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I also had fidelity and retired and used the rule of 55 to start withdrawing; I had a scheduled monthly draw, worked fine for a few months... then I also decided I'd use brokerage link for access to some additional investments, and transferred all my funds to it. I'd called fidelity and they'd...

Venturing into the world of tips and confused about this on the secondary market. Looking at one maturing in about a year, price is quoted as 98.298 but total cost (I believe) includes the inflation adjustment (see attached screenshot). My question is, suppose we have rampant deflation, at...

For anyone interested in the psilocybin experience, go to reddit and search for unclebens. It's ridiculously easy to grow your own little crop of mushrooms at home. I knew it was popular when I put a bag of rice in my amazon cart and saw 'frequently purchased together' with 2 other things needed...

This might be of interest, it is more geared to "when am I FI" but is pretty detailed, worth a glance anyway: One sheet to rule them all...

2009 Porsche cayman, bought used just this last February. I think it cries every day on my commute, which is pretty much straight-as-an-arrow up Chicagoland 355, because it wants those twisties you are talking about!

My 2 cents, don't discount that if your wife were to pass away, you'd necessarily just seamlessly continue on as the breadwinner. I only had 200k on my wife, and she died unexpectedly at 46 years old, leaving me with 11 and 16 year old daughters. That 200k allowed me to payoff the house, and...

Yeah, that's an idea, and one I've pursued a bit recently. Thought I had a job locked up at Argonne labs, cool position, 5.5 miles from home, back in February, but that fell through. Gotta keep looking/applying.

Thanks for the comments, I will likely remain on the fence for some time as ideas bounce around my head. Wife works, making just north of $40k and plans to continue for a few years at least. My thought is to work part-time, close to home, ditching my 35 mile commute in Chicagoland traffic hell...

Hello all, I've been on and off the forum for years, mainly off. My wife passed away about 4 years ago, at which time I took about 3 years off work to focus on raising my daughters. Fast forward to now, I'm re-married, have been back in the engineering workforce for a year, and am ready...

Thanks for all the kind responses! I always thought my kids had a great dad, but then I'm a bit biased :) - John

A year ago I called it quits, after my wife had passed away unexpectedly 6 months prior. Definitely has been the best decision I ever made! I've spent the last year focusing on getting fit by rock climbing, helping my 2 daughters navigate through the loss of their mom, and clearing out my house...

I also snored enough to drive me to sleep in a separate room from the wife. I tried the pure sleep, which is a mouth guard type thing you soak in hot water, then mould to your teeth with your lower jaw slightly extended. Took a couple weeks to get used to wearing, but completely eliminated my...

Once the kids are grown and out of the house I have GOT to get out of Illinois and to a place with better property taxes. $49 per month for property taxes and $47 for insurance? Holy cow. I live in a 2200 or so square ft paid off house, and pay about $550 per month in property taxes alone...

Smartest thing I ever did years ago, for my peace of mind and investment performance, was determining the asset allocation I'm comfortable with, setting my portfolio to that, and then completely ignoring the market. No more decision making, no more worry, no more 'nuthin except rebalancing once...

Thanks, it's been an experience for sure. Definitely glad I'd gotten both of us term life insurance 17 years ago when our first daughter was born. I never expected to be 'using' hers, but getting that $200k check in the mail and being able to payoff the mortgage made it possible for me to ER...

My spouse died unexpectedly about a year ago at 46 years old - each of us had a ROTH, as well as a rollover IRA. Both of those simply rolled from her accounts into mine, no taxes or any other issues involved. And there's the extent of my knowledge :) - John

Pulled the plug and couldn't be happier Finally listened to the voice that kept coming up from deep inside, telling me the right thing to do was to chuck it and take some time (hopefully forever!) off. I quit in early November and have been walking on air ever since. Life is so, so much...

Thanks to all for the thoughts, you pretty much told me what I know deep down and probably needed to hear from outside sources - i.e. don't be a fool, bank a bunch of money and put the kids through college debt-free. My job is pretty flexible schedule-wise, and not hard-core hours, so it's...

I used to hang around the boards about 6 or 7 years ago. Here's my stats, wondering if you would pull the trigger on ER: - nearly 49 years old - wife died unexpectedly 2 months ago, at 46, leaving me with 200k insurance that payed off my mortgage - 2 kids, 16 and 11 - I get social security of...

The minute I get out, I have to start losing sleep over when to get back in. Years ago I decided: - pick asset allocation - set it - forget it - rebalance occasionally - ignore all financial news and stay the course I'm either a genius or an idiot. Only time will tell.

Mc-Bama Meltdown - John

"My bad" drives me crazy. Where the heck did that come from anyway? My father in-law refers to my hosta plants as 'hospice'. Cracks me up ! - John

Hello also from suburban chicago (Algonquin). I ran your time period thru the ifa portfolio calculator with portfolio 40, which is 50% equities / 50% fixed. I come up with: annualized: 3.83% Total: 10.2% This is for January 1, 2006 to 7/31/2008. That is after deduction of the (maximum) .9%...

Put it all in Enron and grow to a fortune !

How right the previous poster is. If you want to get a glimpse of how the masses understand finance, all you have to do is listen to the Dave Ramsey show a few times. People with huge amounts of debt; the other day a guy had a car loan at 25% interest. twenty-five percent !! Anyway you get the...