After writing ‘Two Of Everything’ a few weeks ago, I’m finding certain things I might even have THREE of between our main Minnesota home & snowbird place in Florida. Three warm jackets, three pairs of sunglasses, and three sizes of suitcases. Then, while I thought those things through, I discovered something I might even need FOUR of … a FOURTH collection of toiletry / shaving … Continue reading Four Of Everything?
My buddy Russ told me that once we bought a place in Florida, we’ll be buying “two of everything”. I thought we could get by with having our Florida vacation place be a little spartan, but it’s not turning out that way. Just one year in, we’ve gotten to the point where I could pretty much go back-and-forth to our home in Minnesota without … Continue reading Two Of Everything
Our neighborhood in Florida has a weekly “Investment Club” that I went to this past Friday. There were about 15 people gathered when I got there – in the events ballroom of our clubhouse. We started by talking about our 2025 expectations for the stock market’s growth. After two years of incredible growth (+23% in 2024, +24% in 2023), most people were expecting growth in … Continue reading Investment Club
We have had quite a few visitors to our vacation place in Celebration FL over the last few weeks. Everyone is interested in the unique “Town that Disney Built”. I’ve found that people from different parts of Florida like to compare what their towns & clubhouses have to keep retirees busy & entertained. On the ‘highly desired’ list are pools / water parks, golf … Continue reading Unique Activities in Retirement
Just a quick post today to highlight what could be the biggest change for the finances of retired people in a generation … eliminating Federal income taxes on Social Security. After seemingly not mentioning it since the election, Trump spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters yesterday that it is a key part of the budget negotiations that GOP leaders in the House, Senate, and White House … Continue reading No Tax on Social Security?
This weekend, we watched a HBO Music Box documentary about the “Yacht Rock” music phenomenon. It was interesting to see how some young folks “uncovered” the previously unreported late 70s/early 80s Los Angeles music scene and connections between Steely Dan, the Doobie Brothers, Kenny Loggins, Toto, and Christopher Cross. The next morning, I commented that the Yacht Rock era “was almost 45 years ago!” … Continue reading Retired Yacht Rocker Cliches
It’s a historic day in America. The crazy 2024 presidential election is behind us. Now we’ll see what impact Trump returning to the Oval Office will have on the economy and our investments. Love him or hate him, Trump’s policies and priorities have had significant implications for the economy, taxes, and healthcare—three pillars of a secure retirement. With that in mind, here are five key … Continue reading Trump Inauguration
A year ago, we took the plunge and bought annual passes to Walt Disney World. This week, we doubled-down and also bought a pass to Universal Orlando. I guess we are becoming fully-fledged Floridians now. The Disney passes really paid out over the last year. We needed to use them at least 8x to payout the cost … and boy did we. We went to … Continue reading Doubling Down …
This is a big week at the Fire Station. It was 10 years ago that I set up the site and published my first post. That first week, I had 9 visitors with 28 views. I think most of the views were from me & my son! The concept of FIRE – Financial independence and Retiring Early – wasn’t brand new at that point, but … Continue reading Ten Year Anniversary
Today is the last day of 2024 – New Year’s Eve. It’s been a second very good year for investment markets and we’ll start seeing tomorrow if we are going to get a “three-peat” performance in 2025. Here are some of the predictions I’ve seen that will impact retiree finances in the New Year … Overall, it’s a pretty positive outlook for the economy & … Continue reading New Year’s Predictions
MrFireStation 