I've been thinking about this issue for some time now. And since I had fun digging into my financial independence numbers I thought I'd do a few more math gymnastics to see how much I had "lost" by retiring early. I had considered this idea a while ago, but what prompted me to finally write about it was a conversation with my mom. She and my dad have been working on … [Read more...]
When Can I Retire? When Will I Be Financially Independent? A Retirement Calculator Guide
I get a lot of questions about retirement. This might not come as a surprise to you since I write so much about the topic. Most of the questions are one of these two: 1) When can I retire? (Yes, literally that simple.) and 2) I don't think I have enough to retire. What do you think? (This is really just another form of the question above.) I have penned several posts … [Read more...]
Is Retiring on a Cruise Ship an Affordable Option?
As many of you know, we lived in Michigan for 14 years. Overall, I liked Michigan (after all I grew up in Iowa, so my expectations of life were low) except for one thing: the weather was the worst! Now some people might chime in with "but the summers are great". Last I checked, summer was three months. Yes, summers there are nice. But the other nine months, not so … [Read more...]
A Castle, A Burned Gift Shop, and a Diner Stuck in the 50’s
One of the great things about being retired is that you can take trips whenever you want to. While my daughter was home on spring break this year, we decided to go see Bishop Castle. For those of you who don't know about Bishop Castle (which is probably most people reading this), here's an overview at their website. Or if you'd prefer a bit more detail, here's the … [Read more...]
Blooom Review – A 401k Retirement Plan Robo-Advisor
The following post is sponsored by Blooom. The review is done by Hank Coleman, the founder and publisher of Money Q&A, a personal finance blog that focuses primarily on investing and retirement planning. Hank has a Masters in Finance from the University of Maryland and holds a Certificate of Personal Financial Planning from Kansas State University. Deciphering the … [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...]
Maxing Out a 401k and Early Retirement
In my post titled Three Sentences that Lead to Wealth, I made the following comment: The 401k up to the full match is a no-brainer. After that, it depends what you are trying to accomplish and by when. I maxed out all my tax-advantaged accounts and wish I had put a bit of that money into taxable accounts for easier access. One reader responded to that with the following: In … [Read more...]
Help a Reader: How to Retire with Plenty of Assets
Here's an email I received from a reader looking for some suggestions: From an early age, my wife and I were taught to save. So we paid ourselves first before anything else. By the time I met my wife to be we were both working for Johnson and Johnson. We maxed our 401k’s, deducted for savings bonds (remember those?) and company stock. We probably averaged close to 20% of … [Read more...]
One Great Retirement Perk: Dressing Casually
In my guest post for the awesome J. Money at Budgets are Sexy I listed the ten things I didn't expect in retirement. #5 was "I’ve gotten very comfortable wearing casual clothes." Here's what I said on that subject: I’m not going to say I have always been an uptight dresser. Let’s just say I was always dressed for the occasion. I like to look nice and professional whether at … [Read more...]
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