Petros' Blog

Early Retirement

Simos beach, Elafonisos

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While staying in Monemvasia with my family, we decided to take a trip to the Simos beach in Elafonisos. This is the best beach in Greece that I have ever been to. The sand is amazing, the water is amazing, and even though it is a bit crowded the beach is big enough that the crowd does not feel overwhelming. I have also found a great way to get to the beach that makes parking there not an issue (I’m sorry for not sharing).

The picture above is not mine. I got it from somewhere on the internet. The beach really looks like this and actually even much better. Because the beach is so big it is very hard to capture it in a picture. Also, I’m not an experienced photographer and just use my cellphone. My picture is below. I must admit it doesn’t look like anything special but that is furthest from the truth.

Now the downsides of visiting Simos beach. It is on a small island called Elafonisos, off the coast of the Peloponnese. The only way to get there is by ferry. It took us a little bit over an hour to get to the ferry from Monemvasia. You can get the ferry every half an hour or so. In previous times this was not an issue but during this trip on the eve of a big Greek holiday (Panagias – August 15) we had to wait in line for over an hour. Getting on the ferry was also very stressful. When the person directing me to get my car into the ferry showed me the spot I was supposed to put my car into, I thought he was kidding. I thought there would be no way to do that. He did guide me through it and through carefully orchestrated maneuvers I managed to get it in the spot he had showed me but I was sweating the whole time. Even though the ferry is pretty small they managed to get a very large number of cars into it. By the way, I can guarantee you there is less than an inch between the cars in this picture. And of course I’m stuck inside one of those cars because there was no way to get out of the car during the ferry ride.

For a late lunch/early dinner we want to one of the restaurants in the main town which is close to the port. Over the years we have tried several of the restaurants there and they are pretty decent. On the positive side, because they are so close to the port we were able to time our dinner perfectly and take the ferry back without having to wait for more than 5-10 minutes. I guess most of the travelers were staying there for the holiday so getting into the ferry wasn’t much of an issue on the way back.

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Petros

I was born and grew up in Athens, Greece. I studied Electrical Engineering at the National University of Athens, Greece. I did well enough to get a scholarship to do my MS and PhD at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 3 years (one of my proudest accomplishments). After that I worked in the research industry for a bit over 30 years retiring in June of 2023. You can find more details about my professional background at my LinkedIn profile https://www.linkedin.com/in/petros-mouchtaris-989aa672/. On the personal side, after graduating from Caltech, I was fortunate to meet my wife. We are happily married with a son and a daughter. I always wanted to retire early and as a result I lived my early years relatively conservatively financially while investing heavily. I ended up retiring at 57 (somewhat later than I was hoping for). My principals have always been about setting difficult goals and working hard to achieve them while helping others on the way. I’d say I’m taking it a bit easier in retirement while continuing to advance my principles. I do love interacting with others so do not hesitate to reach out (my e-mail address is [email protected]). There are four main areas I’m focusing on in retirement: - Travel. I hope you can find some interesting information on this blog based on my own experiences. - Improving STEM education in the US. I’m working towards becoming a high school math teacher as the first step. You may find interesting information on the blog if you are contemplating something similar. - Doing some consulting to continue engaging in my industry. - Helping improve financial education in the US. This is a topic I will be engaging further in the future.

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