Like many early retirees, I worked ‘One More Year’ (OMY) beyond what I had originally planned. I was enjoying work and I had an idea to work OMY exclusively to raise money for a charitable fund. It was an idea that I originally wrote about three years ago in this POST. When I did leave MegaCorp for the final time, we had set aside my … Continue reading One More Year / Angel Fund Update
My friend that snowbirds in Florida during the Winter came back to MN a few weeks ago. We are now three tennis matches and three softball games into early summer. The activities we enjoy each week are inevitably capped with a cold refreshment and often with a visit to a new restaurant/pub. We’ve been to 30+ different places over the past few years! We were … Continue reading Hazy Recollection of MegaCorp
It’s been almost a year since I published my initial post on cryptocurrencies and I thought it would be a good time to provide an update on how our foray into this Wild West of personal finance has advanced – and what I’ve come to believe about their benefits and the confusion around them. PORTFOLIO STATUS If you read the headlines, you may believe that … Continue reading Update – Is Bitcoin a Bust or Bounty?
This weekend is the annual city garage sale in our suburb where the Lion’s Club organizes hundreds of sales as a fundraiser. Yesterday morning there were charter buses, 12 passenger vans, and pickups loaded with stuff bought at these sales all around the city. Related: Garage Sales – Our Old Crap Can Be Your New Crap We have good friends from college that have made … Continue reading Finding FIRE at Garage Sales
I got an email from a friend from high school recently asking how our early retirement financials are holding up since it has been two years since our FIRE escape. He wanted to know if we were trending over or under our projections. Stated another way, he said “I want to know if I can retire!” 🙂 After reading his note, I realized that I … Continue reading Second FIRE Anniversary – Financial Tracking Update
“Uh oh.” That’s what I texted to my wife after I dropped the glass soap dispenser into the bowl of our powder room sink. I was just finished wiping the granite countertop off when the soap dispenser slipped out of my hand and smashed the porcelain bowl. Unlike most of my family, I don’t recall anyone ever calling me handy around the house. I always … Continue reading A New Job In Early Retirement
It’s finally looking like Spring in Minnesota, although we haven’t had any rain yet. Folks on a journey to FIRE know to set aside money for a rainy day, but the great majority of people do not carry a big enough umbrella insurance. That is, an umbrella policy that pays for liability judgements above the limits of your existing auto & home insurance policies. Umbrella … Continue reading Umbrella Coverage – Protect Your Nest Egg
My former boss from MegaCorp recently posted an interesting article from the Wall Street Journal titled “In Defense of the Not-So-Busy Retirement.” After retiring a year ago this month, Mr. Boss commented that he was having no problem embracing the idea of ‘Slow Retirement’ touched on in the article – that is, a retirement where one doesn’t succumb to the social pressure that one needs … Continue reading FIRE Lifestyle – Where Does The Time Go?
I’ve written several times about luxury cars being a guilty pleasure of ours. I’ve also written about my aversion to subscription-based payment schemes. So why am I so delighted with our monthly car wash subscription at the local gas station? Our monthly car wash subscription costs $30. That’s the equivalent of 2.7 ‘Works’ washes at our local station. $12 for each car wash seems ridiculously … Continue reading Taken To The Cleaners With Car Washes?
Its hard to believe that I’ve been writing this blog 2-3x a week for over 3 years. I started it more than a year before I retired and now that milestone is two years in the rear view mirror. I’ve enjoyed sharing this journey and appreciated all of the recent positive comments, messages, tweets, and emails readers passed on during the ‘Two Year FIRE Anniversary’ … Continue reading Birthday From From MegaCorp Past
