Hi everyone. The wisdom shared on this forum is amazing. After viewing the photo thread, everyone appears much younger than I thought after lurking for about a year. (I guess I expected foot long gray beards and wizard caps that go along with the sage advice.) I am married with 2 grown boys. I am 56, a software developer, 11 years as employee, 20 years as a consultant/contractor. My latest contracting gig ended 2/26/2010. Minored in Finance and bought my first stocks while a junior in college. I still have the WSJ where the DOW was in the low 700's. My plan to financial independence was to use compounding of interest and DRIP plans in stocks that sold things I use daily. i.e Baby Bell stocks, Utilities, Consumer, Oil. I also bought a house/condo every 5-6 years and rented the previous houses. I sold half the real estate in 2001 and put the proceeds in CD ladder. The last few years I have been trying to maximize my income with no loss of principle. I am currently at 6.2% ROI with 75/15/10, cd/stocks/real estate. I have always been LBYM. My current monthly expenses are $1580/month. Stock trading is mostly to capture dividends and sell covered options.
Now for the good stuff. I enjoy hiking the national parks to find places to trout fish. I have covered most of the central and southern trails of Yellowstone in the last 12 years. I restore pinball machines and currently have 11 in my basement. I have ridden motorcycles for 40 years and have 6 of them. I restore Yamaha XS 650’s from 1979 – 1982. I rode to the Black Hills last year on a V-Star 1100. I enjoy skiing in Colorado. I like to garden. I have planted the front 3 acres in wildflowers and prairie grasses. I used to raise enough produce so the boys could have a booth at the Oxford farmers market.
Oh yeah… I am on the fence about retirement.
Now for the good stuff. I enjoy hiking the national parks to find places to trout fish. I have covered most of the central and southern trails of Yellowstone in the last 12 years. I restore pinball machines and currently have 11 in my basement. I have ridden motorcycles for 40 years and have 6 of them. I restore Yamaha XS 650’s from 1979 – 1982. I rode to the Black Hills last year on a V-Star 1100. I enjoy skiing in Colorado. I like to garden. I have planted the front 3 acres in wildflowers and prairie grasses. I used to raise enough produce so the boys could have a booth at the Oxford farmers market.
Oh yeah… I am on the fence about retirement.
