A few months ago, I had to replace my roof. Some of the estimates I got went as high as $16,500. But by continuing to get estimates based on my “high-low outlier” approach, I was able to get an excellent job done — with the same materials — for $8000. Getting these estimates saved […]
One of my retirement living rules is to make sure I have fun every day. I limit my daily have-to-do’s schedule so that I’ll have a decently sized block of time (4 hours at least) left open for want-to-do activities. If the weather is good, my preferences are to go hiking, ride my bicycle, […]
I follow a high-yield, high-risk investing strategy under which I only invest in high yield dividend stocks. The “high risk” part of the strategy speaks for itself. I am taking serious chances with my money. One way I reduce that risk is to spread my invested money among a certain number of stocks and industries. […]
I detailed the financial “secret weapon” power of my 1996 Dodge Dakota pickup truck in another post (http://retiredtowin.com/my-oldie-goldie-thrifty-nifty-truck/). I explained how keeping it instead of buying a late-model vehicle every 5 years lowered my retirement “magic number” by $150,000. How its cheaper operating costs lowered that magic number by another $50,000. And how that moved […]
As I was coming close to turning 65, I knew I had to make some important decisions regarding my health care coverage. For the previous 20 years, I had been riding the coattails of my wife’s employment, and paying sometimes nothing and sometimes a token amount for soup-to-nuts health insurance coverage. But no more. The […]
Yes, I really like hiking. Love it, actually. There is no other activity that does so much for me, or gives me as much. Hiking is great for me physically. Traipsing along trails, up hills and over little creeks is good exercise. Works the muscles and burns the calories. And that’s good. Hiking is […]
For 20 years or more, I invested pretty much the same way most other people do. I put my retirement savings into a basket of mutual funds and hoped the value of that basket would grow. But every price downturn would shake my confidence in that hope of growth. I would look at the […]
I drive a 1996 Dodge Dakota pickup truck. It has over 140,000 miles on it. It runs just fine. It is safe, reliable and comfortable. And it is one of the “secret” weapons that sped up my arrival at financial independence. The fundamental big deal here is that years ago I consciously made the […]
Two years of living expenses in a savings account: that’s what my cash reserves plan amounted to a few months ago. Then I started planning to write a blog post on the how and why of that plan. And in so doing, completely changed my thinking. I’ve gone from a cash reserves plan to an […]
On any given day, you might find me sailing an early Viking ship along Sweden’s Baltic coast. Or hunkering down behind a pile of rocks awaiting a Confederate charge at Little Round Top. Or inside a field tent in front of Orleans, listening to Joan of Arc detail how the French assault should proceed. […]
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