A life travelogue
At the end of every month I record the balance of our retirement and brokerage accounts in a spreadsheet. At some point, after having maintained this practice for several years, I created a separate spreadsheet with the combined total across…
Heartened to learn these exist, disheartened that they must. Since the election, the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, which is headquartered in San Francisco, has received orders for about nine million [red] cards, more than in the previous 17 years combined. …
With one notable exception, our savings strategy in 2024 was identical to the year prior: max out our pre-tax retirement plans at work, i.e., Stephanie s 403(b) and my Individual 401(k), and max out our traditional IRAs if allowable. And allowable it…
I speculated at the end of 2023 that the initial slowness in my schedule may have had less to do with the inclement weather and more with my lack of any regular clients. With the latter now in place, it ll…
Previously
Though I m still internalizing the fact that I was self-employed last year, the IRS needs little convincing. With net earnings from self-employment over $400, they consider me very much self-employed, and those earnings need to be reported. To be honest,…
Telling people I accidentally retired usually gets a chuckle, but it s actually pretty spot-on. I fully expected to go back to work once Stephanie started grad school (because what else was I gonna do?), but I never did, and now…
Judging by the cottage industry of books and videos hawking strategies for Getting Things Done , most people seem to be overwhelmed by how much they have to do. My challenge is the opposite; I have a hard time coming up…
I like to reflect on the financial decisions I ve made over the past year because trying to explain them, in writing, ultimately forces me to better understand the machinery involved, and often suggests additional actions I might consider taking, now…
This is a reminder, as much to myself as anyone else, that if you re reading this in early November, it s time to make the eggnog specifically aged eggnog so it ll be ready in time for the holidays. Picking up the ingredients for…
This was the back-of-the-envelope analysis (to which I d previously alluded) that convinced us to buy a house in Fresno for the duration of Stephanie s 3-year doctoral program. Estimated Costs (over 3 years, as a % of purchase price) Commission 6.0%…
At some point in early 2021, I started seeing this thumbnail on YouTube all the time. YouTube really wanted me to watch Timber Frame vs Conventional Stick Frame” Apparently I wasn t alone. For reasons known only to The Algorithm, Timber…
There was a time when I couldn t wait to start drafting these annual reports. And then, 3 years ago, I stopped working. Without income to save, I thought, what did I have to say about saving? Only recently have I…
My alarm rang at 3:45 in the morning. I wanted to get in line early to secure a backcountry permit for Dad so he could complete the final 95 miles of the Continental Divide Trail within Glacier National Park. Though…
One row, highlighted red, near the bottom of the spreadsheet we use to manage the hike, has been giving us the evil eye since the beginning. This row has been threatening Dad with a 118-mile stretch of the CDT in…