Never Retire - Let's Learn From One Another in 2023

Calling for insight from your day-to-day and travel-related experiences and money strategies

I’m constantly thinking about ways to expand the scope—and content—of the Never Retire newsletter.

To do this, I want to include more insights from subscribers in 2023.

Here’s my thinking in sort of chronological and logical order.

#1—As I noted the other day in a pitch for paid subscribers:

• I hope and intend to write this newsletter forever.

• As you know, I will Never Retire so, when I say forever, I mean forever. When the time comes like (hopefully) 50 years or so from now and you don’t hear from me for more than a week, it probably means I’m dead. (True, but also meant to be a joke!)

#2—and pursuant to #1.

If we’re going to continue this conversation for the next 50 years or so, it makes sense to expand it beyond my thoughts on personal finance. While my take on—and the way I see and use—money remains at the core, this newsletter works and evolves best if it functions like a community.

I’m less concerned with the number of subscribers I have and more concerned with how engaged the core subscriber base is.

People like to learn from their peers. We love hearing about other people’s experiences with money and in life. They often help inform our own situation. They can help make us feel better or more confident about things. A smallish community of people sharing experiences beats the heck out of a massive base of distant subscribers.

Nothing beats sharing and shared experience.

#3—To this end, I’d love to include content you produce in the newsletter for 2023.

For example, as noted the other day, this is part of what you can expect from me next year—

As you might know, my partner and I will spend February in Spain and Italy.

The itinerary—Barcelona, Valencia, Madrid, Rome, Naples, Barcelona

For the month of February, I’m currently planning a month-long series of 20 Never Retire newsletter posts in 28 days.

Each post will include the following (in no particular order)—

• Photography from the cities we visit.

• Thoughts, observations, highlights from the cities we visit.

• A breakdown of what we spent each day to compare the cost of living in Spain and Italy to the United States and elsewhere.

• A Never Retire checklist item. A total of 20 practical money/work/life-related boxes you need to check to live the semi-retired life you wanna live now and for the duration.

Then, in March, I’ll do 20 posts in 31 days, meticulously detailing each of the 20 items.

For the record, I’m super excited about these posts. I think they’ll be among the best I’ve ever published in this newsletter.

While I’ll always carry the load—it’s part of why you pay me—I hope to curate your experiences along these lines going forward. As excited as I am about continuing to curate my own experience, it’s exponentially better if there’s a collaborative effort.

For example, if you’re traveling, I’d love for you to contribute insight from your travels along the lines of the first three bullet points: photographs; thoughts, observations, and highlights; and a breakdown of what you spend when you travel.

Of course, we’ll keep you anonymous.

Aside from travel, if you’re willing to share from these bullet points in your day-to-day life, that would be amazing.

I get great feedback from subscribers when I:

• Share images from where I live.

• Connect my personal finance and Never Retire strategy where my living environment (be it current or future housing situation or city).

• Breakdown not only what I spend on fixed and discretionary expenses, but how I organize my budget to make it happen.

Broadly, what strategies have you devised to:

• Live day-to-day

• Plan for the future

• Budget

• Save

• Never Retire

• Live semi-retired now or at some point in the future

There’s something intriguing about taking a peek into the lives of others—especially when we’re in it together amid shared interests and similar outlooks on life—that resonates.

I am asking that a few—or more—of you participate in this way as we close out 2022 and head into 2023.

As a token of appreciation, if you contribute in any of these ways—or come up with something completely different on your own—I will extend your subscription for 30 days. If you’re monthly, you’ll get your next month free. If you’re annual, you’ll get an extra month tacked onto the end of your subscription.

If you have your own Substack newsletter, we can always collaborate via guest posts.

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This is an ambitious ask that could very well fall flat. I’m well aware of this.

However, it’s something I want to get off the ground.

While I intend to share even more of my personal finance in 2023 (starting, but hardly ending with the February trip), we would all benefit from hearing a little—or a lot—something about yours.

I’m 47. I live in a big city (Los Angeles). I intend to move, with my partner, to Spain in the next few years to further decrease our cost of living and enhance our quality of living life. I’m a renter. I’m a freelance writer making decent, but relatively modest money, who won’t come anywhere near $1 million in savings anytime soon.

This is a very specific situation.

While helpful, it’s not universal.

We all benefit by expanding the scope of experiences we learn and draw ideas and inspiration from.

Source: Airbnb / From outside our February apartment in Rome