Most of us spend years obsessing over investing, allocations, withdrawal rates, and our retirement timing — but we also need to think of relationships as their own line item in the retirement plan ledger. Throughout life, school, work and parenting quietly hand you a social life for free — you hang out with buddies after school, go to lunch with work colleagues, and catch your … Continue reading Investing in Friendship Circles
I decided just to write just this one post this week. I am just too busy to write two right now. Busyness seems to be an ongoing theme of my retirement – especially in the summer months. Last week, I had lunch with a friend who he is getting close to retirement and he honestly could not believe that he will likely be more busy … Continue reading Too Many Balls in the Air
We had a lovely Mother’s Day yesterday with my Mom and 2 of my 3 brothers. Our son & his girlfriend also came over, so there was 8 of us for a nice brunch. The flowering crabapple trees in our neighborhood were in full bloom to mark the occasion. It is so nice to get family together. In addition to Mother’s Day, we went on … Continue reading Keep Your Friends & Family Close
A few years ago, I went golfing with the Retired Men’s Club members of our church. Since I was a relatively new retiree – and much younger than the average club member – I asked them to share with me one piece of retirement wisdom on each hole. Related: Life After FIRE – Fitting In The only two pieces of advice that I still remember … Continue reading “Find A Young Doctor”
I aim to be more prepared than the average bear, but this past week has taught me that I am often completely unprepared. You would think with the amount of time I have as an early retiree to get things done, I wouldn’t ever fall behind. Still, I certainly do. We had an unusual power outage at our house on Sunday. It lasted from about … Continue reading Falling Behind
I’ve probably been talking about early retirement for about as long as I have been gainfully employed. When I started first working after college, one of my older brothers pointed out that my starting two weeks paid vacation amounted to only 1 year off for every 26 years worked. That got me thinking right away about saving enough to retire BEFORE I hit the 26 … Continue reading FIRE Milestones – Sharing Plans with Friends & Family
