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Retired in 2013 at 47. Two daughters (both still in school) I still do some very part time consulting on issues I find interesting but the income is irrelevant. Rents, dividends and interest exceed our expenses. FWIW, DW found a job she absolutely loves - we don't need the money but who am I...

The new norm for air travel in this part of the world :facepalm:: https://today.rtl.lu/news/world/a/1467849.html

The Hong Kong Marathon (which offers full marathon, half marathon and 10K) was supposed to be held today but was called off because of the coronavirus outbreak. I went and did my own informal half marathon ... as did a lot of other people. It was good to see a people doing positive things...

Reports from this part of the world are that factories in a number of areas will resume production next week but not in the worst affected areas which will continue under lockdown. Unfortunately, a lot of these reports are conflicting so it's not clear what will or will not happen. ??? Possibly...

Flew down to Bangkok yesterday with DW + daughters for a short holiday. Got a full medical check up at Bumrungrad Hospital this morning – this places is a great advert for medical tourism. I'll pick up the full written report tomorrow but the doctor told me that the only issues are bad...

Paid for the speeding ticked I got on Christmas Day. :facepalm:

Another up vote for a good list but ... ... I have to respectfully disagree with Stage 3 - Debt Freedom. Personally I like using modest amounts of debt for investment purposes and as an inflation hedge and have no plans to change that strategy. For us being debt free is not a goal and is not...

I guess I'm out of touch because in spite of wasting ridiculous mounts of time I still fail to understand why what is basically a bunch of anonymously scripted computer code with a trendy name is worth billions.

Six years into retirement and I'm finding that I enjoy my sporadic part time consulting "work." That fact that I don't have to do anything I don't want to helps but I find I enjoy the academic side of things - it adds to my enjoyment of retirement rather than detracts from it. If it was the...

Mostly self managed. But I've seen enough cases of people losing the plot as they get older so I've put enough money with an external manager to at least cover my daughters' remaining school fees, university and a bit more.

This. With the modification that I make a monthly accrual for taxes and longer term expenses such as home repairs, taxes and a miscellaneous bucket. I also do not include assets which I view as consumption items such as our car and wine sitting in a bonded warehouse which will be consumed with...

Congrats - always great to hear a FIRE success story. My 5 year anniversary was late 2018. It's been a blast all-round (although my expenses have been higher than expected for which I blame my daughters) - 5 of the best years of my life. Like you I seen time on classes (hoping to graduate with...

Living in HK, most places require air travel. We do economy class for local travel and either premium economy or business class for long haul (a lot of flights don't have a first class anymore). In part our choices are more about the fact that (i) I have two deformed vertebrae in my back...

At sub USD150, Alibaba (BABA) is starting to look interesting.

Survived the oral defence of my thesis (on science fiction). Subject to getting my supervisor to sign off on the minor revisions, I should graduate in October. :dance: DW's already telling me I need to find another project. :facepalm:

Definitely on the conservative side: I assumed expenses would be be 20% above pre-retirement level, that DD1 and DD2 will never be off the payroll, that our retirement period would be forever (rather than 50 years for DW) and that we would have no employment related income post me FIREing. The...

We have a mix of separate and joint accounts. DW handles her own investments and I handle mine + the jointly owned ones. She handles most of the day-to-day expenses such as utilities and groceries while I deal with the less regular ones such as school fees, the car and a few other things. If...

Others have already getting an orthopaedic pillow - I have one of those and it helps take pressure off the neck/spine at night. While not in the neck, I have developed two deformed vertebrae in my spine which put pressure on the whole spine. My physio had given me a series of exercises +...

Still looks a little expensive to me. In addition to valuation concerns, I am not sure if I can quantify the effect of the short term financial damage this will cause or the longer term brand damage (if any). In particular, I have no idea how long it will be before the planes are cleared to fly...

I had a great career (even with the stress and the ridiculous 24x7 work schedule). I left because there were other things I wanted to do and a full-on career in big law didn't leave any time for other things. We only get one life and I have a really long bucket list.

Commute might be a bit too far for me.:coolsmiley:

While I'm happy to manage my own money, I do have part of my portfolio in professional hands - I've seen too many examples of people making really bad financial decisions and want to ensure there is a reasonable amount for DW and our daughters if I lose the plot and put it all in lottery...

DW found someone had put HKD30,000 (a bit under USD4,000) of fraudulent expenses on one of her credit cards. Dealing with the bank, Apple (it was her ApplePay cc) and the police. Not what I had planned for today.

If I'm still around in 2062, I'll be happy to provide a nice bottle of port (I have six bottles of 1966 Taylor's in storage) on hand when you pick me up.:angel: Although there's a good chance I will have used my time too well and it will be gone by then.

Retirement success - the wife not worrying about our finances.