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I voted "give it away" but we'll likely "give it away" via some combination of spending at local businesses in excess of what we'd otherwise do and/or giving to local charities whose missions indirectly support the local economy through benefits they provide to their clients.

50,000 signup bonus is a pretty good deal for a personal card. We have AAdvantage cards with both CITI and Barclay. We already had the CITI card when I got tempted to add the Barclay by an in-flight sign-up offer similar to the one described by OP (while on an award flight BTW). We've found...

About 17.6% for all cash, investment and retirement investment accounts, net of cash flow for the year. For those accounts we are about 75/25 equities versus bonds/cash. For the equities, we are about 62/38 US/ex-US. This is predominantly a slice and dice index fund portfolio (we hold a few...

You'll find recurring (and well reasoned) threads about target allocations for international over at bogleheads.org (search on international at the top of the page at www.bogleheads.org). Opinions there vary, but seem to roughly revolve around the two camps already represented in this thread -...

Thanks, braumeister, that was the point. Rustward, first, my apologies if my language has offended you. I did mention in a followup post that perhaps "yahoo yammering" was a bit harsh. FWIW, I have been to "one of these" - more or less - a free light buffet and overview of investment options...

Yep. The "steal" to which I was referring would be the deeply discounted vacation package, in a location in which I had some interest, at a resort (or brand) in which I had some confidence or, better yet, personal familiarity. For example, two recent pitches came through our mail, one for a...

That being the case, it looks like my imagination must be out of focus. And I see that some on this thread have attended talks they felt were interesting or worthwhile. Good on that. Still, unless it was something in which I was truly interested, I wouldn't be too happy about having wasted...

+1 *exactly*. I can't imagine enjoying even the best meal with some yayhoo yammering on in the background trying to sell me something I don't want. On the other hand, I can imagine being tempted some day by a timeshare pitch vacation - to a suitable place, for a steal - but so far I've...

For "when can I retire" planning purposes, during my early to mid fifties I used 40 year runs in various calculators to help determine when we'd reached the point for a reasonable amount to live on with a reasonable withdrawal rate. So I voted 90-99 in poll. In reality I was just looking for a...

+1 on the bottom line crowd. A while back we tracked every expenditure as well as we could for a year or two. We didn't learn anything actionable. Since then, we track gross annual spending (with monthly checkpoints throughout the year), using bank statements through which all spending...

I voted self-insure, as that seemed the best fit among poll options for our case (aspects fo several apply). LTC insurance is not a product I expect to ever buy on it's own, for shortcomings pointed out above and in other threads. Life insurance could provide one piece of our puzzle depending...

We carry an umbrella policy for approximately the total value of our investment accounts (not our total net worth). More than half of that amount is in retirement accounts with whatever protection from judgments that would provide. It's not by design that we chose an amount that matches our...

I've been retired for about nine months. I brought back one small box of personal stuff from the office, which now sits somewhere in the basement, with the exception of a couple of useful items (e.g. daybook I contnued to use 'til year end, a conference laptop bag and a couple of vendor "swag"...

+1 on both counts. FI helped to clarify things and made life easier. As the golden handcuffs came off, and any confusion about being at someone else's mercy was lifted, things became my choice. It was easier to be more forthright about what we should or shouldn't be doing. I could focus more...

I'm going through the great book purge now myself. The goal is to weed through decades of books to get down to those that will fit on our rather generous shelf space. The rest goes to book sale collection bins. I still love physical books, but many I've collected are things picked up over...

I voted $75-100K. This is in today's dollars, all in, for two, before tax, no debt, retiree medical plan, living what we think is a comfortable but not particularly extravagant lifestyle, in neither a particularly high nor particularly low COL area, based on several years of tracking what it...

I chose "0-2 years into ER, neither happier nor less happy than expected", as I had pretty high expectations, but was flirting with "happier than expected" on one count below. At six months into ER (both voluntary and planned): - I am *much* more relaxed - no longer worry about things I need...

My guess is 50% compared to the "rack rate" (list price that often is posted on the back of the door in US hotel rooms). I can't imagine anyone pays the rack rate for a hotel room. It's like full-fare coach tickets or the sticker prices at Macy's - who pays full retail for any of that? Travel...

For LBYM, “Millionaire Next Door” reaffirmed frugal living habits and put them it in the context of long-term wealth accumulation, adding both purpose and “panache” to being frugal. Bob Clyatt’s “Work Less Live More” pointed to the real possibility of early retirement and provided a rough...

As others have indicated, the "I" in FI can really make a difference at work. Once you realize that employment is no longer required to maintain your financial well being, it's very liberating to realize that whatever you do is a choice you can make based on life metrics other than financial...

Funny. I'll stash that in my back pocket for some future occasion. :)

How does your revocable trust provide asset protection? Things I am reading in this regard say since you retain control of assets in a revocable trust, they still are effectively your assets and still are exposed to creditors or other judgements. I am asking as we may be updating our estate...

Late to the thread here as is often the case. My last day was April 30 (at age 57). Many thanks to go around from a long-time member/lurker and occasional poster (e.g. thanks to members of this forum, bolgeheads, and the usual suspect authors - perhaps beginning with Bob Clyatt's "Work Less...

One thing you might want to consider is whether the life insurance could serve as a hedge against long term care, and at what cost, if you have not made other arrangements for that. I realize they do not cover the same things; I do not know your comparative costs and I am not recommending that...

Not retired yet, but I will likely go this year. For the last five years, we have tracked overall household expenses using statements from one checking and one savings account. Everything we spend runs through one of these two accounts, except for income tax withholding, which we can get from...