I drove my Jeep home from a 1,700 mile ‘Circle Tour’ of Lake Superior yesterday. I took the little Jeep from Minnesota’s North Shore into Ontario, Canada, across the great locks in Sault St. Marie, west along Michigan’s ‘Yooperland’, and through a small corner of Northern Wisconsin that leads back to Minnesota. It was a charity road rally with 30+ vehicles cruising as a colorful … Continue reading Jeep Off To Market
The media keep telling me that inflation is moderating, yet the 4 bags of groceries we bought at SuperTarget today cost $189. What’s going on with inflation?? I’m not the world’s savviest investor, but I’ve done all right. I’ve always looked to the 10 Year Treasury Yield as a decent indicator of what is expected with inflation over the longer term. As you can see … Continue reading What’s Really Going On With Inflation?
We got to Europe last week and on the first day had a great lunch with another American couple we were paired up with at a garden table. Alex was an accountant from Albuquerque who was often in Europe, with an American client in Germany. Before the bill came, I asked him to remind me what the tipping custom was. He said to simply round … Continue reading The American Tipping Contagion
There’s increasing pressure on raising retirement ages in the world. Many countries are moving in the direction of raising the retirement age used for their national pensions. Other countries are pretending that their national programs are robust & funded appropriately just the way things are, but they math isn’t in their favor. In the USA, Republican candidate, Nikki Haley, is calling for Social Security reforms … Continue reading Where Are We Heading With National Retirement Ages?
One thing I don’t write a lot about in this blog is how I write this blog. I started it back in January 2015, when I was 15 months from executing my FIRE Escape. I began sharing since I didn’t see a lot of detailed, first-hand accounts of people that had reached financial independence & retired early and was craving information like that for myself. … Continue reading Blog Milestone …
Do I stick to a budget? No, I don’t even have a budget anymore. I’ve become completely un-analytical in retirement. I used to be good at it. When I was working, I built complex spreadsheets to track our annual budget, our net worth, and projections of what we needed in retirement. Since retiring, much of that has gone by the wayside. I stopped tracking our … Continue reading (I Guess) We Are On Budget …
A friend had some work done on her house recently and posted online that she was happy to see the vendor using products from the MegaCorp she recently retired from. I too continue to have some loyalty to the MegaCorp packaged goods brands I once worked on. But, it is only that … “some loyalty”. I’m not completely brand loyal just because they still send … Continue reading MegaCorp Loyalty
If you follow the financial headlines, you’ll see that ESG practices are shaking up the realm of investing. ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance, and it’s all about considering sustainability and ethical factors when making investment decisions. Of course, someone has to determine what is sustainable and ethical. That’s where the rub is. Recently, three tobacco companies were judged much higher than EV darling … Continue reading ESG & Index Funds
My good friend & longtime MegaCorp accomplice, Dawn, and I had lunch recently and she shared with me the details of her recent car purchase. She went to Gothenburg, Sweden and picked up her new Volvo under their ‘European Delivery Service’. I’ve had some friends that have done this in the past, but I wasn’t aware of how it actually works. It’s cool! Working with … Continue reading European Car Delivery
Some friends and I were trying to solve the world’s problems over a beer this weekend. Someone asked if we are going to go into a recession or not over the next year. I replied that the economy just seems really “wobbly” right now … I don’t know if it will tip,over or not. Another guy said he read that there was a 99% chance … Continue reading Is The Economy More Than Just ‘Wobbly’?
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