Last fall I shared responses I received from people when I told them about my early retirement. These were family members and friends -- people I know well (of course.) They know me and our family and while they may have been surprised, it wasn't a total shock given what they know about us. But there's an entirely different dynamic when you explain early retirement to … [Read more...]
My Current Money Management and Investment Plans
It's been some time since I shared my asset allocation. In fact, my last update was just after I retired. Now that I've been retired some time and am getting used to it, I'm looking at my assets with new purposes in mind. Given this plus the fact that one of my 2017 financial resolutions is to review my investments, I thought I could kill two birds with one post. … [Read more...]
Monday is the Best Day in Retirement
To most of the world, the best day of the week is Friday (because the weekend is coming), Saturday (because there's no work), or Sunday (because there's no work). Here and there you might see other days make it into the "best day" discussion, but those three definitely lead the pack. I know they were my favorite days when I was working. You know what never gets … [Read more...]
Retirement Six Month Update
Can you believe it's been SIX MONTHS since I retired? In some ways it seems like yesterday but mostly it seems like eons ago...in a good way. My last retirement update was at 100 days. Here's what I've been doing since then: I'm still busy!!! How did I ever find time to work and do all the stuff I'm doing now? The days pass quickly and there's always more left to … [Read more...]
Big Tax Savings due to Early Retirement
Now that I'm retired, lots of things have changed, of course. One of them I have been expecting is the taxes I will pay. Not only am I earning about one-third of my former income each year, but I'm not doing it from earned income. On the tax-paying side, I won't have a job deducting income taxes for me, so there are implications there as well. To get a head start on … [Read more...]
2016 Net Worth and Retirement Budget Update
Here's an update on how our net worth performed in 2016. For background on my net worth status and results, see 2015 Net Worth Review and The First Million is the Hardest. In addition to the net worth update, I'll detail how our retirement budget has performed so far (five months into retirement) so you will be all caught up. :) 2016 Net Worth Summary Here are my net … [Read more...]
Retirement 100-Day Update
As promised when I gave my 30-day retirement update, I'll post what I'm up to in retirement every so often. It's meant to both keep you in the loop with the retirement life as well as keep myself accountable. If all I have to share is "sat around and watched TV", I'll need to shake things up a bit. :) Anyway, here's what's happened the past 100 days: I'm busy!!! You … [Read more...]
How to Retire Early
When I tell people that I've retired early I get a variety of reactions. But once the surprise (which is always part of the reaction in some measure) wears off, the questions begin. And the most common one is something like this, "How did you do it? How can a person retire early?" That's what I plan to cover in today's post. Live Like No One Else Before I get into … [Read more...]
Retirement Math
Summary: Retirement math is pretty simple. Get the formula right by using the ESI scale to hit financial independence. As I discussed in My Retirement Budget, Income Allocation, and How I Plan to Diversify, there's a basic retirement formula. We'll get into specifics in a minute, but first let's revisit what I've said. Here are the main parts of my … [Read more...]
My Retirement Budget, Income Allocation, and How I Plan to Diversify
Today I wanted to give you some insight into the financial process I went through to decide I had enough to retire. We'll review the budget I set up (both income and expenses) and I'll give commentary on where I stand now and some steps I'm planning. We will cover them from a pretty high level (no one wants to go through a line-by-line budget) but give enough information … [Read more...]
