About

2022 Updates:

What am I doing?! How did get started on this blog? I’m just a normal guy, nothing special, nothing I generally prefer to be outspoken about, yet somehow I ended up posting my thoughts and ideas. The blog came from a simple word I created one day to describe my schetchle to my wife. It was just another day my wife became legitimately frustrated with me/my “planning freedom.” More on this in a future post.

The foundation for a handful of my early posts will be based on emails blasts I sent to my family members on “money thoughts.” These emails were definitely not solicited but for some reason, I forced my way into inboxes with great results.

Say hello

Work:

I “retired” at 43 years old from a 25-year career as an IT professional. Originally working six years in academia followed by 18 years in the corporate world. My wife was able to leave her professional career a few years before I FIREd. You may be wondering, if this was a smart decision. That’s a valid question—I think about it myself, quite often. Usually, while enjoying my day thinking “this is too great to be real life.”

Why do I think it was possible to jump into LifeInFIRE? Quite a few reasons: 1) We were both professionals who earned medium salaries yet saved well. 2) Our spending has always been under control. I have tracked my spending since high school at about a 98% accuracy rate—not overly detailed, or to the penny—but we know exactly how to plan. Our spending has really been 95% the same for 10+ years. We’ve never been on the hedonic treadmill 3) we have no dependents which helped our savings rate and limited unforeseen expenditures. 4) Turns out we are both hustlers. We often worked 2nd/part time/night jobs during our career. Usually just to help people, or give back, or learn new things. Five plus years into FIRE we no longer do any real work other than the odd consulting, speaking or teaching session.

Interests:

  • I love learning about money. I believe the effort I put into this learning is my new job in FIRE.
  • I am very interested in health, eating well, weight loss and being active/exercising. I was overweight my whole life and then lost 100+ pounds. For some reason when I was 28 I decided to lose one pound a week for two years. It seemed like a crazy “project” to undertake since weight loss never really occurred in the past, but also seemed possible. Of course, I pushed a little ahead of the schedule—140 pounds in 18 months—and have kept the weight off for 15+ years. It was my most successful project ever. Even more wonderful that my goal of FIRE.
  • I’m very interested in technology. Mostly consumer technology. I volunteer in local communities doing monthly presentations. I teach courses at a community college. I’ve been giving back to academia for over 20 years. I help people with their technology issues and help them determine if a new technology will meet their needs.
  • I’m learning to develop my skills and knowledge related to being better.  I’m trying to be more calm, be more in tune with the goodness around me, and most importantly realizing I’m just a carbon mass on a rock floating in the middle of XXXXillions of stars/planets in the universe.  What a minimizing and amazing perspective.

Why waste your time reading this? To simply get another perspective on lifestyle and finance (I just flipped those two in 2022). I’ve been very successful in meeting my goals, learning from my mistakes, and most importantly-loving my life. If you can grab a couple ideas to help make your life better, then my time here was worth it.

Last note:  My word of the year is:  Hmmm?

3 thoughts on “About

  1. RunningWithFIRE

    Kevin, thank you for writing and sharing your experience and thoughts. Love your writing and topics! I really appreciate you!

    Reply
  2. Tracy Austin

    I can’t wait to dive into your work! I am absolutely amazed and equally impressed with your intentionality and happiness! Your focus in the important areas of life, mostly helping others, appeal to me, and I look forward to learning by your example!

    Reply
    1. Kevin Post author

      I’m not sure why I share my thoughts online except to give one (strange) perspective, in case it’s relateable for someone. I’m excited you and I have crossed paths on this journey. YOU, are the amazing one.

      Reply

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