Category: Financial Independence

The kids are out of school now. My oldest will be starting 5th grade next fall and my youngest will be going into 2nd grade. Both good ages. They run around the house, footsteps and laughter, sometimes cries, echoing through the house. They leave a mess everywhere. Remnants of their play. But it’s enjoyable. I…

For a few years now I’ve been putting off replacing two columns in front of my house that hold up a roof overhang over my front porch. There’s a big tree in my front yard, a hackberry, that loves to spill its leaves each fall into my gutters. I’ve since screened over the gutters, but…

I’ve noticed a change to my daily routine that I can’t really explain and I’m not sure whether to embrace or fight. The problem started in January and has yet to resolve itself. The change is; I don’t get up as early as I used to. I sleep in an extra 45 minutes each day.…

After I parked I realized that I made a mistake in not bringing with me an umbrella or raincoat. An unceasing frigid mist sprayed down from the dark sky. The wind pushed the mist into a sideways spray that soaked everything and made being outside an unpleasant, head turning, eye squinting affair. There was no…

I’m not sure exactly when I realized that I needed to start taking retirement seriously. By this I mean traditional retirement at age 62. Sometime in my mid to late twenties an internal switch flipped. The light randomly came on in some nether region of my brain. I suddenly understood that I would not be…

We got our tree up right before Thanksgiving this year. With family coming over for Thanksgiving we wanted to have the festive spirit alive in the house. Our fake tree has proved to be a worthwhile purchase. I remember for years I resisted against the idea of a fake Christmas tree; images of Charlie Brown’s…

I hung out with a few friends recently for a kid’s birthday party. My friend has a nice set up in his backyard, perfect for hanging out. Fire pit. TV mounted on the wall. Nice furniture. Well built deck. The weather has turned colder in recent days out here in the Bay Area and we…

I was talking to a good friend recently about old times. Reminiscing about things that I hadn’t talked about or even thought about in years. In conjuring up these memories it felt as though I were talking about another person, another lifetime, a forgotten chapter that even myself had somehow tucked away for no good…

In 2003, on my way back home from deployment to the Middle East, I had one of the best movie experiences of my life; I went to see a movie without any knowledge of the plot or even its existence. This happened on the island of Oahu as our ship pulled in on its final…

Once again I’m taking off with my family and heading overseas. As I write this our backpacks are half stuffed and waiting for a final check over before we load them onto our backs and head to the airport in the next few days. I’ll be turning 40 next week and we’ll be celebrating in…