We had a great Halloween tonight. The weather was nice (43-degrees & clear), the Vikings were on Sunday Night Football, the World Series Game Five was on, and we had 128 trick-or-treaters come to the door. Our neighborhood usually has a lot of activity on Halloween, but last year was a real disappointment with the pandemic. A lot of parents kept their kids home, even … Continue reading Halloween Bounce Back
I saw a news segment earlier this week about the supply chain issues on the west coast and how it may impact toys at Christmas. The ‘Toy Industry Expert’ went out of his way to ensure everyone there would be plenty of toys from Santa Claus, but the news person did her best to try to create holiday hysteria anyway. I fell for it. Within … Continue reading An Early Start …
While this year’s dramatic price inflation is putting a big hit on our fixed pension, it’s doing wonders for our home value. Housing is one of the categories leading the inflation parade in 2021. This chart from YahooFinance shows how sharply the price increase has been over the past few years. The pandemic has brought on a huge spike. Prices are up 20% nationally versus … Continue reading Home, Sweetly Inflated, Home
I was at our dentist earlier this week and he was asking me if I had seen the beautiful pre-sunrise colors that morning. I guess there were crazy orange & golden sun rays that lit up the clouds and vividly set off the autumn foliage. Unfortunately, I had missed them. I said, “no, I don’t work, so I don’t really see the sun come up … Continue reading Wake Up Times
As offices start to reopen across the country, many folks that have been working from home are wondering if they are going to lose the work-from-home flexibility they’ve been enjoying during the pandemic. A recent USA Today poll says that about 40% of workers want to keep working remotely when business gets back to ’normal’. For many, the biggest benefit of working from home has … Continue reading Stuck In The Slow Lane – Commuting
I had lunch with my former MegaCorp boss this week who is visiting after being away about three years. He retired to a North Carolina golf resort where he said he gets about 120 rounds a year in. I thought I would be golfing a lot more in early retirement, but it is one of the things that just never gelled. On Wednesday, I went … Continue reading Busier Than Ever
Once, two of my brothers skipped elementary school to “play hooky”. They left home, but instead of going to school, they went to the park. After they were playing on the playground equipment for a while, the younger brother said, “where are all the other kids?” “Other kids?” the older one replied. “Yeah – doesn’t it take a lot of kids to play the game … Continue reading Where Are All The Other Kids?
Someone recently asked online how much cash or other ‘safe/liquid’ investments did people carry into early retirement as a buffer against a market downturn. It’s an important decision to make heading into retirement and it was the final financial preparation we put into place ourselves. About 3 years before I left MegaCorp, we started accumulating a pile of cash equal to 3 years of spending. … Continue reading Benchmarking: Cash / CD Buffer
Our Riley is turning out to be a pretty good pupper, but he is a lot of work. He’s a social guy and loves to play and take walks. Thankfully, he’s not the ‘devil dog’ he was when he was little (3-4 months) … although he still has his moments. Over 70% of Americans have a pet of some sort – mostly dogs (60% of … Continue reading Healthy Pupper, Riley
My all-star softball friends Russ & Mike had me along on a couple of very long bike rides the last couple weeks. Each ride averaged about 25 miles as we pedaled through the city, stopping at pubs & taverns along the way. Related: A Year In Beer – Dive Bar Tuesday For the last 3 years they have been doing this. Biking throughout Minneapolis & … Continue reading Pedals & Pubs
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