Our lunch with retirement blogger Just One More Year

Yesterday was a day that I thought would never come, the day where my wife and I actually sat down to have lunch with another personal finance blogger. We met at a Mexican restaurant in Scottsdale, AZ and talked retirement, goals and generally about what makes us happy.

We met up with Bryan and Dianne from Just One More Year.

I am continuously amazed at how open and warm the early retirement community is. So many of us are supportive of what each other are doing. We understand the motivations of other bloggers, because we want out too. When we hear someone say, "Life is short", we know what that truly means.

Life is short, so live NOW.

We chatted about how similar our plans are and talked about options for finishing out work. We discussed Sedona a lot, a place where my wife and I were originally going to move to after retirement (Bryan and his wife already live there). Lots of Airstream and general camping talk. Bryan told us the story of how he got his own truck and trailer in a process that happened almost on a whim.

After the lunch, my wife and I thought to ourselves how nice it is to be able to meet up with someone whom we've never met before in person, but due to our shared interests and mutual dislike of jobs, we dove into conversation as if we had known each other for years.

It was a truly wonderful lunch, not only due to the delicious food but also the awesome company. We will most definitely meet up again in the future, perhaps in our respective RVs, as friends. Making friends and spending time around positive influences is something that never gets old.

In fact, it's integral to our plans of early retirement. The more GOOD friends that people have, the happier we all become.

Lastly, my wife and I are in southern Arizona - if anyone happens to roll through the area and would like to grab a bite, let us know and we'll be glad to get together - as one big happy family...or something like that!  :)