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've had visitors from Florida, New York, Georgia, New Mexico, China, and Australia 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 allows us to "lock and leave" it while we're traveling.

Our life plan includes extended traveling (2-5 months each year), volunteering, continuing education, and local activities. We spent three years planning extensively in advance of Rick's retirement in 2006. (See Rick's Retirement page.) We have been in "execution mode" for over 5 years (time flies when you're having fun) and we are proud to say that our plan appears to be working quite well. Our travels have included 3 months in Australia (2006), 2 months in Greece (2007); 3 more months in Australia & Tasmania (2009) and 2 1/2 months in Italy (2010). This year we stayed in North America traveling by car. We drove over 8700 miles, visited 20 states, DC, and 5 Canadian provinces, and slept in 24 different beds. Our travel plan for 2012 includes 2 weeks in China (plus two weeks in California on the way back) and about 6 weeks in Eastern Europe. We are also looking forward to Rick's 50th high school reunion in Long Island in July.

On the homefront, Rick has been elected president of our home owner's association board of directors. He has been re-elected to the University Hill Neighborhood Association's executive council. He has taught two seminars at the USC Moore School of Business and a class on Personal Finance at the USC School of Music. He is in the process of developing a course in Personal Finance to be offered to students in the USC School of Music beginning sometime in the 2011-12 school year. 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 our attic, where he practices.) Rick 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. In November 2010, he appeared as Judge Randolph in "A Few Good Men", his first opportunity outside the university. He completed a second student film in November 2010. (See link below.) He is thoroughly enjoying his re-entry into academia, and, thru 5 semesters (6 courses), carries a 4.0 GPA! Rory serves on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the USC School of Music. She took her first class (ceramics) at USC in the fall 2011 semester. We are avid supporters of the USC women's basketball and softball teams. and are excited about having Dawn Staley and Beverly Smith as our head coaches . Rick knows all the players, coaches, and many of the families and occasionally attends practices. We also make road trips when travel distances are not too great. We can't say enough about our baseball team's winning back to back NCAA championships!!

Our retiremet planning was 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 travel paths cross.

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".