Blogs, Podcast and books on retirement.

Harpy Eagle

Recycles dryer sheets
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I did a search for the topic and there were no new threads on it so I thought I would do one.

I am rather obsessed (my wife's word) with our pending retirement. My current job is not what one would call mentally stimulating so I have a lot of mental energy that needs to be focused elsewhere....retirement and moving are my chosen outlets. I am a statistician by trade so I have a innate love for spreadsheets and have multiple for retirement. I have money calculated out using multiple different average growth rates as well as projected expenses and the like.

Funny story, almost 2 years ago I was talking about retirement with my wife and our son and I said "we have about 10 years till we retire", it it hit me I had been saying we had 10 years till we retired for the last few years. Once I started looking deeper it became clear we could be ready by 2029, and that date being set based on my wife qualifying for a pension from her job with the VA.

Since then I have found a number of PodCast and books on the subject. I have read at least 6 books on retiring/becoming expats. I have a close to a dozen PodCast I listen to regularly and have just started reading blogs out there. Almost all of the books, and PodCast and even blogs just focus on the financial aspect of retirement, and while I know this is very important, I feel there is so much more to retirement than just money.

For those of you that are not yet retired, and those that are I suppose, are you or were you as obsessed as I am with your pending retirement.

Thanks all, on a side note I am very glad I found this site, everyone has been so welcoming and friendly.
 
I remember being obsessed with retirement certainly for the two years prior. It was at that point due to our investments that it looked very possible to do a significanly early retirement. I worked furiously at it getting ready. Up until that 2 years it was a goal, but more back burner.

Honestly this forum is probably the best resource ever. I didn’t discover it until 6.5 years past retiring which is surprising because I did most of my research on line. I think this was pre-podcast ha ha. Magazines, books, or internet was it.

I think several Morningstar forums helped me prepare as beyond financial discussions those also had links to other useful financial sites which helped me plan and organize our post retirement investments and figure out how to live off investments and portfolio survival which was our biggest concern retiring early. That’s how I learned about the Trinity Study which was published around that time and a real eye opener for many folks.

I didn’t spend much time on non-financial aspects because I knew exactly what I was retiring to, and DH was onboard to also retire. The book How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free by Zelinski is the most recommended book here for the non-financial aspects of retirement.

P.S. Have you seen a Harpy Eagle in the wild?
 
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I am not sure where you are on your financial journey but here are couple of famous books:
* Psychology of Money
* The simple path to Wealth

I have been obsessed with FI for over 2 decades. "We are 10 years away" has turned to "5 years away" 2 decades later! So I can relate to what you are saying. Technically we are FI with current spending but we want to spend a lot more in retirement so I will keep working until we get there (whatever "there" means when we get "there").
 
As soon as I realized that basic good investing was a relatively simple thing to do, I started reading and listening less while I built my basic investment plan (Total Market index funds plus very safe bonds and CDs)

Early on, I occasionally tried other types of investments and found that most were unsatisfactory for one or more of these reasons.
  • The investment did not work well.
  • The payoff wasn't worth the effort.
  • The risk/reward ratio was not good.
One new to me type of investment that I have stuck with is inflation protected bonds. I have learned a lot about them in the past two years. They are now included in the 'low-risk' portion of my portfolio.

As I age I am simplifying my investments even further for my own sake and for the sake of my heirs and those who might have to take over for me while I am still alive.

IOW, I now pay a lot less attention to personal investment blogs, articles, web sites, etc. (This one is the notable exception.) Overall, this leaves more time to pay attention to habits that allow me to live well.
 
.....

I am rather obsessed (my wife's word) with our pending retirement. ......
..
Funny story, almost 2 years ago I was talking about retirement with my wife and our son and I said "we have about 10 years till we retire", it it hit me I had been saying we had 10 years till we retired for the last few years. ...

......

For those of you that are not yet retired, and those that are I suppose, are you or were you as obsessed as I am with your pending retirement.

....

I was happily working and visited some friends, they told us how they were going to retire the next summer.
When we got back home, I looked and realized a rough calculation of the 4% rule, meant we could retire immediately!

That started our conversation of when to do it.
 

Since then I have found a number of PodCast and books on the subject. I have read at least 6 books on retiring/becoming expats. I have a close to a dozen PodCast I listen to regularly and have just started reading blogs out there. Almost all of the books, and PodCast and even blogs just focus on the financial aspect of retirement, and while I know this is very important, I feel there is so much more to retirement than just money.

For those of you that are not yet retired, and those that are I suppose, are you or were you as obsessed as I am with your pending retirement.
I’m still obsessed with ER, we reached FI a couple of years ago.
I used to read madfientist before it became a podcast and realized we weee well set up for retirement in 15 years. Time has flown and now it is five years away.

What blogs and books do you like?
 
I was obsessed with retirement while battling to get out of debt after some expensive life events. Once out of debt I would read whatever I could get my hands on to learn about investing. I made some stupid mistakes early on, but was a quick learner. Having been retired now for nearly twelve years, I still keep spreadsheets and subscriptions to Seeking Alpha and a few other financial platforms. I have noticed I’m not using them as much anymore as I’ve settled into a portfolio I’m happy with, but am trying to simplify for my DW by using more ETFs. Eventually I’ll let my son manage things if my mental abilities begin to fade.
 
I, too, can recommend How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free by Zelinski.
Get a life by Ralph Warner is also not so much money focussed but more about lifestyle and planning ahead.
Both are not new - but not outdated IMHO.
Enjoy the journey!
 
For chronic savers like me (us? I suspect most of us here qualify?), "Die With Zero" by Bill Perkins is a great book. It helped me to rethink my relationship with money -- and also be thankful that I didn't wait any longer to retire.
 
The Retirement IRA Show is an excellent podcast. They have their own unique philosophy about the financial aspect.
 
There’s an excellent new book, How To Retire, by Christine Benz. It covers multiple financial and sociological dimensions of the topic through interviews of experts.
 
There’s an excellent new book, How To Retire, by Christine Benz. It covers multiple financial and sociological dimensions of the topic through interviews of experts.

Just finished this book, it is a keeper for sure
 
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