This post is all about how to increase the satisfaction in your days, and in your life.  If not satisfaction, then at least increase your optimization and decrease your level of annoyance.  Or is that just my strategy?

I constantly hear about “keeping up with the Joneses.”  I used to wonder who would spend their time wondering what other people were doing and most significantly, how the purchases of others would somehow affect me.

Do you keep score on the items of others in comparison to your own life (I mean possessions)?

[Insert thought}  I should say that I don’t use social media to view or highlight life (purchase) milestones.  I know I’m old, but I see those as a tool to share event/life happenings with “friends.”  I guess I’m the exact opposite of a social media influencer, whew, I’m damn happy about that.

Anyway, back to the masses.

So I was thinking about my LifeInFIRE.  I was thinking about the masses.  I was thinking about common daily activities and how I see those tasks/events.

• So, one of the (pre-pandemic) dreaded daily activities was the rush hour traffic jam.  Thousands or millions of people/cars packed together at the same time, heading in the same direction, all for the same purpose—to clock in at work.  You are literally following the masses, car after car.  LifeInFIRE has the option of avoiding the highways at rush hour.  It’s mostly possible to perform daily tasks off-peak (Mon-Fri: 9a-3p)

• Another example is the simple task of buying food.  I’ve seen the parking lots with cars swirling around at 5p.  If the parking lot looks like a hassle, I can’t imagine what the lines are like inside the grocery (food) store.    
• What about the screaming media force-feeding us information?  This can be “news” delivered from all sides with overtly opinionated positions.  What are the masses following here?  What are the sources, not the outlets, but the source of the news?  Even worse, are the masses consuming just the (click-bait) headline and not reading the full story, or checking the facts, or other opinions…or even another of their social media sites.  I didn’t realize news could be delivered accurately in 140 characters.  Maybe that’s why it was doubled to allow for the full story?

What if the media—and Hollywood blockbuster movies for that matter—provided “good news” say just 65-75% of the time?  Why does the first few minutes of the news designed to agitate the viewers?  Is that to keep them tuned in?  Is that the click-bait of television?

Take a trip to ANY other country in the world and then decide how horrible you think our country is.  Yes, we do have some of the same problems as elsewhere, yet we seem to be much, much…MUCH better off than most of the world.  Seriously how many types of cereal do we need to choose from?  Or go to a mall, how many different shirt options are required for our attire?

Of course, we have problems and there is room for improvement.  I agree in many ways, with lots of room for improvement.  The good news is that we have options from education from our youngest years through our entire lifetimes.  We have options to build skills and abilities our entire lifetime.  We have the option to use this knowledge, skills, and abilities to generate income and stability…even though it may be hard at the time.  Life is hard, everything is hard, that why the word “perseverance” was created.

I believe in being positive and driving the change within yourself, your family, those around you, and helping others.  Maybe that’s the power of thinking differently and not (always) following the masses.

Maybe it’s time to follow the FIRE. 

Being different is a great thing if you are comfortable with yourself.  Being better than average and making things better is amazing.

Step out of the line and do something(s) good.  When you’re FIREd, you have a clear path ahead of you.

*** 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 example of a dumb decision/life lesson learned.  It wasn’t a problem, or cause any negative effects on our lives, but it was there was a loss. 

This is a lesson to enjoy life.

My wife at one time had an old car that worked fine.  It was a pleasure car, a “classic.”  It was a special save-up-extra-money-for-a-long-time-and-buy that classic car.   It was a 69 Mach 1 Mustang.  It had a V8 with headers that shook the house when it was started in the garage. 

She drove it fully accepting its imperfections, kinks, and slight hassles—after all, it was almost 50 years old.  The issues included, but were not limited to, carburetor strangeness, speedometer that jumped up and down 10-15mph at random, wiggly steering wheel, etc, etc.  The issues were nothing that caused safety concerns, but were inconveniences when operating this motor vehicle.

So, when we were preparing to sell the car, we had $600 of work completed to help the sale.  We wanted the car to start and idle great, display the speed smoothly, and basically, feel solid. 

Turns out this repair work made the car drive so much better.  So much so that the car sold to the first couple that came to look at it.

After selling the mustang it became obvious that we should have performed the work at the beginning of our ownership cycle so that we could have enjoyed the car much more through the years.  It’s even possible that if the car ran so well all along, we may not have even sold it.

I now think about what actions I can take in my life now in order to optimize/maximize our enjoyment.

Are there things (yes “things or experiences”) that can make life better, more enjoyable?  Are the associated costs worthwhile?

Examples:

During covid quarantine, we found we were outside our home a lot more.  We decided to put a second gate in our block wall.  This thought never occurred in the past 10 years when it may have been applicable.  This was a great $1000 spend.  We now use the gate multiple times per day, every day.

We purchased some new umbrellas and stands for our yard.  A few hundred dollars made the AZ yard move enjoyable when the sun started over-pumping heat.  $200

We added LED string lighting across our yard.  It gives us a party feel, much like a cruise ship Lido deck every night. $145

We upgraded a spare spinning bike that was used once in a while pre-covid to a nicer model since the spinning studios are closed, and some sadly went out of business.

We needed to replace our 15-year-old SUV.  Yes, we could have repaired some things but after being stranded in the middle of the AZ desert (luckily, with 1 bar of cell service), I just didn’t trust it.  For the first time ever, I didn’t buy used (buy 3 years old, keep 10 years) because I felt the safety features on new Toyotas were so significant that I wanted pedestrian/bike recognition, cross-traffic alerts/stopping, front stopping, lane keep/tracing, cameras, etc. etc.  It made sense to spend the extra on safety features we will use every single time we drive the vehicle.  In the past 3 months, I can say those features are wonderful.

We even plan to fly Premium Economy (or maybe business class) on our overseas trips to make check-in, airport security, boarding, and onboard comfort better on our travels.  It seems (as of right now) that we probably don’t need to crunch in the back of the plane.  This is a hard one for me to implement, but I’m going to try.  ……GLOBAL ENTRY as well…

Our Plan for the Future:

I’ve written about our Mojo decade and that too ties into this spend-it-when-we-can-enjoy-it mentality.  I am going to be very careful making sure we still track to our/a plan.  Alas, if I only knew when our “end of plan was” it would be easy.

I’m using some of our decades of “deferred spending” now when we can enjoy it.  Why use that money later, at the end of our time when it’s not enjoyed over our time.

Do you have any of those “I wish I would have spent on ABC earlier” thoughts in your life?

*** 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 talk to people about my favorite/most important activity—10 Favorite Things—all the time.

Surprisingly, I searched on myself—actually in my posted LifeInFIRE thoughts—and I cannot find where I clearly describe this process and its importance to me.

Important Activities

Here’s what I learned from the Playing With Fire movie. 

I learned about creating a list in my electronic notepad of my 10 Favorite Things to do each day or week.

I brainstormed about my very favorite things to do.  These include activities, environments, thinking, etc.

I then sorted my very favorite items to the top and my less favorite down the list.

The Goal

The goal is to try and do a couple/some of those activities each day, and especially each week.  My thinking is what good are our days if we’re just grinding away— as a cog in the machine— and not enjoying our life.

The Process

I found the action of just creating the list to be of immense value.  Thinking through, and writing down, your most treasured life activities must be one of the more core elements of who we are, or at least of our deepest internal happiness.

I don’t often look at my list of 10 Favorite Things, but I definitely know what my top 3-5 are at any given time.  Oh, that makes me realize that the list can shift and change depending on life, on the seasons, even based on a pandemic with lockdown/quarantine/everything-being-closed situations.

Actually, if your list of favorite things did not change during the pandemic craziness, is that a clear sign that you are living true to yourself already?  True to your very core?  Possibly, a good SloGo? 

Hmmm, now I have even more to think about.  (sometimes that’s dangerous, “too much Kevin”)

New Idea – Dislikes

It just occurred to me that maybe I should have a list of things that I don’t like, or cannot stand to do.  Then I could rank those and possibly “outsource” those tasks to someone else.  Maybe there are people out there who like those activities.  I’ve read about valuing your time, say $20 or $50 per hour.  Then you can get a value for these outsourcing activities.  It may even make sense to just understand how the cost of these activities are just a part of making your life better, and possibly doing one or more of your favorite activities at that same time.

What are your favorite activities?  And now, after that last paragraph, what is their value to you?

*** 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.

During my morning “commute” time I was thinking how BAM, the decades seem to have disappeared.

To be more precise, it almost seems like I jumped from 35 years-old to 50 years-old in a matter of a few years, at most. 

I feel my wife and I lose track of seasons (and years?) because of a few reasons. 1) We do not have kids, nor are around family children all that much.  Therefore, we do not have the basis of school calendars/years and seeing the kids grow. 2) We live in Arizona and you cannot tell what month, or even season it is when looking out the window.  It’s just non-stop sunny—beautiful days over and over.  I should mention that it is possible to tell the season if I put my hand on the window glass.  The glass will either be cool, warm, or HOT.  That’s the clue for the season/temperature outside.

35 then 50!

The jump from 35-50 included work employment changes, positions, office locations, salary ranges, etc, to now being retired for 6+ years.  Looking back, it happened in a flash.  Almost like I haven’t changed at all myself.

I can say that I can tell my age when exercising.  There is no denying that my run/bike times at 50 years-old are not close to my times from 35 or 40 years old.  It’s also quite clear that after exercising it is best to let my body recover a little more.  I still get at it, but I just cannot get into 5^th gear anymore.

The above are not complaints, not at all, they are just realizations—like the wrinkles on my face—that decades have passed and passed quickly.  I have lots of great memories of adventures and activities.  I have frequently said, “I have done all the major things I thought I’d want to do, I’m good.”  I still have experiences, activities, and goals ahead of me, but I didn’t waste my previous years putting things off.  I have had an amazing life.  At least that’s the perspective I choose to take.  I don’t think it’s a glass “half-full,” but rather a tall glass of the best drink you could imagine.

So how should we tackle the amazing sesquidecade jumps?

I was thinking about other jumps that happen quickly:

20 then 35:

Life felt like the normalized American path from 20-25-35.  I had successfully transitioned from being a newly married, college graduate starting a new job/career in a new state at 25 years-old.  We traveled for fun, I traveled around the world for work.  It seemed normal, and so many (very) new adventures and activities.

I didn’t mind grinding through college classes, working 3 jobs, living in the cold climate, and striving for a good future.  Then in a flash, school is over, multiple degrees on the shelf, married, moved to a new state, and a decade completed in a new career, not to mention world travel completed.  So much life, but at warp speed.

50 then 65:

I know a lot of older people and talk with them multiple times throughout the month.  So many of them say the years just flew by.  The years almost disappeared before they knew it. 

I am working really hard to make sure this disappearance doesn’t happen (but it still does) by making sure each day, and each week I do things I love. 

I truely believe if we don’t do these activities now, we may not be able to do them in the future, i.e. ever again.

65 then 80:

These are the classic GoGo retirement years we read about all the time.  The time where many people no longer working 9 to 5 to 65.  A time when, if your health is good, you have ALL your time to yourself.  The time to do whatever you please.  The time when the road ahead opens up and you can step on the accelerator.  Hit the gas and go.  If we live these years correctly, these years will not disappear, they will be fully utilized.

Geez 80-95? 

I don’t know if these years jump by in a flash, or if they get cloudy, or disappear based on memory or cognitive issues.  I know many people 80+ who are sharp and active and still do what they

Just me sharing my random thoughts of a Life In FIRE.

*** 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 should state this upfront; I’m very far from being a millennial.  I lack so many of the traits; being energized by social engagements, being born with technology, being raised where everything is possible, and even having very few acronyms to explain my lifestyle, etc.  Yet, the YOLO philosophy is very intriguing to me, at times.  Not to the point of live for today like there’s no tomorrow.

I’m now in the old category where I’m in the tomorrow.  Actually, to a younger person, I’ve been in the old category for over a decade.  I had this strange mental block of having no concept of FOMO.  I see that acronym and it just does not register in my brain—almost not at all.  I don’t know why?  I wonder if it’s the deep-down sense of being an introverted only child and not that interested in other people.  I wonder if it’s because I was raised in a community where people got by with what we had and almost never compared ourselves to others, or our items to others items.  Maybe because life was hard at times and the extreme cold weather could snuff you out in less than an hour?  Who knows?

YOFO

But one thought I’ve had lately is “You’re only 50(s) once.”  I’ve given lots of thought about finally growing into my age (or the other way around).  I’ve always felt like an old guy mind in a youngerish body.

I’ve written and talked about being younger and healthier now than you will ever be in the future.  I’ve written about living a great life now.  Making sure you do some of your favorite things each day and week.

I wrote about taking that daily/weekly amazingness to an entire decade.  Then I wrote about taking it up to an entirely higher level.     

I realize the absurdity of saying YOFO You’re Only Fifty’s Once in a “retirement” blog, but for those who are “YOSO,” it’s the exact same thought.  Make sure you are living the greatest life you can.  Live it each day, every week, throughout the year.  It doesn’t matter if you’re in your Sixties or Seventies—you’ve earned it.

PLAN

If you are in your 40s, or even 30s, I’d say you probably want to be a little conservative on the money-side of living it up.  It’s not all YOLO when you’re that young.  Dave Ramsey is spot on with his “Live like no one else, so you can live like no one else.”  Or more clearly: “Live like no one else now, so later you can live like no one else.”  

I have a consistent thread through my writing and my living—enjoy your days, do what makes you happy, take care of your loved ones, including yourself.

NOW

If there are activities and experiences that you feel will make your life even more amazing, create a plan to accomplish those experiences.  In so many parts of life, it doesn’t seem wise to wait for those special experiences.  What If you cannot do the activity when you’re older?  What if you do not have the health, or brain function, or even the money to do something big.  Plenty of writings state it’s the experiences that stay with you, not the stuff.  I agree, but some of your favorite experiences may be accomplished because of a stuff.  Live your amazing life now.  Why not!?

*** 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.

Why do we keep hearing that life satisfaction perception levels off at $75k of income?

What is the core?

Is that research statement related to spending all of your take-home pay?  Are they really saying that having a salary higher than 75k only delivers incremental satisfaction?

I wonder if that amount is a target for a household to live nicely—living from paycheck to paycheck —thereby eliminating the extreme stress of being able to pay one’s bills.  Thinking back to when we were both in college and working (I had three part-time jobs at once, for years) we made far less than $75k, yet we managed to live well, travel, and save.  Even with inflation adjusting, I have to believe our incomes were 20% below that threshold.

Our perspective

On to our professional careers, we made less than $75k starting out and we still lived well and saved.  But when I think about it, we lived in a small 1000 square foot home (still our home) and drive older used cars that work perfectly fine.  Maybe we just didn’t inflate our lifestyle to match the lifestyle of others?  Maybe we didn’t have instragram and facebook (aren’t they the same?) to judge our lifestyle/success against others—other’s glamour posts.

So did our lifestyle increase multiplicatively when our salaries multiplied over the years?  No, it did not, not at all.  Yes, we did grow our spending some, but our home and cars remained extremely constant for a decade at a time.  That in and of itself kept our inflation adjustment quite low and in our control.

Did our not upgrading everything give us a sense of lacking, a sense of wanting?  No, not really.  If we wanted something—needs were always taken care of—we just planned for the want.  We determined the best item for us and then purchased it when the time was right.  We have always been satisfied with our purchases because they were thought out in advance.

Satisfaction

So did I feel more satisfaction as our salaries grew beyond the magically $75k.  I’d say with absolute certainty, yet.  It wasn’t a “spending” thing.  It wasn’t an “I make XX amount” statement.  It wasn’t status, or value, or accomplishment.  I think it was the deep-down understanding that we had control of so much of our destiny at any given time.  Even related to a health issue, we had the funds to attempt resolution of such an issue.

I believe part of that comfort is that I personally get an immense amount of satisfaction saving and investing the top portion of my income.  It is the act of putting my money into a protection mode.  I get plenty of satisfaction seeing my net worth—hard placed planning/savings effort—grow and progress.  It’s not the dollar amount, it is by far the freedom of everything that amount may entail for the future.

There is a reason many surveys ask people “do you have $400 for an emergency” or “do you have $1000 saved for an emergency?”  Those amounts may allow someone to resolve an issue before it turns into a crisis, or worse, a downhill financial spiral that can be extremely hard to escape.

So is “satisfaction” the ability to fulfill one’s needs?  Is satisfaction the knowing you can handle an upcoming incident?  Is satisfaction the feeling of working towards an all-encompassing goal?  Then how would you define your personal increase in satisfaction, and can a salary over $75k provide that increase?  In my personal experience, yes, a higher household income increased our ability to progress to all our goals.

No Salary Slant?

Here’s a different take on the $75k life satisfaction analysis.  Our current “salary” is $0, and our “income” has been in the $20k range yet our satisfaction is extremely, magnificently high.

Living a lifestyle that ties closely to your personal beliefs is quite core to feeling purposeful.  A life of purpose seems to present satisfaction.  It’s even possible that a life of leisure—that contained previous amounts of purpose—can provide satisfaction.  It’s entirely possible that if you are intentional in how you live each day that you are increasing (compounding) your life satisfaction. 

Maybe all of this just comes from someone how worked through college degrees, to then develop a career, while living below their income level and taking an opportunity to leave their career to do something different.  In this case, to do whatever we want, whenever we want.  And yes, some of that includes giving to others, because that’s what we choose to do.  That’s how we get our life satisfaction.

So, others have found the same conclusions I’ve come to. Those are some serious high-incomes.

*** 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.

Maybe it’s just me, but I haven’t seen a bunch of articles on New Year’s Resolutions this year. 

I have to wonder if that’s because people aren’t writing about goals this year, or if they’re still working on one of the bigger goals in their lifetime—to survive 2020 with some sanity and positivity.  Maybe the resolutions are already built into our psyche— that 2021 will be better than last year no matter what we do?

If you are one of those people who had a good (enough?), or strong 2020.  That is great.  Maybe it’s your mentality, or maybe it’s just the way the circumstances fell.  No shame in progress, no matter its form.

Purposely

I don’t really do New Year’s Resolutions.  Yes, I understand it’s “a new year” and “a new start,” but living in Arizona in a FIRE lifestyle, it is really, really hard to tell one week/month from the next.  That isn’t necessarily a good thing.  It takes conscious effort to make sure to appreciate every day.  However, the start of a January 1^st “day” isn’t all that hugely significant. 

However, I do plan each year to give myself a Christmas present, a revelation to myself—a gift to myself.  I give myself the gift of steering my days and challenges to meet some level of a goal over a period of time.  It’s my Christmas Revelation.

Past Revelations

My goals might be: run 365 miles this year, run+bike 1000 miles, do yoga each week, meditate multiple times per week, help people every day, do 3 nice things for others each day, eat 8 fruits/veggies per day, eat only from noon to 8 pm, be a nicer and calmer person to those around me, etc. etc.

There is no difference to the betterness goal of my life structure in my revaluation than a resolution, but I treat it as a gift to myself.  In typing that, I realize I am so very self-centered with so many things in my life.  Hmmm, that doesn’t seem that great, but I try to expound external goodness in many ways.

Simple

I like the simple—but not easy—target of having a word for the year.  Once single, little, simple word to steer your yearly actions and decisions.  That seems quite doable if you can remember to keep your word in focus.

Do you have a plan, and quantifiable targets to make things better this year?

How do you tackle your progress:  Christmas revelations.  Goals for the year.  Activities, Actions, Word of the year?

*** 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 didn’t notice the definition of “cute” in the masculine handbook.  Maybe it was because the man handbook doesn’t even include the word “cute.”  Come to think of it, I don’t EVER recall walking around and saying “that’s cute.”  Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever thought that either.  Yes, I know, in this day and age I’m not supposed to generalize men or women, but speaking as a guy, “cute” isn’t a word on my frequent list, not really.

I notice quite often when I’m in a store (usually a “wife” store) that if I overhear a conversation or comment from women-shopping-teams, that they hold one arm out raising an item and one of them says “that’s cute.”  I’m not stereotyping, I’m just reporting the facts as I’ve seen them, repeatedly.

I was at a family gathering and two women were reviewing some store’s layout and its location of products.  I heard as they recalled items say the word “cute” at least 5 times…in less than a minute!

I then thought about this concept—the concept of “cute.”  I realized there’s this pleasure zone of sprucing things up in their life.  An all-encompassing zone of spending money to obtain “cute.”

I’ve pondered this zone for a few months now.  I’ve shifted my mind (temporarily) into the zone of how cutifying an environment can have value—personal, internal value, and reward.  It’s a hard zone for me to enter, and definitely not a zone that I would stay in for long, but a zone with some slight value properties, I do agree.  If this zone allows true happiness, more relaxation, and enjoyment of surroundings, without negatively impacting financial security, then some “cute” may be good, I guess.

Just another observation from my LifeInFIRE.

*** 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.