I waited a long time to get a look at my MegaCorp retiree health insurance benefits and they just arrived. It’s open enrollment time right now and I just booked my new insurance plan. As background, I worked at one MegaCorp for 24 years and a second for just 3. I’m an official retiree of the first one, where I went from temporary Administrative Assistant … Continue reading MegaCorp Retiree Health Coverage
President Trump once said, “the stock market does whatever the stock market wants to do.” Still, that didn’t stop him from claiming that his policies resulted in the ~75% growth in the S&P 500, following his election. The ‘Trump Bump’ got a lot of attention, but it’s worth noting that we’ve seen a nice ‘Biden Bump’ in the year following his election, too. The S&P … Continue reading The “Biden Bump”
We went to Target the other day for groceries and the bill came to $150. As we walked out to the Jeep to bring things home, my wife said, “I don’t even know what things are supposed to cost any more. Was that a good deal or did we overpay by a lot?” I agreed that inflation – year after year after year – begins … Continue reading Cut Those Prices In Half!
If you’ve reached financial independence & retired early (FIRE), you have a lot to be thankful for. We are certainly thankful for all of the blessings that have come our way and that includes our family that we hosted for Thanksgiving Dinner yesterday. In the spirit of the holiday, my son passed this interesting chart from the Pew Research Center. It shows what things people … Continue reading So Many Things To Be Thankful For …
Our family – my three brothers, our wives, and kids – have all been helping my parents downsize over the last few months. They moved at the end of October. It hasn’t been an easy process at all, but much smoother as everyone pitched in to help. They moved from the traditional 2-story family house they’ve lived in for the last 31 years to a … Continue reading The Big Downsize
I just made my silliest investment ever. No, it’s not more cryptocurrency. I’m now a bona fide shareholder of the Green Bay Packers Professional Football Club. The Packers opened the sixth public stock offering in their franchise history earlier this week with 300,000 shares available at $300 per share. The $90 million raised will fund improvements at Lambeau Field in the heart of Titletown. The … Continue reading Biggest Investment Ever
Our wonderful neighbors invited us to a fantastic concert on Saturday night at the enormous Minnesota Vikings stadium in Minneapolis. George Strait, Chris Stapleton, and Little Big Town played as a huge triple act in front of over 50K fans. The stadium was filled to the rafters! It was the second big stadium concert we’ve done in that many weeks. A few weeks ago, we … Continue reading Tuned Up For Concerts
Monday’s post about retirement benchmarks by age generated a lot of discussion. I think we all agree that few Americans have the sense to challenge our dubious cultural assumptions when it comes to personal finance. It also caused me to look back on this post from 2017 when I did the math on how quickly one could retire by saving HALF of their income …. … Continue reading ‘50% Rule’ Revisited
When I was starting in my career, it wasn’t clear to me how much we should have saved in our twenties & thirties. This was before the Internet and there was a real dearth of useful information available. Recently, my former MegaCorp Boss sent me an interesting article from Quicken that shared the median retirement savings and savings goals decade by decade for Americans. I … Continue reading Retirement Savings – Benchmarks & Goals
I decluttered my closet about a year after retiring early, but kept some of my ‘execu-wardrobe’ for board meetings and special occasions. Then the pandemic hit and I stopped dressing up for much of anything. I just needed to put a collared shirt on over my fleece pajama pants when I was on Zoom. Related: Fuzzy FIRE Lifestyle Related: FIRE Station FUN – Decluttering Work … Continue reading Dress-Up Wardrobe Update
MrFireStation 