I recently had my SUV in the shop for some warranty work and they gave me a small sport sedan as a ‘loaner’ car for the morning. My SUV isn’t huge – and we use it as our family hauler – but I wondered out loud how much better a smaller vehicle might be for gas mileage. The technician added, “for the environment, too”. Here’s … Continue reading The Added Everyday Costs Of Driving An SUV
I like to scan the forums over on earlyretirement.org and sometimes I’ll even tally up up responses to a post to measure how people respond to certain questions. Recently someone provocatively asked “Are you still an athlete?” It drew a lot of comments so I went through them to see what other early retirees are doing athletically … Running was the most popular activity by … Continue reading Are You Still An Athlete?
File this phenomenon under the heading ‘I Don’t Get It’. Parents are now going into debt to fund their kids sports and extracurricular activities because they believe that the skills will help them earn more money some day. What? The recent survey from LendingTree.com, shows that 8 out of 10 of today’s parents believe that the money they spend on sports (30%), music (16%), dance … Continue reading Debt Spending On Kids Sports?
When our son turned 21 last year, he cracked that it was probably the last ‘big birthday’ number he would be excited to reach. I asked “How about age 100?!” Reaching age 100 is a mark that most people would aspire to reach, but it is exceedingly rare. Only about 0.02% of Americans have reached that age, although a recent AIG study / ad campaign … Continue reading Saving To Live To 100?
Good old MegaCorp is having a tough old time. After some really strong performance over the last 18-24 months, they have gotten themselves into a bit of a knot lately. Yesterday, the company reported sales & profits dropped, they reduced full-year investor guidance (even though it’s only Q1), and are slashing 2,000 jobs around the world. I connected with a few former colleagues and it … Continue reading Another Knot At MegaCorp
One of the many ‘rules’ most financial experts advise is saving for your own retirement before saving for your kids’ post-secondary education. The idea is like when you are on a plane – you should put on your own oxygen mask before helping your little ones with theirs. The curiously paradoxical thing about this financial advice is that no one I have ever met seems … Continue reading Save For Retirement Before College?
The colorful and entertaining Callan ‘Periodic Table’ was recently updated with 2018 market results. It tracks the investment returns of key indices over the past two decades. The most recent year – the 20th in the chart – was challenging. As you can see, cash was king and few investments posted positive returns. I have often referred to the chart as “fascinating, but useless” because … Continue reading The Dumbest Investment Chart
This is the third (and longest) in a series of Anniversary posts marking three years since we embarked on our FIRE lifestyle (financially independent & retired early) back in 2016 … In my experience talking with people, the first considerations people have when thinking about early retirement are primarily FINANCIAL. You want to feel good about your nest egg, investments, and spending. Next is your … Continue reading Third FIRE Anniversary (3) – Go Your Own Way
We went from sunny and 68-degrees on Tuesday this week to an 8 inch snowstorm in just 24 hours this week. That’s life in Minnesota. As I was shoveling snow off the front porch this morning, I found a lawn service flyer on the handle of my door. I have always mowed my own lawn – sometimes with help from my wife & son. We … Continue reading Lawn Mowing Savings = 1 Year Of Work!
This is the second April post in a three-part series focused on our third anniversary since reaching FIRE (financial independence & retiring early). Last week’s post focused on the FINANCIAL aspects of early retirement from this Life Wheel, this week I’ll focus on the three SOCIAL dimensions: Family/Friends, Love/Romance, and Giving/Teaching. My goal in this series is to answer the most common question I get … Continue reading Third FIRE Anniversary (2) – Social Life
MrFireStation 