I read today that 85% of Americans think “the country is heading in the wrong direction.” It was from a new Associated Press survey and reflects the country’s angst with inflation, interest rates, immigration, CV19 response, and other issues. 85% – I guess the country isn’t DIVIDED anymore! 🙂 For Independence Day weekend, however, I would rather focus on what has made us SUCCESSFUL as … Continue reading Happy Economic Freedom Weekend!
They say we vote with our dollars, so I was interested when someone recently asked online, “What are you boycotting until the day you die?” The post had over 3 thousand responses, so I quickly tallied through a bunch until I had a good sense of the top ones people mentioned over & over again … The fact that many of these are the biggest … Continue reading What Are You Boycotting?
I came across this Japanese concept of ‘Ikigai’ when I was watching the Olympics last month from Tokyo. It’s a term to discussing the key dimensions of your ‘reason for being’. This graphic from the Toronto Star is a good look at it, although you will find many others on the internet as well. You can see that Ikigai represents the intersection of 4 overlapping … Continue reading Ikigai in FIRE
If you are like me, you have seen first-hand the struggle many businesses – especially restaurants – are having hiring enough employees right now. An acquaintance who owns a prestigious restaurant company in our metro area said they are so short-handed, they are running at only 50% capacity. As a result, I’ve been tipping extra since the pandemic began last year. I like restaurants and … Continue reading Eating Out & Tipping Trends
MegaCorp announced significant layoffs last week .. again. In fact, both of the Fortune 500 companies I worked for have had significant job cuts this year, despite weathering the pandemic pretty well in 2020. I am years away from the two MegaCorps now, but it is still tough to see colleagues let go after long careers. Combined, the two companies cut nearly 5K employees – … Continue reading MegaCorp Affinity Waning
Well, it’s Thanksgiving week and I’m not really sure what I should be doing. I’m not one to get bored, I just don’t know where I should spend my time. Normally at this point of the year, I’m spending time getting our Christmas tree up (2019 picture above), putting white lights up outside, shopping for the Thanksgiving turkey, and making plans for the friends/neighbors party … Continue reading Thanksgiving & Holiday Lockdown
A MegaCorp colleague that I’m friends with on Facebook just posted that she had reached her 39th work anniversary. Amazing – 39 years! I was a bit surprised as I thought she had retired soon after I did. Her & her husband had moved to Florida, so I figured she had moved on. Apparently she is just working ‘remotely’ at the job she … Continue reading Colleagues Clocking Forward
Today, our son joins the world of full-time work after graduating from college last weekend. He’s starting work in software/web development at a great company that he was an intern at last summer. Last night we were talking about the business and the fun of working on businesses challenges. I’ve been early retired for over 4 years at this point, but have always loved the … Continue reading Edgar Guest – ‘It Couldn’t Be Done’
A friend recently spent 8 hours (and a $19.95 fee) taking an online ‘Safe Driving’ program through his insurance company. It was offered to people over 55 for an $80 reduction in their annual insurance premium for a number of future years. He told me when they were in the middle of taking the class and I thought, ‘no thanks’. Not enough juice for the … Continue reading What’s Your Time Worth In Early Retirement?
We’ve discovered during the CV19 crisis that my wife and I have a different degree of devotion to emergency preparation than some other folks do. I thought we were pretty well set with our emergency prep planning from when our son was in Boy Scouts, but we’ve quickly learned we aren’t prepped nearly as well as we thought we were. Related: Emergency Preparedness for CV19 … Continue reading Stocking Up
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