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I had a news crew come out to the house a couple weeks ago to interview me about early retirement. It turned out pretty well I thought. Article and video at this link. They didn't get every single fact right but it was pretty fair toward us and the FIRE movement overall. We no longer have a...

I'll go first: Slovenia. We spent almost 2 weeks in Slovenia this summer and loved it. Beautiful country and not very crowded. It's a little chunk that used to be part of Yugoslavia and in the past it's had some parts of its territory controlled by Italy and Austria at various times...

I didn't realize my 3 year anniversary had arrived until late in the afternoon. I bought a fancy chocolate stout beer from Trader Joe's the other day so I cracked that open tonight to "celebrate". :) 3 years ago today my boss walked in my office, told me he was letting me go effective...

Wow, you guys are efficient (at getting threads shut down ;D ). I post an interesting nugget from my day, go to sleep, recreate a bit and come to ER dot org to find it Porkied already. I wanted to respond to some of the suppositions of the facts and the comments in the original thread so I'll...

Backstory: this week I sold my father in law's old work van. You know the kind - the big white panel van popular among self employed construction workers and pedophiles (my FIL indulged in the former, not the latter). Apparently these things sell like hotcakes because I priced it $1000-3000...

I'm seeking out vacation destinations for the summer time. Places where it's usually mild - in the 70's during the day without a lot of humidity. We are in North Carolina and it gets oppressively hot and humid for much of the summer (July and August are the worst!). I'll share my...

My dear wife finally joined us cool kids and retired two weeks ago. It's been a blast so far! She's been working very part time the last six months (1-4 days per week with a week or two off once per month), so not exactly a drastic change in lifestyle from six months of semi-retirement (and...

We just applied for ACA coverage for us. We won't have employer provided coverage after 2/29/2016, and so I thought we are eligible to apply for health insurance through the exchange since we are within 60 days of being uninsured. I applied and it says DW and I aren't eligible for subsidies...

What my sister in law said in response to "So, where does your new boyfriend work?" (the same SIL with the gambling issue from many years ago for you old timers :) ). We've been chuckling off and on throughout the day about that one. I was also asked for legal advice on carrying a gun - is it...

I had to visit my office for some reason and a few coworkers were there. I was just stopping by to use the bathroom and grab something to eat because I was in the area. It turns out that I was on my sabbatical and DW and I were out for a walk near where I used to work (downtown area near...

If you want to maybe pick up a 10%-20% instagain. I checked IJS and IUSV and they are 20-30% down last I looked, whereas the underlying securities are probably down 4-7% max. I got trades placed but can't even get Fidelity to show order status. GL!

I've been trying to raise cash for 2017 living expenses and a limit order finally executed today. Then I realized I would have that cash sitting in my money market account earning 1% before tax while I am paying 1.99% interest on my mortgage. I spent 5 minutes thinking about it and a 6th...

I know the standard advice is to have some significant proportion of bonds in your portfolio no matter how old or young you are. But this article does a good job explaining why it might be better to go with a high equities allocation (given certain caveats): The Path to 100% Equities I'm at...

For 2014, we only had 2 rather expensive dental plans available. In 2015, there are 12 different plans with premiums (for 2) as low as $44/month or $528/yr. I checked, and my dentist is a provider on the cheapo insurance. They cover 100% of preventive care. 50% of everything else (after...

NY Times summary of where Exchange health insurance rates will increase or decrease: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/11/14/us/Where-Federal-Health-Exchange-Rates-Will-Rise.html Looks like my county's rates will go up 8% while the county just to the south will see a 16% drop in rates...

Just curious. I imagine those that did figure out they were undercapitalized might be busy working and not posting at ER dot org. I'd be curious about anyone you know that retired then had to go back to work for financial reasons. For those interested in picking a nit, "going back to work...

Today it happened. The first time I felt very awkward about being (relatively) wealthy. Back in the spring, I found myself having coffee with two neighbors. We all have kids that attend the neighborhood elementary school, and we also have younger kids around age 2 or 3. The two neighbors...

A question for the early retirees who retired while their kids were still living at home. Was it a big adjustment when they left the house? Did you find yourself twiddling your thumbs all day for a while? Did you ramp up hobbies, travel, and social life? My 3 kids are between age 2 and 9...

I read that phrase in a book today and felt it succinctly described my station in life. Maybe I'll start giving that answer when I get asked about my work status. ;D Doctor Faustus by Thomas Mann (English Translation) for the inquisitive.

I just got let go from my job earlier this week. It was a permanent government job, but a position that was totally "at will" given the dynamic demands of the organization and the politically sensitive nature of our mission. Over the last 2 years a concerted effort had been made from the...

I currently have a 529 account (actually 3, 1 for each kid) with my own state's plan. Historically there has been a state tax deduction associates with contributions up to a large limit. Times being what they are, this state tax deduction appears to have disappeared going forward. Right now...

I was doing some back of the envelope calculations to see what One More Year (OMY) would get me. It surprised me how much OMY means to a very early retiree (someone under 40 at FIRE) which is how I would classify my plan. Take a 35 year old wannabe retiree with $1.5 million in their...

Catchy title, huh? I wanted to get a reality check from my esteemed fellow ER.org posters, since there are a bunch of smart, financially savvy people here. Here is my retirement plan in a nutshell, and I would welcome feedback and criticism. First a little background. I'm 32, DW is about...

I saw this posted elsewhere online and figured I would share it here. https://www.fidelity.com/premier I have logged into fidelity and clicked through to the Turbotax website. It does appear the Premier Turbotax is free for online use and Federal E-File. I didn't actually fill out my...

I don't.