We’re kicking off a kitchen makeover on Monday – the first real update we’ve done to our house in years. We’ve been here 16 years now, and while it’s been a great home for our family, the style has definitely slipped into that “a bit dated” category. What looked sharp and timeless in the mid-2000s now feels dark and heavy compared to what buyers (and … Continue reading Kitchen Makeover Project
Northwestern Mutual does a nice annual study on the ‘state of retirement’ in the USA. It’s a pretty exhaustive analysis that looks at all aspects of life and our involvement and satisfaction with each dimension. Link: Northwestern Mutual 2025 ‘Planning & Progress’ Study I was surprised by a few of the numbers from this year’s study and thought I’d share them. First, Americans are pretty … Continue reading Retirement Confidence
Have you heard about the “U” shaped happiness curve? It’s the output of psychology research across ages. It suggests that people are happiest when they are younger, lose some of that happiness in middle-age, and then get it back as they get older. Here’s a plot of the curve, with the colors representing 7 different studies of happiness by age. There has been a lot … Continue reading Happiness “U”-Curve
About once a year, some dusty old post from this site will “pop” and go viral. My post on private label grocery products from May of 2017 is the latest. Link: National vs Store Brands For some reason, it’s the top read post of 2025, after sitting mostly ignored for the last 8 years. After its 2017 debut (with a few hundred views), it fell … Continue reading Store Brands Revisited
These two bags of groceries (plus a couple gallons of skim milk) were a whopping $107 at Target today. I’m old enough to remember when our grocery bags averaged $15 each. That rule of thumb was from 35 years ago (in 1990) when we first got married and watched every $ closely. Related: Cut Those Prices In Half! I know prices have been rising, but … Continue reading Sticker Shock
Audiobooks are apparently having a big surge in popularity. Ten years ago, only 15% of Americans had listened to an audiobook, but now it’s over 50%. Revenue for audiobooks has exploded over +300% over the same period, driven by new streaming options. I’m a bit late to the trend. I’ve written before about my (mostly failed) strategies to overcome my ADHD and read more books … Continue reading Dropping Into Audiobooks
July is the month of the Summer movie blockbuster and we’re off to our third movie premiere weekend in the last month. I went to the F1 Movie in June on opening weekend, saw Superman two weeks ago, and are now going to the Fantastic Four. Still, like most Americans, we are no where near the number of movie theater visits we were making before … Continue reading Movie Theaters Return?
I’m down in steamy Florida right now, spending the weekend at our vacation place down here. Like most newer developments in Florida, there are a fair number of golf carts on the road, but I don’t think we’re going to invest in one. First, our town of Celebration isn’t really a “retirement village”. There are a decent number of retirees, but the demographics of … Continue reading Golf Carting Around …
I recently saw an interesting thread that discussed “How Can You Tell Someone Is Rich?” That is, what are the signs that someone has money, even if you just met them? It caught my attention because high on the list was “they retired from work in their 40s”. Here are some of the responses that people said suggest someone is rich … In general, these … Continue reading Signs Someone is Rich …
We’re a couple weeks into Glorious Summer and I’m already feeling worn out! It’s been a busy week with friends, family, lunches, sports, and other activities. It’s Friday morning and I just told my wife that I’m taking the day off. Before we get into the business of the weekend (with very nice looking weather), it’s time to take a break! I used to keep … Continue reading Need My Day Off …
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