Where have we been!?!

Welcome back to us! First, we both want to apologize for the lack of updates over the last few months. The best excuse we can give is that other things got in the way. What exactly were those other things? We’ll write about each of them in a lot more detail as separate posts, but I’ll run through the complete list here.

Quit our Jobs

Grizzly Mom already told you about her exit stage left from big law. But I also left the tech market in SF behind a few months ago. We’re both unemployed and pretty happy about it, at least for now. We both decided that we want to work in some way, were just not really the kind of people that can ever ‘retire’. So there is some sort of activity in the future that involves receiving money for doing things. But the good thing is that it’s significantly more under our control now.

Sold our house in SF

We sold our house in SF. No more million dollar mortgage tying us down. Our house is a perfect example of why both luck, timing and preparation matter. We ended up making $500k off our house which sped up our plan by about 3-4 years. We bought at the right time (2013) and I think sold at the right time (but no one can know the future). Timing and luck are important. But being ready for opportunities is also important. The reason we were able to ID 2013 as a great time to buy in the Bay Area, and the reason we were able to buy then was a combination of good jobs, big amounts of our student debt already paid off, and my own time spent in the army (VA loans are great!).

Moved Back to Kansas

We packed up our lives in SF and made the journey back to Kansas with Baby Bear in tow. We’ve been here for a few months now and already think it was the best decision we ever made. We went back to the Bay Area last month and realized just how little we miss the crazy life that places like San Francisco offer.

Bought a new house

We’re now firmly ensconced in a new place in Kansas. A house that is both nicer than what we had in San Francisco and that could be purchased for the change in our couch cushions. Well, not quite that cheap, but it did come well under what we could pay for a house in cash.

Took the Bar Exam

Grizzlly mom had the fun task of taking the Missouri Bar Exam! Very Exciting!

Considered a Run for Congress

One of the more interesting twists is that I considered and went pretty far down the road towards running for US Congress in my hometown. Many, Many reasons why and equally many reasons why I finally decided against it (both of which I’ve written about before).

Went on vacation for a month

We went back on a ‘vacation’ to California to spend a bunch of time with Grizzly Mom’s family. A great, and relaxing time – the first time in many years that neither of us was checking our phones for e-mails!

Spent a lot of time with family and friends

The biggest thing is that we’ve all been relaxing. When you come down from high-powered jobs you need time to decompress and get yourself reacquainted with the world and with the people you really are. This was the biggest one.

Welcome Back!

It’s good to be back. The plan is to catch all of you up on all of the above in much more detailed posts – they’re all worth writing about!