Our wonderful neighbors invited us to a fantastic concert on Saturday night at the enormous Minnesota Vikings stadium in Minneapolis. George Strait, Chris Stapleton, and Little Big Town played as a huge triple act in front of over 50K fans. The stadium was filled to the rafters! It was the second big stadium concert we’ve done in that many weeks. A few weeks ago, we … Continue reading Tuned Up For Concerts
Monday’s post about retirement benchmarks by age generated a lot of discussion. I think we all agree that few Americans have the sense to challenge our dubious cultural assumptions when it comes to personal finance. It also caused me to look back on this post from 2017 when I did the math on how quickly one could retire by saving HALF of their income …. … Continue reading ‘50% Rule’ Revisited
When I was starting in my career, it wasn’t clear to me how much we should have saved in our twenties & thirties. This was before the Internet and there was a real dearth of useful information available. Recently, my former MegaCorp Boss sent me an interesting article from Quicken that shared the median retirement savings and savings goals decade by decade for Americans. I … Continue reading Retirement Savings – Benchmarks & Goals
I decluttered my closet about a year after retiring early, but kept some of my ‘execu-wardrobe’ for board meetings and special occasions. Then the pandemic hit and I stopped dressing up for much of anything. I just needed to put a collared shirt on over my fleece pajama pants when I was on Zoom. Related: Fuzzy FIRE Lifestyle Related: FIRE Station FUN – Decluttering Work … Continue reading Dress-Up Wardrobe Update
Once, two of my brothers skipped elementary school to “play hooky”. They left home, but instead of going to school, they went to the park. After they were playing on the playground equipment for a while, the younger brother said, “where are all the other kids?” “Other kids?” the older one replied. “Yeah – doesn’t it take a lot of kids to play the game … Continue reading Where Are All The Other Kids?
Someone recently asked online how much cash or other ‘safe/liquid’ investments did people carry into early retirement as a buffer against a market downturn. It’s an important decision to make heading into retirement and it was the final financial preparation we put into place ourselves. About 3 years before I left MegaCorp, we started accumulating a pile of cash equal to 3 years of spending. … Continue reading Benchmarking: Cash / CD Buffer
Our Riley is turning out to be a pretty good pupper, but he is a lot of work. He’s a social guy and loves to play and take walks. Thankfully, he’s not the ‘devil dog’ he was when he was little (3-4 months) … although he still has his moments. Over 70% of Americans have a pet of some sort – mostly dogs (60% of … Continue reading Healthy Pupper, Riley
My all-star softball friends Russ & Mike had me along on a couple of very long bike rides the last couple weeks. Each ride averaged about 25 miles as we pedaled through the city, stopping at pubs & taverns along the way. Related: A Year In Beer – Dive Bar Tuesday For the last 3 years they have been doing this. Biking throughout Minneapolis & … Continue reading Pedals & Pubs
I saw this picture online and it made me think of how much we have changed as a society. Do you remember when we used to go to the grocery store and people weren’t wearing pajamas? It has been a while hasn’t it? I haven’t gotten that bad with my fashions in early retirement yet, although I am much more casual. In the summer, I … Continue reading Remember When …?
Here, I’ll say it: I would be willing to pay more taxes. Surprised? Well, there’s a catch. I’ll be willing to pay more taxes if it was combined with reduced government SPENDING to help eliminate federal debt. That’s a small ‘catch’ for ordinary Americans balancing their own checkbooks, but a seemingly impossible catch for politicians. I’m honestly amazed at the amount of taxes the Democrats … Continue reading Tax Increases
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