I love the change of seasons from month-to-month in Minnesota. Winter, spring, summer, or fall – there are always unique and interesting things to do that capture the spirit of the season. Over the last few years of early retirement, November has become ‘hunting season’ for me – hunting through antique shops for vintage, Shiny Brite ornaments from the 1940s – 1950s. These vintage treasures … Continue reading Shiny Brite ‘Hunting Season’
A MegaCorp friend and I are trying to plan a happy hour to catch up, but as is often the case for many these days, she is stuck getting ready for a ‘big meeting’. I can easily remember the meeting-to-meeting work life of MegaCorp and how I might go to 8, 9, or 10 meetings in a day. In between small meetings, I would be … Continue reading Pointless Meetings Are ‘Therapy’?
The S&P 500 is up a whopping +24.4% so far in 2019 and many investors are feeling giddy. Despite tariffs, politics, and slow growth in Asia & EU, the American economy continues to chug along. Hooray for growth! It’s not hard to forget that people were quite pessimistic coming into the year. Goldman Sachs had predicted markets to only be up “modestly” in 2019, with … Continue reading Financial Markets Check-In
When we first reached ‘millionaire status’ I was pretty excited. As I wrote later, while our inflationary world doesn’t mean we live like Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, or other millionaires of old, it still put us in the top 0.56% of the world, in terms of wealth. Related: FIRE Milestones – Reaching Millionaire Status I hope it’s not too crass to compare oneself to see where one … Continue reading Historical Millionaires, Billionaires, and Trillionaires
I’ve written before about the fun of going on weekly ‘field trips’ and checking out a museum or taking a behind-the-scenes tour. One of the benefits of a FIRE lifestyle is having the time to go experience – and learn about things – you wouldn’t have had time for when you were working. Today, I’m taking a very literal ‘field trip’ down to Iowa and … Continue reading Fall Field Trip
If you are like me, you sometimes see articles in the personal finance press about people who are very young – in their 30s and 40s – who have quit their jobs and declared themselves FIRE’d (financially independent & retired early). Recently, ABC’s Good Morning America ran this piece on a couple who retired very young and the ‘secret strategies’ they want to share with … Continue reading How Long Can FIRE Last?
Whether it is the last day of your work week or you are on a permanent weekend like me, check out the infectious JOY that this guy has for the weekend in this SHORT video! I wouldn’t have this much energy after eating a large bowl of leftover Halloween candy … Link: MUFASA FRIDAY VIDEO Have a great weekend … now, or forever! Continue reading It’s Friday!
I’m not sure why I thought this was a good idea, but I ‘bet myself’ $1,000 in imaginary money this past week on all 14 NFL games, 3 NHL games, 2 NBA games, and all 5 games (so far) of the World Series. It’s a great time of year for sports, so I thought I would see if – on paper – I might have … Continue reading Sports Betting Experiment
I worked for three companies during the course of my career. I spent 12 years at the first, was ‘acquired’ by the second (where I spent another 12 years), and capped off my career at the third (for 3 years). All three were large, multinational ‘MegaCorps’ and blue-chip companies. Even though it’s been almost 4 years since I wound down my last days at my … Continue reading Tracking MegaCorp Performance
I sent this picture of a Porsche Cayman S with a ‘NO KIDS’ license plate to my MegaCorp boss a few years ago. He’s a Porsche guy and he and his wife don’t have kids of their own. His reply was insightful … “One wife, too!” I wouldn’t recommend making significant life decisions based purely on dollar and cents, but that doesn’t mean that many … Continue reading No Kids? One Wife?
