Three years ago this very day, I blasted out of MegaCorp and into the sunshine of early retirement. I had the Beatles’ Revolution on the car stereo and I’m sure many colleagues thought it was more an April Fool’s Day prank than one of the most epic decisions of my life. That night, as a family we toasted the future with a bottle of Dom … Continue reading Third FIRE Anniversary (1) – April Fool’s Day
I ran across this list of Life Lessons on Pinterest recently and thought I would share it as this Friday morning’s post. When I see a common sense list of advice like this, I’m always struck by how reading through them gets me better focused on the long-term and less focused on the small stuff. While only a few of them directly speak directly to … Continue reading FIRE Station Fun – Life Lessons
Having just turned our income tax paperwork over to our accountant, I thought it might be good time to put in a plug for Health Savings Accounts – my favorite, tax-advantaged place to invest money right now. You might be puzzled by the thought that a Health Savings Account is a great ‘investment’ vehicle, but that’s really how you might start thinking about them. If … Continue reading Investing In Health Savings Accounts
The media and politicians love to plant the seeds of discord between generations. Younger generations are alternately presented as either victims of the current power structure, and/or helplessly unprepared or unwilling to live in the “real world “. I have found that nothing is further from the truth. Younger generations tend to be smarter, more diligent, and better prepared for the futures than the generations … Continue reading Millennials May Prove To Be The Best Generation With Their Finances
I’ve been late in ‘closing the books’ for our finances in 2018. With tax preparation season on us, I’ve spent a few hours this week trying to figure out exactly where things ended last year so that I can effectively pull together our tax statements. I also taken opportunity to recalculate the historical probabilities of our overall FIRE plan. The financial markets ended 2018 badly … Continue reading Recalculating FIRE Odds
After an ugly close to 2018, the financial markets have leapt off to a strong start in the new year with the S&P 500 up almost 7% year-to-date. While many of the economic issues that lagged the market are still unresolved, the bulls are running on Wall Street again. It’s amazing that in just 20 days, the market has gained back all of last year’s … Continue reading Inflation Expectations – Up or Down?
We’re enjoying a sunny trip in the Caribbean right now with our son who is off from college. We left right after New Year’s, so I never got a chance to look at our final spending numbers for 2018. That said, I ran across this interesting chart from JP Morgan’s Consumer Expenditure Survey that looks at how much people spend annually as they get older, … Continue reading Lower Spending As You Age
We had the great pleasure of enjoying Christmas in July this last summer by visiting ‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’ in the West Bank. For me, it was the highlight of our two weeks in the Holy Land. Since we are now just a week from Christmas, it would be a perfect time to share some of our experiences there. Visiting the city is pretty … Continue reading FIRE Travel – O Little Town of Bethlehem
We find ourselves thankful for so many things this year as the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend arrives and we get together with family & friends. Three years ago I was putting the final plans for our FIRE escape into place before early retiring. Our relatively free & independent lifestyle since then has been amazing. I was reading about the Mayflower Pilgrims and other early colonial … Continue reading Thankful Thanksgiving
If you follow personal finance news at all, you may have recently seen Suze Orman making headlines by throwing up all over the FIRE (financially independent & retired early) movement. When it comes to FIRE, she says she “Hates it. Hates it. Hates it.” and it may be the “dumbest personal finance decision” people can make. I’ve written before about Orman’s highly suspect financial expertise and … Continue reading Really BAD Financial Advice
