Mini-Retirement 2025

Good morning!

I hope this finds you well.

Welcome to another edition of The Matt Viera Newsletter.

The newsletter with the goal to inspire you to invest in life experiences.

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Last week was a doozy.

While I was off the entire week, there wasn't much I could do because of some home renovation work that is currently in progress.

We had to be home while the work started and progressed.

The plan was to have the project completed as much as possible by the end of the week.

But, like any good plan it didn't survive contact with the enemy.

We had to take a step back, make some adjustments, and move forward with a new plan of attack.

I'll spare the details, but we're looking at another week or two until the project is fully completed (and our home is back to normal).

But we did go to Philadelphia over the weekend to have dinner at one of my favorite German restaurants (outside of Germany). We drove down Saturday afternoon, checked into our hotel, enjoyed dinner, and capped off the evening with a few drinks at a local bar. We made it back to Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

I was a bit bummed that the restaurant didn't have my favorite beer (Schlenkerla).

Still, it did have another beer that reminded me of my time in Germany (Franzikaner Weissbier).

It was the one beer on the restaurant's extensive German beer list that jumped out at me.

When it was delivered to the table and I took my first sip, I remembered why.

It was one of the first beers I enjoyed when I lived in Germany.

That specific flavor of the beer, coupled with the bratwurst I ordered, reminded me of the cold, gloomy Saturday mornings when my friends and I would head to the Nurnberg city center, order a few bratwurst sandwiches for breakfast, and then head to the pub to spend the rest of the day.

Living in Germany was my first experience living in a different country and an experience so powerful that I am all about visiting and exploring various parts of Europe as often as possible.

And while I wasn’t able to travel to Europe in 2024, I will return to Europe in 2025 for my 5th mini-retirement.

The destination this year is Italy and I couldn't be more thrilled.

As long as I have lived in Europe and as many times as I have traveled to Europe, I am embarrassed to admit that I have never spent any time in Italy.

2025 is the year I finally do.

The plan is to fly into Milan and stay there for 4 days (maybe spend a night in the Lake Como area), then take the train and spend a month in Bologna, and then take the train and spend 3 days in Rome before flying back to New York City.

The round-trip airfare to and from Italy cost $0 because of credit card reward points (I haven't paid for airfare using cash since 2017).

The penthouse apartment (with a wraparound balcony) we rented for a month just outside the Bologna city center cost slightly over $3000.

The only thing we have left to do is reserve hotel rooms in Milan, Lake Como, and Rome.

It took about 8 hours to plan, find and buy airline tickets, and reserve an Airbnb.

To say I am excited to spend an extended amount of time in a European country (and cities) I have never been to before is an understatement.

I am sharing this with you to inspire you to use your paid time off (all of it) and invest the time to explore a destination you've been wanting to go to and experience.

Remember, using your paid time off is not just for vacations; it's an investment in your personal growth and happiness.

Life is too short to keep spinning your wheels, day in and day out, waiting for retirement or "someday" to start investing in life experiences (and your personal growth and happiness).

If you keep waiting, one day you'll wake up and wonder why all the time you believed you had is no longer available.

Or, just as jarring, you'll wake up one day and realize you have more life behind you than you do ahead of you.

Quote that caught my attention:

"Why not take the usual 20–30-year retirement and redistribute it throughout life instead of saving it all for the end?" —Tim Ferriss

You can find the collection of financial tools & resources that helped me grow from a 6-figure debt to a 6-figure net worth by clicking here.

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