Ray
Ray is one of four siblings all born and raised in the wildlands of central New Jersey. Most of his youth was spent outside collecting reptiles, biking, fishing, and playing (mostly sub-standardly) whatever sport was in season at the time (with Johnny and his brood). After a 4 year career as a trombonist in the highly successful Superchief high school marching band, Ray went on to study Bioresource Engineering (where he met Adam) at Rutgers University (where he roomed with Ed and Gary).
Odd jobs over the early years included mailman, paperboy, lawn-mowing, Kmart automotive department, driving an italian ice truck, actuary, and pushing carts around the parking lot at the Home Depot
A month-long cross-country road-trip after college sparked Ray's interest in travel and adventure and, with more than a little help from Adam, he has had his fair share of mountains, deserts, remote locales and death defying experiences to fill a small novel.
With the first paycheck from Ray's first "real job" working for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he started investing in the stock market and planned to "retire as soon as possible". For 7 years he managed to help cleanup some of America's most contaminated environmental disasters (and in the bargain learned last-minute travel-hacking, generator repair, surveying, geoprobing, soilgas collecting, geology, and subsurface aquifer mapping). He then redirected his focus into a career in networking and IT security (and jumped on the Dot-Com bandwagon just in time to have it burst beneath his feet after 9/11) - with the privilege of commuting to New York City for the next 23 years as a bonus.
So did he "retire as soon as possible"? We will never know. But he did pull the plug on the rat race (along with his wife) at the beginning of 2023 (in their early 50's). So how did they do it? Frugal living, in-state college tuition for the kiddos, no vices (coffee, smokes or alcohol), lots of DIY at home, plenty of travel and family vacations, consistent investing, and a few vacation rental properties.
Reason for Doing the Podcast: Sharing Life Experiences and Blunders to help others (and hopefully add some humor along the way)
Favorite Hobbies: Backpacking, Gardening, Boardgames
Favorite Movies: It’s a Wonderful Life, The Princess Bride, Braveheart
Favorite Quote: “Do or Do Not, There is no Try”
Favorite Place: Southern Utah
Favorite Podcasts: RadioLab, CarTalk, How I Built this
Favorite Future Endeavors: Build an Earthship, Learn to play the Ukulele