In December 2006, at the age of 43, we retired from our jobs -- Robin as a registered nurse, Robert as a proposal manager at an aerospace firm -- so we could travel the world and live life more fully. We saved hard to make this happen (see Early Retirement for details) and consider it one of the best decisions of our lives.
We prefer to travel slowly and on foot when possible, staying in a country for weeks at a time -- so we chose time over money, saving up "just enough," and took off for parts unknown (to us, anyway). Most of our trips involve hiking in some form or other, and we usually choose natural scenery, small towns, and wildlife over big cities. We think of travel as a lifetime project, one that will keep us happily busy for the rest of our days. Talk of travel, future or past, always puts a smile on our faces.
When we're not traveling, we like to hike the trails in our home town of Boulder, Colorado, go kayaking at the family home near Acadia National Park, Maine, and take long beach walks at Panama City Beach, Florida during the snowbird season. Robin enjoys doing genealogy in her spare time, and Robert likes to write and take photos. In addition to How to Retire Early, he has written a sci-fi trilogy called Occupy Earth (soon to be published) and has had a Saturday crossword puzzle (dated 9/23/23) published in The New York Times.