Go Live It

This is the life that those choices are making possible.

For years, our home came with responsibilities—time, maintenance, expenses, and all the things that come with owning a house. And for that chapter of our lives, it was the life we chose.

When we downsized, we didn't suddenly have unlimited time or money. We simply changed where some of both were going.

That has made room for experiences that matter to us now. We've been able to spend extended time with our children in Japan, explore places closer to home, and say yes to adventures that wouldn't have fit as easily into our lives before.

But there is no silver spoon here. We still have to budget, and we have to continue making choices. We know people whose choices look very different from ours—newer cars, second homes, or other things they value. They're simply making the choices that are right for them.

For us, right now, one of those questions might be: Can we buy the newer car and still travel the way we want to? Maybe not. So we decide which matters more to us at this point in our lives.

That's part of our new chapter too—not having everything we want, but having more freedom to decide what we want our time and money to make possible.

Places our choices have taken us...