The Friday Feast ~ the 26th of June

I love learning. Always have. So when I find a blog or writer that interests me I devour everything I can find. Every day I move countless amazing articles from an array of  frugal, simple living, FI-minded writers into my Amazing Reads folder to be read at my leisure. These articles inspire me and the Mr. to think about things in different ways, to keep open minds and to constantly keep learning so we can be the best possible us.

In this episode of Friday Feast: Retirement Savvy, The Art of Simple, Dividend Mantra, Financial Samurai, and Messy Money.

Here are my picks for this week's Feast. I hope they inspire you to set financial goals and take control over your heart, mind and - yes, your pocketbook.  There is a fire lit within each and every one of us, and the sooner we find that flame, the quicker we can use it for the energy we need to master our own happiness.

Why is ER so hard?:

People think retirement is hard and some even believe it's impossible. Let's not even get started on Early Retirement. We in the community know that it's not easy but completely do-able if you set your goals and try hard enough. And that's really the key. You have to want it, really want it, and you have to try, and keep trying even when it's not convenient. Retirement Savvy realized this fact as well and discussed this week about how it's (mostly) about priorities. We have our priorities, and now we're in the consistency time frame where we just have to keep going.

Doing what you WANT:

Everyone asks if you could do/be anything what would it be? And then they lament over how that's just not possible for x, y, and z reasons and go back to their normally scheduled lives. That's why it's always amazing to see people doing what they want regardless of society's perceptions or their fears. We have two fine examples this week.

Haley at the Art of Simple revealed her family's plan to leave their safe steady life for a scary change of lifestyle that fulfills one of their dreams (and involves a composting toilet and 3 kids). She ask's her readers if you could do anything, what would it be? I think the last line in her post sums it up best, "But considering all the ways this move will help our whole family to thrive, staying in a safe, comfortable life and ignoring our dreams sounds far crazier." Crazy indeed.

Jason at Dividend Mantra has been featured a number of times here and is one of our role models for living a life of choice.  This week he broached an interesting topics of living more than one lifetime.  I love this and have copied and pasted this quote to my inspirational quotes board. "I think we all have the potential to live more than one lifetime. Or even three or four lifetimes. There’s no reason you can’t spend five years being a philosopher before taking a decade to then master carpentry… or music.......The possibilities are almost endless. But don’t box yourself (or others) in. And don’t be afraid to die. Or live."

Health:

We're fitness fanatics here at Think Save Retire and we take our health very seriously by eating well and working out often. But some things are harder. Stress is a huge one for me. I went on a pretty stressful business trip this week which involved cross-country travel, canceled flights, speaking in front of lots of people, no air-conditioning in 90-degree rooms and unfortunately multiple days of migraine headaches for me. Stress and my body do not get along. What's good to know is that my major stressors are work related and will go away when I retire in a few years. Financial Samurai supports this by explaining the health benefits of early retirement. A lot of his stress related medical conditions went away once he quit his 9-5.

While that is good to know and look forward to, what about now? Migraines are miserable and after trying to control them via food (no dairy or gluten now for more than a month) it's time to try other things. That's why Messy Money's article Got Stress? came at a perfect time. I'm starting to explore mindfulness, meditation, journaling and breathing as daily practices to help control my stress levels and my migraines. Because stress is a part of life regardless of whether we are working or not, and having a healthy relationship with it is key.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

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Did you read something inspiring this week? If so let us know in the comments below!

They have been at a great feast of learning, and stolen the scraps.
- William Shakespeare