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I never tried to negotiate a severance deal outside of RIF for myself. I was once approached by a 20 year employee (VP HR) who was burned out on the corporate world and asked for a severance package commensurate with his years of service. His plan was to go into a business partnership with...

I am age 69 this year, wife 68. We will draw SS at age 70. Currently at 50/50 equity/fixed mix with 30% international. No debt. We depend on non inflation indexed pensions for about half our spending and income from investments for the rest. We've never had to draw our entire interest and...

We have the trim paint on our house touched up every 5-6 years. Each time we've discussed painting the gutters with the painter. Two different painters have recommended against an overcoat of paint on the existing gutters and downspouts. Both concluded the new paint will peel in 2-3 years...

Leaf Guard Brand Gutter We installed Leaf Guard brand gutters when we built our house 20 years ago. They have performed we with respect to shedding leaves and not clogging. However I would not recommend them. About 5 years after installation, the paint on the gutters began fading in...

Expenses cut in retirement Lower costs: Commuting, second home (sold it), contributions to retirement savings, clothing. We are much more frugal in shopping for food and household items, storing up when on sale. We take full advantage of senior discounts. Dropped financial advisor and...

I've heard the stock market has taken a tumble but I haven't been watching it nor have I been looking at my investments. I'm sticking with my asset allocation and letting my diversified funds ride the waves just as I did during and after the 2008 financial crisis. I use Vanguard PAS...

I have a 2012 iMac desktop which I used for email, word processing, spreadsheets, photo editing, and video production. I have maximized its ram memory. Then internal fusion drive was dying. Instead of trying to replace the internal drive with another internal drive (not something I was...

I know of two instances where a spouse decided she wanted a particular house in a neighborhood. In both instances the husband approached the owners and paid through the nose to buy the house. In the first instance the husband paid twice the then current market value and then spent $300,000 on...

The Festool Planex system is designed for removing popcorn ceilings quickly and dust free. The device "sands" off the popcorn and vacuums it up at the same time. Here's a link to a YouTube video of the system being used: Here's a link to a "House Beautiful" article about using the Planex...

Original goal to retire at 55. Retired in 2013 at 58. No regrets and in hindsight could have gone out at 52. My indicators of "enough": 1). I occasionally buy a lottery ticket. I never think to check to see if I won until I stumble across the tickets weeks later when clearing off my...

Genealogy can be a rewarding and inexpensive hobby thanks to the rapid pace digitization and posting on the internet of historic documents by government agencies, Family Search, archives, libraries, and individuals. Many public libraries have excellent local genealogy and history resources...

Approach to Leaving the Company for Early Retirement My sister in law was in a similar situation. She was a long term middle management employee with one company (about 30 years), age 62, transferred into a job she didn't like with a new young boss. The boss was increasing her stress level...

I am Mr. Speedy and a dime tossed onto the top blanket will bounce. As to a YouTube video, I'll give it some thought.

I was a military brat and was taught how to properly make a bed earlier than I can remember. Mine gets made properly everyday. It is part of the morning ritual.

I faced exactly the same situation in 2015. It prompted me to move my portfolio from USAA Wealth Management to Vanguard. I liquidated the managed stock portfolio USAA had created, and was churning. The proceeds were reinvested in Vanguard stock index funds. I kept the managed individual bond...

Built current house 16 years ago when employed as senior executive at megacorp. Paid cash for lot and construction. Today it has a tax value of $1 million and insurance replacement value of $1.4 million. Would likely sell for $900,000. Located in far suburban/rural area so taxes are low...

Big item purchases D for us. In addition to my annual budget, which shows monthly totals for routine living expenses, I have a 20 year “big expenditures” budget which sows yearly expenditures for such items as new cars, replacement RV, daughter’s wedding, home renovation, major home repairs...

Wife and I spend considerable amount of timing traveling around the country with our RV. We are increasingly finding campgrounds, gasoline stations, and other establishments that charge a surcharge for credit card users. Sometimes when a waiter or waitress gives exceptional service we will pay...

I still have money in the USAA Money Market fund USAXX which was purchased by Victory Capital. The linked article below indicates Victory Capital is highly leveraged and took on even more debt to buy USAA's Mutual Fund business. I'm going to move these funds to Vanguard as I do not wish to...

JC Penney is Penny stock Kohls is the other major "mid tier" department store chain. With JCP and Sears seemingly going down, there is significant opportunity for Kohls to grow market share. Recently Kohls established a partnership with Amazon. The new CEO of Kohls seems to be a visionary...

When I joined USAA over 40 years ago it was a low cost provider of automobile and homeowner's insurance. Its field of membership was limited to a low risk pool of military officers and dependents in the field of membership. It was an efficient organization with an intense focus on customer...

Usually corporations carry D&O insurance on board members. However, you may wish to carry a personal policy as well or ask the company whose board you are serving on to pay the cost of an individual D&O policy. The issue is personal liability -- sometimes lawsuits filed against the corporation...

I moved to Vanguard in 2015 and set portfolio at 40% equity, 50% fixed income, 10% cash. No debt, house equity is 10% of financial portfolio value. Income from portfolio covers 120% of annual living expenses. At age 65 (next year) begin drawing megacorp pension (not indexed for inflation) that...

2010 sedan just turned 115,000 miles. It was my commuter car when I worked. Kept it in retirement. Car was bought new and has been virtually trouble free. Will probably drive to 200,000 miles unless it starts needing expensive repairs. 1997 convertible, purchased used when 3 years old and...