Go from burnt out to FIREd up.
Almost a decade and a half ago, we had our first child. Around the same time my parents adopted a grandparenting style that echoed the ethos of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. [For the record, it was not Facebook’s popular guiding principle of Move fast and break things. Between arthritis, artificial joints and gait instability on downsloping surfaces, they only ever developed …
It’s a relaxed summer evening. I’m enjoying a swim with my daughter during a visit to the grandparents. Tonight there is a creamsicle colored dusk that seems to stretch implausibly late in a manner analogous my my daughter’s implausibly long legs extending above the water’s surface as she performs underwater handstands. I remember when the whole of her body fit …
The stock market is a no-called-strike game. You don’t have to swing at everything – you can wait for your pitch. -Warren Buffett I don’t day trade. I don’t own cryptocurrencies. I don’t directly own rental real estate. I have friends who have done incredibly well in each and every one of those areas of investment, and I enjoy learning …
This summer, we decided each kid is getting $20 a month to spend on whatever they choose. One kid went to a favorite chain restaurant and ordered a sandwich online in advance using an e-coupon. Another went to a meal with a friend, did not order online, was unable to use the coupon (it was only available for online orders) …
This morning, I opened the refrigerator to find a paucity of blueberries. This is all the more surprising because we buy 2-3 enormous boxes of blueberries at Costco every 2-3 weeks. What used to be arrive in a single delicate box presented like a Rolex when I was a kid now comes in economy size buckets. I’ve developed certain morning …
We’ve entered that stage of life: begun to lose parents, seen peers stricken with cancer as the youthful patina of invincibility fades, and started to give up pastimes we thought we’d never stop enjoying. As a result, the typical conversation with a non-medical friend my age tends to follow a template. Dissatisfaction is expressed regarding a new boss, the latest …
H explains why he always bets against his favorite baseball team: If they win, I am happy because my team was victorious. If they lose, I find solace in having won the bet. A dear friend relayed this true story about a shared acquaintance from our high school days. It is an adolescent’s attempt to reconcile the tension between the …
The hazards of normalcy bias were recently put on my radar by my invisible friend and unconventional thinker Dr. S, to whom I am grateful for the continuing mind expansion that has defined our virtual friendship. Having a friend who is unafraid to test and confront your definition of reality only strengthens your long-term resilience and the soundness of your …
A visit home for Father’s Day is the perfect opportunity to pay attention to details and tie up loose ends. We spent several hours completing the In Case Of Emergency binder, something dad had been working on in his spare time for the past year at my urging. Dad’s health is not what it once was. I gifted him this …
My latest journey down the rabbit hole of creating a “good-enough to get ‘er done” retirement portfolio reads like a biblical recounting of who begat whom. I started with William Bernstein’s Ages of the Investor, which inspired me to read one the books he referenced: Michael Zwecher’s Retirement Portfolios: Theory, Construction and Management. Zwecher strongly argues for the use of …