1 Bike, 6 Days, and More than 326 Miles: My Ohio to Erie Trail (OTET) Adventure

1 Bike, 6 Days, and More than 326 Miles: My Ohio to Erie Trail (OTET) Adventure

10 Comments / Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement / /

I went to a smaller school in my early education days. It ran from kindergarten through 8th grade and had probably 300-400 students at the most. My grade had maybe 30-35 kids in it and, except for a couple of kids coming or going over the years, we all stayed together in every class over our 8 years there (they didn’t have kindergarten at that school when we started). Every year, the higher-grade classes (probably 4th through 8th grade) would

1 Bike, 6 Days, and More than 326 Miles: My Ohio to Erie Trail (OTET) Adventure Read More »

Can VUSXX Replace Our Savings Account? I’m Putting It to the Test

Can VUSXX Replace Our Savings Account? I’m Putting It to the Test

25 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

When I first moved our savings to an online bank (Ally Bank) back in 2013, I was blown away by how much interest we got on our first statement. It was unfathomable to me at the time. It just didn’t make sense that there really wasn’t much difference moving to an online bank and it actually paid so much more. We’ve been with Ally Bank since then, and I’ve been very happy with everything from their website to their customer

Can VUSXX Replace Our Savings Account? I’m Putting It to the Test Read More »

10 Pillars of Lifestyle Design: Evolving into a Life of Happiness

10 Pillars of Lifestyle Design: Evolving into a Life of Happiness

10 Comments / Motivation, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Health and Fitness / /

My stepdad died last month. My mom’s been in and out of the hospital since then (broken heart?). As a former engineer, I have a mindset to observe and then improve things. It’s just how my brain works. I’ve been observing all the decisions they’ve made over the decades (good and bad). I’ve also been studying how other folks have been living their lives and the results that follow. It’s something I’ve been curious about for several years now. It’s

10 Pillars of Lifestyle Design: Evolving into a Life of Happiness Read More »

Moving to Asheville, Big Travel Plans, and a 326-Mile Bike Adventure

Moving to Asheville, Big Travel Plans, and a 326-Mile Bike Adventure

14 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Health and Fitness, Kids, Spending, Travel and Vacation / /

It’s been a while since I’ve given just a general update on what we’ve got going on. And with some really big plans like moving to Asheville on the agenda, I thought it might be a good time to bring you up to speed. Besides our big move, we’ve got some fun international trips we’re working on getting on the books over the next couple of years that we’re already super-excited about! Just to make sure I’m not bored as

Moving to Asheville, Big Travel Plans, and a 326-Mile Bike Adventure Read More »

The Ultimate Free Travel Tracker: Map Your Past and Plan Your Future

The Ultimate Free Travel Tracker: Map Your Past and Plan Your Future

9 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Product and Service Reviews / /

There’s nothing quite like returning from a big trip, finally unpacking your suitcases, and reflecting on the memories you just made. Whether it’s looking back at photos from a recent family getaway to Hawaii or plotting out the itinerary for an upcoming cruise, reliving those adventures is half the fun of traveling in the first place. But as your list of destinations grows, remembering exactly where you stayed, what you did, and when you were there starts to get a

The Ultimate Free Travel Tracker: Map Your Past and Plan Your Future Read More »

Protecting Your Investment Accounts: 4 Critical Steps I've Taken

Protecting Your Investment Accounts: 4 Critical Steps I’ve Taken

6 Comments / Investments, Consumer Protection, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

When you first start putting money into the stock market, your investment accounts may not seem to be that valuable. But over time, those accounts may very well be the lifeblood of your entire financial life. That’s the case for us nowadays. We’ve been fortunate enough to build up a solid net worth over the years that now funds our early retirement. That’s all well and good, but that makes it a little scarier that if one of those investment

Protecting Your Investment Accounts: 4 Critical Steps I’ve Taken Read More »

Our Fantastic 2-Week Hawaii Vacation… Would I Go Back Though?

Our Fantastic 2-Week Hawaii Vacation… Would I Go Back Though?

12 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Life in Early Retirement, Spending / /

Hey, everyone – we just got back from a two-week Hawaii vacation… super cool trip. We flew down to O’ahu with our best friends, Dave and Kellie, who we’ve known for over 25 years! They stayed at an Airbnb in Waikiki for the first week. We stayed the first week with some of my other best friends, Matt and Mandi (who I’ve known even longer!), and who live in Pearl City We did a ton of cool stuff throughout the

Our Fantastic 2-Week Hawaii Vacation… Would I Go Back Though? Read More »

The Huge Blind Spot in Empower's Asset Allocation

The Huge Blind Spot in Empower’s Asset Allocation

10 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

I love using the Empower dashboard to manage our investment portfolio. Not only is it worth its weight in gold, but the price of $0 is something worthwhile, too! They’re hoping you decide to use their investment services, but it’s not a requirement. I don’t use their services, but I have heard good things about them. So, if you want an easy way to aggregate all your financial life into one dashboard with amazing retirement and investment tools, sign up

The Huge Blind Spot in Empower’s Asset Allocation Read More »

Leveraging AI Made Filing My Taxes Surprisingly Less Stressful

Leveraging AI Made Filing My Taxes Surprisingly Less Stressful

8 Comments / Taxes and Financial Planning, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments / /

I’ve got mixed feelings about the power of AI (artificial intelligence). Privacy can start blurring quickly and the bad guys will continue leveraging AI to be exponentially worse than before. But… AI is helping to do some amazing things. The one area that keeps me fascinated is the world of medicine. AI is helping to detect cancer better, provide better risk prevention, and improve surgical outcomes. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear about cures for diseases that seemed like they

Leveraging AI Made Filing My Taxes Surprisingly Less Stressful Read More »

Being Lucky Has Little to Do with Luck

Being Lucky Has Little to Do with Luck

16 Comments / Motivation, General Thoughts, Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement / /

I had an interesting conversation in my head today. I was wrapping up some things I was working on and thought, “Wow, that’s really starting to fall into place… we’re pretty lucky.” Then I started thinking, “Ya know, the far majority of the time, things consistently do fall into place with what we’re doing.” Then that really got my mind going – is it that we really are just lucky, or is it something else? And that’s when my brain

Being Lucky Has Little to Do with Luck Read More »