Many people think of the stock markets as being owned by fat-cat rich people like Mr. Monopoly. I recently ran across an ARTICLE on Business Insider with a great chart showing how much ownership of the $25T US market has changed over the years. You can see there has been a significant democratization of US equities with a tremendous share of company ownership in employee … Continue reading Who Owns The Stock Market?
My Sunday morning newspaper headline proclaims that “The Gun Debate Regains Sense of Crisis” and social media is filled with discussion – some thoughtful, some insipid – on what direction the country should take. One friend and MrFireStation reader is taking an interesting tack on driving the change he would like to see: eliminating any investments in his portfolio that include gun companies. Regardless of … Continue reading Do You Want Guns In Your Portfolio?
Today we have a Guest Post from Tom “FIRE” – a FI blogger who reached out to Old Mr. FireStation to see if he could share a little Millennial experience with our readers. Tom’s website is FIREdUpMillennial.com. His experience with getting too deep in credit card debt in your twenties is very familiar to my wife & I, and he offers a great approach to get out … Continue reading Guest Post: How I Saved Money on My Credit Card Debt with a Personal Loan & Lessons I Learned Along the Way
One of the things I most like about the freedom that comes with a FIRE lifestyle is the opportunity to engage in cultural events on multiple levels. While the Olympics is happening halfway around the world, I have the time to do a lot of winter sports-themed activities, rather than just watch on TV. For the Opening Ceremonies last week, my wife and I researched … Continue reading FIRE Winter Olympic Games
We had some new friends over for dinner on Saturday night and I, of course, got lots of questions about how we retired before we turned 50. The husband figured that I made some amazingly, lucky investment that paid out like we had won the lottery. He asked what our special investing strategy was and I told him I pretty much just invest in S&P … Continue reading Callan Periodic Table – Fascinating, But Useless?!
The stock market has been quite jittery over the past week, and although we keep a good amount of cash on hand, that makes me jittery, too. I don’t usually watch the market returns everyday, but when the market sinks -10.1% in a couple weeks – official counting now as a ‘market correction’ – that gets my attention. I know that the market was on … Continue reading Stock Market Jitters – Down -10%
We made it to Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis yesterday and the experience was absolutely electric. Having the NFL’s biggest event hosted in your own hometown is an incredible experience and we enjoyed all of the week’s activities – concerts, exhibits, celebrity sightings, and the big game itself (which USA Today is calling the best Super Bowl ever!). If you are a sports fan, this … Continue reading Super Bowl Indulgence & Everyday Frugality
There are a few songs that can serve as an anthem for the journey to financial independence and retiring early. “Take This Job & Shove It” comes immediately to mind, as does “Bang On The Drum All Day”. Those songs are about escaping the drudgery of work, but I think the most appropriate song for my FIRE mindset might be John Lennon’s 1980 “Watching The … Continue reading Watching The Wheels
Our son headed back to college this weekend – ending our ‘No Responsibility January’ – and starting his Spring Semester. Among other things, this means we need to call our insurance agent this morning and take the car insurance off the vehicle that he drives when he is home. Car insurance runs about $900 annually for the 2004 Acura TSX that he drives when he … Continue reading Car Insurance Rising Fast
They say on a large, international flight – maybe only one passenger in first class is paying full fare. The rest are on award tickets, big corporate discounts, or upgraded from regular seats because of their frequent flyer status. I had first-class flights as an executive perk for many years at MegaCorp, but rarely had myself actually ticketed that way when I traveled. I was … Continue reading Easy Credit Card Travel Hacking Success
MrFireStation 