We declined on rejoining the boat club we belonged to for the last five years and now that the weather has jumped up into the 80s, I’m wondering how much we will miss it? Financially, it certainly was a terrific deal. We paid $3K a summer and had unlimited uses of a terrific fleet of speedboats, cruisers, pontoons, and water ski boats. I wrote in this … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Boat Life
Many people are concerned about the impact of the Baby Boom generation will have on stock market returns. The fear is that with so many people retiring at once – and cashing out their retirement accounts – Wall Street is sentenced to lower than historical returns over the next 15-20 years. Baby Boomers, currently aged 53-71, according to Pew Research, are half into retirement … Continue reading Baby Boomer Retirements Won’t Hold Down Market Returns
Readers that know me know that I spent my career working for MegaCorps and largely running branded food businesses. My job was leading a team to figure out the best way to get consumers to choose our soup, yogurt, granola bars, or frozen pizza over our competitors – which included the low priced store brand. With TV advertising, cents-off coupons, new flavors, sponsorships, “new & … Continue reading FIRE Savings – Store Brand vs. National Brand Products
One of the funny things about being retired early is that people are always suggesting jobs that you can do. People say, “Oh, you should get a job as a golf course ranger,” or “With your extra time, you could get a side hustle flipping houses”. Many people focus on what you have given up – a job – and forget all that you gained. … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Gaining Work?
We live in the suburbs and every year our city has a city-wide garage sale weekend that raises money for the local Lion’s Club. It’s an amazing event with hundreds of garage sales across the city – dozens in every neighborhood you drive into. They say that over 5,000 people come to our city for the event and it is not uncommon to see several … Continue reading Garage, Yard & Tag Sales – Love Them & Hate Them
When people learn that I retired early, they will almost always enthusiastically ask “what it is like to not go to work?” In response, I often say “Truthfully, it’s the best job I never had.” That answer is always worth a quick laugh, conveys the truth of the situation, and provides me just enough ‘cover’ to then change the subject to weather, sports, politics, travel, or … Continue reading FIRE Station Funny – Conversation Pivot
Most of 2016 did not bring a lot of growth in the stock market. It wasn’t until Election Day that the S&P500 really took off with gains of +15% behind the so-called Trump Rally, which seems to hinge on corporate and individual tax cuts and simplification. Heaven knows how the Federal government is going to pay for all of that (more about that in next … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Calculating Returns
Early retirement isn’t just about finances, it is also about keeping yourself healthy. I am happy to report that I have continued my diligence in tracking my fitness activity into my second year of early retirement. My daily fitness level is up dramatically compared to my former working self. Since April of last year, I have boosted my daily steps by almost 70% to an … Continue reading Fitness Activity In Early Retirement
I’m picking up my son at college later today. He is coming home for a party this weekend and will be home for the summer in just a few weeks. While he is only finishing his Freshman year at college right now, I know that soon he will be graduating for college and establishing himself in the adult world. When I think of our experience … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Get Climbing!
I’ve been writing about personal finance and early retirement for more than two years now and have managed to not mention the topic of life expectancy once. Since there are only three real variables to use in planning for retirement – spending, investments, and life expectancy – after over 250 posts to this site, you can see how clever I’ve been in avoiding this ‘inevitable’ … Continue reading FIRE Planning For The Inevitable Future
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