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
Of all of the posts that have been published on this site in the last two years (over 265 articles), one of the most consistently popular reads is this one about the FIRE Milestone of Reaching Millionaire Status. As when I wrote it, I think there continues to be a certain power in the concept of being a millionaire and the fact that that the … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Millionaire Life
I think today’s quote captures most people’s quest toward a life of financial independence and retiring early (FIRE) as well as anyone could. I jotted it down several years ago on a Post-it note and had it stuck to my calendar in my office at work. People solve for their success in life in different ways. For me, it was working for MegaCorp for 27 … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Live Free
It’s been fun to have our family & friends out of school and work over the last week, but of course many will be back at the grind next Monday. Not us – since early retiring last April, we’ve been on one long extended weekend. It truly has been a complete lifestyle change! While it’s been well noted that 2016 has been an unusual … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – New Year!
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. As Jay Leno once said, for guys it is “The Official Start of the Christmas Shopping Season”. It’s true that quite a few guys (and I’m sure gals too) leave a significant share of their Christmas shopping until the day before Christmas. My brother and I used to make an annual event of going out on Christmas Eve and shopping for … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Christmas Shopping
How does your office holiday party stack up? Does your company do it up big, or is senior management preaching belt tightening and concerned about the optics. I have to say that my last MegaCorp’s office party was a bit of an embarrassment. In last year’s post on this topic, I compared our year end holiday employee event with data from a study of … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Office Party
We had a neighborhood Christmas party last week and somehow the conversation turned to the color of my hair. At age 50, it is hanging in there pretty well – hardly any gray right now – and has become an interesting microcosm of my early retirement so far. I’ve read that most people’s hair turns gray 10-20% for each five years after they turn 25 … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Turning Back The Gray
