FREE NEWSLETTER
Go to main Forum page »
I have found, especially as I get older, that there is a real benefit to simplifying many aspects of my life. For me the reasons include:
Do you find that simplification helps you and if so what things have you done to simplify your financial situation and other aspects of your life?
Below I have listed some of the areas in my life I have tried to simplify and specific things that have helped me.
Financial Investments
I have it easy as the bulk of our investments are in tax deferred (IRA) and tax free (Roth) accounts. So it has been easy for me to make simplification changes without tax consequences. I have decided that an appropriately chosen “all in one” fund is good enough for our financial needs. I specifically use Vanguard LifeStrategy Funds, and have chosen for myself to invest all of our IRA and Roth funds in the LifeStrategy Moderate Growth Fund (VSMGX).
The bulk of our investments are at Vanguard and we will likely keep them there. I also have a Fidelity account as my past employer had made use of it for certain financial accounts they set up for me. I do prefer several aspects of Fidelity’s interactive web site, so I have opened and retain Cash Management, HSA and 529 accounts there.
Automate Payments
I have all bills automatically paid using a credit card, and where not possible use ACH transfers from a cash management account.
Create On-Line Calendar Reminders and Record of Events
I have super charged the use of an electronic calendar and the search capabilities within them.
Use of Cloud Based Password Manager
If you are like me, you have accounts for hundreds of different online resources. Without a password manger it would be impossible for me to remember or manually document all of the associated information for all of these accounts.
With a password manager, I never have to remember my id or password, am able to automatically fill those fields when needed, and can store all kinds of other associated information related to the account.
In addition, certain password managers (like the one I use named BitWarden) allow you to store generated “Passkeys” that can be used on compatible websites, further eliminating the need for password and id input.
Consolidated Tracking Of Financial Resources
I find it useful to have a consolidated view of all of my financial resources. This includes:
I use a couple of sites that have overlapping capabilities, with each more useful for certain aspects:
For more heavy duty retirement planning I use a few different resources including:
Setup Privileges, Authority and Access In Advance
For online resources such as financial and medical, as appropriate, I and my spouse have both set up accounts and grant full access to one another’s accounts. Doing this in advance will prevent difficulty and delays in a situation where one loses capabilities.
What things have you done to simplify your financial situation and other aspects of your life?
I’m a huge fan of simplification.
All of our bills are on auto-pay. We have also set up auto-shipment subscriptions for a multitude of items–the most important shipment is the dog food (at least according to our dogs).
We also have an “Instacart” subscription that allows us to have items we purchase from Costco delivered to us for a small fee. That feels like a real luxury. I used to enjoy going to Costco and walking the aisles. No more. Now I love that I can just pay someone to go and pick up the regular items we need. I’m sure it saves us money on impulse purchases too.
Kristine:
The subscription auto-shipment thing is a great idea too. Like you, we have that set up for our dog food needs (we have two hungry border terriers), and certain over the counter medications and pantry items that we consistently use. That adds to the list of things to not have to remember, not run out of and not have to go shopping for.
We also make a weekly Costco run, but at this point it is still something I enjoy and I coordinate that visit with my weekly gasoline fill up. But, thanks for the “Instacart” subscription idea. I’ll have to remember that for future reference.
I can tell you are a process person. The one thing I would highly recommend to others is to get your wives or significant others comfortable with a password manager. By combining all of our passwords into one password manager and organizing them by subject it has made both of our lives much easier. It also makes it easier if one of us passes so that she can share with our children if needed. I would also say if you use a Mac as an example to make sure that you turn off apple‘s password manager so that everything resides in one password manager. You can also use apples if you don’t want to use a separate one, but I am very comfortable with the LastPass.
For extra information on the topic, here is a great article by Mike Piper on the benefits and nuances of using a password manager:
Stop Trying to Remember Your Passwords (And Use a Password Manager Instead)
And if all of this talk of password managers wasn’t burdensome enough, here is an article on a recently discovered newly improved session info-stealer, that enables accessing your content without userid/password/2fa credentials by stealing session credentials.
https://www.varonis.com/blog/storm-infostealer?hs_preview=kpiLasCz-210280462761
The lesson here, and something I started doing a lot more aggressively and consistently, especially on important websites (e.g. financial, medical) is to log out of the website after ending my session.
Great article. As I approach 80, I’ve done almost all of the things that you’ve done. The main thing that I’ve purposely not done is to commit my passwords to an online secure site. I have four 8×10 pages of sites/passwords that are roughly categorized and updated about 3 times a year. Call me paranoid or overly cautious, but with all the compromised (once secure) websites that I’ve noted over the last two dozen years, I sleep well. I also switched everything to an Apple computer in 2012 after having used Microsoft stuff since 1991.
John:
If that works for you for user account management then that is a good plan. 👍
The one suggestion I would make, if you are not already doing it, is to keep each password unique for each account. And try make sure to use random characters (upper, lower, special character and number) and the longer the better.
As I mentioned below there are offline password managers:
One that I would highly recommend is KeePass.
KeePassXC is widely considered the best overall offline manager for Mac.
If it’s offline, I assume it automatically fills credentials to sites visited on the Mac but not across other Apple devices? If that’s the case, then I guess one just has to remember them when using iPhone for example?
If desired you can install the software on all of your devices and periodically replicate the password store wherever needed.
Doug,
Thanks for the suggestion. I use about 50 different passwords and don’t use qwerty+digits anymore. All of them conform to: upper, lower, special character and number, but are rarely longer than 9 or 10 keystrokes. What do you think of using those google Chrome recommended multi-character passwords that show up every once in a while when I go to some new site? (I use Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Safari for various sites…do you recommend one more than another?)
I only use browser (in my case Microsoft Edge) generated passwords now. The longer they are, the harder they are to crack.
I’m not sure what you mean by “recommended multi-character passwords that show up every once in a while when I go to some new site“. Are you getting that recommendation from your browser’s built in password manager?
I have used the Chrome browser since it first became available in 2008. That is what I continue to use and like it a lot. But I would not say that Chrome is necessarily “the best” anymore. It is intimately tied into the Google ecosystem which is both good and bad.
I also have used Firefox quite a bit and it is a very good browser and independent of the big vendors (Google, Microsoft and Apple).
I do not use Apple products, so am not personally familiar with Safari but have heard it is good. I am aware of but have not used Opera that much so can’t comment.
I would probably recommend using the one you are most comfortable with as they all do web browsing well. If you like experimenting, there is nothing wrong with installing additional browsers and trying them out. But unless you have a particular need for more than one, it is probably best to stick with one as they each operate a little differently in terms of options and configurations.
Excellent article Doug. I continue to simplify as best I can. Overall, I have done all of the above. In addition my wife and I simplified our housing by moving into Independent Living. Maintenance, meals, paying bills is totally automated as you get a single bill each month. I can even get haircuts and other services right where I live. If needed or wanted meals can be delivered to my apartment. Yes, at 80 years old this is the way to go. I too wanted to live in my home until we passed away, but my wonderful wife made this great suggestion. In addition, entertainment, interesting speakers, just about any activity is available along with a fitness center. I just tell people I am on a permanent cruise with the ship always in port, and no waves. More interesting people here than anywhere, kind and helpful. Happy retirement sailing to all. Just keep it simple.
My parents moved into a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) when they were in their early 80s. They did this mostly for themselves, but also for their children knowing that as they aged they would likely need a lot more support. They were both able to live out their full lives there. It was a great decision for them and for me their main family support person.
Their experience was similar to yours and they really loved all of the support and activities available at their CCRC. I would visit at least once a week, and also enjoyed the environment, attending some of the activities and getting to know several of the other folks who lived there.
Doug:
We are of like mind. I have instituted many, if not all, of your mentioned simplifications, except for spousal access and mutual digital calendars.
While my wife has 100% access to all of our assets and accounts, she is NOT a “techie person,” as she calls it, and would be hard-pressed to do anything online, other than buying craft stuff on eBay and getting recipes from the Food Network. Previous attempts to “train her” to use the financial aspects of the computer have been “less than. enthusiastically embraced.”
Same for the calendar. I keep a digital calendar, but we also have a wall calendar we both share. I add my stuff to her’s on the calendar as needed, so we each know when we can schedule things.
As far as financial records, I have a document that is both a “hard copy” and digital, with the digital version kept on the desktop of my computer. My wife keeps the “hard copy” in her stand-up jewelry case, and she has the password to open my computer.
The document is basically a step-by-step guide instructing her what to do if I don’t wake up tomorrow. All banking and financial accounts, passwords, assets, and addresses for accounts, advisors, and our attorney are listed in the document. It is updated monthly and/or when anything major occurs, such as my recently discovered veteran’s benefit of $2004 doillars for funeral expenses. I discovered this benefit, which only came into existence in October 2025, when arranging for my father’s inurnment later this month. Although he is not eligible for it, because he died in 2018, when I die, my beneficiaries will enjoy that benefit.
Admittedly, my document is “old school,” but it suits my wife. Our daughter, who is our executrix, also receives a copy of the document when it is updated, without account numbers or passwords.
My wife also is not the techie in our house. I’m her local go to help desk technician for any issue she runs into. It’s only fair as I rely on her for so many things in my life.
Although I have pulled together and organized all of the documents and information that would be needed by my spouse or children upon either of our passing, I have not yet put together a formal document that ties everything together. That is on my to-do list. It is great that you have that completed.
We also have not yet updated our wills and other end of life documents since 1998. Since our children are now adults and have children of their own, there are considerable changes that we would like to make (although what is now in place is still adequate). That too is on our list of things to get done in the near future.
My preferred grocer has an online shopping app. When G and I do our weekly inventory or discuss a shopping list I open the app and add the items to the shopping cart. I can use this list when shopping at any grocery. It also provides the total cost of items in the cart. It’s a convenient way of managing groceries and I think we purchase less.
We have started doing that as well…at Food Lion, Walmart, and Carlie C’s…the stores we shop at the most.
I really like the notes on the aisle location.
That’s a great idea especially with the prices.
My wife notes the aisle location of the item the first time we get it and adds it to our shared Notes app shopping list, and it comes up again automatically when we add that item in the future.
Then we sort the list by aisle making shopping speedy and efficient and helps us in only getting what we really need.
We put most of our bills on autopay.
We still do check our credit cards by hand though.
I have to admit that I also checked my monthly credit card statements by hand for about 40 years. In all that time I only found one error.
When I have had a fraudulent charge, the credit card company has always found it, frozen the card, and alerted me before I noticed. I am impressed with their fraud detection algorithms.
Lately, I have stopped being so rigorous in checking all of my statements, in an effort to simplify and save time. This change definitely goes against the grain of my over meticulous demeanor .
Doug, I use Quicken for that, and all accounts update at once. Over my 80 years I have found very few bank errors, I think 3, but the most unusual one was, my bank credit card bill was paid automatically and then immediately indicated late payment, that took some real up the bank ladder to get that software error fixed. I have everything automated.
This post is a keeper and one that I will go back over in detail many times and send along to others.
Here’s my addition: Don’t stop at providing your partner (or child or whoever is first up to provide support as you age) passwords and a letter of intent. Explain everything to your support person even if you have written it down for them AND periodically engage with them on your financial situation with details. Multiple times. Regular engagement over time is an opportunity to communicate updates and repetition increases your support person’s knowledge base, comfort level, understanding of your intent and how to carry it out. If that person is not financially savvy because they don’t have the time or inclination to learn, discuss with them potential supports they can use in your absence, temporary or permanent. I’m thankful that my husband and I have reviewed our portfolio quarterly for years-even more so after recently watching a friend whose husband died unexpectedly grapple with her finances.
Great reminder and guidance on how to gradually loop your trusted people into estate planning activities and knowledge.
I recently set up an account with a Fidelity sponsored website called FIDSAFE where I have stored all important documents which have been shared with my wife and children. Seems to be a good environment for storing this kind of content.
I was warned by Fidelity that if I ever shared my logon credentials with anyone, that would void their guarantee to me to restore any losses to my account by fraudsters. When I had a hacking attempt, the very first question my rep asked was “have you shared your logon credentials with anyone?”. Be aware of this important Fidelity requirement.
Thanks for the warning. There is no credential sharing needed with FIDSAFE.
Each person you are sharing documents with creates their own credentials.
You can decide which of the documents you want to share with each person, and it can be unique for each person.
I like the idea of using an electronic calendar. Is there one you would recommend for ease of use?
If you already have access to a calendar in your computing ecosystem I would recommend that. If you have an email account, that same company often supplies a calendar application also.
I am heavily into the Google ecosystem, so I use Google Calendar and am very happy with it.
I am sure that Apple has their own calendar application if you have devices in that environment. But I can’t comment on how good it is.
Microsoft has Outlook Calendar. I used that when I was employed and it was very good.
This is a great list. I’m learning to lean heavily into calendar reminders as well. As you said, you can even use them to find details from a previous event. For example, some friends invited us to dinner recently. We had only been to their home once, in 2019, and I wasn’t sure I knew the address. But when I went to add the dinner to my calendar, the previous time popped up, and there was the address!
I’ve also found that my Notes app has turned into an extension of my brain, especially since it saves across all of my Apple devices. Need the settings for a Peloton bike in a hotel gym? It’s there in a note. The new building entry codes for our condo, which just changed? There, too. My weekly meal plan with recipe links for when I’m in the grocery store? Yep.
Here’s a handy use for the Google Keep notes app that’s in the right edge panel of the web Gmail window.
Say you have a group of people you occasionally need to email, and you don’t want them in your contacts, nor do you want the complication of a Google group just for this.
I create a note and title it with the group name. In the note I list the email addresses separated by commas. Then to address the email, I simply open that note, do a quick copy of the batch of addresses, and paste them all at once into the To: (or Bcc:) field.
Thanks for the great suggestion 👍
I agree with your fondness for Notes apps. They are very helpful.
My wife and I use Google Notes. Among other things, we use it for our various shopping lists. And with Google Notes you can share a note with others, so both of us can add and remove items from those shared lists.
Doug, I love this subject, and have written a related post or two. In my first year in the tax prep business, I had a retired client with about a dozen funky partnership K1s and a duplex that he and his wife lived in. My first thought was, how will his widow deal with all this?
About one year ago, I consolidated most of our accounts into Fidelity, including IRAs, brokerage, checking, and credit card. I also use BitWarden for passwords, and Full View to keep an eye on investments, credit cards, and net worth. I do keep an IRA and brokerage account with an advisor friend of mine, for the purpose of not having all our eggs in the same basket.
There is one area where I am a step behind you. I still own a handful of funds that require occasional re-balancing. I don’t personally have a problem with this chore, however, Chris doesn’t share my interest in such things. Also, if I survive Chris, will there come a time when I’m no longer up to the task?
I have my eye on the same Vanguard Life Strategy Funds, as well as some similar I-Shares funds. Capital Group has a managed balanced ETF, CGBL, that I like a lot. I would consider using it, along with one of the passive funds, due to low correlation. It has not been around too long, but is a near clone of the American Balanced Fund (ABALX), established in 1975. That fund has only suffered rolling three year losses in about three or four percent of all such periods since its inception. Unlike ABALX, CBGL has a .33% expense ratio and no front end load. I would argue that the expense ratio is well earned.
Just beware that when you only have a fund with both bonds and stocks that when you take a withdrawl both are taken at the allocation set by the fund. In a situation like we have today or any other time with significant drops in equities some of the withdrawl is coming from the depressed stocks. If you have separate funds for equities and bonds you are able to take from the stronger sector. I plan on utilizing this procedure until I no longer have the mental capacity then I will probably use Vanguard’s advisors to continue this plan unless they can explain why that doesn’t make sense.
Yes, on it. I’m using a Fidelity Money Market (SPAXX) with over 12 months worth of cushion, and a CD ladder that’s good for about another ten years.
Thanks for the warning. I understand that issue.
But don’t forget these all in one accounts are frequently rebalanced. So they basically take care of themselves.
For a great Boglehead discussion on the pros and cons of using an “all in one fund” as a good enough solution see the following:
The One-Fund Portfolio as a default suggestion
I would definitely appreciate additional feedback on an analysis of the above mentioned discussion.
Way to go with using BitWarden, I highly recommend that particular Password Manger to anyone who has not started using one.
I know from assisting my elderly father, who is now deceased, that there can come a time when things that were once easy and enjoyable become a burden and unmanageable. Not everyone may face that experience, but certainly many do in their later years. So for me, I would rather prepare for that in advance while I can.
Sorry, I have no faith in Password systems like those. I use only my MacBook, iPhone and a well guarded spreadsheet for all passwords. I especially like my finger touch, or facial recognition for passwords use.
If you have a trust issue with cloud based password managers there are several great offline options.
One that I would highly recommend is KeePass.
KeePassXC is widely considered the best overall offline manager for Mac.
As I said below “sometimes simpler solutions (like your word document) are the best“.
I have one suggestion, but it is to simplify for your children. We set up a trust. Now with our children nearing or at 40 they are named as successive trustees as of our last passing. Having all of our non retirement assets in the trust allow our children, who have always gotten along well with each other, to decide how to divvy up our assets between them, without having to go through probate. It also allows our assets at death to remain private. We decided to pay this significant expense after seeing all the hoops that my sister, my parents’s executor, had to jump through going through the probate process in NH.
Thank you David. Using a trust is a great suggestion. I do plan on looking into that more closely in the near future.
My parents who are now both deceased had an irrevocable trust of which I was the Trustee. That did simplify everything upon both of their deaths, so I do see the benefit.
Interestingly, just yesterday I received a presentation on “Estate Planning” from a recent Boglehead group meeting. So this idea is definitely something I am thinking of.
I highly recommend using a Trust. My parents had that and I was able to handle all items with no Attorney and no Probate.
In the meantime, Doug, just make sure you have beneficiaries properly named on everything, including your home. This will also avoid probate.
One of the first things I have always done is set primary and secondary/contingent beneficiaries wherever possible on all accounts we open (if not already a joint account with my wife).
Short of having a trust how do you define a beneficiary on a home (ours is in both my and my wife’s name)?
Some states don’t have TOD for your home, but they do have “Lady Bird” deeds (or enhanced life estate deeds). Those essentially do the same thing as TOD. I would check with an expert for your state, because the internet is all over the place on which states allow those deeds.
Yes, Thank you. As I mentioned below, Connecticut does not have TOD for real estate currently, but a bill has been submitted for vote to approve that. Hopefully it passes.
It varies state to state. In Ohio it’s called a ‘transfer on death affidavit’. It’s filed with the county auditor/recorder. I used WillMaker software to prepare mine; it has the proper form for each state. There may be some states where this can’t be done.
Thanks for the reply and feedback. I’ll have to see if that or something like it exists in my state.
FYI, it seems that in the state of Connecticut Transfer on Death (TOD) deeds are not allowed for real estate.
Short of using a trust, what is most commonly used (by married couples) is Joint Tenancy with Rights of Survivorship (JTWROS).
CT HB 5266 (2026) has been proposed to change this to provide a simpler, cheaper alternative to a Revocable Living Trust for avoiding probate, but the bill has not passed yet.
Thanks again, Dan.
How much time does it take to do all this? It seems like it would take an inordinate amount of time to organize and track everything.
I do auto payments and deposits. I also have a tax Excel spreadsheet that I use to estimate my current year taxes. I use this to do estimated tax payments, Roth conversion planning, QCDs, etc. I use Fidelity for all investments. I had CDs at different CUs, but have consolidated all of that as they matured. I have a limited number of low cost index funds/etfs. I do not obsess over having the perfect fortfolio, just one that is good enough.
I also have a letter of final instructions which is quite detailed with all my business, banking and investment accounts plus everything else my executor will need. I originally did that for my wife, but she passed away last year, so it is now for my kids. I have all my estate documents.
All of this has taken time to setup, but it does not require much time to manage.
I’m not sure which thing you are referring to when you say “It seems like it would take an inordinate amount of time to organize and track everything“.
My investment choice of a single “all in one” fund was a one time decision. There is nothing to manage or think about on an ongoing basis. That is the beauty of that one.
Automating payments was again a one time set up. I no longer have to do anything.
If you have to remember to do something how do you manage it? It has to somehow be managed (or I guess forgotten about). Using a digital calendar with reminders and search capabilities makes that easy. I can access it on my phone or any web browser. It is always available. If I want to remember to do something I just enter it. The beauty of entering desired details in the calendar (sometimes I add nothing, and sometimes I go as far as keeping logs of conversations) is I always have one place to look for this information and it is easily searchable. As it is a habit I just automatically use, it takes very little time and provides great functionality.
I have been using password managers for decades. It is automatic and easy and makes life simpler. Again, if you create an account it has to be managed. Why not do it in a password manager that practically automates the whole thing. Again I leverage the notes field in an entry when needed to manage details about the account that I would want to remember (think account numbers, security questions, pins, and anything else you can think of and may want to associate with the entry).
As far as tracking my financial accounts in web based applications (Empower, Fidelity, Boldin) again this was an easy one time set up as I just link my financial accounts permanently. Many people do not like doing that for security reasons, but I have few concerns about that on the platforms I use. I set Empower and Fidelity up years ago, so I have years worth of history that I can look back on as desired.
Setting up accounts and privileges for both spouses did take some time. But since at some point I would likely need to do it anyways, why not now while I have the capacity.
So yes, all of the above took some effort, and it was done over time. But in the long run, I find it a lot easier to use and manage now and going forward.
I’ve explored password managers in the past but never used one. How does it work to change over your existing passwords? And do all the new ones simply autofill?
Well, if you don’t already use a password manager, then you would have to start from scratch.
Where are your IDs and passwords stored now? Are they perhaps stored in the embedded Google or Apple or Microsoft password manager? If so, you are already using a password manager (but I would argue probably not as good as BitWarden or some other choices).
If you are already unknowingly using a password manager (Google. Apple, Microsoft) you can just keep using that one if it is working for you.
Or are you storing your credentials outside of any such password storing environment?
BitWarden (and I would assume other password managers) sometimes allow for importation of a file that contains your passwords exported from another environment.
If you don’t have your existing passwords in a compatible file you would have to add IDs and Passwords to the new password manager one at a time as you go. But that is not as bad as it sounds as Password Managers can be configured to notice when you are logging on to a website and inputting credentials it does not yet have in its store, and then ask if you want to add them to the password manager.
If you are interested, I’d recommend that you choose and install a password manager (BitWarden is a fine choice) on any or all of your computing devices (PC, laptop, tablet, phone) and just try it out. If it doesn’t work for you just uninstall it afterwards.
Note that sometimes people unknowingly have more than one password managers active. For instance, one that comes embedded by default in the browser and one that they have added. This can cause issues, as when you change your password it may only get stored in one manager and not the other.
This sounds more complicated that it really is. But then again, my past career was in computing technologies.
Thank you for that thorough reply, Doug. All my passwords are offline on a Word document (I’m something of a technical Troglodyte) and moving to BitWarden does indeed sound onerous.
Maybe I’ll just try to get somebody there on the line and ask them.
Thanks again.
Listening to your claims of not being super technically savvy, and as you currently use a word document, I would not attempt to automate importation.
Using what you have been using may be the best way to continue.
Some of this is technically complex if you have not done something like it before and don’t have someone to lean on for assistance sitting next to you.
If you want to proceed you could still do as I mentioned above. Install the software. And as you log on to accounts it should prompt you as to whether or not you want to save the credentials.
But sometimes simpler solutions (like your word document) are the best.
Wow. That’s quite a list. I don’t think I can add anything.
All our bills are paid automatically, and we both have access to each other’s accounts. Converting investments to cash is not automatic yet, but I agree it’s a good thing to do at some point. Have to get on that password manager too.
Though I profess to simplify, I am still tempted to add little complexities here and there, like the occasional individual stock. Also there are some things I’m not prepared to do. Shifting everything to a target date fund is one of them. I realize it can be a great solution for many, just not for me, at least right now.
We’re thinking of settling in Ireland for a while, which if we do it is going to add plenty of financial complexity.
Noticed that you’re considering moving to Ireland. We recently returned from a 3-year stint for work. We loved it but there are subtleties to be aware of.
cautions:
-cost of living is high esp rents,while salaries are lower. The government is working to increase housing stock and they are making progress but still do your homework re rents.
-the USD was strong when we moved but more recently the USD is much weaker to the tune of about 15% less.
-some US financial institutions are very difficult to deal with for example they are not allowed to offer financial advice while living in the EU. Put your investments on auto drive before moving.
-making financial management worse are the time zone differences if you need to talk to someone, about 8 hours
-Irish weather, yikes, I kept waiting for sunny and 20C to play golf, nope, ain’t gonna happen. Get Goretex gear and play like an Irishman.
-medical and dental and insurance are different. Patient pays direct then submit receipts to ins co. There are different levels of med insurance, again do your homework.
Dont miss:
-Irish butchers are entertaining plus their beef is far superior to anything in the US. My favorite is Higgins in Sutton, near Dublin, I often stop in for the good Craic (enjoyable convo)
-Government Post Office (GPO) museum in Dublin. Wonderful displays and short video about the revolution v England.
-New Grange prehistoric monument/tombs – wow!
we relied on public transportation and didn’t have a car. We lived in Howth at the north end of the DART line. We’d rent occasionally for weekend trips and have been all over the island.
my wife has excellent advice about visiting Ireland, DM me for more advice!
I also haven’t implemented automatic conversion of investments to cash, but plan to do so in about a year when a recent windfall is depleted and income inflows (pension and social security) stabilize.
A life of adventure in Ireland sounds like it would be worth a little added complexity (as that sounds like the fun kind).
Thanks for a great article. We have done 2 key things:
– Moved to a small, simple house that should be easy to maintain and navigate for many years.
– Consolidated all our accounts with the help of a fee-for-service financial planner.
Both of these have been really positive changes.
It is helpful to hear your relocation went well and was a positive change.
We are also considering relocating as our daughter’s family (with two young grandchildren) now live in another beautiful state, and the move is enticing for many reasons.
I know it would probably be the best thing to do and turn out well, but we have lived in our home for 38 years, and the complexity and emotional effort of shutting everything down here and starting all over again is a real hurdle for me to get over. Change is hard for me.
My wife is more than ready to go so that makes it easier to consider.
Thanks Doug. We’re the opposite – I quite like change, but my dear wife had made it clear she would gladly never move again!