Who We Be
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In December 2006, at the age of 43, we retired from our full-time 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) and consider
it one of the best decisions of our lives.
Early on, several of our trips were four or five months in length. We saw
places like New Zealand, Fiji, Chile, Argentina, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos,
and Vietnam really well. But over time, our trips have shortened to about
one month on average -- which has opened up time in our lives for
other pursuits like writing.
Most of our trips have involved hiking in some form or other (see the
Camino de Santiago and Nepal as examples), and we usually choose
natural scenery, small towns, and wildlife over big cities (like our safaris
to Botswana and South Africa). We think of travel as a lifetime project,
one that will keep us happily occupied 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 hometown of
Boulder, Colorado, kayak at Robin's family home near Acadia National
Park, Maine, and walk barefoot in the surf at Panama City Beach, Florida.
Robin enjoys doing genealogy in her spare time (she is a Mayflower and
Jamestown descendant), and Robert likes to write fiction and create
crosswords. In addition to How to Retire Early, he has written a sci-fi
trilogy called the Occupy Earth Trilogy (see Author Page). His crosswords
have been published in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
For us, early retirement has not meant "doing nothing," but getting to do
what we choose, whether it's writing or travel or creating in any form. It's
financial independence by another name, and we highly recommend it.
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) and consider
it one of the best decisions of our lives.
Early on, several of our trips were four or five months in length. We saw
places like New Zealand, Fiji, Chile, Argentina, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos,
and Vietnam really well. But over time, our trips have shortened to about
one month on average -- which has opened up time in our lives for
other pursuits like writing.
Most of our trips have involved hiking in some form or other (see the
Camino de Santiago and Nepal as examples), and we usually choose
natural scenery, small towns, and wildlife over big cities (like our safaris
to Botswana and South Africa). We think of travel as a lifetime project,
one that will keep us happily occupied 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 hometown of
Boulder, Colorado, kayak at Robin's family home near Acadia National
Park, Maine, and walk barefoot in the surf at Panama City Beach, Florida.
Robin enjoys doing genealogy in her spare time (she is a Mayflower and
Jamestown descendant), and Robert likes to write fiction and create
crosswords. In addition to How to Retire Early, he has written a sci-fi
trilogy called the Occupy Earth Trilogy (see Author Page). His crosswords
have been published in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
For us, early retirement has not meant "doing nothing," but getting to do
what we choose, whether it's writing or travel or creating in any form. It's
financial independence by another name, and we highly recommend it.
| Shortly before retiring early on December 20, 2006 |
| Dominican Republic, March 2024 |
| We Be Robert & Robin Charlton |
| Shortly before getting married on December 20, 1986 |
