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Continue reading →: The Quality of your Connections is the Quality of your LifeI was reminded of a concept that I knew but haven’t paid enough attention to. I write about needing to find my tribe—my community. I touched upon it in an earlier posts (Too Young for Bingo, Too old for Playdates – Finding my Tribe and Sadly I may miss Coworker Meetings…
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Continue reading →: The FOMO Menace: My Battle with the IPSI have admitted a few times the sins of my investing past. Today’s post is another one of those “confessions”—the kind where I describe exactly what I should do, while simultaneously struggling to actually do it. For any new Padawans joining the journey, you can click on my previous moments…
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Continue reading →: I Don’t Want to Wait…I was a big fan of Dawson’s Creek when it came out. I was 27 at the time, so I wasn’t exactly the target audience, but it always pulled me in. With James Van Der Beek’s recent death, I’ve been thinking back to the show and trying to understand why…
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Continue reading →: I Find Your Lack of Strategy Disturbing: Lessons from the Executive Inner CircleWhen I was a smaller cog in the corporate machine, I assumed the people in the C-suite were special. I viewed VPs as strategic titans—people with a rare talent, a “secret sauce,” and the keys to the kingdom. To my younger self, they could do no wrong. Early in my…
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Continue reading →: Use the Force – You have to Trust Your GutI pride myself on my ability to see the big picture at work. I can look out six months, understand what needs to happen today on my team, and make the necessary course corrections. Intuition, gut feel, and experience—that’s how I’ve always run. Whenever I’ve started a new job in…
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Continue reading →: T-5: Finding the EdgeGetting to retirement feels like a dance. On ice. But I don’t know how to skate. My writing and thoughts have started to shift. Up until now, I’ve viewed my plan to retire at a certain date or “number” as the starting point for finally getting my act together. I…
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Continue reading →: The Richest Life in 700 Square FeetThis one is tough. I don’t process sickness or death well; usually, I avoid it. My default is to retreat into statistics—telling myself it is inevitable that bad things happen to good people far too young. Perhaps writing this will help me embrace the pain of losing someone close to…
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Continue reading →: Dropping the Mask: A Review of What I Found at the EconoMe ConferenceLast year, I attended my very first Financial Independence (FI) event: EconoMe in Cincinnati. It’s a conference that brings together five hundred FIRE people, money nerds, and those interested in living a little differently. As it is coming up again this year, I reflected back on what I was looking…
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Continue reading →: Fear Leads to Anger, Anger Leads to Hate, Hate Leads to F.I.R.E.I would argue that the FIRE movement has its roots in the Dark Side. While the “Light Side” of personal finance talks about the joy of compounding interest and the zen of a simple life, many of us actually find our way to Financial Independence through Fear, Anger, and Hate.…
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Continue reading →: Career Lessons: Bunker Hill Project ManagementOne change that has happened in my 30-year career seems to be how a larger percentage of career titles have changed to be called Project Manager. Or Program Manager. Or Project Specialist. They all come down to being more of a Generalist that sees the big picture who are responsible…
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