I’m a lot more relaxed and calmer being FIREd.

I think of it as an Optimistic Cautious Disposition.  That is far from some people’s Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders.  It’s not quite the opposite but far towards different ends of the spectrum. 

I will say that for much of my life, I’ve been very detail-oriented.  Very task or goal driven when required.  I’ve also been quite a correctivenest, but not a perfectionist.  I want things correct.

Continue reading →

…like this, in early retirement.

I was scheduled for Jury Duty this week.  It was Federal Jury Duty so it was to be a week of calling and driving into downtown, parking, and shuttling to the courthouse to do my civic duty.  Nevermind killing time roaming around at lunch and having to pay for food.

I had prepared for this life interruption by rearranging my life duties and activities to open up this week and possibly the following two weeks in case it was a 3-week trial.

Continue reading →

Another post about dying…always interesting to me.

BAM

There’s a simple smack-you-in-the-face saying that I’m understanding better.

“If you don’t fly first class, your kids will.”  Or if you don’t fly first class, your kid’s spouses will.

If I don’t fly first class, my niblings, charity execs, and government leaders will.  I’m NOT thrilled with the HOGs feely spending my decades of deferred spending.

I am not a good practitioner of this use-it logic.  There have been flights where my wife is in first class (because she’s smart) and I’m in an economy seat or premium economy seat a few rows behind her.  My logic (sucks) is that I saved enough on one economy flight to pay for a week of the rental car, gas, etc.  I’m pretty stupid, I know.

Impact

I was driving home thinking about the farmer’s market and how I should go this weekend.  I then thought about how I don’t usually buy much at the market because things cost more than other stores.  I realized that spending $5, $10, $20, or $30 more would be inconsequential to our financial plan.  It would actually be nice to support those businesses more directly.  “Be better to others.”

Enjoy

My thoughts have been shifting toward—what do I value?  What do I truly enjoy, want, or desire?  What have I done without that the saving/waiting period is now over.  What impact would those purchases have on our finances vs my enjoyment?

I don’t really want much.  I don’t desire most things.  I have always researched what I want and then buy the selection that seems to make sense and make me happy, and it usually does for a lengthy period of time.

But, is this delay, or lack of desire limiting my life in any way?  Yeah, it probably is in many ways related to aging.

Doing things now is only going to be easier than when we are older.

Doing things now may only build on themselves with more opportunities to do more.  Spending is a muscle.

Seasons

Missing the window of opportunity, or season of life, can be absolutely disheartening once it’s no longer available.   My mom is quite sad at times for missing the window to travel abroad.  We are missing much of that window now by staying close to my mom to help her with her aging.  She would be upset that we’re letting our seasons pass by.

Soul

Retire TO something.  You hear that often.  “What are you going to do in retirement?” is a common question.

I wish everyone would step back—at any phase of life—and ask “what do I truly love to do that makes my soul happy?”  Do those things NOW.  Do one on Tuesday night.  Don’t wait for retirement, or even the weekend.

Spending Muscle

As for me, I have been bashing on my guitars and my Marshall amps more often than ever.  I have a new Marshall full stack on order from England.  It makes ZERO sense to get an arena-sized amp, but I can, FI Bucket.  Actually, I’m using my playcheck in the FIRE lifestyle/tech categories for the amp so it isn’t even part of our retirement plan spending/retirement spending plan.

Spending my Playcheck is a requirement.  It’s non-negotiable.  Spending the Fun Bucket is a little harder, but I’m getting better…following Kathy’s lead.  I’m starting to ask “Would there even be a negative financial impact 40+ yrs from now?”  In 99% of the cases, probably not at all.

I think I need to make a “shopping list” on my Don’t Forget List to dream and spend.  I don’t know if I ever talked about our year-round Xmas list, where we buy our Xmas gifts for each other all year long with off-season deals when possible.  Maybe I already have a good list, but I need to add dream items…this requires I first need to dream better.

Dumb Ass Husband

Oh, as for our last flight together from Florida to AZ, I was booked 2 rows behind Kathy’s 1^st class in extended legroom economy (assigning the money I saved for our car rental category) and with 3 days left in Florida I checked the upgrade price and it was $126 for 4+ hours of seat time.  I upgraded to the seat next to her (we booked Kathy with an open aisle seat by her just in case). 

Maybe I was lucky to get the seat and a deal, but would a few hundred dollars of our pretty infrequent flights have been a big deal?  No.

(Interesting update: I didn’t lose the extended legroom upgrade money I’d paid; the airlines refunded my credit card a week later for the $86 extended charge.  Even the airline knew I was being stupid/cheap)

Lesson to all—don’t be a dumbass.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

For a while, I’ve been perplexed by some people around me pushing the all-being requirement of purpose.

Over and over and over small segments of the communities I’m in are being sold on “finding their purpose.”

Podcast

This most recently came to light on a podcast where the host shared a conversation with a friend about purpose.  They seemed to be on opposite sides of the spectrum.  It made me wonder if the need for purpose is built into someone’s personality.

Promotors

                perplexing pointless purpose perfection promotion

Promotors push: What’s your purpose?  What is it that drives you?  What do you do that makes the world a better place?  What makes your day important?

Everywhere I turn there is the “P” word—in print and podcasts (not those Ps)—especially in retirement circles.  Something like “…now that you are free from spending all day working you can take that time to change the world.  Hit it hard, hit it big.”

Personality

I don’t feel the need to be all-important and world or life-changing.  I’ve never felt that way.

I’ve always been just fine being myself, and doing what I want.  Maybe it’s because I’m an only child who didn’t have siblings to compete with or live up to.  Maybe it’s because I lived away from the big cities with no keeping up with the Jones’ lifestyle.  Maybe it’s the way I was raised to be intentional and true to myself.  I don’t live an external life.  I will freely admit that I focus on myself first because that’s who I am.

I guess my Health, Happiness, and Helping structure shows I’m not totally selfish.  It’s also not “my purpose” it’s just a structure.   Oh, I’m sure purpose-pushers would clarify that as “my purpose.”  Nope, it’s just a priority structure.

There is nothing about the word “purpose” that resonates with me personally.  I wonder if that’s because I don’t feel the need to change the world, others, or things outside of myself and my environment.  Maybe I’m selfish.  Yes, but I also do a lot for others.  “Helping” is my #3 priority.

I do agree with the book “Don’t Retire, REWIRE” and its focus on “drivers.”  I think that is an integral part of what makes a person feel good in their skin.  The traits that give them those good feelings.  I’ve had this on my list for a few years to review the drivers list and pick some…

Oh, that reminds me, I keep my Don’t Forget List of everything interesting that pops into my head.  It is NOT a To-Do List.  A To-Do List stacks up like chores rather than interests or jumping around and trying different things.  Roger Whitney and Cindy Terry call that Dabbling.  Love It.

$lackers

I’ve mentioned the slackers (“$lackers”—read by Siri as “dollar sign lackers”—NOT!).  One day we were all talking about purpose and passion and one of us said “I don’t really have a driving passion,” and another said, “I don’t want to have to find some big purpose.”  I think some of us felt that even trying to dig up a small purpose seems uninteresting in the current phase of our lives.

I said, “We’re just slackers.”  We all laughed and joked about it.  The irony that many of us retired early clearly shows we are driven, goal-oriented over-achievers.  Most of us are super-detailed, type-A personalities, yet we just dig hanging and doing what we want each day.  There’s a retiree joke, “I did THREE things today.”  That is a BIG day for many,

Oh no – the Anxiety bomb

I was BLOWN AWAY by the podcast host opining the other person may have purpose anxiety because their lifestyle didn’t fit with the author’s model.  I thought—I have/am the farthest thing from purpose anxiety.  I don’t EVER dwell on anything like that.  I’m a huge believer (and practitioner) of just doing whatever you want if it doesn’t hurt others.  Live YOUR life.

Personality

I think…I wonder…is this really just a personality trait that leads different people to have different needs?  Do some personalities have an internal drive for a purpose?  Could that same personality lead someone to have anxiety of any/multiple types?

I don’t have either anxiety or a desire for purpose at this time or in my past.  Yet, I’m an educated, skilled professional with a successful history of both career and FIRE.  Maybe I just haven’t had enough time in FIRE to realize others are better than me.

“800words”

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

Oh—the days of those old people working for one company their whole career, then telling the personnel department they want their gold watch, and by the way, please deposit my monthly pension check into this account—those are so very rare these days.

In the very early 1980s, companies used the tax code to their favor by shifting the after-work longevity payment responsibility from the company to the employee.

Nowadays, the thought of receiving a monthly autopayment into your checking account (why is it still called “checking?”  who writes checks?) seems like winning a lottery.

Most people under 50 don’t even think that Social Security—the system most workers have been forced to pay into for decades—will have any money for them.  This fear is usually due to the scare tactics of the media repeatedly stating something to the effect of “Social Security will run out of money around 2035.”  They don’t bother to use the descriptor “trust fund” but rather scare people that the entire system—including current workers—will not have any money in the yearly system.

I didn’t calculate our social security earnings into our FIRE budget planning scenario until a few years after we left our careers, and were in the 50s age range.  At that age, things start to get real, age starts to get real, and SS claiming is only a decade or so away from the early claiming option if one were to choose to take a reduction.

Private Pension

What if there was a way to get a solid, stable, private pension payment each month?  Would you want to know more?  Would you feel better knowing that there would be a payment for you as long as you lived, even if you were 107?  (based on the claims-paying ability of the company, and any state insurance program).

I know I love the idea of guaranteeing a payment to myself each month.  I find this more appealing as I get older and don’t enjoy hassling with selling assets to fill cash-flow buckets and move money around.  Even with plenty of automation, it still feels like a job, or at least a chore.

I was with some FI friends and they asked about a rumor that some of us (elders) were going to buy an “annuity.” 

Yes, it is true.  Some of us are considering a future annuity to ease the process of money handling while aging.  They were shocked because they’d always heard that “annuities are a horrible ‘investment’ and avoid them.”

Quickly: I’m not talking about a Variable Annuity and “all its protections.”  I’m talking about a future Single Premium Immediate Annuity, SPIA.  We give the insurance company some money at XX age, they give us a fixed payment for life.

MDF/BGL/Needs

I stepped back one level explaining base life expenses (Minimum Dignity Floor/Base Great Life expenses).  I talked about the strategy of taking a household’s assets (investment, use, home, etc.) and allocating those to expenses over phases of life—or more specifically, cash flow phases.

Decumulation is so HARD

This is the complicated “Retirement” planning.  This is not the simplified “take 4% of your portfolio balance on year one to spend and increase with inflation, or worse 4% of your previous balance each year and spend it (way more after up years, less after down years—that’s actually the “guardrails” strategy).

Jim and Chris Methodology.

Jim and Chris have an excellent process that starts with your required spending (MDF).  The spending required even if you have no money in any bank/financial institution.   

Food, Utilities, Transportation, Housing, Healthcare. 

Food in the house/household products, Utilities for your home and communications, one transportation method for the household to share, housing and its associated required costs including maintenance, and healthcare and everything it may encompass.  These are for a good life, minimum dignity floor, base great life, but not eating out, entertainment, travel, 2^nd car—none of that.  Just surviving nicely.

These MDF items are priced from now through an extended End of Plan.  Each category has its own inflation rate.

These costs will not go away until you do.  These are required.

Everything else is optional, additional, wants/wishes level…even dream level.

Guaranteed Income/Social Capital

Hopefully, a household has social security, maybe a pension, and some savings/investments.

If a household is very, very lucky, this guaranteed income will cover base great life expenses and also wants, wishes, and dreams for the rest of their lives.  Not likely in most households.

So how do you guarantee your base bills will be covered with safe income if your SS and no pension(s) is not enough for the rest of your life? 

Oh, you use your 4% each year, right?  Not the greatest plan because that amount might not be enough in the future (especially if you GoGo now when you’re young and shrink your principal).  Or your 4% may be an unspendable amount in your early year because you’ve saved great and have a solid guaranteed income stream.

Many calculations of past market performance show that 4% is underspending while you’re young in order to keep a safe margin of protection for your future self.  It is truly the “safe withdrawal rate” based on the max in the worst 30-year period.  It’s quite possible that most 30-year periods ahead will be better than the worst case of the past.

Jim and Chris calculate a household’s guaranteed SS and pension income by year and match it against MDF/BGL.  If there is a shortage of income, then current savings should be used to purchase some guaranteed income.  That is the dreaded “annuity” or SPIA I mentioned.  The goal is to guarantee your base needs are always covered with guaranteed income.

This shortage (costs to income) may be immediate when claiming SS, and/or at pension time, or may be a few years later as costs out-inflate your income streams.

To repeat; to have the safest approach to retirement expenses, these expenses need to be covered with guaranteed income.  If SS and pension don’t cut it, more guaranteed income should come from a contract with an insurance company (counting on mortality credits) with a SPIA(s).

Drawbacks

Most SPIAs are not inflation-adjusted and each payment has less purchasing power than the month/year before.  You can adjust for this by starting your payment amounts a little high, purchasing an inflation-protected annuity, or purchasing additional SPIAs every few years to add in new payments.  This might be thought of as a SPIA ladder.

The HOGs get less.  If you give your money to an insurance company for these annuity contracts, that money is no longer under your control and available for HOGs.  That is unless you buy a guaranteed/period-certain option.

If EOP comes early, we lose.  If you sign the contract and then head off to visit the national parks (as old people seem to love) and a wild animal happens to take you out, your life-period payments end immediately.  If you have a joint life, then your spouse will get payments unless they lead to your demise—I assume.  The goal, live long and get the mortality credits from other insurance company policyholders who EoP earlier.

One strategy is to fund your MDF/BGL with your assets pre-SS/pension phase.  This is often suggested because the fixed guaranteed return on delaying your SS claiming is quite high, and guaranteed as I said.  This will lower your asset base but increase your guaranteed social capital payments.  If your assets are lower, then your available money to purchase your own pension/SPIA is lower.

Current interest rates determine what an insurance company will earn on the lump of money you pay them for your contract, which determines your monthly payment amount.  Higher interests’ rates tend to lead to better payments.  If you plan for a SPIA ladder and interest rate drop, the expected payout drops.  But you will be older with less life expectancy, and fewer estimated average payments so each payment will be a little higher. 

You will be older when you’re making these decisions and your cognitive ability will decline over time.  You may be sharp and process the logic perfectly, or you may need help and have to trust your advisor (not a salesperson).  Setting up this structure ahead of time in a retirement Plan of Record is a wise idea. 

Don’t forget the Annuity is based on the claims-paying ability of the company, and any state insurance program.

Why?

A personal pension SPIA is possibly a later-in-life decision whereas Social Security contributions are forced along the way.  The results may be similar on payments or may vary greatly. 

If you have a Retirement Plan of Record to give you a guided path through your retirement, you can always adjust and modify along the way.  If you have no, or a rough plan, the details will be hard to manage and you may have to put your FULL trust into someone else. 

How much did you trust advisors along the way versus trusting your own guided plan with assistance?

Maybe now is the time to find someone (younger?) whose strategy matches your vision.  Even, even, even if you are overfunded.  This planning partner may help ease you into spending more of your assets in the GoGo, and SloGo years to avoid being frugal when unnecessary and ending up in a rest home with many unlived dreams you had well within your resources.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

I’ve been FIREd for 10 years. DecaFIRE.   I’ve been living a great life, a great life of freedom.  I, however, don’t know if I have been living a grand life—a life of world travel and exploration, or goals and accomplishment—that would amaze others.  I’ve just lived a wonderful, gratitude-filled 10 years of FIRE.  (The years before FIRE—while working—were fine to great as well)

We have made a shift this year to increase our spending (again, even more) to improve on 2022’s MoJo plan, and 2020’s Roaring 20’s plan.  The spending increase is still planned for the remainder of the decade.  We are really pushing for the 20s to be full-on.

I’m now working on spending the Fun/FI Bucket—Full-on FI Bucket!!!

Needs, Wants, Wishes

I’ve used dozens of planning tools and calculators for the past 20 years just to understand our money. 

All of the tools gave us a great outcome at End-of-Plan.  Well, not exactly.  Most of the tools had this high (safe) balance at EOP.  That’s not our goal, to die wealthy and give it to the HOGs, some yes, but not large amounts.

This quarter we had a retirement plan created for us.  It used an entirely different approach than any of the plans, tools, or calculators I’ve used or read about. 

The plan projected core spending (“needs/min dig floor/base great life”) for our lives to 93.  The base included any projected social security and small pension incomes.  It figured out the gap from “guaranteed” income to our core spending needs both before guaranteed income turns on, and after the expenses rise/inflate above that guaranteed income (“crossover point”).  The plan then defined a set-aside amount of money for front-end and back-end core spending needs. 

The plan also considered our additional spending called “fun vision” by year (wants) and then set that amount aside as its own line item (for decades).

Then the categories and amounts assigned to aging/long-term care, inheritance giving, and a safety buffer (boatload of money) were subtracted.

Once all of those categories were planned for, it left the final Fun Number to assign to the Fun Bucket, which is really a nice-sized FI Bucket (wishes).

This post is not about the life we’ve lived in the past 10 years.  Most people talking about this stuff share a recap.  Why bother?  You can read or talk to me about that at the many money-nerd events I’m at.  It’s not really about realizations or lessons learned either.  It’s just some documentation of the continuous improvement we’ve been working on.  Stated clearer:  SPEND MORE SLACKER!

WHY did I wait 10 years to run a formal retirement plan?

I’ve used multiple free, custodian, paid, and professional retirement planning tools.  They all report excellent results from the (conservative) data I input and their algorithms. 

The reason I made a push to spend more starting in 2020 was because I turned 50 and some SORR was removed from our timeline, though there is always “the next few years” of risk ahead (umm, at 50 there’s still plenty of SORR, but at 43, there’s a TON more).  Our investment/net worth return since 2014 has been quite amazing because it turns out, we were under-spending our probable spending power.

Now, four years into the Roaring 20s I had the opportunity to get a formal safety-type plan and I made the purchase and got a great report/plan.  Some of the best money I’ve ever spent.

FI Bucket

I cannot exclude the best upgrade to my FIRE the FI Bucket in this DecaFIRE post. I have dozens of examples of FI Bucket spending. It would sound obnoxious, but it feels freeing, fun, and freaking AMAZING.

Lifestyle

This is where I need to improve (some).

I’m now working on the groove/rut that I’ve settled into.  

I want to make sure consciously I do what I love.  I want to live in the moment of greatness and look forward to the even betterness ahead.  No matter what problems or issues are ahead, it is so much more manageable in FIRE.

Examples

I signed up for CampFI Colo.  I knew it fills up with the A-team of FI-sters (I think “FIsters” is funny when typed) so I signed up right away last year, especially since it’s the only camp I haven’t been to.  Then I grabbed some Fun Bucket cash and added week 2.  I figured if I was already in town, then I could do something for the four days in between.  Done, two weekend CampFI’s. 

Then I checked the airfare in March or so and it was really cheap $120 round trip.  But, I decided to drive from Phoenix and explore all the green “want to go” towns on my Google Maps.

I have or will explore,/visit/pass-thru Show Low AZ, Albuquerque, Sante Fe, Taos, Salida, Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Camp, Ft Collins, Cheyenne, Longmont, Boulder, CampFI, Pagosa Springs, Aztec ruins, Chaco Canyon, Canyon De Chelly, and Show Low.  I turned a 4-day camp into a 2.5-week exploration drive.

I don’t have hotel reservations (motly) because I’ll see where I end up each afternoon/evening.  I didn’t fix that motley typo because that’s exactly where I was heading on this section.

I have stayed in a little more expensive (not fancy-c’mon) hotels near the center of town and paid for nice gym day passes with the FI bucket.  I still seem to save a little and use Priceline, buy the on-sale kombucha, and each a late lunch (better prices?) and I’m a 4p dinner, early-bird-old-dude.

I was killing time today before the Pueblo event at 4p and was in a cool resale/collectible shop with old music stuff and scored an original 1985 Motley Crue bumper sticker for <$9 and a Def Leppard 1984 book <$19.  I was thinking “I don’t need that/those.”  But seriously, that money would go to the HOGs if I don’t plan and spend.  I had that sticker on my HUGE 80s boombox that was stolen in Phoenix in 1997, so it was a replacement and FI.

Health Happiness Helping

I often think about those three H’s.  I think about those multiple times per week.  They are both grounding and expanding.  To me, they are exponential.

That bumper sticker may be a “thing” to those “experiences are better” people, but it was an experience to me.  It strangely brings me happiness to my very musical core (it’s a teenage 80s rocker thing, Chris gets it.).  I bought it, on July 4th, by a celebration of our Declaration of Independence in Pueblo CO on my FI Bucket Freedom Drive.  (That should be this blog post title)

So, here’s to Independence Day 2014-2024.  I gained my work independence (so far?) on July 7th, 2014.  I picked 7/7 because it was the first work day—Monday—after the 4thand I wanted to get paid for the holiday.

In all honesty, I’m so thankful to the men who committed treason to the King of England and declared independence, and worked to build this country into the great place it is today.  Struggle of all types is constant, but realizing the goodness is critical.

I’m off to the celebration event. Hello Pueblo.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

I know I talked about this already in the context of another post, but I believe this concept needs its own post/title.  This bucket of money is so important to a life with freedom.

I’ve talked about the Fun Bucket that Mark Trautman and I push each other on.  We pushed each other to pull money from our investment accounts and put it aside to spend freely, funly, and in ways we may not allow ourselves to spend in our normal cash-flow lives.

Process

In April 2024 I created a new brokerage (sub) account and moved cash and treasuries into it.  I moved enough to fund an aggressive amount (but not all, not even most) of our Fun Number into it.  This account is now the FI Bucket (thank you, Emma!).

This was the best thing I’ve done in my DecaFIRE.  I see the money in the account; its entire purpose is to spend.  To just say “yes” if we’re interested.  No wishy-washy, not sure if—just FI.  It’s hard to see FI!  FI !

I know the target (good Roaring 20’s/MoJo goal) to spend this decade, but there’s more if we want it this decade, and there will be enough for future FI/MoJo decades if the invested assets hold solid.

We spent more money in the month of May than we spent in many of our pre-FIREd YEARS.  It felt perfectly fine.  Yes, a little strange but definitely in control, in-the-plan.  FI.

That spending surely is a strange change.  I often think as I’m executing the purchase/payment “Is this how most people operate, just saying ‘yes?’”  Such a foreign process in many ways.  I did it with an ‘80s bumper sticker in Pueblo.  It was easy, but it honestly took me 20-30 seconds to realize $9 was OK, fine, FI.

Others are Spending

This morning I was trail running in the mountains by Salida and I listened to podcasts from both Mark, and Mindy and Carl about spending money.  I am on a trip spending money, AND spending my time freely.  I’ll see all three of them on Friday at CampFI.  Everything links together if done correctly, or at least intentionally—in a good way.

Don’t be like most common folks—everyday consumers who spend money they do not have.  Instead, set aside some of your money (after savings, spending on core needs, and planning) and enjoy the success you have built or are building.  Intentionality is critical.

As always (for now?) Health, Happiness, Helping.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.