Retire Early Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler

In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this financially independent lifestyle, they invite you to take advantage of their wisdom and experience.

Interview with Russ and Steph Gooding

Retired Life on a Tropical Island

Billy and Akaisha Kaderli

Every FIRE story is different.

Russ and Steph Gooding "slogged" through the working grind, as they dreamed of a life on a tropical island.  

Would it be possible? Could it be possible?  

What would it take? Will the (adult) kids be ok if they moved to an equatorial location thousands of miles away (and lived the life of their dreams?)

Read below of their challenges, dreams fulfilled and a contentment in retired life they never felt during their working years.

The Reach - looking across from the docks at BIOS

RetireEarlyLifestyle: When did you know you were ready to retire and what motivated you?

Steph Gooding:  I didn’t know I was ready. Russ pounced. He had this crazy idea that I could take an available early retirement package and we could survive - if we moved to our favorite island. When we arrived to stay, I was still in work mode. It took me a while, two years maybe, to settle into retirement, to accept that this was all real, to de-stress, and to reorient. I think Russ was perfectly retired when we landed without a return ticket.  

Russ Gooding:  Akaisha and Billy, as I described to you previously, I was running my own company to avoid the rat race, and while I managed to avoid wearing someone else’s tie, I realized I was outside the cage but still racing to keep up with the other rats.

I discovered Retire Early Lifestyle and realized I’d found the key to Otherland. Thank you both!   

I did pounce when Steph was about one year away from being able to accept early retirement Steph didn’t believe retirement was possible, so at her insistence we hired a financial planner. He told us what I already knew: we could retire if we could live on a budget reduced by two-thirds of our current expenses.

REL: Were you and your spouse always on the same page regarding retirement?

Steph: I would say no. I thought that we weren’t ready, but Russ was able to convince me.

Russ:  Precisely. I wanted to leave the country for myriad reasons, from the practical (shedding oppressive property taxes topped that list) to the quixotic. Eventually I saw what I was looking for: options and opportunities.  

Russ, conducting a reef survey in Bermuda.

REL: How did you know you wanted to move to Curaçao, and that island life would suit you? Do you ever get “Island Fever” and want to leave?

Steph: Oh, it just became our favorite island after years of repeat visits. The fact that it was on repeat said something. What cinched it for me was when we were on Grand Cayman, an island we do love, and we both realized we should have spent our money and our limited vacation days on Curaçao.

I do miss seasons, particularly the coolness of fall in Pennsylvania, running the river trail alongside the Susquehanna as the leaves turn. When October hits the island, it’s full force dry heat, oppressive - especially when I’m running. I daydream of chill breezes. I also miss family more achingly than Russ does, so it’s tough not being able to drive to see our kids or my parents. Importantly for the kids, I think not having mom and dad easily and almost instantly accessible has made them even more independent. Always a silver lining.

Russ:  I think after visiting numerous lush islands we were both attracted to the Curaçao’s austerity, but also to its tantalizing juxtapositions, to the many mergers between the relentless interior hikes and the postcard perfect beaches, palmed and dazzling white where the arcing sand falls off into that gorgeous and swimmable sea.  

We started making annual returns to Curaçao, testing other island possibilities in between. None matched Curacao, for us, but as we’ve learned Curaçao doesn’t satisfy all her visitors. You have to discover the island that suits your temperament if you plan to linger. 

REL: What has been your greatest challenge on your road to Early Retirement? Your biggest lesson? What were your fears and obstacles before making the leap?

Steph:  Preparing our home to go on the market to be sold, and downsizing all of our accumulated stuff was extremely time consuming and stressful.  This leads perfectly into one of the biggest lessons, which is that we don't need so many THINGS. My fears and obstacles were: can we actually afford this, and how will this affect the children?  

I would say that now we (as a family) are grounded, as opposed to connected. We talk more about everything. They come to the island and we share long visits, totally focused on one another and enjoying our precious time.

Russ: Greatest Challenge? Recognizing that this new life was possible, and convincing Steph of the same - these were the first two inseparable parts of making it real.

Fears & Obstacles? Money and paperwork hoop jumping. Steph & I had to shift from some nominally “normal” level of financial responsibility to actual responsibility, to recognizing that everything we did worked for or against our freedom - and by taking more active control over our financial future we have banished, if not utterly defeated, the lurking monster of financial instability. 

Steph, in her role as Research Team Leader, demonstrating how to hold a turtle

REL: What has been the greatest surprise you have encountered so far in this pursuit?

Steph:  How much better my health is now! I am leaner and stronger, calmer and wiser.

Russ:  We are both healthier, which is a direct result of eating better and living an active lifestyle. We hardly ever eat processed foods. Our fruits and vegetables come from Europe or South America (fewer pesticides than on US produce). Meat, primarily from South America, is affordable - that was pleasantly surprising.

My real surprise - I would never have suspected, three years ago - is that I’d become the go-to photographer for a national organization which, in turn, allows me to interact weekly with several endangered species. It’s not without effort. I show up. I have the equipment and the energy to properly work the situation, then I go home and spend twice or three times as long editing images as I spent taking them.

REL: What do you average in spending annually? Does this include health insurance? 

Russ: Our strict budget for the first five years (three down and two to go) is $65,000 per year, which has included buying airline tickets so our kids can visit.

When Steph’s retirement plan kicks into action in two years, we’ll have her pension plus or minus a flexible 4% from investments; this should increase our annual budget year by year, and we aim to grow our portfolio so that the 4% draw at least keeps pace with inflation. 

I have two expensive hobbies, diving and photography, so I supplement our annual budget by working as a dive instructor and research diver. In both cases the pay is less than ideal, and the hours are erratic, but the experience is the primary reward and the income offsets gear and air expenses.  Contrariwise, Steph is an obsessive runner whose big expenses, currently, are several pairs of Hokas each year. She’ll catch up to me when she needs new knees.

Our budget does not include health insurance, except for short term “vacation” policies when we travel off island.

Our STCC team cross-training with the Curaçao Coast Guard, practicing to rescue turtle rescuers

REL: What do you do about healthcare? Do you have health insurance? Are you open to medical tourism?  

Russ: This is a great question and very much a part of our retirement equation. Curaçao’s national health insurance plan is available to citizens and residents. We pay out of pocket for vision, dental, and our GP (and these expenses are minimal compared to the US), but our otherwise comprehensive medical coverage costs nothing. There were modest paperwork hoops to jump through to enroll in the program and to stay current, but nothing compared to actually securing residency.

REL: Can you share with us anything about how your portfolio is structured - Stocks/bonds/crypto, cash?

Russ:  I’ll tackle this one. My foremost financial task is to prevent Steph from worrying about money, about stability. This guiding principle tames my interest in higher risk opportunities.

Our home is free and clear and, since they aren’t making more land on tropical islands, it’s appreciating. We also keep a year’s worth of funds in the banks, split across multiple currencies. You’ll see I think in terms of years. We have another year of funds tucked into higher yield CDs. There’s yet another year of safety in precious metals, vaulted stateside. For Steph, this means that she wakes up every day knowing we have a home that can’t be claimed by a bank, and we can live our current lifestyle for three consecutive years - three years to reorient and recover if a market tumble afflicted the world.

The largest indivisible asset we have is Steph’s pension. Unless the pension system collapses, we have a solid monthly income that is relatively low risk. This chunk of our nest egg stands in for, say, bonds or annuities.

I have two reasons for relying on a financial planner. First, I’m an artist/artisan with a degree in Philosophy, not a financial guru, and I believe a manager with an affiliated team of analysts will outperform my gut instincts, lunatic hopes, irrational fears, and dart tossing. So far, so good. Second, this shields me from complete responsibility for Steph’s trauma if the market portion of our portfolio goes foul.

Steph on Curaçao’s floating bridge, affectionately known as The Swinging Old Lady

REL: Do you own a vehicle?

Steph: Yes. 

Russ:  I think this is where we admit we downshifted from the highs of a Lexus and a Lincoln Navigator to an island jalopy with a pipsqueak motor of the same 1000cc volume as the Ducati Monster I relinquished for Steph’s sanity. Yes, I miss nicer rides, but part of retiring early was forcing ourselves to reconsider our core values, separating wants from needs. We now own a single Toyota Rush, and we joke with our kids that anyone sitting next to a door has to stick one leg out and kick madly, Flintstone-style, when we’re chugging uphill. The Rush is not powerful or sexy, but it’s functional and can hold a pack of young adult children and all their luggage, or a load of dive gear and spare air. Importantly, the Toyota dealer actually stocks parts, and that means service doesn’t require a black market order to steal some other islander’s car to strip the parts.

REL: Share with us your best money-saving secret.

Steph:  Simple, live your life so you minimize expenses. Every year I wear down several pairs of running shoes, typically running 7 - 10 miles, five days a week. Russ and I hike all over the island. Most trails are free; two have fees but the more expensive of those is about $35.00 each for year-passes.  We walk through the city of Willemstad and enjoy street musicians rather than paying for concert tickets. Beaches - sunning and swimming - are free if you bring your own chairs. And the biggest money saver isn’t free, but reduced: we make our own meals. I love cooking and baking. Russ has his griddle, grill, and smoker. Home cooked is healthier and less expensive. We hardly ever dine out, so when we do it’s a real treat. We have one little splurge - every other week we visit our favorite gelato shop.

Russ: Move somewhere with a reasonable tax burden. Our property taxes in Curaçao are about one seventh of what we paid in Pennsylvania for a similar size scrap of dirt. Admittedly, our island cottage is much smaller than our Victorian, but we traded that oversized house for palms, parrots, and a small pool. The island house has a well-equipped outdoor kitchen and we use that daily, tying back to Steph’s money saving mission. We live small, but we really live!

A hook is removed from a Green Turtle at Playa Daaibooi, Curaçao.

REL: What are your greatest passions in life?

Steph:  Russ and the kids! Running - that’s my release, and the most important part of my workout routine. Turtles & Dogs - more on that elsewhere.  Wine - I’m not a serious drinker, but I am serious about the wine I drink; Russ thinks I should have been a sommelier, but I’m not that well versed, just passionate about noticing and cataloging differences, and thankful that my memory allows for comparison across time. Thankfully good wine is so much less expensive here than in the US (fewer taxes). Cooking - which pairs well with wine at supper. Hiking - that’s usually my adventure time with Russ; normally he’s under water or immersed in a book.

Russ:  Steph, our four kids, the mutts - family. After that, we are blessed to have a small group of wonderful friends. Books - I brought 25% of my library to the island; that was a hard cull, and we still have books everywhere. Diving - it’s the right balance between occasional physical & mental challenges and a zen-like tranquility. Photography - image capture has become a favorite artistic endeavor, and a peak experience as a volunteer activity; as a photographer for our national sea turtle conservation organization, I’m shooting research sessions, rescues, necroscopies, and more. I enjoy wine, but if you want me to compare & contrast I need the bottles in front of me. Hiking is great, and I need at least one dry day per week to offgas residual nitrogen.

REL: Tell us about your greatest personal success, not necessarily finance related.

Steph:  Combining two separate families into one cohesive, loving, unit.

Russ: Convincing the love of my life to rejoin forces. Steph & I were college sweethearts, until I said something foolish (“I don’t want kids”) and she did something foolish (left me). We went off and lived other lives, eventually started families, and then in very different ways we both woke to the indisputable realization that we’d married the wrong people. Twelve years after splitting, I wrote Steph a letter. We’ve been back together for around two decades.  She could tell you the hours and the minutes.

Russ, with a basket juvenile Queen Conch ready to be outplanted in a remote bay

REL: How do you contribute to the world? 

Steph:  With passion and time. I found causes that I felt deeply called to follow. Almost every day I am volunteering with organizations to make a difference in my local community and the world. Specifically I work with Sea Turtle Conservation Curaçao, Rescue Paws Curaçao, and Uniek Curaçao.

Russ:  For my part, I dive with two coral nurseries, sometimes as a research diver collecting data, sometimes as an algae scraper. I show up at every possible turtle event to shoot turtles and turtle people, a role that morphed from hobby contribution to a part time (volunteer) job and the opportunity to partner with the WWF-Dutch Caribbean, providing images for their blog posts. I’m also a Park Ranger, but I’m less reliable than Steph because I dive so often. Around the volunteer activities, I work on and off as a research diver for the Curacao Queen Conch Hatchery and as a dive instructor.  

REL: What is your most treasured possession?

Steph:  I would say family, but they’re not really a possession. How about: my healthy mental faculties.

Russ:  Excluding relationships, it has to be my lump of iron pyrite, a fair sized, multifaceted, cracked crystal of fool’s gold that I inherited from my father’s rock collection decades before he passed. It’s the talisman tucked into my writing desk, a touchstone for reality within easy reach. Not all that glitters is fungible, yet that metallic shimmer, the fissured beauty, is more valuable than wealth. It is a reminder of illusions shattered, of promises kept and broken - and someday it will become the title of a book: Fool’s Go(l)d.

REL: If you could give any advice to a younger you just starting out this journey, what would it be?

Steph:  Drop the social pressure of mirroring a look of status, because this consumes your time and money. You will retire earlier if you only do what is important to you, as opposed to doing what you feel you must reflect to those you suppose are watching you (when most of them aren’t watching, just posturing for their own inattentive observers). I think it’s more impressive to retire early than to look good.

We are conditioned to compete and to show off. Drop that mindset and you’ll succeed more quickly in achieving your personal goals.

Russ:  “For goodness sake, listen to your Grandmother!”  She was all about a penny saved is a penny earned, and a bird in hand being worth two in the bush. When you’re young, you don’t have any sense for how very long life might be. You should place bets on the success of your older, wiser, future self. Even 10% saved religiously from my teenage lawn mowing years would have helped speed retirement or increased our flexibility in retirement.  Steph & I still got out a mite early, but if we had both focused sooner, we could have escaped the grind in our early forties, not our fifties. Compounding is a miracle; and like all miracles it’s so easy to ignore when attention would provide more benefit.

And I’ll add this: any moment that you awake to new possibilities is a good moment to alter your path, hopefully hand in hand with a dear, dear friend.

Necroscopy of deceased turtle twins, unhatchlings discovered during a nest excavation after all the live turtles went to sea.

REL: If you could give advice to anyone thinking of retiring early, what would you say?

Steph: First, be ready to let go of shit, of material possessions. You don’t need all that stuff you collected your whole life. It’s ok to let go. Don’t worry about the personal history of every object in your house. That was Act One. Those were Act One props. Now it’s time for Act Two.

Second, it’s so important that you still maintain a sense of work ethic, or purpose…to chase your sense of purpose. Have plenty to do that both keeps you busy and brings you joy. Turtles & dogs!!  Relax, of course, but also help to do important tasks in the world, whether that’s pursuing a challenging hobby or choosing to change the world in some small but positive way through volunteering. Believe me, if you had a challenging career, you will feel lost without goals to work towards and frustrating obstacles to conquer. 

Russ:  It is possible.  Believe that, and you’ll make it happen.

Something more, something that can only be seen from the other side of taking the leap: there is community on the other side, there is camaraderie when you discover a few like-minded folks who also stepped well outside their comfort zones and wound up so much more comfortable within their new existence.

You make your own world, so make it better for yourself and those around you. The barrier to entry into this lifestyle is often nothing more than fear of the unknown.

REL: How do you manage your time?

Steph: With a good ol’ fashioned paper calendar. Activities/endeavors that are recurring are filled in at the beginning of each month. Reminders are added, then special events are placed , followed by goals/“hope to”. Warning: It’s easy to fill your calendar too much with things you feel “obligated” to do.  Protect your personal relationship time without guilt!

Russ:  Steph might accuse me of being a chaos monster, of addiction to metaphoric muses, of needing adrenaline hits and rare experiences, and she isn’t wrong. I seem chaotic on short time scales because so many islanders have my contact information and they know I’m up for any dive and/or photographic adventure. Turtle group needs a research diver? Research diver needs a safety diver? Dive shop needs a substitute instructor? Park Rangers need photos of an environmental travesty? Conch rollers (juveniles) need to be outplanted? Turtle nesting expedition out to our sister island, Klein Curaçao? Night dive needs a guide? It never ends, and I love it. I should have quit my “real” job two decades sooner…this new life is so much more real!

So, I don’t know what tomorrow will yield, but it’s likely to unfold as some little gem of an unrepeatable opportunity.

A friendly pup at Rescue Paws who nestled into my camera - so I used my phone.

REL: What do you like most about living in Curaçao?

Steph: Location, Location, Location! It’s always beautiful weather…it’s sunny and warm, but the rainy days are always welcome because the water is so appreciated! It’s below the hurricane belt. It’s one plane flight from Miami! Amazing fresh and delicious food from nearby South America, as well as Europe! The people don’t sing “gloom, despair, and agony” (thank you “Hee Haw”), I don’t feel divisiveness in the air…the people here love and appreciate their country and culture and have been very welcoming to us!

Russ:  It’s a lovely tropical island, and we live on it together.

REL: What do you do for fun or entertainment?

Steph: Visit our local beaches, snorkel, swim, hike, bonfires with friends, attend festivals, art/culture exhibitions, cook, and volunteer.

Russ:  As a couple: hike, cook, save sea turtles, etc., in no particular order. Individually: dive & scamper around the island with a camera. When what you do is inherently interesting and worthwhile, you don’t require entertainment (in the sense of distraction).

REL: What legacy do you want to leave on Earth once you’re gone?

Steph: I hope and pray that the things I do make a difference in our world, however I believe that once I am gone, the torch is passed. The opportunity is now for someone else, it’s personal to whoever continues to contribute. This is the way that good things keep going…the next person has to feel a sense of responsibility and ownership to continue. I’ll make a difference in the next life in a new environment once my work here is ceased!

Russ:  I harbor a grand plan, the seed of a four-volume opus, to draw attention to four reef creatures:  Turtles, Corals, Conchs, & Urchins. All four groups are the focus of restoration and re-wilding efforts on Curaçao, across the Caribbean, and beyond. I want to photograph and co-author four coffee table books highlighting their plights, the considerable efforts being made to return their populations to historic ranges and levels, along with contemporary setbacks and successes.

More immediately, I want our kids to know by our example that they can develop into any future self they can conceive and are willing to strive towards.

Frisky Caribbean Reef Squid in one of Curaçao’s coral nurseries.

REL: What words of wisdom would you pass down to your younger self?

Steph: I have to admit that this question has taken me the longest to answer. I would tell myself to follow the directions on the front cover of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"...DON'T PANIC. I recognize that I have wasted so much time panicking and even pre-panicking (aka obsessive worrying). I would also tell myself to live by the words of Max Ehrmann in his brilliantly simple text "Desiderata". My finally words of wisdom to my younger self would be to spend more time alone, especially in my late teens and early twenties. Not to discount my relationships with wonderful friends and family, but to allow myself more time to be less influenced. Time to discover joy on my own, not in a crowd.

Russ: Respect actual danger (onrushing traffic; no decompression limits), but fear nothing. Nearly every endeavor you wish to pursue has been fully mastered by another individual - and that shouldn’t dissuade you, but instead should encourage you to continue your pursuit, to combine your unique insights and experiences, your know-how and skill sets, with the needs, challenges, and opportunities of the present in order to live a novel and meaning-filled life.

Further, understand that in your positive pursuit of understanding, people will come and go, that leaving some behind is as necessary for their growth as yours, and that you ought to discerningly cling only to the rare family and friends who support your creative existence.

It seems that moral action, kindness to neighbors & strangers, paying forward your own good fortune, does build something akin to positive karma now and here, and perhaps in the inscrutable hereafter.

There is no perfection, only progress.

REL: What questions do you wish we would have asked?

Steph: None.That was a thorough interview!

Russ:  What are your favorite books?

I’ll mention four.  For island-bound expats: Don’t Stop The Carnival, which delves deep into island chaos, and only the technology has changed during the intervening years, from switchboard ladies to wireless routing; so much rings true.  For children & their parents: Rascal, a coming of age tale from a finer time about a boy and his raccoon. And for reasons you might discover if you read them: Gravity’s Rainbow (fiction) as well as Process and Reality (philosophy).

Dawn at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences - BIOS

We at Retire Early Lifestyle would like to thank Russ and Steph for the diligence they put into answering our questions, providing photos to illustrate their AMAZING retirement life, and for the commitment to the volunteer work they do.

They are honorable, upstanding community builders!

Thank you.

Retire Early Lifestyle appeals to a different kind of person – the person who prizes their independence, values their time, and who doesn’t want to mindlessly follow the crowd.

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