Our son headed back to college this weekend – ending our ‘No Responsibility January’ – and starting his Spring Semester. Among other things, this means we need to call our insurance agent this morning and take the car insurance off the vehicle that he drives when he is home. Car insurance runs about $900 annually for the 2004 Acura TSX that he drives when he … Continue reading Car Insurance Rising Fast
They say on a large, international flight – maybe only one passenger in first class is paying full fare. The rest are on award tickets, big corporate discounts, or upgraded from regular seats because of their frequent flyer status. I had first-class flights as an executive perk for many years at MegaCorp, but rarely had myself actually ticketed that way when I traveled. I was … Continue reading Easy Credit Card Travel Hacking Success
Is it time to rebalance your early retirement portfolio? With the Dow Jones breaking 25,000 this week (I remember when it broke 1,000!) – and after posting 37% growth since the 2016 Presidential Election – maybe it is time to look at your balance of stocks, bonds, and cash and ensure that you have not become overweighted in equities? The year 2017 was a great … Continue reading Dow at 25,000 – Time For A New Year’s Rebalancing?
At the end of the year, the media is full of retrospectives on the top news events and celebrity stories, so with that in mind, I set my thoughts to what are the biggest news happenings that have affected people on their journey to financial independence and retiring early (FIRE) in 2017. Here’s my list (in no particular order) … TRUMP BUMP – The stock … Continue reading Top 7 FIRE News Stories of 2017
It’s been fun to spend a few days Christmas shopping over the last couple weeks. I started a week ago on Monday and went on a full blitz yesterday – stopping at 19 different stores before I was done. Today I’ve been wrapping and watching a couple cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies (check out this funny Hallmark Christmas movie drinking game). When we exchange gifts with … Continue reading Thrifty Thursday – Christmas Gift Challenge
We love to go to the movies and probably catch a showing every other week (in addition to movies at home). Increasingly, we catch shows on $5 Tuesdays. This past Tuesday, we caught the original White Christmas (in VistaVision!) on the big screen at the theater near us that features the reclining, first class airline-style seats. Tomorrow, we’ll be back to see Star Wars: The … Continue reading Sneaking In Movie Theater Snacks
This week – the second week of December – is a great time to start Christmas shopping, by my reckoning. We’ve nabbed a couple holiday deals since Black Friday, but I like to get out in the stores when everything is ‘on’. Lights on, music on, and sales on. It’s more fun to shop when the stores are decked out in all of their Christmas … Continue reading Christmas Shopping – Deck the Malls
(Updated 12/31/17 for final Tax Reform provisions) Tax Reform has been all over the news in the last week and when the Senate passed their bill on Friday night, I was excited at the prospect of seeing a solid windfall based on what the politicians were saying about it. The Republicans promised big savings for everyone across the board – they were even concerned it … Continue reading GOP Tax Reform – Not So Big Savings in MN
The stock market has been having a great year (+17% S&P500), but that hasn’t stopped me from fretting over the price of MegaCorp stock (-8%), as I continue to sit on significant stock options as part of our early retirement portfolio. While many retirees may be celebrating the record market closes this week and ongoing ‘Trump Bump’, our portfolio is sitting FLAT for the … Continue reading Too Many Eggs In One Basket?
We used the extra time we had this weekend when our son was home from college to put up our Christmas tree. We go all out when it comes to our Christmas tree and have a big collection of colorful, mercury glass ornaments. Our ceilings are 12 foot high, so it takes a big tree to ‘fit’ the room and hold all the ornaments. We … Continue reading Christmas Trees By The Numbers
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