Wow! Can you believe it's been two years since I retired????!!!!In some ways it seems like yesterday and in others a decade (I can't remember what it was like to work other than "not nearly as good as this"). :)For those of you new to the site, here are the details of my retirement.Since then I've given an update on things every six months just to let you know how … [Read more...]
Dear Hilton Hotels, This 15-Year Customer is Done with You
A bit ago I wrote the rant-post If You Want What I Have You Have to Do What I’ve Done.Most readers loved the snarky writing and during our discussion in the comments, I said: Maybe I should start “rant Saturday” where we can all share our stories like this!! Almost everyone thought it was a great suggestion, so I put it down as a series that I would post on now and … [Read more...]
The Multi-Level Marketing People are Upon Me!
When we lived in Grand Rapids, Michigan I was used to getting a multi-level marketing (MLM) pitch on a regular basis.After all, we were in the home of Amway, the mother of all multi-level marketing companies.It took me a while to catch on to their system.After all, they were a finely trained army of network marketers and I was an innocent lad just trying to help … [Read more...]
My Financial Independence Numbers
One of the things (maybe the only thing) I dislike about Mr. Money Mustache and the swarm of like-minded individuals he spawned with his philosophy is that he didn't come around 20 years earlier.If he had, I would have been retired much earlier.But in my generation, retiring early was at 60. Now it's somewhere around 40.If I had known that there was a different way … [Read more...]
Grand Cayman Trip and Tips, Part 4
Today I'm going to wrap up the details on our recent trip to Grand Cayman.In case you've missed any part of this series, you can start with Grand Cayman Trip and Tips, Part 1.As you'll see, we shifted into cruise control and simply relaxed our last couple of days.Now, let's continue on with our journey... Sunday, January 14 I was wakened at 6 am today by the house … [Read more...]
Grand Cayman Trip and Tips, Part 3
Today I'm going to continue sharing about our recent trip to Grand Cayman.In case you've missed any part of this series, you can start with Grand Cayman Trip and Tips, Part 1.Now, let's continue on with our journey... Thursday, January 11 This was the best day of the trip.We didn't do much in the morning -- just sat around and chatted. We had hamburgers for … [Read more...]
Grand Cayman Trip and Tips, Part 2
Today I'm going to continue sharing about our recent trip to Grand Cayman.In case you missed the first post in this series, check out Grand Cayman Trip and Tips, Part 1.Now, let's continue on with our journey... Monday, January 8 When we were planning our trip to Grand Cayman (after we had already selected the dates) we found a site that listed all the cruise ships … [Read more...]
Grand Cayman Trip and Tips, Part 1
As I detailed last week, we took a trip to Grand Cayman in January.Over the course of a few posts (which I'll spread out a bit) I'm going to detail what we did, give some tips for making the best of a trip to the island, and throw in a few pictures for fun.I'll list the events by day and put in tips where they seem appropriate. How We Roll Before I get into specifics, … [Read more...]
Retirement 18-Month Update
When I gave my one year retirement update I said that I'd probably only give updates once a year or so.But I've been so busy since I retired that if I wait a year then my update post would read like a book! ;)So I'll be giving semi-annual updates just to keep you in the loop.To make this summary easier to read, I've put my thoughts into categories.Here's what's … [Read more...]
2017 Financial Year in Review and 2018 Forecast
At the end of each year I like to dig into my finances to do a bit of a review.Since I have all my numbers in Quicken, it's pretty easy.And I thought you might find the results interesting -- so I'm turning it into a post!As a reminder, 2017 was my first full year of retirement, so it provides a good insight into how our finances might play out over the rest of our … [Read more...]
