Ah, how time flies! In February 2019, I wrote a post called The Breakdown of Our Net Worth Savings & Investments that detailed our investment portfolio at the time. As you’d expect, it broke down all our assets and liabilities and gave a good snapshot of our financial picture. This was just a couple of months after I had retired from the corporate world so it gave us a pretty good baseline to start our retirement. But holy schnikes – …
“Wow, that’s one entitled kid for sure!” Words you don’t ever want to hear about your child. We’re blessed to have saved enough money to be able to enjoy early retirement. As a millionaire family that doesn’t live extravagantly, a lot of the money stress tends to subside (though not completely). It’s been wonderful to be able to spend my days with my wife and daughter. In fact, being able to be a bigger part of my daughter’s life while …
Entitled Kid Syndrome… Our 4-Part Preventative Strategy Read More »
You might have noticed that I didn’t write anything last week. Last year, I “gave myself permission” to take time off from blogging periodically. That’s not an easy thing for me. In the year and a half since I wrote that post, I’ve only skipped a few weeks of writing… it’s hard to let go! I enjoy writing for the blog but I sometimes struggle by making it more of an obligation than a fun hobby. Nevertheless, it was nice …
10 Secret Library Resources That Can Save You a Ton of Dough! Read More »
When I reached early retirement at the end of 2018, I gained the one big gift I was looking for in life… more time and freedom. That’s a true blessing, my friends, and I try not to squander it. I strive to use some of that “super power” to push myself to become a better person – both physically and mentally. Change is hard, but I like it. It’s easy just to continue rolling forward while doing the same old …
Atomic Habits – The Powerful Keys to Making Changes That Stick Read More »
Ah, the world of cruise vacations… some people love ’em and some people hate ’em. Without a doubt, I’m in the former camp. Cruising is my absolute favorite type of vacation and I’ve even dug into what it would take to live on a cruise ship! I guess I’m not the only one either. My friend John over at ESI Money wrote a deep-dive post into the subject a few years ago titled, Is Retiring on a Cruise Ship an …
Cruise Vacations – My 3 Rules and My 3 Favorite Indulgences Read More »
A financial aggregator is sort of a broad term that generally refers to software or services that can pull all your financial data into one place. We’re talking about balances and transactions for your bank accounts, credit cards, investment accounts, loans, and more. You might already be familiar with some of the older players in the game like Quicken, which is still a huge competitor. I used Quicken from 1999 until 2019 (20 years!) until I switched to both Empower …
3 Ways a Financial Aggregator Can Help Save You Money Read More »
I love reading articles that have something tangible to present. It doesn’t matter if it’s books, documentaries, software, or some kind of hack to improve your life that’s good for your mind, body, or wallet. Make me a better person! Sometimes folks ask me questions about how I accomplished something or why I do things in a particular way. The questions usually revolve around anything from finances to technology to health or anything else that might be on someone’s mind. …
7 Cool Resources for Your Mind, Body, and Wallet Read More »
Yeah, this was something I was initially against. Why on earth would anyone pay that much money to open a credit card?! After several years of thinking that way, I’ve since changed my mind. And I recently applied for and got a credit card with a $395 annual fee!! It was something that we’d never done before. Premium cards like this are expensive and they never seemed worthwhile to us. Sure you get some good perks with them, but could …
Is It Worth It to Open a Credit Card With a Huge Annual Fee? Read More »
I’ve been meaning to write about what you need to do to protect your credit for a while now. It’s such an important topic, but it seems to be something that’s glaringly overlooked by many. I noticed that anytime the subject comes up in conversation (yeah, I’m a blast at parties!), most folks have no idea about it or what to do. That can be a huge oversight since just a few simple steps can aid in preventing financial identity …
Protect Your Credit – The 3 Vital Steps You Need To Take Read More »
We moved to Boquete, Panama back in 2019, just months after I had retired from work at the end of 2018. We had sold everything we owned and moved to a country that we had only visited one other time – a country where we knew no one and almost everyone speaks Spanish. You would think that this whirlwind would be one of the biggest hurdles in life to adjust to and figure out. Funny enough though, finding my place …
Finding My Place Again in the U.S. – 3 Things I’m Worried About Read More »
