Our taxes are complete and in the mail as of yesterday! I am so thankful because even though we use an accountant, getting our taxes done feels like a part-time job for the months of February and March. Related: Income Taxes Not A DIY Project This was the first year we got a good look at what our post-working tax rate might look like. Because … Continue reading More Favorable Retirement Tax Rate Revealed
Three years ago this very day, I blasted out of MegaCorp and into the sunshine of early retirement. I had the Beatles’ Revolution on the car stereo and I’m sure many colleagues thought it was more an April Fool’s Day prank than one of the most epic decisions of my life. That night, as a family we toasted the future with a bottle of Dom … Continue reading Third FIRE Anniversary (1) – April Fool’s Day
I ran across this list of Life Lessons on Pinterest recently and thought I would share it as this Friday morning’s post. When I see a common sense list of advice like this, I’m always struck by how reading through them gets me better focused on the long-term and less focused on the small stuff. While only a few of them directly speak directly to … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Life Lessons
We built our house 10 years ago this year. We broke ground in March 2009 and moved in on Halloween Day. Construction followed about a year of planning – including finding the right lot and selecting a builder. Building a house is no small project. You pay a definite premium for getting things ‘just the way you want’ and have to make thousands of decisions. … Continue reading Building The Perfect Nest
Having just turned our income tax paperwork over to our accountant, I thought it might be good time to put in a plug for Health Savings Accounts – my favorite, tax-advantaged place to invest money right now. You might be puzzled by the thought that a Health Savings Account is a great ‘investment’ vehicle, but that’s really how you might start thinking about them. If … Continue reading Investing In Health Savings Accounts
The media and politicians love to plant the seeds of discord between generations. Younger generations are alternately presented as either victims of the current power structure, and/or helplessly unprepared or unwilling to live in the “real world “. I have found that nothing is further from the truth. Younger generations tend to be smarter, more diligent, and better prepared for the futures than the generations … Continue reading Millennials May Prove To Be The Best Generation With Their Finances
We’re having a very snowy month in Minnesota. We’ve gotten over two and a half feet in the last couple weeks and have cracked the list of the State’s ‘Top Ten Snowiest Months’. This is still with 8 days left in the month and two snow systems lined up to come through in the next week with more wintery fun. Flashback: Frosty, Frigid Fun – … Continue reading Plowing Through Time Wasters
When I was a kid, I enjoyed many beautiful summer days inside watching game shows and sitcom reruns. I watched so much TV, my older brothers would joke that I had a ‘TV tan’. While I played organized sports – baseball, football, and basketball – I was more the indoor-sy kind of kid and happy to plop down in front of the screen. I guess … Continue reading The Sun Always Shines on TV
I’ve been late in ‘closing the books’ for our finances in 2018. With tax preparation season on us, I’ve spent a few hours this week trying to figure out exactly where things ended last year so that I can effectively pull together our tax statements. I also taken opportunity to recalculate the historical probabilities of our overall FIRE plan. The financial markets ended 2018 badly … Continue reading Recalculating FIRE Odds
Yesterday morning, I got up about 45 minutes before we left for church. That was plenty of time to get ready, have breakfast, and even shovel most of the snow off the driveway before we left. When I was working, I would get up 30 minutes before I had to leave and that meant I was always rushing around. Fifteen extra minutes makes quite a … Continue reading An Extra Fifteen Minutes Each Morning?
