steveark

Comments:

• I'm surprised you got any advice from anyone at the Social Security office on when to claim. They are absolutely prohibited from giving any kind of advice under any circumstances. Perhaps that wasn't the case in the past.

  Post: Bewildering Benefits

  Link to comment from April 7, 2023

• I don't disagree with having a lot of index funds but I don't think stocks are a bargain right now. They are still way overpriced and a decade of low, to no growth might be what it takes to rationalize stock prices. But if that's the case it's not big deal.

  Post: So Much to Like

  Link to comment from April 1, 2023

• That's quite an accomplishment to go from your former career to becoming an author. I agree life has to have purpose in retirement. In my case I chair a college board of trustees, a charitable foundation board and a hospital board along with other volunteer activities that provide that in my life. There is still plenty of time for recreation and travel while still feeling I am giving back. I hope this post encourages others to plan the nonfinancial side of retirement as carefully as they plan the monetary side.

  Post: Reinventing Myself

  Link to comment from March 20, 2023

• I don't get buying a car off the lot. Instead we order exactly what we want from the factory and pay cash for it. The odds of a car having the exact color and features we want being found at a dealership aren't good. We both bought cars during the pandemic. I bought used on the internet via Vroom for half the price of a new vehicle and she bought a brand new Bronco Sport with all the chips for less than list price.

  Post: Driving Me Crazy

  Link to comment from March 15, 2023

• I just got home from attending the funeral of a friend I fished with, played tennis with and more recently pickleball with. He was 61 and died suddenly, with little warning of a heart attack despite his being a good lifelong athlete. He never got to retire.

  Post: The Other Enough

  Link to comment from March 11, 2023

• I'm not likely to go to that much trouble for $3,000, that's just not a material sum of cash. But I applaud those who enjoy tinkering with investments to maximize return. I'm just not one of them and probably would make enough mistakes to end up losing more than I saved.

  Post: Profiting From Losses

  Link to comment from February 10, 2023

• My dad sold insurance and that included whole life insurance. He was a great man but not great at math and he honestly believed it was a good product for his customers. He even gave my whole family prepaid policies which we've kept for sentimental reasons. I figured out early on they were a horrible deal and always used term life policies for the period I wasn't self insured. I'm just saying this in defense of insurance agents everywhere. I believe they are generally honest and have just been served the company Koolaid. It is easy for people to trust what their employer tells them, especially back in the day, just as you trusted a very impressive person. Wonderful cautionary tale!

  Post: Why We Get Fooled

  Link to comment from February 8, 2023

• Sounds like you are doing quite well. I put even less effort in my investing paying Betterment, Personal Capital and Vanguard to handle how my money is invested. They do charge me to do that but Vanguard and Betterment don't charge much and Personal Capital has a market theory based approach that I'm willing to pay them a little more to perform. I'm sure experts could pick it apart as suboptimum but I'm happy with it. And like you, I've got enough. There are, for me, better ways to spend my time. Very enjoyable read!

  Post: Just Do It

  Link to comment from February 3, 2023

• One of my kids is an MD who will be raking in more in his first year of practice than I made as a senior executive well up into the six figure club. Another of my grown kids will be living in an old cargo van they've made into an RV with her husband doing remote work and traveling wherever there are roads. Two wildly disparate lifestyles but who is to say which is preferable? I look at supers savers and FOMO spenders in a similar fashion, choose your life and own it. I'm mostly like you, retired slightly early, largely frugal except spending lavishly on the things that light us up.

  Post: How to Retire at 38

  Link to comment from February 2, 2023

• We have been retired seven years now and are still living in the small town where I worked my entire 38year career. I am only tied to this area because of purpose. I chair the local college board, and the local hospital board and the largest local charitable foundation board. All of that sometimes feels like a full time paid job, but without any pay. We are building a small house on a 25 acre plot in a wilderness area in the Arkansas mountains. We are doing it out of spare cash with no mortgage and it isn't a material cost to us, just an interesting project and perhaps an investment as well. Retirement has been pretty awesome with ample time to give back to help those less fortunate and still plenty of time for our sports and outdoor recreational hobbies. I really second the idea that purpose is a big part of being happy in retirement. I will age out of some of my governance volunteering most likely eventually and we may find ourselves splitting our time between the mountains and the wetlands we live in today.

  Post: Retire Is a Verb

  Link to comment from January 28, 2023