West Bend Poppery II off Ebay, and a bag of beans is all you need. I use a wooden spoon to agitate the beans to help move the chaff off. Roast outside. It gets smokey.
You are a perfect candidate for home roasting coffee. I've been doing it for over 30 years. Fresh single origin coffee from anywhere in the world every day currently at about $8/lb. It's a simple process. If you can make popcorn, it's easy.
Google Sweet Marias for beans and roasting info.(you don't need an expensive roaster)
For every excited buyer who thinks this is the perfect time to load up, there is an equally excited seller who thinks it's a perfect time to unload. Paraphrasing Charlie Ellis.
Doing hard things throughout life is healthy. When you're retired you can enjoy more of those things on Monday thru Friday rather than just Saturdays and Sundays.
Same here. My investment plan at Vanguard is so simple I also rarely need customer service. I'm also in charge of my 94 yr old mother's account at Schwab. Her "account representatives" have never once returned a call or email. The sweep cash account is a joke. I'll give Schwab credit for a more intuitive website.
For those of us who have better things to do during retirement than spreadsheets I'll borrow words from either Mike Piper or Jim Dahle or maybe Gemini, I forget which.
Target date funds are not perfect but they are a perfectly fine plan in a retirement account. An added benefit that isn't mentioned very often is when the surviving spouse is not into the tinkering of rebalancing multiple funds during RMD years. Just pull the RMD out once a year and move on to visiting the grandkids.
Comments
West Bend Poppery II off Ebay, and a bag of beans is all you need. I use a wooden spoon to agitate the beans to help move the chaff off. Roast outside. It gets smokey.
Post: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish
Link to comment from April 20, 2026
You are a perfect candidate for home roasting coffee. I've been doing it for over 30 years. Fresh single origin coffee from anywhere in the world every day currently at about $8/lb. It's a simple process. If you can make popcorn, it's easy. Google Sweet Marias for beans and roasting info.(you don't need an expensive roaster)
Post: Penny Wise, Pound Foolish
Link to comment from April 20, 2026
For every excited buyer who thinks this is the perfect time to load up, there is an equally excited seller who thinks it's a perfect time to unload. Paraphrasing Charlie Ellis.
Post: How to Lose
Link to comment from March 17, 2026
Doing hard things throughout life is healthy. When you're retired you can enjoy more of those things on Monday thru Friday rather than just Saturdays and Sundays.
Post: The Comfort Trap
Link to comment from January 23, 2026
Same here. My investment plan at Vanguard is so simple I also rarely need customer service. I'm also in charge of my 94 yr old mother's account at Schwab. Her "account representatives" have never once returned a call or email. The sweep cash account is a joke. I'll give Schwab credit for a more intuitive website.
Post: Schwab or Vanguard?
Link to comment from January 22, 2026
Christine Benz covered this strategy. https://www.morningstar.com/retirement/should-your-retirement-withdrawals-mirror-required-minimum-distributions
Post: RMDs, account withdrawals, 4% simplified- MAYBE?
Link to comment from January 20, 2026
For those of us who have better things to do during retirement than spreadsheets I'll borrow words from either Mike Piper or Jim Dahle or maybe Gemini, I forget which. Target date funds are not perfect but they are a perfectly fine plan in a retirement account. An added benefit that isn't mentioned very often is when the surviving spouse is not into the tinkering of rebalancing multiple funds during RMD years. Just pull the RMD out once a year and move on to visiting the grandkids.
Post: New Year’s Resolutions, Target Date Funds, and My New Friend Gemini
Link to comment from January 6, 2026
Eliminate the wage cap on SS wages?
Post: Very disturbing proposal about the future of Social – radical thinking for sure.
Link to comment from May 5, 2025