One aspect of my career that has ‘invaded’ my early retirement is living with an electronic calendar. Perhaps I was naive, but I thought I would be gleefully off the digital date keeper once I left MegaCorp. After decades of having my days organized with electronic group calendaring software – from early Higgins to Lotus Notes to Microsoft Outlook – I thought it would be … Continue reading Calendar Chaos Continues
Kiplinger’s recent published an article that is getting a lot of buzz about their description of three different phases of retirement. They are proposing that retirees plan on spending more early – during your ‘Go-Go Years’ – versus later in retirement, when your energy & desire to be very active may decline. Calling the later two stages ‘Slow-Go’ and ‘Won’t-Go’, they propose people plan to … Continue reading Extra Spending For ‘Go-Go’ Years
I have written in the past about my interest in cryptocurrencies and their potential to be a more sound store of value than government currency. Recent geopolitical economic instability (tariffs, currency devaluation, Brexit) has resulted in BitCoin prices surging. BC has broken the $9K per coin mark in the last couple months – more than double what I paid when I jumped in with a … Continue reading Libra: A Big Step For Cryptos?
One topic I write very infrequently about is Social Security. As someone who retired before my 50th birthday, it has always been something that seems too far off. Recently at an update with our financial advisor, we talked a bit about the timeline that Social Security is structured around. 62 is the earliest age at which one can take a Social Security benefit and almost … Continue reading Keep Your Benefits Locked In Social Security?
I have a really nice, black leather briefcase in my closet, but I’ve basically traded it for this compact Igloo cooler over the last three years. It’s one of the unusual lifestyle ‘swaps’ that’s happened in early retirement. When I made VP/Corporate Officer at MegaCorp more than 10 years ago, I spent a few hundred dollars on my Tumi case. It was the perfect accessory … Continue reading My New Briefcase
I recently came across an interesting Federal Reserve report called ‘The Economic Well-Being Of US Households’. It’s a 50+ page annual study that explores all aspects of Americans’ financial well-being. The good news is that on almost all measures and for almost all groups of Americans, they are on a better financial footing than almost ever. In the retirement section, I was struck by a … Continue reading Forced Into Early Retirement?
Our son is working at a software development company this summer. It’s his first professional job and he has one more year of college before he is finished with his computer science degree. We took him out for dinner last night and asked him what he was doing for lunch each day. He said most people in his group go out for lunch every day, … Continue reading Does It Really Pay To Be Frugal For Coffee/Lunch?
Someone asked me recently “how did you first learn about the stock market?” I first noted that I am not particularly astute when it comes to stocks (I’m an index fund guy), but the basic operation of public corporations and the stock market is something that I first learned about when I was a kid. My Dad would talk about the stock market and had … Continue reading How Did You Learn About Stocks?
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