This blog by
a Colorado couple who FIRE'd in their thirties and settled in Puerto Rico was mentioned in a
forum thread in early 2017.
Back then, I took a cursory look, and filed it away as a fun bit of inspiration / daydream material.
Fast forward a couple years, and I think the blog stands as a good example of a positive, real-world, long-term post-FIRE experience.
Cassie and Britton don't seem to write about financials at all - there's
one post where they share their views on FIRE, but other than that it's all about their day-to-day life and experiences on the island.
With at least two sources of active income (a tropical plant nursery and a rental cabana) they won't pass the IRP's retirement test, and they couldn't care less.
In September 2017, hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico and flattened much of the island's infrastructure. The series of blog posts that came out of that was riveting reading for me. The municipal water supply and power grid were both out for
two months. According to the blog, they considered decamping to Colorado, but ruled it out - not because of solidarity or stoic determination, but simply because they
felt more comfortable staying put in their home in the jungle, drinking rainwater and lining up for gas so that they can run the generator a couple hours a day.
There's a considerable amount of whining about problems that are clearly "first-world" given the conditions (trouble finding internet, scarcity of cold beer, etc). As they are clearly aware, some of their neighbours were affected much more severely. Still, they win badassity points in my book for demonstrating Mustachian resilience in the face of a very difficult situation.
