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)
We moved into our current house 10 years ago on Halloween. We designed and built it with a custom builder exactly the way we wanted and are still very happy with the choices we made. I recently ran across this infographic from the National Association of Home Builders and Bank of America that details how long you can expect many of the key components of … Continue reading Is Your House Falling Apart?
It was about 10 months ago I wrote my ‘first take’ on where 2019 Health Insurance premiums were likely to come in. It was good news and I was surprised to learn that our premiums were falling by $4K from the year before. I called it a ‘first take’, because I wasn’t sure the benefit would actually come through. Fortunately it has, as you can … Continue reading Health Insurance Rebate In The Mail
University classes started for my son last week and today we went into his 529 College Savings Plan to transfer money to the college for his tuition. Surprise – after paying for his Fall Semester’s tuition, the account is now empty! We started saving for his college tuition when he was just a baby, so this is a pretty big personal finance milestone. Other than … Continue reading College Savings Completely Spent
On my original list of 150 things I wrote down to keep busy in early retirement, I had ‘watching new movies more often’ as a fun activity. I love movies – our whole family does – and we are certainly in a ‘golden age’ of big screen entertainment. Related: Early Retirement ‘Not Bored List’ Before retiring, I expected I would watch about 30 new movies … Continue reading Movie Musings
When I was working, it seemed that the climb toward our FIRE escape from MegaCorp was slow and steady. Each year our nest egg grew bigger. Sometimes faster, sometimes slower. Even in a very bad year like 2008, we managed to eek out some growth. It felt like the cards we were being dealt were always resulted in a pretty good hand. That has not … Continue reading Retirement Savings Volatility
A few years ago, when we turned 50, we were greeted by invitations to join AARP, the American Association for Retired Persons. My birthday is 8 months before my wife’s, but for some reason hers came first. We didn’t join the organization, even though it’s only about $15 a month. I didn’t even give it much consideration, even though I’ve checked out personal finance articles … Continue reading AARP – Worth It?
I have to admit that I wasn’t interested in buying anything on Amazon’s Prime Day, until I saw the highlights of the deals they have. Now there are all kinds of things that seem interesting to me for the big ‘Christmas in July’ sale. Related: Amazon Prime Day Deals Even though we are on vacation, I might take a break from the California sunshine and … Continue reading Prime Deals on Prime Days?
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