We had a frosty beverage with an old friend recently that we had not seen since before I stopped working 4 years ago. He was astounded that I had retired early and asked if we had made any lucrative investments to make it happen. I told him that our investment strategy had been pretty vanilla – simple index funds in our 401ks and after-tax brokerage … Continue reading Keep Savings Simple
Consumer confidence is a big part of the economy’s ongoing performance. If people believe that things are going well, they are more likely to go well. It’s not a perfect correlation, of course, but it is better than the opposite. With that in mind, I was encouraged to see the latest numbers from Gallup on how Americans are feeling right now. They polled people on … Continue reading Americans Feeling Positive About Their Financial Positions
Paul Simon lamented “all the crap I learned in high school” and I tend to agree with him. I wasn’t a great student, but most of the coursework wasn’t great either. Much of it was too specialized or abstract to have value to most students. A new North Carolina state requirement is putting a personal finance course into their classrooms. I think this is terrific. … Continue reading Financial Literacy In The Classroom
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?
This Wednesday, the high temperature in Minnesota where we live will be 0F degrees, while in Orlando FL it will be a balmy 82F. While our home, family, and ‘life’ are here in the cold, we’ve decided to engage in some ‘weather arbitrage’ and escape to Florida this winter. I wrote about Snowbirding a few years ago with the advice of my friend Russ and … Continue reading Snowbirding Practice 2020
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’m not sure why I thought this was a good idea, but I ‘bet myself’ $1,000 in imaginary money this past week on all 14 NFL games, 3 NHL games, 2 NBA games, and all 5 games (so far) of the World Series. It’s a great time of year for sports, so I thought I would see if – on paper – I might have … Continue reading Sports Betting Experiment
I worked for three companies during the course of my career. I spent 12 years at the first, was ‘acquired’ by the second (where I spent another 12 years), and capped off my career at the third (for 3 years). All three were large, multinational ‘MegaCorps’ and blue-chip companies. Even though it’s been almost 4 years since I wound down my last days at my … Continue reading Tracking MegaCorp Performance
MrFireStation 