Spending Habits for Professionals Who Want to FIRE: I wrote a book just for you.

Often when a blogger drops off the face of the earth, it’s because something happened, like divorce or else health issues, like a Glioblastoma. For DH (Dear Husband) and I, it’s been something else entirely. Or somethingS else. Over the past few months, I feel like we’ve been barely treading water with massive waves overcoming us. But, like a Chumbawamba song, every time we get knocked down, we’ll get back up again.

DH had a sudden compulsion on a random midweek day in January: we had to buy a house ASAP. By the next evening, we had beat out two other offers to purchase a property where people were lined up to see it. We were blessed to be able to snatch the house up hours after it came on the market—even though it needed some serious TLC (hello, E.Coli, and cockroach poop filled water).

This house has great bones, but it’d been neglected for some time. It needed some serious elbow grease. I started working incredibly hard to make the property safe to live in as quickly as possible because I sensed a storm on the horizon. DH and I were worried we’d have to move into the house before it was ready.

            Because this Tsunami of death hit. You might have heard of it? Covid-19? Yeah. That.

Unfortunately, I happened to be mid-flight on a mostly empty plane to speak on a panel at a conference in Nevada when the global pandemic was declared. As soon as I had met my obligation, I took my packed bags to the airport and asked to get on the next flight home.

Once back home, I sequestered at our new place with our teardrop camper as long as I could in case I’d been exposed to the virus while traveling. Each morning I awoke to news of more lockdowns sweeping the nation. DH and I knew it was only a matter of time before we’d be given a few hours notice to shelter in place (we were given 8 hours notice). We for sure didn’t want to stay in our teeny apartment with two young, energetic boys who need outdoor space to run around in. And our new place has more land than we really know how to deal with, so move it was!

Gritting our teeth—and with me wearing a mask and goggles—we moved into our still-needs-work-looks-like-a-haunted-house. We finished two hours before the lockdown that began at midnight. DH then moved back into our empty apartment to self-isolate while working his front line shifts. We needed to be more settled in before he returned home: I didn’t want us all getting as sick as we’d ever been with boxes everywhere. If I was washing dishes with the frigging garden hose, how the heck was I supposed to unearth the Tylenol and Mucinex, while caring for three sick males, on top of myself? Ain’t gonna happen.

            So DH got the boot while I slowly lost my mind single-parenting two young boys in a barely functional house, unpacked, crisis-virtual-schooled (because that’s what it really is y’all!), and pleaded with plumbers to come back (they were too scared to work in the home of doctors). They returned after DH had been out of the house for over two weeks.

            All I can say is Thank God for our tiny camper! That thing saved us.

            Now, to get to the point of this blog that I should have released months ago.

(Editor’s Note: There are Amazon affiliate links below, which although won’t cost you anything extra, could bring me a small fee to help support this blog.)

People are losing jobs everywhere. It’s a reflection of the scary times when I see Orthopedic Surgeons flipping out in the doctor Facebook groups asking how to pay their mortgage when they’ve just been furloughed? Times are tough, and money is scarce.

More than ever, America needs FIRE. If you’re not already there and you want to figure out how to save money as quickly as possible, I wrote a book just for you: Spending Habits for Professionals Who Want to FIRE It’s a summation of all the tips and tricks we used, while leading a busy life, to get to FIRE. This book is a relevant read for anyone who’s looking for information all in one place on how to curtail their spending. I wrote the book using Thriller writing techniques, so it’s a super-fast read for the average person.

People, we’ll get through this. And when we do come out on the other side of COVID-19, we’ll be stronger and more resilient.

If you haven’t already check out Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. He’s a physician who survived the Holocaust. He wrote this book after WW2 in 9 days, and it’s brought comfort to millions of people as they’ve searched for meaning during horrible times.

            You got this. Together, we all got this.

Until next time, stay safe, my friends. And if you think my book would help any of your friends, please share on social media. Thanks bunches.

(These blog postings will most likely be less frequent as I’ve decided to come out of my too short retirement to help out during the COVID pandemic.)