I’m turning 57 this year, which certainly means I’m on the downhill side of the mountain. Not just in age / likely lifespan, but also in annual spending. This JP Morgan chart shows ‘the other side of the mountain’ in spending. The average American household slows spending quite a bit as they age … more than I would have guessed. I’m seeing a pretty steady … Continue reading Heading Down The Hill …
When I first started working in the late 1980s/early 1990s, we would keep our meager savings at the MegaCorp Employee Credit Union. I would walk down to the lobby of our 40-story tower almost weekly to make a deposit, transfer some money, or buy a CD. Buying & cashing Certificates of Deposit is something it seemed like we did all of the time back then. … Continue reading The Savings Rate Game
I just read an interesting study on the risks & worries of retirement. That is, what do people worry about happening in retirement compared with what are the real risks? The news is good. Even though the volatility of the markets going up & down make the headlines each week, the actual biggest risk is living longer than you expect: Living longer than you expected … Continue reading The Risks of Retirement
It’s hard to believe that we are well into Year 3 of the CV19 pandemic. While cases & fatalities are about the same as this time last year, the lead headlines have moved onto the economy – particularly inflation and unemployment. The jobs situation is a bit of a question mark to me. The unemployment rate is very low, mostly as a function of less … Continue reading Pandemic Impact on Early Retirement
A few weeks ago, I published an article about the financial surprise of big repairs and expenses around the house. In the comments, regular reader, Thom, mentioned that he forecasts and accrues for these ‘personal capital expenditures’ – which can occur over years and decades – on an annual basis. The key to his approach is a spreadsheet that lists all of the major components … Continue reading Accruing For Home Repairs – Spreadsheet Download
Earlier this week, my oldest brother announced to his organization that he will be retiring next February. He’s the top dog at his company, so he needed to give his board plenty of notice to plan for a leadership transition. It’s is exciting news for him and it will be a big lifestyle change. I often joke that I didn’t find out how truly Type … Continue reading Preparing For Takeoff
It’s hard for folks to decide when to make the jump into retirement, so I was intrigued by a recent question on earlyretirement.org asking folks if they wish they would have retired earlier or worked a bit longer? About 65 people answered the question and I tallied the results below (taking out a few responses of people who weren’t retired yet) … – 36% said … Continue reading Earlier, Longer, Just Right?
Gas prices have gone up more than a $1 a gallon since last June, when I wrote this article about rising gas prices. Prices are up almost $2.25 in the last 18 months (+107%), according to GasBuddy.com tracking. Yikes. Last June, I estimated that each $1/gallon fuel rise was costing me an additional $1.7k/year, so now I guess we are more than double that … … Continue reading What To Do About Gas Prices?
If you are working, you might as well take off an hour early on Friday. As you can see from the chart, wage growth is now lagging price inflation. The 2.4 pt gap equals about an hour’s work against a 40 work week. I’m guessing millions of younger workers are coming to the hard realization that wages don’t generally keep up with rapid inflation. Employers … Continue reading Take Off Early On Friday
Monday’s post about retirement benchmarks by age generated a lot of discussion. I think we all agree that few Americans have the sense to challenge our dubious cultural assumptions when it comes to personal finance. It also caused me to look back on this post from 2017 when I did the math on how quickly one could retire by saving HALF of their income …. … Continue reading ‘50% Rule’ Revisited
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