{"id":8571,"date":"2021-09-14T10:01:03","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T14:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/?p=8571"},"modified":"2021-09-14T10:01:03","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T14:01:03","slug":"life-35","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2021\/09\/14\/life-35\/","title":{"rendered":"Life: 35"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:1171,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/www.reddit.com\\\/r\\\/fatfire&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20250829015603\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.reddit.com\\\/r\\\/fatFIRE\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-11-03 18:32:33&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-11-22 21:41:09&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-02 21:51:28&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-11 17:19:51&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2025-12-16 03:23:17&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-01-27 02:59:52&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-02-10 04:03:53&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-18 18:41:43&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-18 18:41:43&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BMW-Riders-Association-Rally-2021-Waynesville-NCIMG_7447-16.jpeg\"><img  data-dominant-color=\"90938e\"  data-has-transparency=\"false\"  style=\"--dominant-color: #90938e;\"  loading=\"lazy\"  decoding=\"async\"  data-attachment-id=\"8576\"  data-permalink=\"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2021\/09\/14\/life-35\/bmw-riders-association-rally-2021-waynesville-ncimg_7447-16\/\"  data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BMW-Riders-Association-Rally-2021-Waynesville-NCIMG_7447-16-jpeg.webp?fit=1280%2C854&amp;ssl=1\"  data-orig-size=\"1280,854\"  data-comments-opened=\"1\"  data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;4.5&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;ADAM CHANDLER&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 5D Mark IV&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1628840078&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;ADAM@ADAMCHANDLER.ME&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;41&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;250&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.0004&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\"  data-image-title=\"BMW Riders Association Rally &amp;#8211; 2021, Waynesville, NCIMG_7447-16\"  data-image-description=\"\"  data-image-caption=\"\"  data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BMW-Riders-Association-Rally-2021-Waynesville-NCIMG_7447-16-jpeg.webp?fit=300%2C200&amp;ssl=1\"  data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BMW-Riders-Association-Rally-2021-Waynesville-NCIMG_7447-16-jpeg.webp?fit=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1\"  class=\"aligncenter wp-image-8576 size-full not-transparent pk-lazyload\"  src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAEAAAABAQMAAAAl21bKAAAAA1BMVEUAAP+KeNJXAAAAAXRSTlMAQObYZgAAAAlwSFlzAAAOxAAADsQBlSsOGwAAAApJREFUCNdjYAAAAAIAAeIhvDMAAAAASUVORK5CYII=\"  alt=\"\"  width=\"1280\"  height=\"854\"  data-pk-sizes=\"auto\"  data-pk-src=\"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BMW-Riders-Association-Rally-2021-Waynesville-NCIMG_7447-16.jpeg\" ><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This really feels like the good \u2018ol days. Drinking rye whiskey, quiet cabin in the woods without Internet and Coldplay blasting on my speakers. I haven\u2019t had a writing session like this in a very long time.<\/p>\n<p>I read a few of my birthday blog posts from the last few years and realized, just now, that my \u201cLife: 34\u201d post was <a href=\"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2020\/08\/15\/life-engaged\/\">really about my engagement<\/a>. That was fun to write and I enjoyed reading it a year removed. Over the last 5 years, it seems <a href=\"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2018\/09\/08\/life-32\/\">\u201cLife: 32\u201d<\/a> is my favorite. Please go and give it a read. It\u2019s only been 3 years but it feels like I\u2019m reading a version of me that has no idea what he\u2019s getting himself into. Seriously\u2026.what a child.<\/p>\n<p>32 is just funny. I felt like this is me a couple of years into my 30s. Homeowner, getting into motorcycles more and building up my credit score. Hah. I also talk about a new income stream which has actually played out quite well since writing about it just 3 years ago. I also write that post from the Green Mountain Forest in Vermont which, oddly enough, is where I\u2019m writing this post. I\u2019m at the same motorcycle event but instead of attending, I\u2019m running it. How times have changed.<\/p>\n<p>Historically speaking, no one reads these posts. These are for me 3-10 years from now. I generally overshare and since the first one of these in <a href=\"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2009\/08\/14\/one-year-older\/\">2009<\/a>, I\u2019ve grown a lot and these always act as a cool time capsule.<\/p>\n<p>Today, I logged into my IRS account and paid them $8,200. It\u2019s my 2nd time in the last 12 months that I\u2019ve given them a sizable chunk of money. Business and Personal income that is taxed. I used to read Small Dog Electronics magazines and drool over $3900 Macintosh computers and now I wire double that much money to the tax-man. Paying high taxes is a sign though that I\u2019m finally in a place in my life where I have enough income to be seriously taxed for it and that makes me very lucky.<\/p>\n<p>There was a discussion on the Reddit group <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/fatfire\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FatFire<\/a>\u00a0about luck versus hard work and it was a really heated discussion but ultimately, luck won. I\u2019m not in that group financially but I appreciate the dialogue and advice there that is given away for free from people much wealthier than I but basically the discussion was \u201care we lucky or are we just a harder worker than the rest?\u201d And most of them agreed, LUCK was a huge factor in making 300-450K a year at age 29 and that enabled massive amounts of saving money and smart investments that allows these folks my age to now retire early. I\u2019m not there.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\">I regret not taking\u00a0advantage of Apple\u2019s 401K matching and Employee Stock Purchase plan when I was 18 and making $48K a year living at home as an\u00a0assistant manager of an Apple Store. I could have squirreled away 5-10K a year for 3 years and\u00a0the Apple stock price in 2005 was $1.67 and ESP was a 10-15% savings on daily close price. AAPL today is @ $156 or so. If I can think about my life in a nutshell, it really should\u00a0have been a mantra\u00a0\u201cbuy and hold AAPL\u201d truly should have been priority #1. Anytime I wanted to buy something just refuse and buy a share of Apple, Inc. stock instead. I\u2019d be a rich man had I followed that mantra but, hindsight is always 20\/20 as you know.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\">In 3 weeks, I\u2019ll be getting married. My anniversary, forever and ever will be October 2nd of 2021, 35 years after I was born and 31 from Heather\u2019s birth year. I really don\u2019t want to underplay everything here. That\u2019s not why I\u2019m so\u00a0aggressively about to move on to the next topic but only because that will be deserving of its own post. Heather deserves that and our future together requires it. We\u2019re going to embark on a life of memories and she doesn\u2019t deserve to be lumped into a birthday post.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\">One year ago, I asked her to marry me and I\u2019m so glad that she said yes. We are going to have a remarkable life together and\u00a0seriously, it\u2019s going to be an awesome wedding party. Someone asked me a few days ago if I\u2019m getting nervous or\u00a0getting cold feet. That thought had not even entered my head. Why would I be nervous committing to the rest of my life with a woman who is worth spending my life with?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 13px;\">Do I have regrets or perhaps can I allow myself to let\u00a0remorse trickle in when I think of my 3 previous relationships that didn\u2019t pan out into marriage? Sure. I can\u00a0definitely think of me at that moment, her at that moment, our situation, our alignment of priorities and I can also\u00a0acknowledge all of the mistakes I made at that time but I can also recognize that all of these failed due to timing. Knowing those women now, I am glad I didn\u2019t marry them because I changed a great deal from age 16 to 30 and while my change is slowing a bit now, the great thing about Heather is how much we will grow and age together. It won\u2019t always be easy but there\u2019s no blinders or blindness about it. I know she\u2019s it and all I need for the rest of my life. I\u2019ll eat an 8.5&#215;17 inch Tabloid sized full color print if I\u2019m wrong\u2026no\u00a0expiration on that one.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u2026man I wish I was writing this to a glass of Robert Mondavi Reserve instead of this Thomas Handy Rye. The rye just stings too much to make me feel creative.<\/p>\n<p>There are so many topics to dive into that I feel as if I could fill a book. Let me try to bullet these out and we\u2019ll tackle what we can before it gets too close to 1AM. Here are some highlights from the last 12 months:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Work\u202611 years at TomTom TODAY and the future is bright. This is still the favorite job I&#8217;ve ever had<\/li>\n<li>Work\u20264 years in Real Estate and property management<\/li>\n<li>Work\u2026YouTube and successes<\/li>\n<li>Work\u2026Moto-journalism and my newly discovered place as an \u2018influencer&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>Work\u2026Photography and my being on the cover three times in 12 months of the national BMW magazine and elsewhere<\/li>\n<li>Haven&#8217;t contracted COVID-19<\/li>\n<li>My spot as the Vice President of the 400 person Vermont BMW Club<\/li>\n<li>My spot as Secretary of the 26,000 person National BMW Motorcycle Club<\/li>\n<li>COVID-19 and how it influenced EVERYTHING (this should be its own post)<\/li>\n<li>Working remotely from March of 2020 to around July of 2021 and my return to an empty office full of just my direct reports<\/li>\n<li>Attempting to and failing at making BMW\u2019s Team USA in their GS Trophy international competition<\/li>\n<li>I launched a newsletter! WTF?<\/li>\n<li>My Credit score finally hit the spot that I wanted it to be (throwback to my Life: 32 post)<\/li>\n<li>I dabbled in actively investing in the stock market for the last 18 months and I&#8217;ve learned a lot and haven&#8217;t lost any money<\/li>\n<li>I officially turned my Golf R into a weekend car and purchased a new daily driver<\/li>\n<li>I sold my dirt bike and replaced it with a middle-sized adventure bike (Beta &lt; Husqvarna)<\/li>\n<li>I finished my K75 RT Retro-Mod conversion and it\u2019s now a daily ride<\/li>\n<li>I actively and for the first time \u2026. Like ever skipped an iPad and iPhone upgrade cycle and I\u2019m like totally okay with it. Waiting 2-3 years between purchases is okay, right? RIGHT?!?!? Okay, I miss having the latest. My 2018 iPad Pro and 2019 iPhone 11 Pro are lonely and I\u2019d like to replace them<\/li>\n<li>I almost refinanced my house thanks to COVID\u2019s insane values. Maybe we should talk about house returns? I know most of you don\u2019t care but thanks to some incompetence @ the lender area, I gave up and chose to just stay where I was which is honestly a bad choice. I need to do something about this place. ReFi isn&#8217;t really what I want to do.<\/li>\n<li>Heather and I committed to establishing our dream home but this needs to be another post. We\u2019re talking 3-4 year project from now to get it done\u2026yes it has enough room for my motorcycles.<\/li>\n<li>Beer\u2026well the collection at the house is huge but unfortunately, no huge beer updates this year. I actually considered giving it all away but then realized how delicious it all is to drink instead.<\/li>\n<li>Paid off the Golf R and sold the Hyundai Ioniq and Ford Escape<\/li>\n<li>Flew to New Orleans, bought a truck and drove it home<\/li>\n<li>Saw the SF Giants play \u00a0at Citi Field in NYC. SF Giants will go to the NL West playoffs this year so I\u2019m so glad I got to see them play<\/li>\n<li>Did a lot of traveling to make up for 2020\u2019s lack thereof. I\u2019ve been traveling a lot this year and it\u2019s been an adventure every time. I\u2019ll be qualifying for Marriot Platinum status next week and Delta\u2019s Silver Medallion by October and that\u2019s with zero travel for work. So yeah, definitely pretty busy year for travel.<\/li>\n<li>I tried on a size Large shirt and realized \u201cnot this year\u201d and for the 18th year straight, I bought an XL instead<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8212;&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Quite a freaking year!<\/p>\n<p>I believe we\u2019re getting close to 1500 words now and while there are a lot of things I wanted to dive deeper into, I think I\u2019ll leave this be for now and say\u2026I\u2019m looking forward to what\u2019s next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This really feels like the good \u2018ol days. Drinking rye whiskey, quiet cabin in the woods without Internet&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"2021-09-14T14:01:34Z","apple_news_api_id":"dc435778-3a82-456f-8420-ea55a89ac605","apple_news_api_modified_at":"2021-09-14T14:01:34Z","apple_news_api_revision":"AAAAAAAAAAD\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/w==","apple_news_api_share_url":"https:\/\/apple.news\/A3ENXeDqCRW-EIOpVqJrGBQ","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":"","csco_custom_appearance":"","csco_disable_excerpt_posts_layout":false,"csco_page_load_nextpost":"","csco_post_video_location":[],"csco_post_video_location_hash":"","csco_post_video_url":"","csco_post_video_bg_start_time":0,"csco_post_video_bg_end_time":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[188],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8571","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-year-in-review","7":"cs-entry","8":"cs-video-wrap"},"apple_news_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb3IC4-2ef","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":847,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2010\/04\/05\/thirty-minutes-with-an-apple-ipad\/","url_meta":{"origin":8571,"position":0},"title":"\u2605 Thirty Minutes with an Apple iPad","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"April 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I did a tweet earlier about the new iPad and really wanted to do a dozen tweets and since I'm waiting for the Caltrain home, I decided to throw up a few lines about the experience. It's larger than I expected but web browsing and watching movies will be great\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ideas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ideas","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/ideas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7494,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2018\/06\/28\/linked-bankruptcy-everything-i-wanted-to-link-to-but-didnt-yet\/","url_meta":{"origin":8571,"position":1},"title":"Linked Bankruptcy: Everything I wanted to link to but didn&#8217;t (yet)","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"June 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve been linking to things on this blog since 2011. It\u2019s a great way to share written works from others with you all who still read this blog but also to give a little bit of my own flair of opinion and thoughts toward something. Well, I\u2019ve been linking to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Linked&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6889,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2017\/07\/05\/linked-if-the-internet-were-on-fire-what-would-you-save\/","url_meta":{"origin":8571,"position":2},"title":"Linked: &#8220;If the Internet were on fire, what would you save?&#8221;","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"July 5, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"via Internet History Podcast: (read the entire post) Two big life events happened in our family in the last 6 months: we moved to our current apartment from another one a couple blocks away. And, our dog of 11 years died. When I go to Google Maps and look up\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Linked&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Linked","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/linked\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1267,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2010\/12\/14\/we-should-all-read-more-each-and-every-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":8571,"position":3},"title":"\u2605 We should all read more. Each and every day.","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"December 14, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Here is a screen shot of the Kindle app on my iPad. Last night, I purchased Time Ferris' new book, \"4-hour workout\" not because I'm clueless when it comes to diet & exercise. I will never buy a diet or exercise book. My Father who runs a gym, spends 10\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Ideas&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Ideas","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/ideas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Books I've purchased and haven't finished","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm6.static.flickr.com\/5281\/5260505235_2f16d10c3c_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7813,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2015\/10\/14\/site-news-experimenting-with-a-redesign-also-no-more-javascript-trackers\/","url_meta":{"origin":8571,"position":4},"title":"\u2605 Site News: Experimenting with a Redesign, Also no more Javascript Trackers!","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"October 14, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"As we enter Fall here in New Hampshire, I\u2019ve been growing tired of my current blog design. Todays\u2019 view isn\u2019t set in stone and since the beer blog is far behind my main blog in traffic, I was thinking of experimenting with a change here. I wanted a design that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Site News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Site News","link":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/category\/site-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Fall Foliage - New Hampshire 2015","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/631\/22093047406_e1cc0e25c6_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/631\/22093047406_e1cc0e25c6_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm1.staticflickr.com\/631\/22093047406_e1cc0e25c6_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3617,"url":"https:\/\/adamchandler.me\/blog\/2012\/03\/05\/but-does-it-feel-good-in-the-hand\/","url_meta":{"origin":8571,"position":5},"title":"\u2605 &#8220;But Does It Feel Good In The Hand?&#8221;","author":"Adam Chandler","date":"March 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"via Buzzfeed (can't believe I'm linking to that atrocious site): When it comes to reviewing a new gadget, all that really matters is the answer to one simple question. Hilarious compilation of gadget reviews that joke about how a devices feels in their hand. I enjoyed skimming this. 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