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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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Continue reading →: Words Matter: How a 23-Year-Old helped My Retirement IdentityI’m an engineer with a solid, detailed financial retirement plan, yet it took a 23-year-old dental hygienist with a single, sharp word to prove that I’m nowhere near as “emotionally ready” as I thought I was. I used to—and maybe I still do—pride myself on being a logical thinker. I…
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Continue reading →: The Dilbert Joy Index: 8.7 Billion Moments of LaughterGrowing up, I always grabbed the daily newspaper to flip to the comic pages. We all had our favorites: Peanuts, Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes. They all brought a hint of a smile as we read through the punchlines. Today, I want to honor Scott Adams, who made me smile and…
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Continue reading →: The Greatest Teacher, failure is – Planes, Math, and the Red Light DistrictLately, I’ve found myself revisiting the archives of livingafi.com—a blog I’ve long admired that has since gone dormant—and it sparked a desire to conduct my own career autopsy. Over three decades, I’ve navigated unexpected pivots, narrow escapes, and a few “Plan Bs” that ended up defining my entire trajectory. This…
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Continue reading →: Time to Make the DonutsI go to the office every day. I work in a building that seats over 200 people, but typically, there are only 15 to 20 of us here. This skeleton crew includes the essentials—IT, security, and janitorial staff—plus a handful of us who choose to come in simply because we…
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Continue reading →: The Imperial Coast to Retirement: Quiet QuittingDuring COVID, a new term emerged that I didn’t pay much attention to at the time: Quiet Quitting. When I finally looked into it, I was surprised to find a startlingly accurate description of my own behavior at my current Empire. Today, I want to explore whether that label truly…
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Continue reading →: The Diverging Path: When Your Spouse Isn’t Ready to Leave the EmpireWe all choose our paths based upon our own experiences. When we come to fork in the road our experience is how we decide on which path to take. But there is more to it than just experience. The “timing” of the decision has to be right I am a…
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Continue reading →: Positivity: Your Focus Determines Your RealityWe’ve all heard it before: you are the average of the five people you surround yourself with. I was reminded of just how much that influence matters this morning. Many days can feel like Groundhog Day. I go to work, talk to the same people over a three-day cycle, and…
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Continue reading →: Who You Are in This Moment: Outrunning the Ghost of Christmas FutureEvery December, the Ghost of Christmas Future pays me a visit. Usually, he’s carrying a spreadsheet and pointing toward a distant retirement date, and I spend my time calculating if I’ve “saved enough” to retire in the near future. But this year, the vision he showed me hit me a…
Welcome to my corner of the Empire. Here you find my struggle to give up the Dark Side and finally Retire from force choking coworkers. Got to say I will miss that some day
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