Chicago, Illinois is known as the “City of Big Shoulders”. While it is in the middle of the introverted American midwest – it thinks big and carries itself as a hardworking blue-collar city. Little cultural pretense, yet world class sights and amenities. We’ve been to Chicago many times but hadn’t been there on a family vacation for almost a decade before we went for a … Continue reading FIRE Travel – Chicago, City of Big Shoulders
Labor Day weekend brings an end to summertime and a return to work and school. While this is the second start to Autumn in which I’ve enjoyed having no job, I definitely can still relate to the ridiculousness that happens in the workplace. Instead of giving you a post this morning, I thought I would just share these work memes to get readers off to … Continue reading Summer’s Over – Back to Work
We dropped our son off at college yesterday to start his sophomore year. Naturally, I am reflective this morning about him and his adventures. He really had a productive summer. He worked part-time at a retail store and took three summer classes to get ahead on his Bachelor’s degree. My wife an I were astounded at how responsible he is. We met when we were … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Back To Campus
Before I left MegaCorp last year, I had the chance to speak with a room of 20 of our newest MBA recruits who were in a leadership development program for the company. While I was wrapping up my career, most of them were just a few years into their career. I was giving them an update on a digital marketing initiative taking place across the … Continue reading “50% Rule” To Retire In 20 Years
My closet has a big hole in it. Last weekend, while getting home from a weekend trip, I noticed how many dress shirts I have clogging my closet. I decided it was a good time to go through my former work attire and “declutter” my wardrobe. While I did some major decluttering immediately after I retired, I didn’t really touch my work clothes. … Continue reading FIRE Station FUN – Decluttering Work Clothes
The Economic Policy Institute recently published some charts focusing on the state of retirement savings among working families in the United States today. I’m not sure what they determine exactly constitutes a ‘working family’ – since most Americans live in 1 or 2 member households – but assuming the definition is reasonably broad, the data was interesting. It showed the amount of retirement savings that … Continue reading Millionaire Status in FIRE – How Does Your Savings Stack Up?
Today would have been the 28th Anniversary of the start of my career at The Pillsbury Company in Minneapolis, back in 1989. I loved working for Pillsbury and became good friends with the Pillsbury Doughboy over the years. Instead of starting the day at 7am with a sprinkled, chocolate donut (a Mr. FireStation favorite) like I did back in 1989, I will be sleeping in … Continue reading Work Anniversary – How Are Our Retirement Savings Holding Up?
Last year, when I was just early retired a few weeks, I wrote this article describing the ‘honeymoon’ period of leaving work behind. I even shared a ‘5 Stages of Retirement’ academic framework that many already-retired readers immediately called B.S. on – complaining that the sudden feeling of freedom does NOT grow old and that the honeymoon of early retirement NEVER ends! These comments came … Continue reading Still On Our FIRE Honeymoon
We were discussing college kids and getting credit cards with some friends recently and I admit I am a bit hesitant to suggest to my son that he get a credit card. He has a debit card that works just fine for him, but I guess he is not building up a credit history that can contribute to a positive credit score. Given that … Continue reading Credit Scores – Must Everyone Have One?
We are in the car market again after two years with our current fleet. Our SUV has reached the point when it is starting to require quite a few repairs and as I have written before, vehicles are a budget item that I confess to being a guilty pleasure splurge. The SUV we will sell is a 2011 model with 114K miles. We have really … Continue reading Car Shopping Framework – 7 Principles That Guide Us
