Spending

I was in Cartagena yesterday, the beautiful Spanish deep water port city once contested by the Roman Empire and the other great power of the ancient world, Carthage of “Hanniball marching elephants through the Alps” fame. After visiting the ruins of a Roman theater, I was paying for an eagerly anticipated beer when a thought crossed my mind.
As always I had used my multi-currency prepaid debit card, the same one I’ve used in many different parts of the world.

I recently read an article that really made me sit back, pause, and think. While I have no real way of validating this statistic, apparently I’m one of the wealthiest one percent of people in the entire world. This is according to findings by the asset manager UBS (formerly Credit Suisse) in their latest Global Wealth Report.
This blows my mind. I’m just a regular guy with no airs and graces about me, who likes a bit of “craic”

Through our 56 years of marriage Connie only bought GE appliances and in recent years their Profile line. I have to admit all the washers, dryers, dishwashers, ovens and refrigerators have served us well.
These products are made in the US and the prices show it. Our new fridge was $4,149, the dishwasher $829 and the stove $3,289. Not with all the bells and whistles possible either. You can get a fridge with a Keurig coffee system in the door.

I’m not talking about Lite beer. The Olive Garden announced new additions to its menu. Smaller portions for lower prices. The article didn’t say how soon the roll out would happen, nor did it say which stores would get the new additions. 
This addresses my complaint that portions are too darned big at most restaurants. I don’t like dealing with doggy bags, and sadly, I am the kind of diner that always has room for those last few slices of pizza.

Have you ever regretted being frugal? I certainly did this morning. My 5:30 a.m. flight to Alicante in Spain was meant to be the start of a nice break meeting a friend flying in from London, but thanks to my decision to save forty bucks, it became an endurance test.
When I booked the flight, I decided against paying for a reserved seat, thinking I’d play the check-in lottery and get a decent spot for free.

This article popped up in my email this morning, and a lot of the advice reminded me of various HumbleDollar discussions: https://www.thewealthminded.com/lifestyle-and-money/10-frugal-habits-that-secretly-make-you-wealthier?lctg=64810442f2b7387f8e68c961
I didn’t actually resonate with most of them. I do #5 (automate savings) and #7 (cook at home), and I’m working on the “cancel subscriptions” (#8) thing. The rest of it, not so much.
OK, a couple of caveats. If we were in a financial spot where money was extremely tight and we had to watch every penny,

I’ve been using an iPhone XR for almost 8 years now. It’s crazy to think about as I bought it back when it first came out, and somehow it’s still chugging along. The battery isn’t great anymore and the camera definitely shows its age, but it still does the job.
With Apple dropping their newest iPhone, I’m finally thinking about upgrading. Part of me feels like I’ve squeezed every drop of life out of this XR,

Twenty-four years ago today, I was still confused about my routine since retiring the prior month.  My spouse had the tv on she and called to me to come to the family room to see coverage of the 1st tower on fire in New York.   I was really aghast.  The stock market had cratered, and looking at the video, I knew that the building would ultimately collapse.  Who could know about the profound impact this event would have on our society.  

Recently, I have been fascinated with maximizing credit card rewards, but of course, it’s a balance between complexity (i.e. mental overload) vs cost/benefits.
Here’s my current stack:

Chase Freedom Flex – I was able to get the 10% cash back grocery bonus for 1 year. Since my wife and I live downtown, we shop majority of groceries at Trader Joe’s. The 10% grocery reward is certainly nice, but it’s expiring in a few months. We were planning to open another one of these,

As I struggled out of the electrical retailer with an enormous box, a thought crossed my mind. I was grateful I had taken a pessimistic view of life in one particular area. The box contained a new flat-screen TV to replace our old one, which had recently given up the good fight. My pessimistic thoughts had led me to create a large emergency fund on my retirement spreadsheet specifically for replacing items that wear out.
I suspect,

I had just dropped my grandson off at soccer practice and was heading home when my car’s overheating warning light began flashing, accompanied by a piercing “ping ping” noise. I quickly pulled over and turned the engine off. Shrugging my shoulders, and since I was in my normal uniform of shorts and a t-shirt, I decided to jog the two miles home.
The next morning, the mechanic called to let me know it was a coolant system failure.

Many times in the past I’ve proclaimed that our guaranteed sources of income fully fund our retired lifestyle. An exception was in 2023 when we had a new home built, but that was more like moving money from the IRA bucket into the real-estate bucket. 
We have been taking a 3% distribution from the IRAs, mostly from my account due to the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD), and end up transferring excess funds into non-qualified savings and brokerage accounts.

My friend is an independent IT Systems Integrator. She essentially pitches for tenders from large corporations and government departments for help with new software integration. It’s a very well-paid job, but there can be lulls between contracts. This requires a good deal of business savvy to manage not only the workload and tendering process, but also her intermittent financial situation and the need for constant training to stay relevant.
A woman who has her life together you would think.

From my readings on this site, I seem to be in the minority on a particularly popular and expensive retirement pastime: foreign travel.
Over the years, I’ve traveled a fair part of the world, from wide-ranging business travel throughout Europe and extensive global leisure travel on every continent other than, strangely enough, the Americas (except for the Caribbean). I still travel. For instance, I was in the Canary Islands just off the coast of North Africa for a 60th birthday celebration in February,

I’ve always been a minimalist – even as a teenager I had no interest in having lots of clothes, shoes, or other trappings of high school life in the 80s. That pull toward minimalism was reinforced during the 2 years I spent teaching English in Japan after college. No dedicated bedroom that sits empty and unused all day? My bed folds up and is stored in the closet? A tiny fridge forcing me to buy fresh fruit and vegetables every other day?