Squirrels have it figured out. This time of year, they are scurrying around the woods behind our house collecting nuts and SAVING them for the future. Winter in Minnesota – where we live – is long and only the good savers will make it through. The same is true for retirement savers. The ones that save diligently will enjoy a financially worry-free retirement. It is … Continue reading Squirreling Away Savings
It’s a basic question, but one that I have struggled to find any data on: how many people retire at what age? I found a chart from a University of MN study a few years ago and ‘reverse engineered’ some data, but I knew that my math wasn’t very exact. Now I came across this chart / data from a helpful website called DQYDJ.com … … Continue reading How Early Is Early Retirement? (New Data)
We moved into our current house 10 years ago on Halloween. We designed and built it with a custom builder exactly the way we wanted and are still very happy with the choices we made. I recently ran across this infographic from the National Association of Home Builders and Bank of America that details how long you can expect many of the key components of … Continue reading Is Your House Falling Apart?
We were recently traveling in Europe with some good friends and came across a number of these Renaissance town clocks that featured only one big hand. They have 12 hours like every other clock, but they lack a little hand to point to the exact minute between the hours. My friend just retired about five months ago and we first noticed one of these clocks … Continue reading Big Hand Only Lifestyle
Everyone knows that Friday is the BEST day of the work week, but I have always contended that Tuesday – not Monday – is the worst. My son seems to be starting to agree with me because while he limits himself to only one cup of coffee a day, on Tuesday, it’s ‘Two Cup Tuesday’. I drink coffee, but seems a perfect day for … Continue reading Not Monday – Two Cup Tuesday
As we got ready for vacation this month, I ordered a new pair of walking shoes. As many readers know, I try to walk or run at least 12,000 steps a day and have averaged more than that number since I retired about three and a half years ago. That’s about 4.5 million steps a year and quite a few pairs of shoes! Vacation days … Continue reading Walking The World
It was about 10 months ago I wrote my ‘first take’ on where 2019 Health Insurance premiums were likely to come in. It was good news and I was surprised to learn that our premiums were falling by $4K from the year before. I called it a ‘first take’, because I wasn’t sure the benefit would actually come through. Fortunately it has, as you can … Continue reading Health Insurance Rebate In The Mail
