The economy is performing about as well as one could hope at this point in time, but you wouldn’t know it to watch political ads on TV. Despite quarterly GDP growth reaching 4%, the S&P 500 up +30% over the last two years, the unemployment rate at 3.9%, and consumer confidence approaching all-time highs – every political ad is full of gloom & doom. Despite … Continue reading Mid-Term Elections – Plan For More Inflation?
Autumn is in the air and for the third straight year, that finds me back on campus. One of the most interesting things I’ve been able to do in Early Retirement is take university classes on a variety of subjects. Two years ago, when my own son was just starting college himself, I took advantage of a university parent’s program to take Freshman Sociology. It … Continue reading Autumn On-Campus – Lifelong Learning Classes
On a recent sunny day, I was picking up a friend at my former MegaCorp headquarters building to go out for lunch. I was pulled up in front of the visitor entrance in my sporty, summer car with the top down. I must have looked pretty relaxed sitting in the convertible when a woman – who looked like she worked there – walked over and … Continue reading Funniest FIRE Reactions
Before I reached early retirement a few years ago, I wrote THIS POST about a survey of whether or not people should retire full-time or part-time. While many people envision part-time consulting as part of their early retirement plans, almost 60% of respondents said that working part-time in retirement was a ‘BAD idea’ with another 15% saying ‘It’s COMPLICATED’. People had some interesting comments saying … Continue reading Part-Time Work in Early Retirement
When people ask me what I do to keep busy in early retirement, I almost never mention writing MrFireStation.com. I guess that’s odd, given that I created the site more than three years ago and have now posted over 400 articles. Even though I probably spend about 2 hours a week writing and updating the site, I haven’t ever actually considered myself a ‘writer’. Sometimes … Continue reading Free-Lance Writer In Early Retirement?
Are you saving enough? It’s the most basic of questions. Yet, I’m always so disappointed when I see an article showing how low the US savings rate is. A recent study by Fidelity showed that the average American is saving about 8.5% of their after-tax income – including the value of any employer matches. Even though 8.5% savings is far less than is typically suggested … Continue reading Savings Rates & Reaching FIRE
Before the summer is out, I wanted to share some of the highlights from our trip to Jerusalem & the Holy Land. This (along with our trip to Japan) is the biggest trip we’ve taken since we early retired. We tagged on a fun side trip to ancient Petra in Jordan. In many ways, this was perhaps the most enlightening trip we have ever taken … Continue reading FIRE Travel – Divided Jerusalem and Ancient Petra
Someone posted an interesting question on Early-Retirement.org recently that caught my attention. Just a few months from reaching FIRE (financial independence & retiring early), a person asked the collective wisdom of the ‘Life After FIRE’ forum if their early retirement was what they had planned on, or something different. The post generated a lot of response with over eight pages of people sharing their experience. … Continue reading Should You Expect the Unexpected?
A couple months ago, I did a 45 minute phone interview with a reporter writing for Kiplinger’s on health insurance for early retirees. She said that she had read our FIRE story on this blog and in particular a post called “Health Insurance – The Biggest Worry For Early Retirees” caught her attention. She appreciated that we had included the dollars & cents in the … Continue reading Bam! My Interview with Kiplinger’s
BankRate.com recently published the results of a survey where they asked people about what the “ideal age” was for certain personal finance milestones. I thought it was interesting to look at the results and compare to our experience (and our son’s) in reaching FIRE (financial independence & retiring early). Here are some of the milestones: FIRST CREDIT CARD – My son is 21 right now … Continue reading Personal Finance Milestones – What’s Ideal?
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