I recently Googled the term ‘early retirement’ to see how the media is chattering about this topic. Since I’ve been boring readers with this topic for more than 9 years, I felt I had a responsibility to keep up-to-date with how early retirement is being discussed in the media. As usual, the headlines were confusing and at odds with each other: “My Dad Sacrificed Everything … Continue reading Early Retirement: Searching For Answers?
The news has been full of economic policy proposals from our two major candidates. I’ll tell you that I’ve been reading them with interest, but cannot make sense out of either of them. They are both promising big economic windfalls to their favored protected classes and paying very little attention to the country’s current $35T debt (123% of GDP, up from just 56% in 2000). … Continue reading Confusing Candidates
The so-called, “Trump Tax Cuts” from 2017 are in the news as Democrats argue that they benefited only the richest Americans. This recent chart from the Tax Foundation shows that in the 4 years following the 2017 tax law change, the wealthiest households paid a greater share of Federal taxes. Their share went from below 40% to over 45% – about an 600bps increase. This … Continue reading Trump Tax Cuts
If there was ever an industry that I thought would benefit from the internet, it’s real estate. These are data-heavy purchases that people want to really research before making a decision. Still, we’ve bought and sold a few different properties over the last few years and it’s difficult to get a good sense of how to price a property without talking to an agent. We … Continue reading Online Real Estate Estimates
I see a lot of headlines in the news lately touting how high the stock market has gone. It is true that the S&P 500 has reached a new Apex – up +19% YTD to almost 5,600. At the same time, few in the mainstream media are noting that the bond market has tumbled markedly in the last two years (down -16%). Compared with equities, … Continue reading A Tale of Two Markets
With my Dad’s, passing, I continue to reflect on significant memories with him that helped shape my life. One of those memories involves this old, wooden, Bancroft “youth model” tennis racket shown above (with my current racket) and a good lesson in finance. I was about 10 years old. We lived in Hillsdale MI – a small town in the southern part of the state. … Continue reading My Dad’s Lesson In Interest
My wife went to the drug store yesterday. She bought 3 small things and came back with a receipt that is 24.875” in length. I measured it. It’s indicative of how desperate some retailers have become in today’s marketplace. I had a similar experience at our local Hallmark card shop. I was there to buy a simple Father’s Day card and the saleswoman kept following … Continue reading Enough With The Offers!
That’s our nice SUV – sitting in the garage of our recently-purchased condo in Florida. We drove it down to Florida a few weeks ago and left it there. Now we need to replace the hole it left in our Minnesota fleet – where we spend most of our time. The big challenge in replacing it is that the automobile industry is in a bit … Continue reading Hole In The Fleet
Colleges & Universities are under attack from a lot of directions lately. Conservatives attack their focus on DEI over merit, and Progressives attack their historical white patriarchy. Students are protesting on campus, taking over school buildings, and making a mess of things during commencement season. Here’s more bad news. The ROI of a college degree is increasingly looking bad. Especially for a graduate degree. A … Continue reading Higher Education ROI
Just in time for Spring Garage Sales, it’s “Collectibles Week” here at the Fire Station. I’ve been looking around our house and trying to think of which things I should keep collecting, and which I should find some new homes for. Today, I am including a list of the “Top 20” collectibles that are INCREASING in value. On Friday, I will publish the list of … Continue reading Collectibles – Increasing in Value?
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