Go from burnt out to FIREd up.
Back in the 80s of my youth, I owned one black tie and it was razor thin. Frankie was constantly insisting I relax, and Time magazine was the major determinant of what a given week’s father-son chat would be about. When Time Magazine ran a cover story on Herpes as the new “Scarlet Letter” of the decade, I could spot …
As I write this, I’ve spent two of the last three weeks alternating shifts at the bedside of a family member in the ICU who suffered complications following a high-risk surgery. It’s been brutal for everyone, most of all the spouse of the patient. This couple met in their teens, and just celebrated 51 years of marriage. The patient narrowly …
A funny thing happens when you commence your education in pursuit of financial independence. Without realizing it, you begin to view other areas of life through the lens of finance. The insights into non-financial life might pleasantly surprise you. After a family member’s prolonged illness, this morning was my first opportunity to paddle out for a winter swell. The surf …
Don’t Underestimate Life’s Value With A Disability I wrote an essay in college exploring the ethics of using novel DNA screening technology to determine if a fetus had Down Syndrome. As an exercise, I tried to write it from a utilitarian perspective – how does one evaluate what does the most good for the greatest number of people? Was this …
My mom and perhaps the one other regular reader of this blog may have noticed I haven’t posted in a few weeks. December was a brutal month – my wife and I spent much of it either out of state in the ICU at the bedside of a critically ill family member or back at home indirectly supporting that family …
Just as arbitrage deals with using inefficiencies in pricing to extract additional value in a financial transaction, ego arbitrage uses inefficiencies in the status of certain tasks or behaviors to create additional value (or savings) in your career and in your life. This morning I awoke to read a mind-blowing blog post over at Freedom Is Groovy where Mr. Groovy …
It’s not at Vanguard. I was not an accredited investor at the time of purchase. And it’s beaten the S&P in value added every single year since I went all in. Trouble is, it’s closed to new investors. A recent thread on the WCI forum got me thinking about my single most important investment. It was the summer of 2004, …
This post takes it title from a charismatic flight attendant’s announcement prior to takeoff on a recent flight from California to Texas. It resonated for me. Like many other FI bloggers, I’m a recovering neurotic transitioning to calm. Also like these bloggers, now that I’ve got the big rocks in my financial life straightened out, there’s a lot of free …
In the FI blogging world, certain names get referenced by folks whose opinions you respect until you reach a tipping point and decide to spend a few hours digging through their website to see what the hype is all about. Ms. Montana at Montana Money Adventures was toasted by so many of the bloggers I admire that I prepared myself …
I was recently entrusted to read a friend’s memoir about coping with his wife’s major unexpected health crisis one year into their marriage. Spoiler alert – she survived, they remain together, and her recovery continues to make strides three years later. My friend describes, among many other things, the experience of being disappointed by friends he considered intimates who seemed …