Recent content by Andromeda

I inherited $5000 from my paternal grandmother and received the money in 1984, when I was in university. (My parents had actually invested the smaller amount my grandmother left me 7 years earlier, and then passed along the money when I was in university.) I bought a beautiful job interview...

You could also consider doing something about it through something like a fun neighbourhood challenge promoted through social media or another association (like an HOA). We have a pretty active and usually friendly neighbourhood FB group. To encourage people to consider alternative...

As I'm getting closed to my anticipated retirement year, I'm starting to experiment with different potential retirement dates. I'm wondering when exactly in a given year does FIRECalc assume I'm retiring? For example, if I enter 2022 as my expected retirement year, does FIRECalc assume I retire...

Lots of good suggestions here already. Here are a few more. 1. Because you're going to limit yourself to a couple of pairs of shoes, really test them before you travel. Spend a day walking around in each pair and make sure they're fit for purpose and don't cause blisters, foot pain or back...

I highly recommend Tanja Hester's book Work Optional for helping you think systematically and comprehensively about whether and when to retire: https://ournextlife.com/work-optional/ There are some great questionnaires and to-lists to help you figure out on your own, and with your partner...

Every time we visit Catskill Animal Sanctuary in the Hudson Valley (NY State), we visit Rock Da Casbah, a quirky restaurant in the nearby town of Saugerties, in order to have their vegan Mac n Cheese. It is the best vegan Mac n Cheese ever, and I usually order one serving to eat and a second to...

The Highline is great but it is often super-crowded, so pick a time like a weekday morning or afternoon during the workday. (That said, the sunset can be beautiful so a weekday late afternoon or evening is lovely, too, but be prepared for crowds.) Take the subway from Manhattan to the first...

I'm fortunate to have had quite a few opportunities in my working life for long vacations, including the following: 1. After a 1-year working sabbatical in the UK in 2001-02, I took 9 weeks off before returning to my job in Canada. It was AMAZING. I spent 5 weeks studying French in Grenoble...

I think that using a designer on a limited basis can be very helpful (and save you money) if you're careful about who you hire and what you ask them to do. For example, I've worked with the same designer three times (over 20 years) to help with colour selection. My husband and I call her the...

About a year after I was let go from Megacorp, and while we were getting ready to move home from the US to Canada, I decided to liquidate my portfolio of Megacorp stock and put it into Vanguard target funds. The stock was trading at an all-time high, and once we were back in Canada, it would be...

My husband and I both have aptitudes (and complementary skill sets) for handling our finances. I'm the capital markets lawyer (and ex-regulator), and he's a whizz at numbers and tech. I passed Level of my CFA many years ago, and persuaded him to do the same. Add to that an engineer father (on my...

We had one new-build home and did some bathroom renovations in 2018 on our new-to-us home. 1. On my "glad we have it" list: - Heated bathroom floor in master bath (and our cats love it, too) - Removed bathtub in master and replaced it with a large shower for two, with regular shower head plus...

Lots of good points already made here so I will just add a couple of ideas: 1) With respect to your career, have you achieved what you want to achieve in terms of accomplishments, stature, respect, influence, satisfaction (whatever factors are important to you)? And if not, can you achieve...

I'm a photographer, focusing on portraits of rescued animals. I mostly use my skills on a volunteer basis (helping rescue organizations) but I also earn a little money on the side from selling prints, selling books, licensing images for magazines, and sometimes winning prize money from...

I've moved dozens of times, as a kid (almost every other year) and as an adult (including cross-country and cross-Atlantic moves). The most entertaining was watching the Parisian moving company pile our stuff in a tiny, portable elevator and hoist from the street up to the fourth floor of our...