Month: July 2015

Overall Philosophy

Early Retirement Fun – #HowIQuit on Jimmy Fallon

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Earlier this year, Jimmy Fallon issued a hashtag challenge on Twitter for people to “Tweet out a funny, weird, or embarrassing way you quit a job and tag with #HowIQuit“. About a eight of them were featured on the show that night (link to video here). Since dozens more were tweeted out, I thought I would share the Top 50 I read online …

  • One Mon morning my co-worker was a no-call no-show. He sent an email that simply said “Today I am retired”
  • Told my boss, “I’m quitting to pursue my dream of not working here.”
  • My last day on the job I gave my manager a copy of the movie, “Two Weeks Notice”
  • Made my bosses & coworkers goodie bags full of candy. Then told them I was quitting.

Continue reading “Early Retirement Fun – #HowIQuit on Jimmy Fallon”

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Have A Plan

A Place Not To Work – Home Office After Early Retirement

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One of the things I enjoy about working is having a place to work – that is, an office.  Although it is MegaCorp’s space in one of MegaCorp’s many buildings, I think of it as my space and have it personalized as my own.

My current MegaCorp office is awful.  It’s the worst office I have had in 15 of my 26 years of going to the office.  It’s on an interior wall of what I guess is a late 1970s building. If you’ve seen the concrete-bunker CIA headquarters shown in the movie Argo, you will have a sense of how the office building I work in looks like.  

In retirement, “Having your own space to call your own, and your spouse having their own space, will be as important as ever” writes Ernie Zelinski, in his How To Retire Happy, Wild, and Free. He notes that after leaving the White House, Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter set up separate office at home in the garage and an old bedroom.  President Carter said that gave them each private space where they could respect each other’s time & work habits. Continue reading “A Place Not To Work – Home Office After Early Retirement”

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FIRE Countdown, Have A Plan

Early Retirement Check-Up With Financial Planner

This past Friday was our annual “check up” with our Financial Planner.  Mr. Fire Station has worked with him over the last 10 years, when an early retirement was just a dream.   I’ve estimated that only 2% of people retire by fifty years old, so it is no surprise that he has always taken a cautious tone to getting us ready for early retirement. … Continue reading Early Retirement Check-Up With Financial Planner

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Spend Less Than You Make

Triple Play Formula For Inflating Your Nest Egg

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Ben Franklin wrote, “A penny saved is a penny earned”. Quite true, but another perspective might be that “A dollar saved, takes you three steps toward financial independence”.

Why is that? Here’s how I count the three ways: First, a dollar saved is a dollar you can spend tomorrow; second, it is a dollar that will grow and give you more dollars in the future; and third, by not spending on things you don’t really need, you keep your lifestyle cost one dollar less in the future. That’s it – three dollars for every one saved.

The last point assumes that our future lifestyle has some relationship with what we spend today.   Retirement experts suggest that we plan for 70-80% of our pre-retirement expenses in retirement.  More if you want to splurge on Continue reading “Triple Play Formula For Inflating Your Nest Egg”

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Spend Less Than You Make, Thrifty Thursday

Thrifty Thursday – Best Times Of The Year To Travel

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I recently wrote about our travel plans in early retirement and the advantages of traveling off-season.  A friend of mine said that the three best times to travel were in January/February, May, and September.  This is when rates may be as much as 20-30% cheaper than the times when most people can fit in trips between work & school schedules.

I thought it was good advice and it certainly proves out when you look at this chart from yourfirstvisit.net which Continue reading “Thrifty Thursday – Best Times Of The Year To Travel”

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Uncategorized

Stock Market Moves for Summer 2015

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I’m a pretty conservative investor overall.  I tend toward low cost index funds and have a relatively conservative weighting toward cash, bonds & real estate. My goal is to preserve what I have more than grow it aggressively and take on added risk. 

That said, I tend to pay a lot of attention to the stock market.  It’s on the news every night and easily tracked.   In fact, nearly half of our equities holdings are wrapped up in a single MegaCorp stock – where I worked for many years and accrued substantial stock options.  

In their new July 2015 issue (which I read on vacation using my library’s free app), Kiplinger’s included their mid-year report on the stock market and offered advice on three moves to make right now.  Continue reading “Stock Market Moves for Summer 2015”

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Have A Purpose

Golf In Early Retirement

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How can a guy think about early retirement and not think about golf? They go together like peanut butter and jelly, don’t they? One problem – I don’t like peanut butter and jelly (peanut butter plain, thank you), and I’m not a very committed golfer either. Does this spell early retirement doom? I don’t think so.

First of all, I do golf and I do enjoy it. That’s why I picked the phrase “not a very committed golfer” to describe Continue reading “Golf In Early Retirement”

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Spend Less Than You Make, Thrifty Thursday

Thrifty Thursday – Free e-Magazines To Check Out

Here’s a great deal I found out before leaving on our recent vacation: through our local library, I can download dozens of magazines to my tablet without any cost.   We were leaving for our recent cruise and I looked into downloading a book onto my iPad.  That’s unusual for me, as I am more often reading magazines and newspapers than full books.  Short attention … Continue reading Thrifty Thursday – Free e-Magazines To Check Out

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