I find that regardless of your political leanings, people continually frustrated by wasted government spending and what it means for the national debt. The debt, which was a trillion dollars in Reagan’s time, is now about $20T (it has risen at a shocking 8.4% annual clip). Despite today’s quote, Reagan himself substantially overspent during his 8 years in office. Fast forward to today and our … Continue reading US Government’s Wasteful Spending Problem
This is the third book that I am recommending to folks that are interested in a great personal finance book to get someone for the holidays. It’s another book on my bookshelf that I consider to be a classic – and probably the last book I’ll have the chance to write about before Christmas this weekend. Affluenza: How Overconsumption Is Killing Us And How To … Continue reading Holiday Gift Book Recommendation – Affluenza: How Overconsumption Is Killing Us
The next book that I wanted to suggest as part of my holiday gift series for people looking to buy something for someone interested in personal finance or reaching FIRE, is The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko. It is definitely one of the top books on my personal finance bookshelf, which probably has more than 30 books on it in all. … Continue reading Holiday Gift Book Recommendation – The Millionaire Next Door
Since it is the holidays and some people are looking for gift ideas, I thought I would write a couple of short recommendations on personal finance books that really helped us on our way to financial independence and retiring early (FIRE). Don’t worry, this isn’t some online scam to have you click through to Amazon and line my pockets. I just wanted to share some … Continue reading Holiday Gift Book Recommendation: Making The Most Of Your Money
Look at these two questions used in a new study (of 3,000 people) of people approaching retirement and think about how you might answer them … 1. You just learned that you are due a tax refund. If you’d like, you can get the $1,000 refund right away. Alternatively, you can get a $1,100 refund in 10 months. Which do you prefer? 2. You just … Continue reading ‘Marshmallow Test’ For Early Retirement
With the Presidential election behind us and a new one-party led government in Washington DC, it is likely we will see much more change on economic policies than we seen in almost a decade. I’m excited to see if the new President and Congress take action on some of the four areas outlined in my pre-election post earlier this week. I included this quote from … Continue reading Free To Choose – Economist Milton Friedman
Today is the day that our only child leaves for his freshman year of college. It’s a big day that we’ve been looking toward since we brought him home as a newborn baby more than eighteen years ago. It is with deeply mixed feelings that we send him off – happy to see him growing and getting to do amazing things, but also sorry to … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Learning Independence
With Independence Day, it is hard not to see the parallels between what the Founding Fathers fought for as a nation and what we all fight for in our lives … FREEDOM. As it says in the Declaration of Independence, we “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ——” These are the … Continue reading Freedom – For Our Nation, For Ourselves
It is amazing to me that this is the 200th post I have made on MrFireStation.com since launching the site 18 months ago. I started the blog as a way to capture my journey to early retirement and share the experience with others. I hoped to meet some like-minded strangers and have a place for close friends to get the low-down on my secret escape … Continue reading 200th Post
One of the benefits of early retirement is that you have extra time to look back and reflect on your life. I have already an intense habit of this and have always spent a fair amount of time researching and remembering “days gone by”. It’s a curious trait. I have read that in the early 1900s, ‘nostalgia’ was actually classified as a form of depression. … Continue reading Retirement Reminiscing – My Old School
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