President Biden ordered his cabinet secretaries to “aggressively execute” plans for federal employees to “work more in the office” earlier this month. Axios reported that about 75% of federal office space is currently sitting empty, despite Biden pledging that “the vast majority of federal workers will again work in-person” in his State of the Union Address almost two years ago. The federal government lags private … Continue reading Investors: Back To The Office!
It has now been three years since I purchased my e-bike. It continues to be a fun toy that I use more and more. Recently, I reached the milestone of 1000 miles on the new bike. I’m now up to 1,065 miles. The ‘acceleration’ in my usage has been remarkable. My mileage for the last three years looks like this: 200 miles, 400 miles, 450miles. … Continue reading e-Bike Summer
Every few days, a message will appear in my email box from someone looking for help on a consulting project. When I first retired, I’d do dozens of these in a year for as much as $500/hour. Many of them led to extended contracts. Lately, however, I hardly respond to them at all, other than to say “thanks for thinking of me.” The issue with … Continue reading Dialing Out Of Consulting
Since Roman times, they have described August as the “Dog Days” of Summer. Our little pupper, Riley, hasn’t gotten the message. When it is hot or humid outside, he prefers to stay inside … snoozing where it’s nice and cool. On Tuesday this week, I was up early to take him for a walk. The heat of the day had not settled in yet, so … Continue reading Outside … From Dawn To Dusk
A friend who bought a new boat recently quipped, “if money doesn’t make you happy you aren’t spending it right.” Until recently, scientists debated that point, claiming that happiness topped out at about $75K/year in income. That’s now changing. New research suggests that more money makes you more happy up to well over $500K/year. That’s a big difference and seems to make a lot more … Continue reading Money & Happiness Reconsidered
One thing I don’t write a lot about in this blog is how I write this blog. I started it back in January 2015, when I was 15 months from executing my FIRE Escape. I began sharing since I didn’t see a lot of detailed, first-hand accounts of people that had reached financial independence & retired early and was craving information like that for myself. … Continue reading Blog Milestone …
Do I stick to a budget? No, I don’t even have a budget anymore. I’ve become completely un-analytical in retirement. I used to be good at it. When I was working, I built complex spreadsheets to track our annual budget, our net worth, and projections of what we needed in retirement. Since retiring, much of that has gone by the wayside. I stopped tracking our … Continue reading (I Guess) We Are On Budget …
A short post for a busy Friday … When I chat with friends, I often say that when it comes to money, we all have more than we need by any global standard. We also have a higher standard of living than we would have expected growing up in the 1960s-70s-80s. Because of this, I believe that time is the ultimate luxury. Time to live … Continue reading Bob Dylan: “What’s Money?”
Internet memes get posted by the millions each day and most of them aren’t worth the time you spend looking at them. That’s why today’s post is pretty silly. I saw this dubious meme tonight and got suckered into analyzing it five different ways. There are a lot of dimensions to the claim in this meme – time, inflation, houses, cars, college – and for … Continue reading Life Was Financially Better … When?
A friend had some work done on her house recently and posted online that she was happy to see the vendor using products from the MegaCorp she recently retired from. I too continue to have some loyalty to the MegaCorp packaged goods brands I once worked on. But, it is only that … “some loyalty”. I’m not completely brand loyal just because they still send … Continue reading MegaCorp Loyalty
MrFireStation 