afterFI/RE Life after FI/RE
People
Selected life timeline 2012—2023

They retired to travel the world. Then family life rewrote the plan.

Jeremy Jacobson and Winnie built their early retirement around an open road. A decade later, school runs, children’s activities and suburban bills set the rhythm. Their chronicle follows a freedom big enough to change shape: first adventure, then parenting, with a slower release from work anxiety than the travel photos might suggest.

Finances
Net worth at retirement2012-10 · Household
Not established

An exact starting amount was not established. The FAQ’s later spending multiple is not treated as a departure balance.

Source
Reported spending2023 · Household
$117,800 / year

Rounded expense total; excludes loan principal, some credit-card payments and retirement contributions. Cash outflow was about $52,000 higher.

Source
Income after retirement2018-02-26 · Household
Blog income continued

The author describes blogging income as unplanned; this was not a zero-earned-income retirement.

Source
Posts4
2013Year 1
Post 01

An ordinary day becomes the reward

“We left the stresses and inconveniences of the working world behind, and found happiness and contentment through everyday experiences.”

Jeremy Jacobson · Go Curry CrackerRead original post (opens in a new tab)

Life at the time

  • Traveled through Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and the Pacific Northwest.
  • Combined travel with language lessons, cooking, new skills and friendships.

How it felt

  • Described the first full retirement year as a success. “our first year of early retirement was a great success”
  • Found satisfaction in ordinary experiences as well as the larger adventures. “found happiness and contentment through everyday experiences”
TravelCuriosityContentment
Jeremy Jacobson · Go Curry Cracker (opens in a new tab)
Notes

Period described in the article; publication date is stored separately.

Opening narrative and Total 2013 Spending table.

Editorial summaries with short, attributed quotations. The original contains the full story.

2018Year 5
Post 02

The itinerary makes room for school

“Listening to your kids is a wonderful thing.”

Jeremy Jacobson · Go Curry CrackerRead original post (opens in a new tab)

Life at the time

  • Tried school in Taipei after their son wanted more contact with other children.
  • Changed the initial school arrangement and began fitting travel around a classroom calendar.

How it felt

  • Valued responding to their child’s preferences. “Listening to your kids is a wonderful thing.”
  • Had not settled where the family would live or travel next. “Future destinations: unknown.”
ParenthoodHomeChange
Jeremy Jacobson · Go Curry Cracker (opens in a new tab)
Notes

Period described in the article; publication date is stored separately.

Our Future and Final Thoughts; school cost section.

Editorial summaries with short, attributed quotations. The original contains the full story.

2022Year 10
Post 03

The office takes years to fade

“By year 3, I didn’t think about it at all.”

Jeremy Jacobson · Go Curry CrackerRead original post (opens in a new tab)

Life at the time

  • Traveled less after the family grew.
  • Reported that many friendships formed through work had not stayed close.

How it felt

  • Did not see retirement as a guarantee of happiness. “Retirement doesn’t guarantee happiness”
  • Found that thoughts of work faded gradually, rather than disappearing on the last day. “By year 3, I didn’t think about it at all.”
RecoveryFriendsChangeFreedom
Jeremy Jacobson · Go Curry Cracker (opens in a new tab)
Notes

Period described in the article; publication date is stored separately.

Observations 1–4 and 8.

Editorial summaries with short, attributed quotations. The original contains the full story.

2023Year 11
Post 04

The freedom to settle down

“We spent HOW MUCH on Amazon.com?!?!”

Jeremy Jacobson · Go Curry CrackerRead original post (opens in a new tab)

Life at the time

  • Settled into school, sports, home routines and trips around school holidays.
  • Planned closer expense tracking after reviewing roughly $118,000 in annual spending.

How it felt

  • Was surprised by retail purchases even though spending remained within budget. “We spent HOW MUCH on Amazon.com?!?!”
  • Preferred devoting time to other things rather than endlessly optimizing expenses. “I would rather do other things with my time”
FamilyHomeMoneyRoutine
Jeremy Jacobson · Go Curry Cracker (opens in a new tab)
Notes

Period described in the article; publication date is stored separately.

Opening; 2023 Cost of Living; Amazon, Costco, and Target; Summary.

Editorial summaries with short, attributed quotations. The original contains the full story.

Research

Last checked Sep 2026. The accounts are self-reported. This timeline follows selected accounts, including recollections where labeled; it is not a complete archive.

  • Four milestones are selected from a much larger archive; they do not represent every intervening year.
  • The most recent detailed life reflection included here covers 2023 and was published in 2024; later finance posts are not treated as life updates.
  • Exact departure wealth and age were not established in the reviewed primary sources.
  • The reporting voice is Jeremy’s; descriptions of Winnie and the children remain his account.

Privacy & analytics

AfterFire uses Google Analytics only if you accept. It helps us understand visits, referral sources, pages and chapters people open, filter use, and clicks to original sources.

After acceptance, Google receives page titles and addresses without query strings, content and chapter IDs, filter names (not selected values or search terms), campaign source/medium/name tags from shared links, original-source domains, referring sites, approximate location and browser/device information. Analytics cookies distinguish browsers and visits. Campaign labels are stored in this tab only after acceptance and expire after 30 minutes without activity. We do not enable advertising personalization or Google Signals, or send your name, email address or account identifier to Analytics.

Declining sends no Analytics data to Google. Accepting starts with the page currently open; we do not replay earlier browsing. Withdrawing consent stops tracking, clears this site's Analytics cookies and reloads the page. It does not delete measurements already received by Google.

We remember your choice on this browser for up to six months. Detailed Analytics data is retained for up to 14 months; aggregated reports can remain longer. Site hosting still processes requests needed to serve these pages.

Read Google's privacy policy and how Google uses information from sites.