The discussion in the comment section after my Monday post this week focused a lot on mortgage rate history. It prompted me to find this graph on 30-year fixed standard mortgages from 1971-2025. I remember the peak in 1981 as we moved that year for my Dad’s job and my parents got a 16% mortgage for our new house. Bad timing. It was quite … Continue reading Mortgage Memories
For most of our married life, every Sunday in the autumn we would read through the big Sunday paper & ads while watching the GB Packers or MN Vikings. It’s been about 10 years since we’ve had a newspaper subscription, but yesterday I accepted a $1 offer for the digital version of our local paper. One of the articles in the Business section was titled … Continue reading Building A Strong Retirement
What to make of Scott Galloway? He’s a successful businessman turned self-proclaimed academic “thought leader” / NYU Stern MBA professor. Outspoken on politics and anti-Trump, he famously encouraged people to exit the stock market when The Donald won the Presidency in 2016. He now admits that he paid a lot for the investment strategy – which he followed himself. Selling all of his stocks triggered … Continue reading Investment Lesson
I was at a wonderful MegaCorp reunion a few nights ago and a few colleagues were celebrating their first year of retirement, or were planning to at the end of the year. A couple friends said that despite a lot of planning, they weren’t entirely confident that their financials were going to hold up to the next few decades of retirement life. Despite having financial … Continue reading Are You Likely To Run Out Of Money?
I saw this appliance repair truck in our neighborhood last week and I appreciated how lucky we’ve been with our house. We moved in 17 years ago this Halloween and we haven’t had to call the repair man very often. I shared the post Is Your House Falling Apart? about seven years ago and we’ve avoided big repairs for the most part since I wrote … Continue reading Playing On Borrowed Time?
Our trip to Iceland & Ireland was a good mix of days in the countryside (7 days) and time in Reykjavik & Dublin (4 days). Some people like the sights & buzz of the big cities, while others would spend all of their time in the small villages and rural areas if they could. We like to see a bit of both. That said, if … Continue reading World’s Top Cities
We’re back from our trip to Iceland & Ireland. We were only gone 12 days, but that was the perfect amount of time for those two countries in one trip. . When we got home, we were marveling at how much easier travel is now compared with 10, 20, 30 years ago. We’ve gone from having to buy American Express Travel Checks before we leave to … Continue reading Digital Travel Assistant
If anyone was worried that the travel industry wouldn’t come back after the pandemic lockdowns, you can put your mind at ease. The Wall Street Journal shared this chart a couple of weeks ago showing the boom in European trips by Americans. As you can see, travel to Europe has reached new highs the last three years running. It reports that 2026 travel continues to … Continue reading Americans Traveling
I’m not much of a handyman, but I just installed an automatic window box & flower pot watering system in front of our house. Our flowers are exploding! Before I retired, I imagined getting a part-time job at Walt Disney World watering the flowers at one of their resorts in the morning. I met a guy who did exactly that at the Wilderness Lodge. Still, … Continue reading Irrigation Magic
Many people worry that they will be bored or isolated in retirement. My experience has been the complete opposite. I have more time for friends & activities than I have ever had. Apparently, I am not the only one. I ran across a great survey of retired people in America from TransAmerica’s Center for Retirement Studies and it’s clear that almost every retired person surveyed … Continue reading Retired? Get Happy
