We’re thinking of taking a couple of overseas trips in the next 12-14 months. We’ve wanted to get to Ireland for a few years and might go this Autumn. We also want to take the big flight to the Southern Hemisphere and experience Australia & New Zealand, which would likely be in early-2027, given the difference in seasons. We wouldn’t typically plan two big overseas … Continue reading Time To Get Going?
Since we’ve been chatting about 2025 investment returns, I thought I’d share this article about Dave Ramsey advocating an 8% “safe withdrawal rate” (SWR) for retirees. I generally think Ramsey is a pretty sensible guy – encouraging people to get out of debt, invest in index funds, and build generational wealth. Still, the idea of an 8% SWR seems more than a bit wild to … Continue reading How High Can You Spend?
Frequent contributor, Klaus Wentzel, mentioned that his dividend-driven portfolio was roughly +8.5% in 2025, after netting out the year’s living expenses. I’m watching the Sugar Bowl right now, so I thought I would add up how our portfolio ended the year. For benchmark’s sake, the S&P 500 was +16.6% (x-dividends) and the bond market (VBMFX) was +3.0%. We finished the year with a pleasing +14.3% … Continue reading Terrific 2025 Returns
Wednesday is the last day of 2025, so I thought it was a perfect time to assess the “expert” predictions from New Year’s Eve last year. I looked up a bunch of predictions at the time, and at the end of the year, only 6 of the 14 have been resolved positively. 8 of the predictions were worse that expected. The immediate economy looks like … Continue reading New Years Predictions Assessed
For this year’s Christmas Countdown, I spent the month reveling in the nostalgic joy of mid-century modern / “space age” holiday designs. These are the holiday decorations that became popular in the 1950s and stayed that way when my brothers and I were kids in the 1960s and into the 1970s.
🎄✨🎅🏻 24 Days to Christmas:“Evergleam” silver tinsel trees were introduced in 1959 by the Aluminum Specialty Company of Manitowoc WI …
I turned 59½ this year. As we get close to the end of the 2025, that means we now have a green light into our 401Ks. With paid corporate board work behind me, our income has dropped sharply—in a good way. No W-2s, no consulting, just modest interest and dividends. We’ve been living off cash from selling our rental property, which has pushed our federal … Continue reading End of the Year Roth Conversion
We just finished a few wonderful days of holiday / fun activities with friends and family. We have more planned this week. We went to a terrific Lady A Christmas Concert, shopped an indoor Holiday Market, enjoyed lunches with friends, went to a fun Minnesota Wild game with buddies, drove my Jeep in a holiday light parade, watched a silly Hallmark movie, and were able … Continue reading The Calm Before Christmas
Every year, PNC Bank calculates the “true cost” of the Twelve Days of Christmas. I wrote about it 7 years ago, when the twelve gifts, bought individually, cost $39.1K. Link: FIRE Station Fun – What Do The 12 Days of Christmas Cost? Link: PNC Bank – Cost of Christmas I’m not sure where you would procure most of the gifts in the Victorian musical fantasy, … Continue reading 12 Days of Inflation
This weekend, I met with my brothers (and wives) to talk about my Mom’s finances. We meet occasional over Zoom to discuss any pressing matters and I was getting a bit concerned about her exposure to scammers. So many people I’ve talked to have stories about their parent getting scammed over the phone or computer. My Mom has gotten some of these calls herself. They … Continue reading Locking Out The Scammers
I was surprised to see WalletHub’s 2025 ranking of almost 200 markets for “best area to retire”. Link: Best Places to Retire It caught my attention because Orlando – where we are hanging out at our vacation place right now – was ranked #1 in the country. It was 1 of 4 Florida cities ranked in the Top 10 with Miami, Tampa, and Fort Lauderdale. … Continue reading Best Places to Retire?!
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