Do I stick to a budget? No, I don’t even have a budget anymore. I’ve become completely un-analytical in retirement. I used to be good at it. When I was working, I built complex spreadsheets to track our annual budget, our net worth, and projections of what we needed in retirement. Since retiring, much of that has gone by the wayside. I stopped tracking our … Continue reading (I Guess) We Are On Budget …
A short post for a busy Friday … When I chat with friends, I often say that when it comes to money, we all have more than we need by any global standard. We also have a higher standard of living than we would have expected growing up in the 1960s-70s-80s. Because of this, I believe that time is the ultimate luxury. Time to live … Continue reading Bob Dylan: “What’s Money?”
Internet memes get posted by the millions each day and most of them aren’t worth the time you spend looking at them. That’s why today’s post is pretty silly. I saw this dubious meme tonight and got suckered into analyzing it five different ways. There are a lot of dimensions to the claim in this meme – time, inflation, houses, cars, college – and for … Continue reading Life Was Financially Better … When?
A friend had some work done on her house recently and posted online that she was happy to see the vendor using products from the MegaCorp she recently retired from. I too continue to have some loyalty to the MegaCorp packaged goods brands I once worked on. But, it is only that … “some loyalty”. I’m not completely brand loyal just because they still send … Continue reading MegaCorp Loyalty
Our pupper, Riley, celebrated his half-year birthday recently and my wife observed that based on an online calculator, he is now 27 years old in human years. I was surprised that he is already ‘older’ than our adult son by a couple years. It’s shocking to think about how quickly the little pup is aging. As most everyone knows, dogs age at about a 7:1 … Continue reading Dog Days of Life
I’ve been booking a lot of travel recently. We’re heading to Europe in September for a biking trip and going back to Florida next winter. Between those two big trips there are a few smaller trips in the midwest. All together, I booked an amazing 91 nights away from home across the 4 trips. (71 of those were for our winter snowbird trip alone). I … Continue reading Award ‘Winning’ Travel
My son was talking to my wife and I about the power of small, positive habits in our lives. The importance of getting the basics right amid our busy lives. I had saved a Reddit thread of these exact things a few weeks ago. Over 2,000 people commented on the little changes that “made a significant difference” for them. Here they are in ranked order … Continue reading Small, Positive Habits
Independence Day week is halfway through the year and a good time to see how the markets are faring for the year. A MegaCorp colleague posted this chart showing just how strong the S&P 500 has been year-to-date … An old boss used to say, “the best way to have a good year is to anniversary a bad one” – and that might be the … Continue reading Strong First Half …
It’s been quite a few years since I commented on Independence Day. If you value the freedom and autonomy that come from reaching FIRE (financially independent & retired early), you probably have an American flag flying in front of your house this holiday weekend. Related: Freedom For Our Nation & For Ourselves Unfortunately, our government representatives are letting our economic freedoms slip. The Heritage Foundation … Continue reading Our Economic Freedom
If you follow the financial headlines, you’ll see that ESG practices are shaking up the realm of investing. ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance, and it’s all about considering sustainability and ethical factors when making investment decisions. Of course, someone has to determine what is sustainable and ethical. That’s where the rub is. Recently, three tobacco companies were judged much higher than EV darling … Continue reading ESG & Index Funds
