My uncle posted this cute ‘copy & paste” on Facebook a few days ago. I don’t know who wrote it, but they did a wonderful job capturing the craziness of 2020 and our collective hope going forward. It doesn’t really have anything to do with financial planning or early retirement, but I thought I would share it here anyways. I hope to look back on … Continue reading Christmas COVID 2020
The writers at Kiplinger’s sometimes talk about retirement in three phases: the ‘go-go’ years, the ‘slow-go’ years, and the ‘no-go’ years. The phases relate to how capable people are to travel, take on new hobbies, and lead an active lifestyle. They break out the ages like this: ⁃ Go-Go Years: Ages 65-75 ⁃ Slow-Go Years: Ages 76-85 ⁃ No-Go Years: 86-100 It makes sense when … Continue reading When Does ‘Go-Go’ Become ‘Slow-Go’?
I don’t understand the stock market anymore and in the short term, I’ve decided to give up. As the Dow Jones bounces around 30,000 and the Schiller S&P 500 PE sits above 33 (average is 16), nothing makes sense to me. We are still in a global pandemic – the economic fallout of which isn’t fully understood yet – aren’t we? I called our financial … Continue reading Cashing Out From Confusion
The holidays are the giving season for charitable organizations, and if you are like us, your mailbox is overflowing with requests. We split up our charitable giving among causes that are close to us and ones that do good in the world at large. One of the challenges we have is weighing the relative impact our dollars can have on causes that are distant and … Continue reading Holiday Charitable Giving – Where To Focus?
It has been an interesting year for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin just topped its all-time high this week at almost $20,000 – up 1.6x from last year at this time. The private, all-digital currency still has its skeptics, but it is getting broader acceptance among financial services companies and institutional investors. The pandemic may be remembered as Bitcoin’s coming of age. I wondered back in April if … Continue reading Bitcoin’s Coming Of Age?
Is there anyone more interesting & successful in the business world right now than Elon Musk? Really – I am in awe of this guy and all he is accomplishing. The sad thing, is that I bet ‘against’ him three years ago and can’t believe how wrong I was. For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, Musk is flipping 4 entire industries on … Continue reading The Worst Stock Bet I Ever Made
Well, it’s Thanksgiving week and I’m not really sure what I should be doing. I’m not one to get bored, I just don’t know where I should spend my time. Normally at this point of the year, I’m spending time getting our Christmas tree up (2019 picture above), putting white lights up outside, shopping for the Thanksgiving turkey, and making plans for the friends/neighbors party … Continue reading Thanksgiving & Holiday Lockdown
Late at night on Halloween a notification came through on my watch that didn’t make sense: a PayPal billing alert. It said that I had a charge from eBay for $71. I buy a lot of things oddball things on eBay, but I couldn’t recall anything quite that expensive. When I looked, I saw a I had paid a recurring fee to eBay for 5 … Continue reading Paying Attention?
Last week I reached another milestone in my early retirement journey. I called the MegaCorp HR Service Center – for the first time in years – and started the enrollment process for retiree benefits. In 2021, I will turn 55 and become eligible to start tapping into the retirement benefits that I accrued over the course of my career. I worked at this MegaCorp for … Continue reading Ringing Up MegaCorp
A MegaCorp colleague that I’m friends with on Facebook just posted that she had reached her 39th work anniversary. Amazing – 39 years! I was a bit surprised as I thought she had retired soon after I did. Her & her husband had moved to Florida, so I figured she had moved on. Apparently she is just working ‘remotely’ at the job she … Continue reading Colleagues Clocking Forward
