Every four years is a ‘quadrennium’. I’m not sure if there is something special about a four year cycle, but universities, leap years, Olympics, Presidential elections, and many other things are set up on the cycle of a quadrennium. Unlike Picasso, I can’t imagine learning to paint like Raphael in just four years, but I guess a lot can be accomplished. This week is special … Continue reading Four Years Is A ‘Quadrennium’
A survey in a recent online group asked early retirees if they work with a professional financial advisor. I was surprised to see that the great majority (about two-thirds) of folks did not. While I always tell people you need to be knowledgeable enough to be your own primary financial advisor, it’s nice to have a professional financial advisor as a secondary resource. That is, … Continue reading Do You Have A Financial Advisor?
I used to think that I was pretty organized. My wife and I both value keeping our house neat and our files and records are no exception. January is the time of year that we generally deep-dive into making sure that everything is properly updated. Related: Annual Round-Up Day This year has shaken me from that confidence. After having my heart attack the day after … Continue reading Getting Much More Organized
Just last week I wrote about the Oklahoma Christmas Lottery and how life-changing the million dollar prize would be for most people. Then came the story of the Spanish news reporter – on the right in the photo above – who ‘won’ the $2.4 billion dollar lottery and quit her job LIVE on national TV. Except the ‘Del Gordo’ prize revealed on Christmas Night was … Continue reading How Not To Quit Your Job – Christmas Lottery
I think we’ve made it! The biggest concern that most early retirees have is how they will manage the cost of health insurance between leaving MegaCorp and gaining retiree benefits or Medicare eligibility. It’s a topic I’ve provided many updates on over the last 5 years because health insurance is an expensive and dynamic market. This is the last year of open enrollment where we … Continue reading Health Insurance – Open Enrollment
When we first reached ‘millionaire status’ I was pretty excited. As I wrote later, while our inflationary world doesn’t mean we live like Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, or other millionaires of old, it still put us in the top 0.56% of the world, in terms of wealth. Related: FIRE Milestones – Reaching Millionaire Status I hope it’s not too crass to compare oneself to see where one … Continue reading Historical Millionaires, Billionaires, and Trillionaires
If you are like me, you sometimes see articles in the personal finance press about people who are very young – in their 30s and 40s – who have quit their jobs and declared themselves FIRE’d (financially independent & retired early). Recently, ABC’s Good Morning America ran this piece on a couple who retired very young and the ‘secret strategies’ they want to share with … Continue reading How Long Can FIRE Last?
I sent this picture of a Porsche Cayman S with a ‘NO KIDS’ license plate to my MegaCorp boss a few years ago. He’s a Porsche guy and he and his wife don’t have kids of their own. His reply was insightful … “One wife, too!” I wouldn’t recommend making significant life decisions based purely on dollar and cents, but that doesn’t mean that many … Continue reading No Kids? One Wife?
Squirrels have it figured out. This time of year, they are scurrying around the woods behind our house collecting nuts and SAVING them for the future. Winter in Minnesota – where we live – is long and only the good savers will make it through. The same is true for retirement savers. The ones that save diligently will enjoy a financially worry-free retirement. It is … Continue reading Squirreling Away Savings
It’s a basic question, but one that I have struggled to find any data on: how many people retire at what age? I found a chart from a University of MN study a few years ago and ‘reverse engineered’ some data, but I knew that my math wasn’t very exact. Now I came across this chart / data from a helpful website called DQYDJ.com … … Continue reading How Early Is Early Retirement? (New Data)
MrFireStation 