It’s always interesting to see what articles people responded most to at the end of the year. Some posts connect with current events, some were linked to by bigger websites, and some are perennial favorites. have several thousand hits. Top 2020 posts … 1. Time To Put Off Retirement? – This early-pandemic post (April 2020) pondered if it was a still a good time to … Continue reading MrFireStation’s Top 10 Posts in 2020
I took this cool picture on a hike with my friend, Russ (also retired), last week in a nearby state park. We took a number of hikes over the last few weeks on day trips away from our metro area – grabbing lunch at little places we came across. Former colleagues, we both recalled how busy MegaCorp used to be in December. As the last … Continue reading Enjoying The Amazing View
The writers at Kiplinger’s sometimes talk about retirement in three phases: the ‘go-go’ years, the ‘slow-go’ years, and the ‘no-go’ years. The phases relate to how capable people are to travel, take on new hobbies, and lead an active lifestyle. They break out the ages like this: ⁃ Go-Go Years: Ages 65-75 ⁃ Slow-Go Years: Ages 76-85 ⁃ No-Go Years: 86-100 It makes sense when … Continue reading When Does ‘Go-Go’ Become ‘Slow-Go’?
I don’t understand the stock market anymore and in the short term, I’ve decided to give up. As the Dow Jones bounces around 30,000 and the Schiller S&P 500 PE sits above 33 (average is 16), nothing makes sense to me. We are still in a global pandemic – the economic fallout of which isn’t fully understood yet – aren’t we? I called our financial … Continue reading Cashing Out From Confusion
It has been an interesting year for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin just topped its all-time high this week at almost $20,000 – up 1.6x from last year at this time. The private, all-digital currency still has its skeptics, but it is getting broader acceptance among financial services companies and institutional investors. The pandemic may be remembered as Bitcoin’s coming of age. I wondered back in April if … Continue reading Bitcoin’s Coming Of Age?
Is there anyone more interesting & successful in the business world right now than Elon Musk? Really – I am in awe of this guy and all he is accomplishing. The sad thing, is that I bet ‘against’ him three years ago and can’t believe how wrong I was. For those of you who haven’t been paying attention, Musk is flipping 4 entire industries on … Continue reading The Worst Stock Bet I Ever Made
Last week I reached another milestone in my early retirement journey. I called the MegaCorp HR Service Center – for the first time in years – and started the enrollment process for retiree benefits. In 2021, I will turn 55 and become eligible to start tapping into the retirement benefits that I accrued over the course of my career. I worked at this MegaCorp for … Continue reading Ringing Up MegaCorp
With the Presidential election this week, I thought I would do a quick portfolio check to see where our retirement portfolio is sitting before the markets react. It seems a big enough change-point, that I would keep track of where we are at – at this moment in time. The good news is that despite the pandemic sell-off in March, we’ve weathered the 2020 storm(s) … Continue reading Election 2020 – Where Are We At?
We’ve been retired for over 4.5 years now and I find myself surprised that it has been that long. People still say I seem too young to be retired, but when you consider it’s almost been 50 months since I went to work at MegaCorp … it feels ridiculous. Where has all the time gone? I find myself really unable to account for the last … Continue reading Where Does The Time Go?
I read through a good online discussion of retirement spending/investment probabilities this weekend. Someone was asking early retirees in a forum if they felt a 90% probability of out-living your retirement nest egg was enough, based on a online calculator like FIREcalc. I’ve written about FIREcalc probabilities before and using Monte Carlo analysis to help pressure test your FIRE plan. It is a great tool. … Continue reading Is 90% ‘Good Enough’ Odds?
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