You’ve probably already read that Jimmy Buffett passed away this weekend at the age of 76. A lot has been written about Buffett, but I thought I would add a few words on his music and philosophy on life and how it relates positively to our early retirement lifestyle. I’ve mentioned Buffett quite a few times in my posts and feel like I’ve learned a … Continue reading Jimmy Buffett Lifestyle Legacy
The pandemic seems to have changed a lot about the workplace & retirement, but one thing it hasn’t changed is the average age of retirement. The Gallup organization tracks the age at which people retire annually and for 2022, it remained constant at 61 years old. It’s been 61 every year but one (62 in 2020) since 2016. If you look farther back in history, … Continue reading Later & Later Now?
There’s increasing pressure on raising retirement ages in the world. Many countries are moving in the direction of raising the retirement age used for their national pensions. Other countries are pretending that their national programs are robust & funded appropriately just the way things are, but they math isn’t in their favor. In the USA, Republican candidate, Nikki Haley, is calling for Social Security reforms … Continue reading Where Are We Heading With National Retirement Ages?
The annual State Fair is a big event here in Minnesota. It is regularly voted the country’s ‘Best State Fair’ and over 2.2 million crowd the fairgrounds on 12 days busy each year. Among the colorful carnival rides, popular grandstand shows, and greasy food-on-a-stick, the fairgrounds have a dozen buildings where Minnesotans compete for ribbons in hundreds of creative, horticultural, and agricultural events. I’ve always … Continue reading Another Quirky Award
President Biden ordered his cabinet secretaries to “aggressively execute” plans for federal employees to “work more in the office” earlier this month. Axios reported that about 75% of federal office space is currently sitting empty, despite Biden pledging that “the vast majority of federal workers will again work in-person” in his State of the Union Address almost two years ago. The federal government lags private … Continue reading Investors: Back To The Office!
It has now been three years since I purchased my e-bike. It continues to be a fun toy that I use more and more. Recently, I reached the milestone of 1000 miles on the new bike. I’m now up to 1,065 miles. The ‘acceleration’ in my usage has been remarkable. My mileage for the last three years looks like this: 200 miles, 400 miles, 450miles. … Continue reading e-Bike Summer
Every few days, a message will appear in my email box from someone looking for help on a consulting project. When I first retired, I’d do dozens of these in a year for as much as $500/hour. Many of them led to extended contracts. Lately, however, I hardly respond to them at all, other than to say “thanks for thinking of me.” The issue with … Continue reading Dialing Out Of Consulting
Since Roman times, they have described August as the “Dog Days” of Summer. Our little pupper, Riley, hasn’t gotten the message. When it is hot or humid outside, he prefers to stay inside … snoozing where it’s nice and cool. On Tuesday this week, I was up early to take him for a walk. The heat of the day had not settled in yet, so … Continue reading Outside … From Dawn To Dusk
A friend who bought a new boat recently quipped, “if money doesn’t make you happy you aren’t spending it right.” Until recently, scientists debated that point, claiming that happiness topped out at about $75K/year in income. That’s now changing. New research suggests that more money makes you more happy up to well over $500K/year. That’s a big difference and seems to make a lot more … Continue reading Money & Happiness Reconsidered
One thing I don’t write a lot about in this blog is how I write this blog. I started it back in January 2015, when I was 15 months from executing my FIRE Escape. I began sharing since I didn’t see a lot of detailed, first-hand accounts of people that had reached financial independence & retired early and was craving information like that for myself. … Continue reading Blog Milestone …
