Our window box flowers are looking better than ever this year. We live in Minnesota, so we don’t get color like this except for in the peak of summer. Gardening is said to be the most popular hobby in the United States, and when you have more time to plant, water, and care for flowers you sure do see the benefits. Recently our garden hose … Continue reading In Pursuit Of The Perfect Purchase
Before I reached early retirement a few years ago, I wrote THIS POST about a survey of whether or not people should retire full-time or part-time. While many people envision part-time consulting as part of their early retirement plans, almost 60% of respondents said that working part-time in retirement was a ‘BAD idea’ with another 15% saying ‘It’s COMPLICATED’. People had some interesting comments saying … Continue reading Part-Time Work in Early Retirement
When people ask me what I do to keep busy in early retirement, I almost never mention writing MrFireStation.com. I guess that’s odd, given that I created the site more than three years ago and have now posted over 400 articles. Even though I probably spend about 2 hours a week writing and updating the site, I haven’t ever actually considered myself a ‘writer’. Sometimes … Continue reading Free-Lance Writer In Early Retirement?
Are you saving enough? It’s the most basic of questions. Yet, I’m always so disappointed when I see an article showing how low the US savings rate is. A recent study by Fidelity showed that the average American is saving about 8.5% of their after-tax income – including the value of any employer matches. Even though 8.5% savings is far less than is typically suggested … Continue reading Savings Rates & Reaching FIRE
Before the summer is out, I wanted to share some of the highlights from our trip to Jerusalem & the Holy Land. This (along with our trip to Japan) is the biggest trip we’ve taken since we early retired. We tagged on a fun side trip to ancient Petra in Jordan. In many ways, this was perhaps the most enlightening trip we have ever taken … Continue reading FIRE Travel – Divided Jerusalem and Ancient Petra
Someone posted an interesting question on Early-Retirement.org recently that caught my attention. Just a few months from reaching FIRE (financial independence & retiring early), a person asked the collective wisdom of the ‘Life After FIRE’ forum if their early retirement was what they had planned on, or something different. The post generated a lot of response with over eight pages of people sharing their experience. … Continue reading Should You Expect the Unexpected?
A couple months ago, I did a 45 minute phone interview with a reporter writing for Kiplinger’s on health insurance for early retirees. She said that she had read our FIRE story on this blog and in particular a post called “Health Insurance – The Biggest Worry For Early Retirees” caught her attention. She appreciated that we had included the dollars & cents in the … Continue reading Bam! My Interview with Kiplinger’s
BankRate.com recently published the results of a survey where they asked people about what the “ideal age” was for certain personal finance milestones. I thought it was interesting to look at the results and compare to our experience (and our son’s) in reaching FIRE (financial independence & retiring early). Here are some of the milestones: FIRST CREDIT CARD – My son is 21 right now … Continue reading Personal Finance Milestones – What’s Ideal?
I had a dream last night about going back to work. In this dream the MegaCorp bosses were in a pinch and wanted me and one of my former colleagues to come back and fix the business I used to run. It seemed like fun in the dream, but I don’t know how the dream turned out since I woke up before we got too … Continue reading Quickly Faded Dreams About MegaCorp
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