I love the change of seasons from month-to-month in Minnesota. Winter, spring, summer, or fall – there are always unique and interesting things to do that capture the spirit of the season. Over the last few years of early retirement, November has become ‘hunting season’ for me – hunting through antique shops for vintage, Shiny Brite ornaments from the 1940s – 1950s. These vintage treasures … Continue reading Shiny Brite ‘Hunting Season’
A MegaCorp friend and I are trying to plan a happy hour to catch up, but as is often the case for many these days, she is stuck getting ready for a ‘big meeting’. I can easily remember the meeting-to-meeting work life of MegaCorp and how I might go to 8, 9, or 10 meetings in a day. In between small meetings, I would be … Continue reading Pointless Meetings Are ‘Therapy’?
I sent this picture of a Porsche Cayman S with a ‘NO KIDS’ license plate to my MegaCorp boss a few years ago. He’s a Porsche guy and he and his wife don’t have kids of their own. His reply was insightful … “One wife, too!” I wouldn’t recommend making significant life decisions based purely on dollar and cents, but that doesn’t mean that many … Continue reading No Kids? One Wife?
We were recently traveling in Europe with some good friends and came across a number of these Renaissance town clocks that featured only one big hand. They have 12 hours like every other clock, but they lack a little hand to point to the exact minute between the hours. My friend just retired about five months ago and we first noticed one of these clocks … Continue reading Big Hand Only Lifestyle
Everyone knows that Friday is the BEST day of the work week, but I have always contended that Tuesday – not Monday – is the worst. My son seems to be starting to agree with me because while he limits himself to only one cup of coffee a day, on Tuesday, it’s ‘Two Cup Tuesday’. I drink coffee, but seems a perfect day for … Continue reading Not Monday – Two Cup Tuesday
I have to admit that I wasn’t interested in buying anything on Amazon’s Prime Day, until I saw the highlights of the deals they have. Now there are all kinds of things that seem interesting to me for the big ‘Christmas in July’ sale. Related: Amazon Prime Day Deals Even though we are on vacation, I might take a break from the California sunshine and … Continue reading Prime Deals on Prime Days?
File this phenomenon under the heading ‘I Don’t Get It’. Parents are now going into debt to fund their kids sports and extracurricular activities because they believe that the skills will help them earn more money some day. What? The recent survey from LendingTree.com, shows that 8 out of 10 of today’s parents believe that the money they spend on sports (30%), music (16%), dance … Continue reading Debt Spending On Kids Sports?
This is the second April post in a three-part series focused on our third anniversary since reaching FIRE (financial independence & retiring early). Last week’s post focused on the FINANCIAL aspects of early retirement from this Life Wheel, this week I’ll focus on the three SOCIAL dimensions: Family/Friends, Love/Romance, and Giving/Teaching. My goal in this series is to answer the most common question I get … Continue reading Third FIRE Anniversary (2) – Social Life
The media and politicians love to plant the seeds of discord between generations. Younger generations are alternately presented as either victims of the current power structure, and/or helplessly unprepared or unwilling to live in the “real world “. I have found that nothing is further from the truth. Younger generations tend to be smarter, more diligent, and better prepared for the futures than the generations … Continue reading Millennials May Prove To Be The Best Generation With Their Finances
Since it’s the very last day of 2018, I thought I would simply recap the top articles in terms of readership that were posted here this year. It’s amazing to see the thousands and thousands of visitors coming to the site every month and not be thankful that the unusual lifestyle decisions that we have made for ourselves are now encouraging others to follow a … Continue reading New Year’s Eve – Top Articles 2018
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