Life around me keeps changing.  Life around all of us keeps changing.  I’m sure that our normal pattern of whack-a-mole issue resolution is very common.  It’s our nature to fix each problem that pops up and then move on, often to the next problem.

I’m suggesting that we take a moment—many moments—to stop and recognize, then think about the goodness of our life and our days.

I’m sure if you are reading this that you have your $h!t together.   You are a thinker, an organizer, and someone who gets things done.  At least that’s how I feel overall about myself.

It just seems like things are in constant flux and we spin from challenge to challenge, task to task.  This happens so naturally that we don’t even notice it’s happening.

STOP!  Just for a minute, please.

TAKE TIME TO DO SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE THINGS.  Do the special things that give you personal, soul-enriching joy.  Try like crazy to do some of these things each and every day.  To assist in the action of this suggestion, you need to have your 10 favorite things to do any day list handy, maybe on your phone notes/keep

It doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with your health, others’ health, family, parents, children, siblings, niblings, home, work, finances, weather, cars, etc.  You need to stop and bring the goodness of your life—whatever that may be—to your forefront and reset.  I know it sounds easy, but…

I write this as an introvert who feels very comfortable being by myself and doing my own thing.  It’s the outside activities that add stress.  Others may be extroverted and get their energy from others and it’s when they’re alone that they feel stressed.  We’re all different.  Of course, we are, but we all still have our favorite things that bring us joy. 

Paragraph two about introversion; I must say that after spending time with very good friends for almost a week that I felt better and happier being with friends.  It seems we can be both introverted and be energized (rather than exhausted) by others.

No matter how much crazy stuff is going on and how many moles you keep whacking down, I believe it’s important to have people around you, in your life, that make you better.  Having these people around you that you enjoy.  And just as important is having people around that you can help, that you will help. 

I guess we all just need to have our tribe and work together when possible.   Who knew?

*** 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 often thought of activity and effort in relation to gear shifting in a car.  More specifically, to me downshifting at times. 

Some of us understand the concept of shifting from 4^th gear to 5^th gear and driving harder or downshifting from 5^th gear to 4^th gear for an upcoming corner.

Recently I was driving (?) a boat.  I should add a little more, we—a group of 8 of us FIRE folks (see slacker post)—were boating on a beautiful summer Thursday from 10:30a to 2:30pm and had 90% of the river/lake to ourselves.

Oh, back to the point, for part of the rental period I was able to captain our vessel.  During my time on the bridge (I’m sure it wasn’t as grand as it felt to me) I had to slow the boat down by pulling back on the throttle in differing amounts.  Each time I lowered the throttle the boat had a strange “settling” feeling of slowing and almost as if we were sinking a little bit.

When slowing the boat, there is a very distinct gravitational change.  Maybe the change is due to the level of boat riding on the water related to the boats’ speed.  Maybe the feeling is related to the friction/drag of the water.  But it was very different from slowing—downshifting or braking—a car.

Reflecting on the different gravitational (pull) feeling due to the change in speed, I realized that the change in forward progress that any of us feel may result in very different gravitational and physical body sensations we may have.

Retirement/FIRE—really LIFE—is exactly the same, in that, not everyone, and nothing quite feels the same from event to event or change to change.

Other analogies that come to mind are floating-the sense of freedom, the differences between upstream and downstream, pulling a crazy tube behind the boat, anchoring, fueling, sunning, shade, docking at new locations, spinning in circles for tubers or just for fun, other boats passing (sizes, propulsion systems, play/housing), and age of the boat.

To look at this from another angle, when I Throttle Up, the craft raises up a little and cruises along the surface with less drag, less wake rocking and bounce, and more wind in my hair—covering more distance per life moment.  Isn’t that a great way to take on life, with an increased throttle zipping and having fun?

I know I’m different.  I know my mind is strange.  I know I see analogies (and equations/word problems) in real life differently than normal people.  In most cases, I know that works for me.  For “me.”

I had so much fun with my slacker friends.  I also learned so much in less than a week with super-intelligent friends.

Do you see special things in life that make you better, your life better?

*** 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’m 52 and I realized that I’ve now reached 40 years of finance/saving/planning experience.  I’ve mentioned before that my dad started teaching me about our family finances: spending tracking, saving, bond investing, home mortgage, etc when I was 12 years old.

Saving

I had to open a savings account when I was 12 after I  received some money.  It was hard at the time watching  ALL of my friends spent the money they received.  Instead of buying new acquisitions, I  learned what a passbook savings account was—not the most exciting acquisition for a 12-year-old.  Now, decades later, I think I’m still less of a spender than many of my friends, or maybe just a different spender.

Shortly after my passbook savings account experience, I shifted into a brokerage account for my savings.

Over the following years of Jr high, high school, and college, I always saved a chunk of my income.  I also spent a chunk—usually on smallerish items—but I always saved.  Sometimes I used part of my savings to fly places, but often I would fund those trips with new income.  I think I was pretty good at saving.

Employment

Looking back, I can say that after moving to Phoenix in the mid-1990s, I did tend to save less money until 1999.  That was the fall when my job was outsourced to IBM and I realized that I wasn’t much more than an “employee badge number.”  The following year (2000) we made sure that we lived off only one of our incomes and saved the equivalent of the second income.  That living-off-one-income continued until 2005 when we decided to push harder with a 7-year Early Retirement plan—target 2012.  We hit our goals in 2011 when my wife left her career, and I followed after another nice three years of working.

In the great recession, or housing crash, or whatever it was called in 2008/09, I learned from Clark Howard about Total Market Index investing and (trying to) ignore short-term variability and invest for the long term. 

Stocks

My first equity investing started in 2009 with 5k or 10k chunks.  I did experiment with buying a handful of stocks in the 2001 dip but NONE of those investments recovered to previous levels.  Interestingly, I did sell my MSFT around 12 years later in 2013 because it was still flat.  Oops, 2001-2013-2022.

Spending

I’ve tracked my/our spending since high school-college, then again from 2001+.  Just like my father told me once, our spending stayed almost exactly the same over the months/years for over a decade.  As he said, “some things go up, and some go down over time.”  His observations were exactly the same for us. 

I guess that means we never really inflated our lifestyle too much as our incomes increased.  I’m sure much of the consistency is due to staying in the same started home (still) and driving our used cars for 10+ years.  Looking back, yes, we did miss out on moving to a nicer (larger) home— no big deal.  Yes, we did go without many of the new car features (I just, in the past month started driving a car with built-in Bluetooth…a 2000ish technology).  SAD!  But we’re in a much better place now…I can drive my 2012 car all day, any time, any day rather than leave it in my workplace parking spot!  Just the same, I get to enjoy my little house all day, every day.

Allocation

I’ve felt comfortable with our asset allocation (67/33ish  or 65/30/5 cash).  Yes, we have seen our balances drop A LOT in the past 6+ months, but I realize that is a “drop” from an all-time high and now down to around where we were in fall 2020…when at that time the balances were” so high.”  Turns out our allocation has been doing well for the past 12+ years.  (IF ONLY I’D STARTED IN EQUITIES IN THE EARLY 90s)   I am still VERY disgruntled when my alumni association asks for money when their academic program never taught us about Index Investing while we were getting our Bachelor’s or MBA.  So much useless alpha, beta, regression analysis academic textbook garbage.  Reading one Bogleheads blog would have resulted in maybe 200% more net worth…ONE Boglehead post.  Or even a Jack Bogle Tiny Book of Investing book.

As Brian Preston from The Money Guy podcast says “let your army of dollar bills march off to work each day so you don’t have to.”  There have been years (in retirement) where our account balances went up more than we earned while working.  Many times the growth was more than double our earned income.

I should end right there.  Multiple years of doing whatever we want without work and yet our account balances increase(d) more than any amount we ever earned while working.  That’s the power of investing early, often and lessons learned…on the good side of the ledger.

*** 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’m thinking way out of my knowledge zone here, but here goes…

I understand that tribes tend to gather around a fire for community and cultural activities.  I heard on a podcast that the tribes often put their most experienced or most influential storytellers close to the campfire.  It’s like center stage in the tribal world.

When the influential members are centered it’s important for other members to be close enough to the fire to hear the stories and gain the wisdom of what’s being shared.

Let’s ignore the US movies where people tell scary stories around the campfires and these are good, important stories being shared.

I can only imagine that the fires allow the transfer of legends and legacy to flow from generation to generation over the years, decades, and probably centuries of a tribe’s existence.

I’m pretty interested in the FIRE topic from a life perspective more than a night-warming perspective.  However, there is still a great correlation to the storytelling idea.  Many high-profile FIRE members are sharing their experiences to influence others in the FIRE community, as many call us thinkers, their “tribe.”  (tribe  “a social group …”)   

It seems as though the fireside concept of sharing is alive and well in the FIRE community.  I find it intriguing that I have made this strange connection.

While many people may not align perfectly with all of the FIRE leader community (I think the title “influencer” is asinine, or is that the follower?) there are many of whom you may relate to.  It’s possible that many of these leaders may be your “elders.”  It may be possible that many are younger than you, but happen to be in a different life stage or have a different perspective that can help you and your thinking.

Should you step back from the blogs/podcasts and pull up a seat around and close to the fire, and listen to the FIRE sharing just in case you can learn something new, different, or add to your perspective?  And, if at all possible, please share your experiences for/with others.  You may just share the perspective that resonates with them.

*** 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.

As a teenager in the 80s, many things stick into your core— into your expanding nature, and your nurture—just as anyone teenager’s decade.  But I never realized such a simple connection existed between terminology and its definition over the past 40 years.

While traveling (driving) around the Pacific Northwest area I listened to a LOT of podcasts.  I would say close to 100 hours of incessant speaking.  One topic—combined with reading— struck me as an ah-hah moment. 

I ask you the question: Do you find awe in your days?  Do you see the wonder in your day?  Do your days just flow from beginning to end—morning to night— without much amazement in between?  Do you experience awesome?  Or as I like to hack my words—awesomeness?

Somewhere along my drive, or visiting school friends, I heard the word “awesome” and then realized the root of the word is “awe.”  I never made the connection between the valley girls of the 80s and the amazement of awe.  It just made sense all of a sudden.  At 51 years old a lightning bolt struck.  The state of awe is awesome.

Even if you already are well aware of this, be absolutely sure that every day you take some moments to realize the awe in your life.  Life is (Spicolli) “Awesome, Totally Awesome.”

*** 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.

Somehow along the way I’ve become encircled with gratitude.

While I do take the moments after reaching my first-morning consciousness to take some breathes and appreciate my morning/day/life, I also have other gratitude times.

I know, I know, again with my “commute,” but when I’m sitting in my spa, or on my patio each—and every—morning and I hear the birds chirping, or even people hiking on the hills in the desert close by, I just feel relaxed.  It helps that it’s often before 8am and most likely a weekday.

Take the time to do something(s) you love each and every day.  You deserve it!

Lately, I’ve been asking myself a double question: if I could have anything, do anything, what would it be?  Have you ever taken a few minutes to dream about anything?  I’m not good at that.  I am way too functional/tactical in life.  I don’t really have an overly strategic, vision-planning mindset.

I tend to find a target and create a plan to reach/succeed in that goal.  I know that’s a good trait to have.  My wife tells me that I tend to strive to be a “fixer” and resolve issues.  Maybe that’s how I was raised.  I really don’t know any different.  I just try to figure out how to streamline, maybe even optimize, the path towards completion.   College was me aiming to earn 91% to lock in my “A” and then do whatever else I wanted with my remaining time.

The thought of thinking (dreaming) of an “anything” event is easy enough, yet I cannot find anything grand to complete the thought.  Everything that I come up with is minor, or simply that I “have the greatest already” answer.

I should be clear that of course, I wouldn’t decline a beach house in Hermosa Beach CA or a private jet.  Neither of which is required for life when I can substitute a similar option in my lifestyle.

I’m wondering if I’m asking these questions as I’ve aged into the second half of a century, or if it’s just because we have purposely been actively in MoJo mode.

I have purposely been on a (minorish) forced spending practice for the past year and a half.  Once I stumbled into earning a small stipend doing some work while in FIRE, I decided to force myself to spend ALL of that playcheck money.  I track this in a file on my computer to be sure I honor my spending commitment.  I also picked some favorite spending categories to help steer me to meeting my goal.  I chose: Health, Fitness, FIRE Lifestyle, and Tech.  I have dozens of cool items I would have NEVER purchased.  Many of these items are amazing and I should have MoJo’d them anyway, but I would not have spent on them.

Back to anything.  When I struggle so much to spend my earned playcheck, how can I dream bigger, to an anything level?  I’ve been taught to save money since I was 12 years old.  I continued saving some of every single paycheck, check, garage sale cash, everything.  How do I change gears?  How much do I change?  Do I just force a “fun bucket” strategy of $10k and go for it?  Do we set aside $100k for the decade?  Do we do hundreds of thousands of our life savings for living now in our GoGo years/MoJo decade? 

I don’t even believe my inability is tied to the fear of running out of money before end-of-plan.  I truly believe it’s a 40-year methodology/personality that requires changing.  A small little black purchase of an Epiphone ’58 Goth Explorer that proves to me that some frivolous purchases may add ongoing wonderful enjoyment to your days.

I do want to say that I’ve been very—maybe very-very— supportive of my wife’s spending.  Those who know me have seen her Shelby.  That’s not at all something I would have done in the past.  YOLO is 100% true (based on my understanding of the multiverse).  I just want the Live/life part to remain fully funded and cautious.

Lots and lots of babble above, but that’s my point.  It’s very hard (for me) to come up with a specific “anything.”  I will continue to add amazingness to our lives.  I will continue to make purchases.  I will continue to strive for experiences and adventures.  I will push to make each and every day enjoyable.

I will, without any question, do some of “my favorite things each day.”  Did I mention the coaster vibrating off the subwoofer in my living room?  I could FEEL my music.  My iphone alerted me to an “unsafe noise volume” and exposure risk…one of my favorite things.

Do you ever stop and dream as big as you can?  An Anything dream?

*** 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 went for my desert trail run a few days ago—like I do every week—and it was great.  I started a little earlier than normal, about 7:30am.  It was still cool out, probably in the upper 70s.  I didn’t have a lot of energy so I was careful to make sure I lifted my feet over the rocky trail to avoid a toe crunch/forward drive into the rocks and cacti.

As the run progressed, I completed the halfway long incline successfully and looped back towards home.  I was running on the left side of the road as normal—facing oncoming mountain bike traffic—just after the 4-mile point (2/3rds of the way) along the old narrow dirt service “road.” 

Plodding along on a nice flat quarter-mile section I suddenly hear a freaky loud static-type sound.  Somehow in the middle of one stride, I look down five feet ahead to my LEFT—11 o’clock position, and in mid-stride (is that even possible?) I lurch my body four feet to the RIGHT.

It’s in this new location far to the right of where my feet were headed was a half-coiled rattler telling me to give him space, or else. 

I have to say, he was VERY polite, giving me ample notice in distance, and rattle volume (that rattle speed must have been why it sounded like static to me).  He could feel me coming and let me know he was there, no real (big) surprises for either of us.

I stopped and watched him (and took a few pictures) as he moved off the road and headed down the little slope. 

He didn’t want any trouble with me.  No trouble to or from me.  He was just going about his day and prey. 

History:

I’ve run this trail every week—sometimes multiple times per week—for over 20 years.  That’s probably around 1000 runs, 6000+ miles (3.1m out, 3.1m back).  I’ve seen coyotes, javelinas, one gila monster, and 3 rattlesnakes. 

Now that I think about it,

the gila monster and all three snakes were in the same 10^th of a mile stretch. 

The first snake was 30 feet down from the trail towards the wash. 

The second snake scared the shit out of me but it was my fault, three people were taking pictures of the side of the trail (duh), so I gave them space and ran within 4 feet of a snake coiled up on the hill about knee-high.  I did a magical lurch movement there too, but I just kept running along with my newly added adrenaline (performance enhanced) 

This was the third snake and he was rattling and probably would have bit my foot if I kept on my track if my foot strike just happened to fall next to him.

My wife and I did see one other snake, it was in Sedona on the great Bell Rock trail.  She was on her mountain bike ahead of my running and she passed it and yelled back to me as a warning.  I didn’t hear here and did a long jumping stride over him laid out 5 feet long across the trail.  Something like that, it was kind of a scary blur.

The little guy I just encountered was about 2 ½ feet long. 

Lessons:

I know you’ve all had these types of stories—or worse—so this isn’t that interesting, but to me, I learned a few things.

1. I learned that even when plodding along you may need to take an abrupt and immediate action to avoid a bad situation.  Stay nimble.
2. That bad situation may not be out to get you.  It may just be a warning to alert you to change for your own good/safety.
3.  I once went to the rattlesnake “museum” in Albuquerque and they had over a dozen snakes in a room (a small bedroom-sized room) with a bunch of large fish tanks rattling like crazy and I was literally paralyzed and couldn’t pass one of the snakes/tanks to get to the exit door.  It took me probably 15 minutes of very, very, very rational thinking to walk past him.  They told us he was just “rescued” the other day from someone’s home.  – The point, is I wasn’t too freaked out by the little guy on the side of the trail.  That may be some significant progress on my part…for now.
4. I was wearing my newish Aftershokz/shokz bone-conducting headphones while listening to a podcast.  If I had earbuds IN my ears with music, I may not have heard him.  Aftershocks are SAFER.
5. Earlier in my run at mile 1.5 where I run by bushes I thought about snakes.  But since that location is right next to an active parking lot with lots of people the snakes might stay away.  Yet half a mile away is where I ran (“into one”)—ran by one.  When your guard is up, don’t let it go down totally.  Always be aware of the danger and plan accordingly if possible.

Additional Lessons:

I also had other thoughts from this “running” experience.

About two weeks before this run the temperatures started rising into the high 90s.  I thought about hiking and running a different cool route but I didn’t because I know the snakes must be out and they’re hungry and grouchy.  Now I just try to avoid the trail sections with large rocks (underneath shade spots for snakes, etc).

Another noticeable thought is that there were very few people on Friday morning at 8am.  This mattered in two ways, 1) fewer people so existing snakes would try to avoid the trail activity, and 2) fewer people available to help someone in danger.

I was thinking about how timing is everything in life.  If I were running 30 seconds to one minute earlier (faster) the snakester would have been in the middle of the road.  Maybe in a more dangerous position.  Then again, a minute later/slower, or two minutes earlier he could have been farther away from his right-on-the-side of the trail location

In past summers when I full-timed in Phoenix, I often had to do my desert trail runs at lunchtime because of work.  I always found it interesting and later cautionary that I may only see one of two people out on the trail (at 105+) when I was running.  I had the trail all to myself, but I had only myself to count on in case of emergency.  There are now signs posted not to use the trail during the summer daytime.  Tourists are frequently overheating on hikes starting in March.  I worked my way up from the 70s, to 80s, to 90s, to 100s each month as I ran so I was very acclimatized and quite safe.  I had a bail-out point at mile 1.5/4.5.

So in the post, and on this run, I had one of my (almost) worst life encounters and it was fine.  One stride before horribleness.  You’re working towards something good (health) and BAM, something bad can happen.

I continuously realize that amazing things can happen in life, it’s how to perceive them and how you use those events to make you better.

*** 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 have an observation today that is far from my normal thoughts—it’s even geographically distant.

I was able to take a long “schetchled” trip driving the west coast from San Francisco to Portland.  I’ll write more about that next time.  Today’s thought came about before I even arrived in San Francisco.

Being a tech guy—apparently, as I just heard 2 minutes ago on a podcast: a “tech bro.”  Yes, I literally just heard that and now feel degraded for my education and skills that I developed over decades.  But never the less, I love technology (apparently it has loved me, figuratively).   Because of this lifelong passion, I’ve wanted to visit Silicon Valley.  I didn’t have any plans or know what exactly I wanted to see, but I just wanted to get the feel of the area where so many bits and bytes changed the world.

I can report that in my observations so many of the areas of Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and Palo Alto are VERY nice as one would expect.  I also was happy to discover that Burlingame is a great town as well!

It is clear that the Palo Alto area is quite advanced and is surely led by Stanford University’s high standards.  I can see how this area challenges its residents and why it leads the world in technology.  There was so much activity going on, yet it was nicely laid-back and the people were friendly. 

I spent a couple of hours walking around some of these downtown shopping/eating (I’m not a “dining,” guy) districts to see what was going on, get a feel for those also milling around, and well, eat.

I was able to use some of the maps, and QR codes listed in the area (technologies) to help with my visit.  I read menus, signed up for an online  20% discount on my first lunch order, found a bakery to get some amazing whole wheat bread for my journey ahead, etc.

Here’s the capstone to this post that told me I was in the center of the technology universe, as best I could tell.

The homeless guy in Palo Alto, at the intersection of University Ave and Emerson St, had the normal container set up for currency/coin donations.  But lest we not forget this is the tech Mecca.  In this case, the homeless guy also had a cardboard sign with his VENMO ACCOUNT INFO ready for donations…! Tech Bro?

*** 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.