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Continue reading →: If Work Was a Color, It Would Be BeigeSome days are just blah. If they were a color, they would be beige. My current routine is simple: get up, walk the dog, go to work—where I mostly just watch the news and finance pages—go home, eat a half-hearted meal, walk the dog, and veg on the couch. Then…
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Continue reading →: The Increased Risk of Divorce due to F.I.R.E.This is a scary topic for anyone close to retirement. The best-laid plans for retirement can go up in smoke if divorce becomes a reality. Why am I talking about divorce? It’s happened to a couple of friends close to retirement in the last few weeks, and it’s tough to…
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Continue reading →: 🎠 The Mental Health Merry-Go-Round: The Inertia of the Dark SideThere is one cycle in my life that I haven’t been good at breaking. When I get down, or as I call it, the “dark side,” I stay down for a while. Eventually, I get back to my baseline or even higher, usually after a week or so. Then the…
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Continue reading →: T-8 Countdown to Retirement: Are All Systems Go?In the dramatic countdowns of ’60s and ’70s space missions, mission control meticulously checked every system before launch. It was to make sure they every critical system was working properly. As I approach my own countdown ‘T-8’ mark to retirement, it’s time for a similar, honest systems check: Am I…
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Continue reading →: Keeping Up with the Palpatines: Money really is PersonalKeeping up with the Joneses—or in my case, the Palpatines—is a well known path that leads away from FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early). It definitely leads away from early retirement. We all choose how we spend our money. Some people splurge in life; as money comes in, it goes right…
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Continue reading →: Trading the Office Hum for the Joy of ‘Done’The moment the power tools started, the Empire’s ( my company’s) hold on my mind was broken, if only for a few days. A recent productive Thanksgiving long weekend at the cottage was a perfect point of comparison to a good week of work (Thanksgiving in Canada is early Oct).…
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Continue reading →: Do or Do Not: The Power of BeliefImposter syndrome. Self Confidence issues. Fear of Change. Self Destructive Behaviors. We all suffer with our self beliefs. We have doubts about who we are and what we can do. It is second nature for everyone. These doubting beliefs and how strong they are shape your life. A favorite quote…
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Continue reading →: The ‘Rabbit Investor’: My Path to Early RetirementI’ve spent plenty of time on this blog discussing the emotional effort required to retire early—the mental gymnastics of deciding on “enough”. But I’ve been holding back one huge part of the equation: the money itself. It’s time for a confession. I have not been a good investor. The financial…
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Continue reading →: The Emperor moves to a different Death StarJust three months at my new job (the Death Star), and the familiar churn of corporate change has started. I report into an Emperor (boss) who is located at a remote Death Star. I am also reporting, dotted line, to another Emperor at my site. Matrix reporting is not…
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Continue reading →: The Deep Roots of Our Money MindsetWhat makes us tick? Much of what we do are subconscious learned behaviors. Our parents have an outsized impact on our beliefs, especially concerning money. When we are young we watch what our parents do to learn how we are suppose to act. If we don’t examine these deeply rooted…
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