16 March 2018: A first career should be followed by a first retirement.

In Fall 2017, after 13 years in a Federal Government job in Washington, D.C., I had reached the end of my tether. I still basically liked my job, but the rat race was killing me. Getting up early, spending an hour and 15 minutes (one way) commuting to the ‘burbs, punching a timecard, sleepwalking though most of the day… no. That is no way to live in the 21st century. Hell, Fred Flintstone was punching a timecard back in the Pleistocene Epoch!

So, in December 2017, I gave my boss three months’ notice of my resignation, and on 16 March 2018, I took the bus and the Metro home from work for the very last time. And I haven’t had a moment of regret since.

Now unfortunately for me, my retirement can’t be permanent. At 40, I’ve put away what I think is a pretty impressive amount in my Thrift Savings Program (TSP; the Federal Government equivalent of a 401k) and in the online savings account that serves as my rainy day fund. But I definitely don’t have enough saved up to last me until my 60s, when I can start drawing on my TSP, Social Security (fingers crossed it’s still around in 20 years), and pension (ditto).

Still, I’ve got enough money put aside that I can weather several months of unemployment. And that is what I intend to do. One thing I could never do while employed by Uncle Sam was to take more than two weeks of vacation at once. So, before committing to a new career, I’m taking a serious vacation. A first retirement.

When I was employed, I always thought of travel as a major money sink. But now that I’m funemployed, it actually makes a lot of sense to get the hell out of D.C. Washington is the third-most expensive metropolitan area in the United States, trailing only San Francisco and New York. And the United States in turn is in the world top ten in terms of high cost of living. Also, air travel — increasingly unpleasant as it is — is super cheap, historically speaking.

So I think you can tell where I’m going with this.