Gratitude while FIRE'd

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Another year has come and gone. Last November while watching the sumo tournament, Asanoyama said something that caught my attention. He's been gone from the very top division for sometime and I was happy to see him back. He did well and when he was interviewed after getting a winning record, he said: A lot has happened a long the way, the tournament isn't over yet. So I want to say focused, keep my gratitude in mind and continue giving my best. That is a good attitude to cultivate - an attitude of gratitude.  Last Monday, I stopped at a counter to do a pickup and I realized that people get up each day to show up to work. Later during the week, I stopped by the store to look for replacement bulbs and on my way back to the garage, I saw a worker helping a customer with loading their car and what I felt was gratitude to God. God has been good to me.  I think that sometimes, it's easy to forget the good we have but I think it is important to focus on the good we have, on the bl...
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Black Friday Spending after Retiring (FIRE)

 I am proud to say that I bought nothing on Black Friday. This may be my first. I had considered buying certain clothing items but one of the things I did this past week was get rid of clothes. I have a lot. As much as I used to shop a lot, I've not been one to get up early to go to a Black Friday event. I shopped a lot last year but I took advantage of the sales weeks before. This year, I still looked around on line and saw on a website that people who showed up at 5 a.m would get $10 off coupon, $100 off coupon or a $500 off coupon. I was like No. I didn't get up to at 1710 JST this November to watch Grand Sumo live. I caught up with it later. If I didn't get up for that, I don't think I'm getting up in the cold to drive to a mall for a chance at that. I read the fine print and saw that 90 out of a 100 were for $10 and 10 out of a $100 were for $100 and 1 coupon per store was for $500. Maybe it's because I liked Statistics and Probability but I decided to pass. 

Today however, I made a purchase before coming to write this. I got an offer for a software at 50% off when purchased with a computer and didn't add it to my purchase. Getting it afterwards meant paying full price. So I was hoping for 50% off during Cyber Monday. I was able to find it discounted 50% off at another retailer and with my points there, I paid less than 75% off after taxes. 


The goal of FIRE isn't to deprive ourselves of what we want. I actually have a little bit more shopping to do as there were some things I saved for now and they are 50% off also. These were things I was going to buy anyway with some already in my cart. Most of the stuff left to buy aren't "personal" items per se. I already mailed some Christmas stuff. 

I saw someone worrying about spending so much on a purchase this Black Friday since they've FIRE'd and I'm thinking that retiring doesn't mean you don't get good things for yourself. Don't be so obsessed about FIRE that it consumes you; Use some prudence and enjoy life. 

That said, my Thanksgiving plan was to travel to the Midwest. How that turned out may be for another day. I hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving. And if you didn't go out trying to fill your cart this Black Friday, good for you.  And if you did, enjoy what you bought. Life is worth living😊. 

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