I have a really nice, black leather briefcase in my closet, but I’ve basically traded it for this compact Igloo cooler over the last three years. It’s one of the unusual lifestyle ‘swaps’ that’s happened in early retirement. When I made VP/Corporate Officer at MegaCorp more than 10 years ago, I spent a few hundred dollars on my Tumi case. It was the perfect accessory … Continue reading My New Briefcase
Our son is working at a software development company this summer. It’s his first professional job and he has one more year of college before he is finished with his computer science degree. We took him out for dinner last night and asked him what he was doing for lunch each day. He said most people in his group go out for lunch every day, … Continue reading Does It Really Pay To Be Frugal For Coffee/Lunch?
Things have now come full-circle at the FIRE Station as our son left the house this morning for his first day of ‘professional’ work. He just finished his third year of college and has a summer job / internship working at a software company. It used to be that he was the kid goofing off in the summer while I went to the office, but … Continue reading “It’s Time Someone In This House Had A Job!”
More than a year before I early retired, I published my ‘Not Bored List’ – over 150 activities that I could look forward to each year in our new FIRE lifestyle. Putting it together was a bit of a confidence test of how effectively I thought I could fill my days when I had “too much time on my hands”. After three years, I assure … Continue reading Weekly FIRE ‘Field Trips’
Once again, vacation time is in the news with a new study by the US Travel Association showing that most Americans forfeit almost a week of paid vacation per year. The study – based on a survey of over 7K workers – says that people earn an average 23.4 paid time off days/year, but take only 17.2 days off. The time forfeited equals $66.4B in … Continue reading Vacation Days – Take Them All!
I was excited earlier this week to see that my recent article on the added everyday cost to operate our SUV compared with a less plush ‘sensible sedan’ was recognized as one of the RockStarFinance.com’s ‘Wednesday Hits’. It wasn’t the first time that one of my articles had been linked to by the good folks at Rock Star, and I don’t know how exactly they came … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Not-So Rock Star Finance!
A few weeks ago, a friend and I got together for lunch at a venerable, but soon to close, local ‘Dive Bar’ to catch up. At her retirement party last fall, I told her I’d treat for lunch if she made me a list of 10 observations on what it is like to adapt to a FIRE lifestyle. I’m sharing them here as a bit … Continue reading Monday Morning Inspiration – Fresh FIRE Insights
When our son turned 21 last year, he cracked that it was probably the last ‘big birthday’ number he would be excited to reach. I asked “How about age 100?!” Reaching age 100 is a mark that most people would aspire to reach, but it is exceedingly rare. Only about 0.02% of Americans have reached that age, although a recent AIG study / ad campaign … Continue reading Saving To Live To 100?
One of the many ‘rules’ most financial experts advise is saving for your own retirement before saving for your kids’ post-secondary education. The idea is like when you are on a plane – you should put on your own oxygen mask before helping your little ones with theirs. The curiously paradoxical thing about this financial advice is that no one I have ever met seems … Continue reading Save For Retirement Before College?
The colorful and entertaining Callan ‘Periodic Table’ was recently updated with 2018 market results. It tracks the investment returns of key indices over the past two decades. The most recent year – the 20th in the chart – was challenging. As you can see, cash was king and few investments posted positive returns. I have often referred to the chart as “fascinating, but useless” because … Continue reading The Dumbest Investment Chart
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