We moved to Columbia, SC from southwest Florida in the fall of 2007. Our home is located in the "Five Points" area. We are within walking distance of many restaurants, shops, and other services. We're also about a three block walk from the University of South Carolina (USC). We continue to meet lots of people, making many new friends, and getting involved at the University and in the community. Here'a a short article on why we picked Columbia. We had our first house guests at the end of March, 2008 (our friends Trevor and Fay from Denham, Western Australia). In addition to Australians, we've had guests from Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, New York, and China so far. We look forward to many more visits from friends around the world. Not only is our house in a terrific location, it's also maintenance-free, which will allow us to "lock and leave" it while we're traveling.

Our life plan includes traveling 2 - 4 months each year, with volunteering, continuing education, and local activities keeping us busy the rest of the time. We spent three years planning extensively in advance of Rick's retirement. (See Rick's Retirement page.) We have been in "execution mode" for 4 years now (time flies when you're having fun) and we are proud to say that our plan appears to be working quite well. The combination of retirement and the sale of the FL house, has enabled us to travel extensively. We completed our first extended trip--3 months in Australia in 2006; and our second to Greece (2 months in 2007). We we returned from our third one: back to Australia and our first visit to Tasmania including 8 weeks caravaning with Trevor & Fay across the north of Australia. We left at the end of July and returned in mid-October. We're off to Italy again, for two months beginning in early May. We'll spend the first month in Riomaggiore in the Cinque Terre, followed by a week in Venice, 10 days on Lake Como, and a week in Milan.

On the homefront, Rick was reelected to our home owner's association board of directors and will serve as vice president for the next two years. He continues to volunteer in the local school system with an organization called "Communities in Schools". This semester he was excited to teach a class at the USC Moore School of Business and looks forward to more opportunities to do the same. He is an official student at USC, has completed several acting classes and began taking drum lessons in December 2009. (In a weak moment, Rory bought him a drum set which has been set up in the attic, where he practices.) He made his acting debut in a student film project in which he had the lead role. (The video is up on YouTube.. Click on the link at the bottom of this page, if you dare.... It's only about 9 minutes long.) Rick made his "stage debut" in Thornton Wilder's "The Skin of Our Teeth" that ran from February 20 thru March 1, 2009. (He had a very small part, but as he said, "I've got lines".) His second stage opportunity came in a student written and directed play which ran at the end of February 2010. He loves his re-entry into academia, and, thru 2 semesters (3 courses), carries a 4.0 GPA! He is completing his third semester and fourth class and expects to maintain his string of As. Rory has begun volunteering at the Columbia Zoo working in their aviaries. She loves it!! She was recently asked to serve on the Friends of the USC Music School Board of Directors. We are avid supporters of the USC Women's Basketball Team and are excited about having Dawn Staley as our head coach. Rick knows all the players, coaches, and many of the families and occasionally attends practices. The 2009-20010 season was an improvement over the previous year and the team beat several nationally ranked teams.

We have been inspired by Paul and Vicki Terhorst and by Billy and Akaisha Kaderli. Both couples are early retirees and perpetual travelers (PTs). Paul & Vicki wrote the book "Cashing In on the American Dream: How to Retire at 35" (which is now out of print). You can visit their web site. We were fortunate to meet Vicki in Buenos Aires in November, 2004. That's Vicki with Rory (left). Choose "Buenos Aires 2004" from the drop-down box for a "mini-tour". Billy and Akaisha have written the book (available on CD) "The Adventurer's Guide to Early Retirement". Anyone who plans to travel in retirement (early or otherwise) will find considerable value in their book (regardless of whether or not you think the PT lifestyle is for you). They discuss how they decided on early retirement, the planning they did, finances and investing, overcoming fears, and awesome photos of their travels. We look forward to meeting them should our travels coincide.

Thanks to the link to us from The Kaderli's website, and various search engines, we've received emails from many people we've never met, asking us questions about our travels and retirement planning. (Our email address is: RickandRory@AckTwo.com or click on "Email Us" at the top of this page.) If you'd like to be included on our mailing list, let us know.

We have also been featured in the October 2005 issue of "Kiplinger's Personal Finance" magazine in the article "7 Ways to Retire Rich" (we were #5) and The 2006 Kiplinger's annual "Retirement Planning" magazine in an article titled "Playing Catch-up".