It’s hard to think about financial independence and retiring early separate from the concept of AGE. I’ve been early retired for a year now and I get the questions constantly: How old are you? You look too young to be retired? What will you do for the rest of your life? I retired two weeks short of my fiftieth birthday last year, and TODAY – … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Birthday Freedom
There is probably no one more quotable when it comes to personal finance and lifestyle advice than Ben Franklin. A prolific quipster, his proverbs on money and our relationship with it are short, snappy, and typically spot-on. Much of our cultural ethos on work and money come from Ben’s writings in his Poor Richard’s Almanac. It is a book I think I will add to my … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Cleaning Stuff Up
A number of readers have been chatting about how many months they have until their own early retirement dates and how anxious they are getting. I started this blog when I had 15 months left before my FIRE escape date from MegaCorp. That seemed like a really long time at that point, but now when I reflect on it, it seems like no time at … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Let Me Count The Ways
My son forwarded me this sobering cartoon that he saw on Twitter yesterday. I’m not sure who originally drew it, but it does describe the dark side of the American Dream that we all worry about, doesn’t it? Sorry to not have something more cheerful to send you off this weekend. If nothing else, here’s a link to a collection of funny Monday morning memes … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Running Through Life
I am now closing in on my first full YEAR of early retirement. I will hit the anniversary mark on April Fool’s Day this year. It has been a terrific rotation around the sun and I haven’t regretted it at all. Not surprisingly, everyone is asking me “are you doing all of those things that you thought you would?” I wrote this post last March … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Possibilities
The stock market is off to a nice clip so far this year with the S&P 500 and International EFEA up more than 5% in less than two months. Things are moving so fast that I am already losing my bet on where the market will be on the Fourth of July this year, as I wagered on less than 4.5% growth.. Our portfolio doesn’t … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Patient Profits
I have had a couple of friends in the last week try to explain to me how ‘exciting’ their jobs are and how they ‘wouldn’t ever think of retiring’. Their explanations often come with an amazing picture of some far-flung location that they traveled to. Beyond the travel, they work hard to explain how the projects they are leading new breakthrough in their company or … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Passing Time
Many people are familiar with the 2010 Princeton study that reported that there is a diminishing return to the impact of money on one’s happiness that tops out at about $75K a year. People were surprised that the threshold was very in line with the average household income in the USA at $73K. It is often cited as evidence that money doesn’t buy happiness. I … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Love Of Money
I had lunch with a good friend this week who is just six weeks from her retirement date. I am very excited for her. She planned on retiring in a few more months, but moved up her date because she has “had enough”. Unfortunately, she is a little concerned about her retirement nest egg – which could probably benefit from the extra few months pay. … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun -Don’t Know, Don’t Buy
After 9 months, we are definitely having the most ‘chill’ month we’ve had since we early retired last year. I’ve been calling it ‘no responsibility January’ since I’m off work, my son is home from college, and my wife is working very few hours at her part-part-time job. Basically, no one is doing anything responsible! While the rest of the world has gotten squared back … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Chillaxing January
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