We are hovering around our average monthly spending of 6K a month. Which I think is pretty good for a family of 4 in the hella expensive Bay Area. traffic Despite what the media has been saying about the San Francisco slash Silicon Valley exodus, the freeways are now packed again to pre-covid levels. The empty freeways of my dreams were nice while it lasted, but I’m back to morning and afternoon bumper to bumper traffic. The saving grace is…
A few weekends ago I spent some time with my good friend and his family. We drove up to a nearby lake in the Sierra for the day and grilled up food, made a fire for our kids to cook up s’mores, and enjoyed the brilliant scenery that is a mountain lake nestled amongst towering pines. I hadn’t really hung out with him since last October, as we’d been adhering best we can to social distancing guidelines. As we relaxed…
We went this past weekend to buy a fire pit for our backyard. After browsing online through Amazon to get an idea of pricing and styles, we thought it might be nice to see a few in real life. So we went to Lowe’s where we found a decent one, albeit one we hadn’t previously looked at. It was in our price range. And after looking over their stock we told one of their workers that we’d like to purchase…
The smell of a Red Bull always takes me back to Dubai. It’s not a pleasant aroma in any way for me. It’s more like a warm and comforting lamp that lights up and gives definition to a darkened and hazy blur of memories from my youth. It conjures up flashes of burning hot nights on the Arabian Peninsula. It brings back thoughts of vodka and discos full of Russians and swimming pools and taxi rides speeding down Sheik Zayed…
March felt a little like a down hill leg of a race for me and the family. Time is moving faster. I can feel it. I got into cycling at the beginning of the month, and it manifested itself into my wife and I purchasing entry level road bikes at a decent price at the end of the month. How’s that for a slippery slope? At work, my work load is reaching levels I haven’t felt in quite some time….
A few days ago, the unpleasant anniversary of San Francisco’s shelter in place order ominously came and went like a slow drifting summer fog across the bay. I’d forgotten the exact date, March 16th, if you’ll forgive me. I would have been perfectly fine to keep on with my life without that unneeded bit knowledge, if it weren’t for NPR declaring it over and over again on my way into work. So I got to thinking, drifting in and out…
Now that we’re in the thick of tax season, I figured it might be nice to have a post related to tax savings; specifically what we pay in 401k fees vs the tax saving benefits. I just paid my federal and state taxes and I’m getting ready to pay my property taxes. Part of my decision making strategy when I refinanced, was forgoing escrow so that I could use a credit card to pay my property tax. It lets me…
February. The ancient Romans called it Februarius and it marked the start of spring for their empire two thousand years ago. Back then of course, Februarius didn’t occur at the same position of the earth’s axis as it does now. The ancient Romans used Februarius as the time to plan for the upcoming good weather and prepare the fields. And so we followed suit in the Happily Disengaged household even though it’s not quite spring. The warm weather allowed us…
Recently I’ve started purchasing individual stocks again after taking a few years off. And in addition to that, I’ve started to invest in small cap index fund shares. Now that I’m buying individual stocks again, I’ve been asking myself why I stopped picking stocks in the first place. A few questions bubble up to the top of my mind as I ask myself this. Is there a wrong way to invest money? Well, that’s a loaded question. This is like…
I’ve found myself in a new role at work this year. I translate blueprints into construction schedules. A lot of staring into computer monitors. Actually, I’m only staring into computer monitors. Blueprints these days aren’t what you might envision. They aren’t the lovely, unwieldy paper drawings that I can make notes on, or color in, or casually flip like a good book. Just like our currency, blueprints have gone the digital route. The first few days of this new gig…