No one’s asked. Not a one. Not one single person in my entire office. I’m now just days out from my retirement – December 31, 2018, is my last day of work. I gave my notice in early summer and we kept it low-key in the office for a little bit while we worked out the game plan. However, I officially made the announcement to my engineers in a meeting on August 13. And as many of you know, the …
Well, we’re finally over the hump. We actually had a moment to exhale. We sold the house and moved into an apartment. Everything should start to get easier and easier as we get closer to the big move to Panama next summer. I started this post while at the airport on our way to Miami to get our cruise kicked off. We booked this trip at the beginning of the year thinking we’d have nothing going on at this time. …
Money. We all know its importance or you wouldn’t be reading this post. Whether you like it or not, it’s what the world runs on. You could opt out of playing the game and become a hobo, but there are very few of us that can live happily ever after in that position. You can’t let money rule your life, but it’s important to understand its role. Once you can control your capital instead of it controlling you, you’re one …
I’m writing this post on the airplane coming back from Orlando. I just got finished another great FinCon conference. Not only that, but I’m writing it while on the plane the old-school way – pen and paper. Sure, I’ve had to rewrite the whole thing to get it online because I bailed on bringing my laptop to the event. But I care about you guys so much that it’s worth the effort… you’re welcome. This is the second year I …
The path to FIRE (financial independence / retire early) can be a long and sometimes arduous path. Each of us runs into our own obstacles and stumbling blocks along the way. One piece of good news is that, unlike the early trail-blazers that went down this path, there’s now a wonderful community on the big old Internet. If you look past the get-rich-quick garbage out there, you’ll find a lot of supportive and helpful folks who want you to succeed. Another …
I thought I’d take a step back from my normal posts to update everyone on our status – where we’re currently at and the next steps in our early retirement plans. My regular readers know that I’m leaving my job at the end of this year and we’re moving to Panama next summer (2019). It seems like an eternity away, but it’s really not a lot of time. So the good news is that the adventure is almost ready to …
Growing up I was always good at math. I pretty much ran circles around the other kids in the class in elementary school and had no problems throughout high school as well. Knowing your numbers back in those days was a whole different ball game. Then college happened. Some of the classes were easy peasy, but then there were subjects like business statistics and macro/micro economics. I think my grades in those tougher classes accurately reflected my understanding at the …
Would you stay in the country for an extra $5 million? That was the question posed to me by my mom last week. “If I hit the lottery and gave you $5 million to come back from Panama after one year, would you do it?” Obviously, she’s not thrilled with our plans to leave the country and move to Panama next year. Leaving family and friends is always the toughest part of moving. Her thinking with this hypothetical question was …
It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. I’ve always hated this saying. It implies that hard work won’t get you as far as knowing someone will. As if you can get further just by knowing people instead of busting your butt! It’s insane… but I think it’s true. From my first job, all I ever did was bust my @#$ doing the best I could. While others played around at the companies I was at, I always focused …
When you’re deciding to leave an employer, it’s customary to give 2 weeks notice as part of your resignation. The idea is that it gives the company enough time to transition the loose ends over to another employee. Really though, in many places, that’s not a lot of time. If you’re in a very complex position or a company that’s project-oriented for instance, 2 weeks notice is barely enough to get the ball rolling. And it’s likely to leave a …
2 Weeks Notice? Here’s Why I Gave My Boss 6 Months! Read More »
