Behavior

I’ve been feeling pretty ropey these last few days, with a dose of COVID keeping me from my normal activities. Reading my beloved history books has been keeping me occupied. My current read is “The History of Money by Jack Weatherford”, highly recommended if that’s your thing. Because I’ve nothing better to do, I thought you might find a little article on the subject of interest.
Let’s face it, the concept of a “store of value”

My home has a mature garden and spacious rooms. It borders a regional park and is within walking distance of the small town I live in. There’s a large hospital with a primary care facility nearby. As for curb appeal? Nothing fancy. But that lack of curb appeal let me pay 15% below the market rate for the area. Works for me.
My car is parked in a driveway with space for maybe 4 cars. It’s an 8-year-old SUV with 80,000 miles on the clock,

Times have changed. Six months ago, ten minutes of sitting still felt impossible, I got restless very easily. Since retiring, I can happily sit in the sunroom for an hour simply watching the clouds float by. I actually find it very therapeutic. It reminds me of my ten-year-old self, drifting off watching clouds from the classroom window instead of doing my work.
I keep coming back to this topic. Having time that’s truly mine has changed something fundamental in me.

Jonathan Clements liked to joke that he was born at 6:00am and on January 2nd, “thus establishing a lifetime habit of starting early.” But he truly did get a fast start and seemed to waste no time.
Jonathan—who passed away this week—discovered his love of writing early on. He described his English boarding school as a “brutal” environment: “cold dormitories, disgusting food, endless bullying.” But that was also where he began to write, earning a spot on the staff of the school magazine.

Prompted by Mark’s thread I’m having a bash, although I’m sure that this will be a subject that’s been covered before.
Having lived experience  to wherever you’re at now and with the superpower of hindsight (not to be spent on putting every cent you theoretically had in 1980s and subsequent into Apple) what are the key things you’d say to your younger self at say the following points:
i) Starting out in the serious working world at age 21ish
ii) Into middle age and pre-retirement working life at say 45-50
iii) On the cusp of retirement or making the decision of when to go
iv) 5 years into retirement
 

I’m truly a bit of a techno refusenik when it comes to social media and much of the current online content. For example, I’m honestly not 100% sure how you’d find or listen to a podcast. Vlogs are a total mystery to me. I don’t know what they are, and I simply don’t have the curiosity to find out.
Obviously, I’m not a total dinosaur. After all, I’m writing this post for Humble Dollar, a most decidedly online retirement and personal finance forum.

I’ve been observing the traits and habits of people I would consider successful.  Not only with finances (that goes without saying here)  but with life in general. Here are some traits I’ve noticed:

Get up early
Exercise regularly, eat right, sleep well
Have an active social life (friends , family, etc)
Follow a daily routines
Keep their minds engaged, whether it be some work in retirement, reading ,doing puzzles, etc.
Have good financial habits.

What are some traits or habits that you have,

WE LOST A brilliant mind and generous writer, Jonathan Clements, whose words guided thousands on life, finance, and happiness. Even as he faced the unimaginable, he continued sharing wisdom with clarity, humor, and humanity.
I wanted to take some time and dig into Jonathan’s earliest posts on HumbleDollar. Posts that even the most loyal readers may not have read. With that, I also summarized some main takeaways and learnings that can help us all better navigate our own complex lives.

Being in Spain at the moment, I took the opportunity to use the excellent train network to travel and see my father-in-law, who has lived in the country full-time since retiring ten years ago.
He lives comfortably, if humbly, within his means. A UK state pension and a small personal retirement account to bolster it are all he requires. I don’t think I could live on his retirement income, and I don’t think he could have managed without the geoarbitrage he undertook to make it work.

Hello everyone,
I wanted to share a quick introduction in relation to Elaine’s update. As she mentioned, Jonathan has selected me to help moderate the forum.
Some of you may have seen my previous articles:
Breaking down the tax impacts of OBBBA
How the new tax car loan deduction works
Home improvements tax tips
A little about me: I graduated with an accounting degree and became a CPA in 2022. I live in Chicago with my wife.

Hot of the press: Poor Elon Musk, he’s lost his richest person crown, down to second place behind Larry Ellison no less. I feel his pain and understand all about losing top dog status. Last week I was the richest real estate tycoon on the block and then lost my place to a young pretender, my cash vanished before my eyes and I had to do a distressed sale of a few of my properties. Hard times.

I’m gifting a WSJ opinion piece on how to achieve FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) by 30. It’s not about podcasts and side gigs, but about ignoring work-life balance and front loading earning. I wouldn’t want to live that way, and was happy to retire at 53, but looks like the author may well achieve his goal. He suggests that others his age are following the same path.
 

I am a newcomer to Humble Dollar. I didn’t have the privilege of Jonathon’s writing & wisdom through his long career with the Wall Street Journal. So I write this from the perspective of someone only recently introduced to this community.
With recent discussion about “up-votes” and “down-votes”, I just wanted to offer my humble (no pun intended) opinion, and a hope that we can all find some gratitude for this very special place on the internet.

re RDQ’s “down arrows” —> My 1 cent :

Rather than being lost in the middle of a prior post, I thought I would put this more front and center given:

1) it  currently has 7 down votes
2) which prove my point
3) Thanks to David Lancaster for your comment, included below, for what seems to be a “courageous  act” on your part !
 

Why is there “voting” on peoples comments ? If you have a comment,

I posted the following 1-2 days ago within the body of another topic.  Since it has so far garnered  7 down votes, you have
1) proven my point
2) I am making it a post of its own.
3) thanking David Lancaster for being the only one who actually bothered to leave a written comment, see below.
re RDQ’s “down arrows” —> My 1 cent :

Why is there “voting” on peoples comments ? If you have a comment,