again and dealing with miserable commutes will surely push my quit date forward.

I’ve been lucky with my boss and teammates; if I get sent to a place where I have to deal with people I just don’t get along with, well, I have no need to endure that.

I could get lucky again. And if that’s the case, what’s the rush to quit? Just knowing I have the option to quit makes everything else better.

For now, here’s an update on the Happily Disengaged household this year:

The Gym

My weekend routine has changed. This is probably the biggest reason as to why I have not written a post in so long. I now go to the gym Saturday and Sunday mornings at 7am. I’m out of the house by 6:30 am and back home by 8:15 am. It was usually around this time that I would write, when the house was quiet and everyone was asleep. I’d head downstairs, make coffee, and sit and write while at my most creative in the morning, either this blog or my fiction. Now this quiet writing time has disappeared from my schedule.

In January, I fell victim to my wife’s consistent prodding to try out her gym. The gym is called Orange Theory, maybe some of you have heard of this gym before, if not, it’s a class type gym that does high intensity interval training or HIIT style workouts. I’d never been to a gym ‘class’ before, or tried any HIIT workouts, but after going to a few I’m hooked. My favorite part is I don’t have to do any planning on what I’m going to work out. The gym gamifies the workout; there’s a screen in the gym that tracks your heart rate, calorie burn, and which heart rate zone you’re currently in via an armband. This gym fits perfectly into my current stage in life where I value simplicity.

Funny to type out but, now, in my forties, I’m probably the best shape I’ve been in in 20 years! Not since my military days have I ran this much and gotten my heart pumping on such a consistent basis.

There are a lot of downsides to all the technology crammed in our lives, but for my health, I love where technology is in monitoring and tracking health data.

I love seeing my health stats via tech devices and apps. Sleep, steps, heart rate, breathing rate, strain, etc., all of it is super interesting to me. As part of my Chase Sapphire Reserve benefits, I got a ‘free’ Whoop and year subscription (I better max out the benefits with their high ass fee). There’s so much data that the Whoop produces, it’s fascinating to see how certain activities and choices impact my sleep and overall health. It’s one thing to get bad sleep or drink too much and feel bad, it’s a completely different experience to feel bad and see the numbers behind the feelings.

My data alone from how alcohol affects my sleep is enough to make me reconsider a drink (sidenote: I’m on a break from alcohol, a decision heavily influenced by my Whoop, till June 19th) and what time I go to bed. The Whoop is something I would have never purchased or thought about if it hadn’t of been a benefit of my credit card, but I’m glad I tried it out. I may even purchase the subscription plan when my year runs out next March.

Along with working out, I’ve been eating better. A visit to my doctor revealed I have very high cholesterol. I have elevated LDL’s and Triglycerides. I’m worried that it might be genetic, since I’m not overweight. But I’ll also admit I don’t eat super clean either. So I’m making a good effort to cut out saturated fat and processed foods to see if it will lower my levels. I was surprised by my results, especially since I’d been working out regularly this year. Eating clean, abstaining from alcohol/marijuana, and working out have me feeling pretty damn good overall. My brain is firing on all cylinders. I have way more energy. Eating doesn’t get me feeling all tired out or bloated. It’s just hella hard work to eat healthy. It takes pre planning and commitment. I’m hoping I can keep this up long term….with a few cheat days here and there, like my upcoming vacation.

Spending

Being ‘Financially Independent’ has changed the way we spend. We’re trending to spend much more in 2026 than in prior years. My fear, having hit my number without quitting work, is increased spending changes after determining an FI number. Luckily for us, our extra spending is only really travel related. Something that can be reigned in at a moment’s notice if needed.

Despite spending more than usual, we are still saving and investing. Our average savings rate this year is 15% post tax income. We both still max out our 401k’s. So it’s not like we went fully hedonistic YOLO. When I’m not spending on travel our savings rate jumps to 40% on a weekly basis to keep ourselves in check.

Our reduction in saving wasn’t solely due to travel, but also hefty tax bills. For 2025, we paid a total of $18k in balance due taxes, including state, property, and federal. That’s not a small amount. I’m constantly looking at ways to reduce my taxes, including going itemized last year. Part of what added to this high bill was a small rebalancing effort in my taxable account. Something I won’t do again unless things get way, way, out of whack.

Total spending in 2025 was ~$125k. Travel was a huge part of our expenses, running roughly $25k for three international trips (Japan, Mexico, Europe).

My core expenses are still around $75k, which includes:

• Housing (mortgage, utilities, taxes, insurance) – $35k
• Groceries – $18k
• Restaurants – $10k
• General Purchases (Clothes, car registration, car insurance, amazon, gas) – $12k
• Kids Tutoring/Education – $6k

If I can predict where our spend will be in 2026, it will likely be a little higher, likely in the $130k range. I’m spending even more this year on my kid’s tutoring and education. For example, we are sending my oldest to an educational summer camp for a week at a nearby top university, and no it was not cheap.

My portfolio asset allocation is generally unchanged. Still holding majority index funds:

• 60% – Domestic equities
• 21% – International equities
• 17% – Bonds
• 2% – Cash (SGOV)

I do hold a smattering of single stocks, nothing significant. Just enough for entertainment. And yes, I’m being entertained.

Travel

We’ve been pretty busy, staying domestic, mostly:

In January, my wife and I left the kids at home and we traveled to Seattle to watch the Forty Niners get their ass beat down in the playoffs. This was a good time, despite the loss. I hadn’t been to Seattle since 2004. This was my first ever road NFL game. We had good food and drank good beer. I used Hilton points to secure a hotel in downtown. Seattle has a great set up for sports, we just walked to the stadium from our hotel and hit up the bars along the way. And I’ll sheepishly admit that Seattle’s football stadium puts my Forty Niners Levi Stadium to shame. This trip cost roughly $2k. Thousand for tickets and a thousand for the flight and food/drinks.

In February we did a family Disneyland trip for a 2 day visit to the parks. Another $2k dropped here. Marriott points helped offset the cost. I signed up for a Marriott Boundless card and used the sign up bonus for the hotel stay. My wife’s company mostly uses Marriott for travel, so we hope to gain some points when she has to travel for work. Why I didn’t open a Marriott card earlier I don’t know.

At the end of March we flew to El Salvador for a week for the kid’s spring break vacation. The trip timed coincidentally for Semana Santa in the country. Luckily, I purchased the airline tickets early (before my country’s idiotic decision to bow down to Israel and start a war for no reason or exit strategy with Iran)before fuel costs took off and raised airline prices. I was surprised by how cheap the tickets were round trip, $2500.

For all my travels, I’d never been to El Salvador. My verdict is high recommendation to visit that beautiful country. The people are so nice. The roads amazing (the main ones at least). The food cheap and delicious if you leave the tourist areas. And it was just safer beyond my imagination, because of the beloved dictator there, everyone is too afraid to commit crimes. If there is anything I didn’t like it was that the dollar is the currency. It just made everything super expensive. We spent around $2500 on hotels, the car rental, and food for the week.

So all in it was a $5k trip…pretty expensive for Central America…you can also see why I’m predicting a higher annual spend for 2026; the travel spending keeps on rolling.

Our first stop was the playa. We stood in Playa El Tunco for a few nights. It was super hot, laid back, and trendy with new age vibes mixed in with luxury boutique hotels and restaurants. Lots of Americans and Brazilians…and the prices showed. I was paying pretty much American prices for the resort hotel and food. But I can’t deny I enjoyed the healthy food options and cheap cold beers. The seafood was extremely fresh and well prepared. Unless you surf, the water was pretty much un-swimmable for kids, with heavy surf and pebbly beaches.

After the beach we headed up into the mountains along the Ruta de Flores. We stood in a small town called Juayua. It was much cooler up at that elevation. The scenery was bursting with green life and beautiful birds. We visited a small local coffee plantation and bought lots of local light roast to take home. Not only was it cooler, but less touristy and so the prices came way down. This is where it came in handy speaking Spanish.

We also spent a night in at Casa 1800 Cerro Verde . This was a bit of a splurge, but worth it. There are only 20 rooms in this small hotel in a national park reserve. There is an attached restaurant and observation deck. Not much to do there, but it’s a super relaxing place to be, especially after the park closes and all the day guests leave. Then you get the restaurant to yourself (with the other guests of course) and can enjoy some fine dining and drinks. There’s a rustic feel to the place with fire pits, concrete architecture, and heavy blankets around. It gets cold at that high of an elevation. The weather turned cold and misty with trees banked in fog. It reminded me of the redwood forests near my home in California, not a Central American destination.

Here’s some random dishes of the delicious food we consumed in El Salvador:

We had a double vacation in one for spring break. Right after that vacation to El Salvador. As soon as we flew back to Northern California with the kids, we dropped them off with my mother in law on a Saturday, and my wife and I jumped back on a plane the next day Sunday morning and flew to LA.

One of the highlights of the trip was staying at the Downtown Intercontinental. The lobby is on the 70th floor!! It was also the tallest building on the west coast. As someone in construction who builds high rises like that, it was an amazing experience to enjoy the heights and architecture of that luxury hotel. I can only imagine what it must have taken to build such a beast of a building. It would have been a fun job to be on.

We used ‘The Edit’ booking option through Chase Travel and were not disappointed. This gave us 8x points on the booking, $100 drink or dining voucher, $35 each for breakfast the next day, a fruit basket gift in the room, and late check out at 4pm the next day. I was able to offset some of the cost with the $500 hotel credit CSR offers for The Edit.

We used the gym in the hotel to work out before dinner and loved the views and equipment.

We then spent a week with friends and no kids on a cruise to Catalina Island and Ensenada.

A cruise?

Yes, a cruise.

I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a cruise traveler. In fact, cruise’s are the opposite of everything I love about travel. And surely the opposite of my adventure culture driven travels and vacations. I’m more of a throw everything in your backpack and get off the beaten path type of guy. I avoid tourists crowds when possible when I’m jet setting about the world. I avoid tourist traps, mostly.

Previous to this cruise, I hadn’t been on a cruise since 2007.

But we had a blast. It’s just a different type of vacation all together. More of the resort type. I had to let my guard down and go with the flow. Being on the water and looking out at the sea brought back a lot of memories of my days in the Navy.

The price of the Catalina cruise was $1500 for a balcony for a 4 day cruise with Royal Caribbean. We then spent another $500 on drinks and fun off the boat. Some fun we did was kayaking and swimming in the Pacific off Catalina Island and ATV riding in Valle de Guadalupe.

One thing we noticed when we were kidless on the cruise, was that it looked like hella family fun if you have kids. I couldn’t help but kind of wish I had my kids with me. So we decided that for our summer vacation we’ll take the kids out on a cruise and try something different for a change. We’d planned on maybe hitting up Korea this year, but that will have to wait.

In June we will be going to Cabo for the first time. It’s a 7 day cruise. I used my Chase Rewards points transfer to United Miles to get a round trip flight ‘free’ plus tax. Then used both my Hilton and Marriott points for the hotel the day before and after.

We do not have any other plans for the rest of the year. Yes, I’m sad I won’t be able to attend Oktoberfest this year. I really do love that event. We’ve floated around Europe during Christmas and New Years, but nothing solid. Much will depend on the markets, my job situation, and being spontaneous.

Up Next

So far 2026 has been an amazing year. As you can see I’m finding a new balance on spending versus saving. I’m learning to get more joy out of using my money for today rather than tomorrow. What makes that possible is the years we spent being frugal, counting every penny, and dumping my money into the stock market whether it’s up or down. All of that saving and discipline has led me to a place today where I have the money to pretty buy whatever I want, when I want to, within reason of course. And that is a glorious feeling. In no way will I ever actually do that, it’s just nice knowing I can.

Part of my uptick in spending isn’t just on vacations and travel, but on my kids education.

The other day my daughter asked me if she could go to a week long university summer camp, and when I found out the price I immediately said no. It was sticker shock. But after a few hours of stewing on it I came to the conclusion that of course I could afford it. What was I worried about? Not being able to put that money into the stock market? I could directly invest that money into my daughter instead, and her future, which for me is a better investment than buying index funds or plane tickets to a far off place. What else is my money for? It wasn’t like she was asking for clothes or junk food. I’m in a special place to be able to help my kids like my parents couldn’t help me with my education. Honestly, I couldn’t even fathom wanting to go to a school summer camp when I was a kid, so my daughter is already light years ahead of where I was at her age.

I’ve thought a lot about that since. My knee jerk reaction to say no and save money.

These are special years right now, with my kids young, and income pouring in from a W2 job. I’m trying to make the best of these times before it’s over. And if that means spending a little more money to enjoy today, I’m quite okay with it. I’ve saved and invested enough to allow it.