With the holidays upon us, I ran across studies from the American Research Group, US News & World Report, and the National Retail Federation that look at planned Christmas gift spending for 2015. I was surprised by many of the numbers from the studies and compared it to our own holiday shopping habits at the Fire Station. 55% of Americans went holiday shopping on Thanksgiving Weekend … Continue reading Christmas Shopping By The Numbers
Click HERE to understand how four simple words saved us THOUSANDS. Image Credit: MrFireStation.com Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Black Friday
Today is my first day out of the office for the long Thanksgiving weekend. Since it is also the last Thanksgiving before my early retirement in 2016, I thought maybe I would reflect on the things I am THANKFUL for in my 27 year career: STARTING OUT I’m thankful I skipped a baseball game that I had tickets to one afternoon when I was in … Continue reading Giving Thanks At The Office
The “Sunday Blues” are the dreadful feelings that emerge late in the weekend when your mind starts to turn to the beginning of a new work week. This weekly mini depression is the return of the performance anxiety we live with at school or on the job that is temporarily lifted over the weekend, holidays, or on vacation. You could say the Sunday Blues are … Continue reading Not Singing The Sunday Blues
Image Credit: MrFireStation Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Life in Hell
This is another post in my series about FIRE Milestones – the key moments that have shaped our journey to financial independence and retiring early. With the four month mark coming up in our early retirement countdown, I have been pretty good about keeping my plans separate from the office. Only a few people know of my secret plan to escape MegaCorp for a life … Continue reading FIRE Milestones: Confidentially Telling Someone @ Work
The delightful MrsMoneysWorth.com recently posted about things to do before leaving for early retirement and it got me to thinking about what might be the right amount of time to give my MegaCorp notice of quitting. For me, it’s a more complicated decision than just saying “two weeks notice is standard.” As I often do, I consulted the vast library of FIRE (financial independence & retiring … Continue reading FIRE Milestones – Giving Formal Notice
When I talk to friends, family and neighbors about my (mostly) secret plan to escape MegaCorp next April and live a life of early retirement, I’m starting to notice that the reactions people have result in one of about a dozen predictable comments. Most people (90%) are nice and say “good for you, that’s amazing”. But other times – a small percent of the time … Continue reading Chatting with Friends – Odd Comments & Snappy Remarks
I’ve got more than 4 months to go, but I thought I would share the two lists I’ve started about the things I will and won’t miss about working. So far, I have more on the “won’t miss” list, but I think you will see that they things on the “will miss” list are pretty rich and meaningful: WON’T MISS: Monthly budget meetings / sales … Continue reading Early Retirement – “Miss” & “Won’t Miss” Lists
This weekend’s launch of SPECTRE puts James Bond back on the big screen in the 24th official film of the series. Our family is a big fan of the franchise and my son & I saw (and rated) all of the movies over the last year. We enjoyed the new movie a lot, but you are probably wondering what is the linkage to a personal … Continue reading James Bond … Donated His Salary To Charity?
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