When I started this blog back in 2015, the concept of FIRE – Financially Independent & Retired Early – was relatively new. Over a decade later, perhaps the bloom is off the flame. Someone recently asked AI ChatGPT to “roast the FIRE movement” and the perceptions are pretty cutting. Since AI basically scrapes data from across the internet and presents it back in an organized … Continue reading Bloom Is Off The FIRE Flame?
I ran across this chart from Business Insider this week and thought I would share it. I’m not sure the actual veracity of the research that went into the “according to science” claim, but it seems reasonable. I have heard before that “life satisfaction” is U-shaped. It’s high when you are young (listed here as 23 years old) and again when you are older (69 … Continue reading Peak Performance …
The housing market has done quite a flip in the first half of 2025 and we’ve gotten caught up in it. Our rental townhouse is still sitting unsold after almost 90 days on the market. After several years of low real estate inventory, homes for sale have started to surge as buyers have disappeared. This chart from Redfin shows the issue … Even as more … Continue reading Where Have All The Buyers Gone?
It’s good to see the stock market trending up after the chaos of the initial Trump tariff actions this year. The S&P 500 today sits up +2.6% from where it started the year. Still, I’m not quite sure how to read my portfolio. The bond side of our holdings are flat, but the US Dollar – which all of these investments are enumerated in – … Continue reading Investment Returns vs Dollar Strength
Drone photography has been a completely unexpected hobby of mine in early retirement. I keep my DJI Mavic Air 2 in the back of my Jeep and have enjoyed taking it with me on road trips all over the Midwest. It takes some amazing pictures. It flies 400’ up, has a 48 megapixel camera, and does video at 60 frames per second, just like Hollywood. … Continue reading Flying Under The Wire?
The simplest route to FIRE (being financially independent & retired early) is to spend less than you make. That is, simply put … to SAVE. Unfortunately, Americans have never been good savers. I last lamented on this in April 2020, at the start of the pandemic lockdowns. We were told that Americans were such poor savers that the pandemic required the government to bail everyone … Continue reading Personal Savings Rate Update
We went to a high school graduation party on Saturday night for our neighbor’s son. Grad parties are a really big deal in Minnesota in late-May & early-June. We have another one next weekend. At this grad party, a neighbor and I were talking about kids and how to effectively launch them into the world of adult finances. He has one daughter graduating now and … Continue reading Launching Graduates
I saw this interesting short reel online this week which related exactly to my own fitness activity. The author of the video, Dan Buettner, wrote the Blue Zones books and a newsletter called Eating to 100. Link: Three Sports, Dan Buettner Instagram On Sunday, we went for a long bike ride, on Monday I played pickleball, on Tuesday I played disc golf with friends, and … Continue reading Sports to Live Longer
If you are a certain age, you might have carried a Franklin Day Planner with you to meetings like I did. Before Smartphones, these zippered, leather-backed, “monarch-sized” portfolios were essential to MegaCorp life. I would get to work early and dutifully plot out my objectives for the day. I especially enjoyed seeing the daily quote that accompanied each page. How long ago that seems now! … Continue reading Quotable Financial Quotes
We’ve had a busy couple weeks here in MN, despite a run of bad weather. My summer schedule of yard work, biking, pickleball, tennis and waterfall hiking are already in full swing. I’m also a bit sore from too much doing! My wife heard on the radio that most people stop working out at about age 49. We’re in our late 50s, so that statistic … Continue reading Staying Fit … By Age Group
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