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Three Simple Steps to Wealth

Retirement Interview 5

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Here’s our latest interview with a retiree as we seek to learn from those who have actually taken the retirement plunge. If you’d like to be considered for an interview, drop me a note and we can chat about specifics. My questions are in bold italics and his responses follow in black. Let's get started... GENERAL OVERVIEW How old are you (and spouse if applicable, … [Read more...]

Retirement Interview 4

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Here’s our latest interview with a retiree as we seek to learn from those who have actually taken the retirement plunge. If you’d like to be considered for an interview, drop me a note and we can chat about specifics. There was no way to include every possible question in an interview like this, so if you're wondering about something that's not addressed, please leave … [Read more...]

Are Several Mini-Retirements Better than One Full Retirement?

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Back in the day (yes, I'm about to date myself in two seconds) the term "retirement" meant you worked until 65, then quit work altogether to play golf and/or bowling until you died soon thereafter. Yes, that was the "norm" for my grandparents' retirements as well as the benchmark set for me when my career started. Then the FIRE movement came along and started redefining … [Read more...]

The Costs of Living on a Sailboat

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If you've been reading ESI Money for any length of time you know that I love the Caribbean. We have been there a handful times (three on cruises and twice on trips to Grand Cayman). If it was up to me, we will go there at least once per year for the rest of our lives. And by "up to me" I mean that I am planning at least one trip there per year. ;) In addition to my … [Read more...]

Retirement Interview 3

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Here’s our latest interview with a retiree as we seek to learn from those who have actually taken the retirement plunge. If you’d like to be considered for an interview, drop me a note and we can chat about specifics. There was no way to include every possible question in an interview like this, so if you're wondering about something that's not addressed, please leave … [Read more...]

Retirement Interview 2

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Here’s our latest interview with a retiree as we seek to learn from those who have actually taken the retirement plunge. If you’d like to be considered for an interview, drop me a note and we can chat about specifics. There was no way to include every possible question in an interview like this, so if you're wondering about something that's not addressed, please leave … [Read more...]

Retirement Interview 1

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Here’s our latest (first, really) interview with a retiree as we seek to learn from those who have actually taken the retirement plunge. If you’d like to be considered for an interview, drop me a note and we can chat about specifics. There was no way to include every possible question in an interview like this, so if you're wondering about something that's not addressed, … [Read more...]

Top Retirement Don’ts

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From the title you might expect this post to be full of "don't do this" and "don't do that" retirement advice. But this "don'ts" post is a bit different. It's not focused on the things you should avoid to get to retirement. Instead this post celebrates retirement greatness by listing the (annoying to terrible) things you don't have to do once you retire. It's my top … [Read more...]

How to Get to a $50k Retirement

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Today I'm going to share some options for setting up a retirement requiring $50k in annual spending. I get a lot of questions like "How can I retire?", "What can an average person do to retire?", and so forth. This post should answer a lot of these. There are many ways to retire (of course) but I'll detail four of the most popular/likely options plus add some commentary … [Read more...]

What to Do with Your Time in Early Retirement

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In my Black Friday Chat last fall one reader made the following comment: One of my biggest concerns about early retirement is lack of structure/purpose. It would be nice to see more questions targeting what people do to fill their days during early retirement. Not everyone is inherently disciplined or have a lot of activities outside of their professional lives. It would be … [Read more...]