If there was ever an industry that I thought would benefit from the internet, it’s real estate. These are data-heavy purchases that people want to really research before making a decision. Still, we’ve bought and sold a few different properties over the last few years and it’s difficult to get a good sense of how to price a property without talking to an agent. We … Continue reading Online Real Estate Estimates
I see a lot of headlines in the news lately touting how high the stock market has gone. It is true that the S&P 500 has reached a new Apex – up +19% YTD to almost 5,600. At the same time, few in the mainstream media are noting that the bond market has tumbled markedly in the last two years (down -16%). Compared with equities, … Continue reading A Tale of Two Markets
After 8 years in early retirement, I still have friends that ask me what I do all day. We just got back from a nice weekend up north and are heading into a typically (busy) summer week. I made a list of the main activities that are keeping us busy this week. Here are 10 activities between now and Friday … – M: Take Mom … Continue reading Peak Summer in Early Retirement
With my Dad’s, passing, I continue to reflect on significant memories with him that helped shape my life. One of those memories involves this old, wooden, Bancroft “youth model” tennis racket shown above (with my current racket) and a good lesson in finance. I was about 10 years old. We lived in Hillsdale MI – a small town in the southern part of the state. … Continue reading My Dad’s Lesson In Interest
My father passed away last week at the wonderful old age of 91. I say “wonderful” because that’s how he always said he was doing. “How are you doing, Dad?” … “WONDERFUL.” Sometimes he’d brightly say it twice: ‘Wonderful, Wonderful!” I’m not at the point where I can share a lot of my feelings about his passing. It’s too soon for me. At the same … Continue reading Farewell Father & Friend …
When we were at our Florida place earlier this month, I drove over to St. Petersburg to catch a ballgame. As I’ve mentioned at least one time before, I’ve been collecting ballparks as an adult, the same as I collected baseball cards as a kid. Tropicana Field was my 31st MLB ballpark stop. I got interested in getting to ballparks in every MLB city when … Continue reading Strange Activity
My wife went to the drug store yesterday. She bought 3 small things and came back with a receipt that is 24.875” in length. I measured it. It’s indicative of how desperate some retailers have become in today’s marketplace. I had a similar experience at our local Hallmark card shop. I was there to buy a simple Father’s Day card and the saleswoman kept following … Continue reading Enough With The Offers!
That’s our nice SUV – sitting in the garage of our recently-purchased condo in Florida. We drove it down to Florida a few weeks ago and left it there. Now we need to replace the hole it left in our Minnesota fleet – where we spend most of our time. The big challenge in replacing it is that the automobile industry is in a bit … Continue reading Hole In The Fleet
When we bought our vacation place in Florida, we wanted something that was easy to ‘Lock & Leave’. We just finished our first trip down here and we are making a quick departure back to MN today. I asked a number of friends if they had checklists that they used before they locked up their vacation places – many were nice enough to share. I … Continue reading Flyaway Checklist …
A week ago, we drove 1,550 miles from MN to FL to drop off a vehicle at our new vacation condo. My trusty SUV is being retired to Florida – so that we can just fly down whenever we want and have some wheels here. We got arrived in the Sunshine State last Friday and it’s a good thing our SUV’s air conditioner is well-charged. … Continue reading Tropical Summerland
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