Well, I blew it. I crashed my drone into a tree last week. It fell about 30 feet after shaking loose from the tree and the camera gimbal got damaged. It still flies, but you can’t really take pictures with it anymore. It was the second time I crashed it. The first time, it landed in soft snow and still worked fine. It’s a pretty … Continue reading Down & Out Drone
We had quite the “to-do” list when we got back to Minnesota from our Winter Summerland adventures in Florida last month. We don’t usually keep a list, but we had an unusual number of important things to get done. We got our bills paid (a few a bit late), helped our son move into the new townhouse, helped my father-in-law with estate documents, decluttered/organized a … Continue reading To-Do’s and Taxes
A friend posted a picture of her grandmother celebrating her 103rd birthday this week – that’s some milestone! Since my birthday is also in April, I got to thinking about the odds of reaching three digits. I found this interesting online calculator that gives you an estimate of your likelihood to reach the century mark: livingto100.org. The doctor who hosts it – Doctor Thomas Perls … Continue reading Birthday Calculator
I have to shake my head when I see politicians promoting “free college” and “student loan forgiveness”. College grads are supposed to be smart & responsible, aren’t they? In my view, college students are adults and they voluntarily entered into these loans with the help of the friendly folks in the university admissions department (who try hard to disguise their job as anything but what … Continue reading Driving Away From Debt …
I’ve been worrying about periods of high inflation since I started writing these posts over seven years ago. It wasn’t until these last 12 months that my worries were matched by reality. It doesn’t help that the politicians & media pundits keep trying to put a positive spin on things. The headlines have been ridiculous: Part of the challenge is I don’t know if the … Continue reading How Fast Is Inflation Really Rising?
It’s a golden age for retirement in many ways, but especially with the internet. I’m not honestly sure I could have happily early retired before the advent of the World Wide Web. I’m not kidding. I seem to have a constant need to be plugged into some kind of information source 24/7 to keep my ADHD mind busy. Even pre-internet I was a big fan … Continue reading World Wide Boredom Buster
It’s hard for folks to decide when to make the jump into retirement, so I was intrigued by a recent question on earlyretirement.org asking folks if they wish they would have retired earlier or worked a bit longer? About 65 people answered the question and I tallied the results below (taking out a few responses of people who weren’t retired yet) … – 36% said … Continue reading Earlier, Longer, Just Right?
My son and I tuned into the Supreme Court confirmation hearings this week. We debated some of the issues that were brought up, but don’t worry, I won’t get into politics here. Instead, I wanted to comment on how surprised I was that Kentanji Brown Jackson was born in 1970. That makes her YOUNGER than me by a full 4 years! After that shock hit … Continue reading My Time Running The World …
We got back from Florida last week and instead of watching March Madness NCAA Basketball, we are up to our eyeballs in March Madness … Paperwork. It turns out that bills, taxes, and legal work doesn’t go away when you are goofing off in the Sunshine State. All of that paperwork is waiting for you when you get home! We had a large – 24” … Continue reading March Madness … Paperwork
I am learning a lot about being a landlord right now. We bought a townhome in our neighborhood last month as a place to rent to our son. He’s moving into it this weekend and I am trying to quickly figure out what we need to do. Owning a rental townhouse is a lot different than just owning a house. Even in the same neighborhood. … Continue reading Slowly Learning The Landlord Game
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