Last weekend I was on a strange quest to capture a great photo of this new Viking River Cruise ship that docked in Minnesota for the first time. It’s a new 350 passenger vessel that will sail between St. Paul and New Orleans, giving folks a taste of life on the Mighty Mississippi. Why did I care? I’m not sure, but I will tell you … Continue reading The Great Chase
The pictures above show the beautiful 3-bedroom condo that we booked for 11-nights in January on New Smyrna Beach, FL. It looked like a fantastic place, but it was a bit of a splurge at $391/night. Since it was right on the beach, was pet-friendly, and had a lot of room, I figured it was worth the price. I thought we could host some friends … Continue reading Fees, Fees, Fees: Damn You VRBO!
If I had only paid more attention to my own behavior, I would probably be a much better investor. I noticed on the Amazon website that it lists your annual orders under the ‘purchase history’ feature. My own use of Amazon seems to mirror their stock performance. As I jumped from just 3-5 orders a year to over 100, their stock shot from $12 a … Continue reading Amazon Explosion
Our roofing project has become the job from Hell. They were set to start last Monday and we were told it would take ONE DAY to finish, although it would be a long day. Then it was TWO days. Then THREE days. Then FOUR. Now, we’ve had more than a WEEK of project delays, bad weather, poor time management, and a frightening safety issue (no … Continue reading ‘HOUSE RULES’ for Contractors
The roofers are working on our house today. They started yesterday, but since it’s a pretty big roof, they think it’s going to take the until 8pm on Friday to finish up. See how big it is …?! To say, “thanks” to the hard working crew of 7, I’ve been bribing them with cold beverages during the day and doughnuts & orange juice this morning. … Continue reading This Is A Job For Doughnuts
Facebook seems to have my number this year. In the past, I could never figure out why they were targeting their advertising toward me with odd and irrelevant products. For a company that supposedly has more data on our interests and habits, it didn’t seem like they really paid any attention to it. This year they’ve got me hooked on a steady diet of ads … Continue reading Shopping For Nonsense
We’ve had a lovely time staying at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island this week. It was a terrific place to spend our anniversary and the weather was fantastic. The Victorian island experience here with no cars – only carriages & bicycles to get around – is really enchanting. As I wrote recently, staying at this hotel has long been one of my wife’s Bucket … Continue reading Midwestern Getaways
Yesterday would have been my 33rd Anniversary of working, if I hadn’t pulled the plug on MegaCorp 6 years ago. I first worked downtown Minneapolis for The Pillsbury Company. Monday, August 14, 1989 is an important date that I will always remember. Today, August 15th, my son is having a milestone date, too. He’s starting a new job with the second-largest company in the world, … Continue reading First Day at GigaCorp
I just read an interesting study on the risks & worries of retirement. That is, what do people worry about happening in retirement compared with what are the real risks? The news is good. Even though the volatility of the markets going up & down make the headlines each week, the actual biggest risk is living longer than you expect: Living longer than you expected … Continue reading The Risks of Retirement
It’s hard to believe that we are well into Year 3 of the CV19 pandemic. While cases & fatalities are about the same as this time last year, the lead headlines have moved onto the economy – particularly inflation and unemployment. The jobs situation is a bit of a question mark to me. The unemployment rate is very low, mostly as a function of less … Continue reading Pandemic Impact on Early Retirement
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