Welcome First Time Visitors

Welcome to Go Curry Cracker!

We thought it would be helpful to have a brief introduction to help get you started

The Blog

We are Jeremy & Winnie, a husband and wife team who retired in our 30’s to travel the world.

On our blog we share how we were able to become both financially independent and location independent at a relatively young age, and use that freedom to do whatever we want, whenever we want.

We will often geek out on saving and investment strategies, tax optimization, and travel hacking, while mixing in stories of life, travel, and food

Who doesn’t want to Retire 20% Faster or Never Pay Taxes Again?

Winnie is a professionally trained photographer, and her carefully crafted images help tie it all together

Our story

We did unconventional things while working, such as live in a small apartment in a walkable neighborhood instead of a big house in the suburbs, using a bicycle and our own feet to get around instead of owning a car, and making most of our meals in our own kitchen (even our own bread.)

This allowed us save an increasing percentage of our income, more than 70% for about 10 years until we were able to live completely off income generated by our investments

When we first retired, we had grand ambitions to tour all of Latin America, Europe, and Asia in one monumental journey, but then…

…then we realized, “What’s the rush?!”  We have 60 years to complete our journey (or not.)  There is no competition to check off a list of countries we’ve visited or places we’ve been (although we’ve been to ~40 countries to date)

So we traveled (very) slowly, immersing ourselves in local language and culture

Definitely not a backpacker lifestyle, we’ve rented places with a private pool, dine in restaurants 2 or 3 times a day, and had great adventures such as swimming with whale sharks.  All of this luxurious living costs a whole lot less than you would think, which is why we share every penny we spend

When we decided we were ready to have a baby, we used our location independence for Medical Tourism, undergoing IVF treatments at 80% off US prices

We are expecting GCCjr any day now.  When he is about 6 months old and ready to don his own little backpack, we will hit the road once again

Thank you for stopping by.  We hope you like what you see

Questions?  Ask away

Jeremy & Winnie

Journey to Early Retirement: Episode 4

Team Curry Cracker

Team Curry Cracker

“This project in Taipei is really taking off, it would probably make a lot of sense for me to be based there rather than fly back and forth each month”

Over the past year, I had flown to Asia at least 10 times.  Business class flights are not cheap, and with hotels and meals included it would be far cheaper for the company for me to stay in Taipei

This was all very logical, how could they say no?

But my manager was having none of it

“Who is the girl?” he asked

(more…)

Journey to Early Retirement: Episode 3

Pit of Despair

Pit of Despair

When we last checked in with our young aspiring early retiree, he was buried under a mound of mortgage debt, out of cash, out of hope, and spending his evenings playing David Gray songs on the guitar while imbibing gin and tonics so he could sleep

Will he forever be locked in the pit of despair?  Will his employer cut him loose and the bank take the house?

Probably not, but no story is complete without a little drama

—–

“Everybody take the $100 bill we asked you to bring out of your pocket and hold it up in the air”

1 thousand arms go up, bills waving about rhythmically

The past two hours had gone by in a blur, with audience dutifully completing the speaker’s carefully crafted sentences.  I felt like I might be at a Heaven’s Gate religious group cult meeting

But No… this was a get rich seminar, Open Your Millionaire Mind or some drivel like that

Volunteers were setting up tables at the front of the room with burning candles.

“OK, we are going to do an exercise.  When I give the command, form a line leading to the table at the end of your row and place your $100 bill into the flame.”

“WTF!”, I thought. I looked around and saw countless others doing the same.  The look of determination on some faces was disturbing

“OK, everybody get in line.”  People started to line up, a surprising number of them.  As the first made their way to the front, many of the undecided started to follow.  I put my $100 bill back in my wallet and sat down.

As the lines grew longer, the staff blew out the candles.  The lights came back on as the speaker said, “That’s it, the exercise is over.  Everybody return to your seats.  Take 5 minutes and think hard about your true feelings of this exercise, and write them down in your notebook.  What does it say about your relationship with money?”

I’m pretty sure what it means is, if you got in line to burn $100 you are probably a good candidate to sign up for a $4,000 “special training”

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Journey to Early Retirement: Episode 2

Let it Snow

Let it Snow (photo courtesy of Wikimedia)

When we last left our budding early retiree wannabe, he was just a few years out of college clawing out from under student loan, car, and mortgage debt.  Will he ever be able to recover from early financial missteps? Will he learn to use that brain for something besides remembering obscure Seinfeld and Fight Club quotes?

Let’s find out

The snow was coming down harder, 12 inches so far and no sign of stopping.

The storm had come in ahead of schedule, and my coworkers and I were stuck at the office.  News footage showed a never ending stream of cars stuck in ditches and horrific looking accidents

A friend had tried to leave earlier in the day and decided to turn around before even leaving the parking lot.  It looked like we might be stuck here awhile

By 9 pm the snow had slowed, a total of 18 inches dumped on the region.  Although the plows would continue to operate through the night, the main roadways were cleared and salted

Fueled by a late dinner of soda and vending machine snacks, I braved the drive home

My “normal” 30-40 minute drive took 90 minutes.  The snow plow had done a wonderful job cleaning off the street, by depositing 4 feet of hard packed ice at the end of my driveway.  3 hours of chipping and shoveling and freezing and swearing later, I finally broke through enough to get my car off the street

It was then and there that I swore I would never again live in a snowy climate.  Sadly, this was the only long lasting impression

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Clawing Out of Debt

I woke up around sunrise to find myself lying in the doorway, the door of my apartment wide open and my legs half way outside.  My neck was stiff and my back hurt

Some time later I glanced at my watch and jerked wide awake.  It was Friday and my last final exam was in less than an hour!  I shuffled into the bathroom for a quick shower, threw on some dirty clothes and tossed my suit over my shoulder as I rushed out the door

Big clumps of dirt and grass were sticking out of the grill and wheel wells of my car… and it all came rushing back.  I had finally finished my Senior Design project in the wee hours of the morning, but no amount of Mountain Dew and chocolate covered espresso beans could compete with 72 sleepless hours.  I had passed out driving home and gone in the ditch at 50+ MPH.  Apparently the adrenalin surge carried me only as far as my front door.  Fortunately nobody else was on the road at 4 am

I was young and fit, but working 20-30 hours a week, taking 18 Credits in an Engineering program, and spending another 20+ hours working in the lab would kill nearly anybody.

Over the next 72 hours I somehow got an A on my last final, presented my Senior Design project to the review board, attended the Graduation ceremony, loaded up the moving truck, drove it 100 miles to my new apartment, unloaded it, and made it to Day 1 of my first real job at 8 am on Monday morning.

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