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Showing posts with the label Retire Early

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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A week In The FI/RE'd LIfe: Monday

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As I mentioned in yesterday's post, a question I see sometimes is: What do you do with all your time now that you have FI/RE'd or reached FI/RE. Since I don't use that term, I've had another nurse ask me what I do with my time now that I'm home because she knows I quit and it's been months. She actually found out around last September so she's not known for long. I was driving home earlier today after having a conversation with someone I met last month and I thought to blog about this week. I wrote about Sunday and I'm going to document some of the things I did today.  I was up after 7 today but really didn't get up until closer to 8. I'm trying to get up early. I really should have been up around 7 because I went to be early. I did my morning devotion and then ate. I just realized that I haven't really read the paper today. I usually take time to catch up on Wapo while eating breakfast. I had planned to cancel my subscription in May but I fo...
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A Week In The FI/RE'd LIfe: Sunday

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A question I see on Reddit sometimes is: What do you do with your time now that You have FI/RED?  To me, simple answer is "living". The sum of one's life shouldn't consist solely of work so that when you don't work, you feel you are not living. Also, if your entire identity is tied to what you do, I can see having a sort of crisis, existential or whatever, when you stop doing that.  Life is meant to be lived. Personally, doing this in my 30s has been a blessing and I feel like it is a great time to do it because there is much to do while young.  I thought to give a glimpse into how I spend my days. I don't think this is representative of how I usually spend my days as I've had some interesting past month that may have been worth blogging about but I also chose to spend my free time doing what I wanted. I don't have much planned for this week so we'll see. I tend to rest on Sundays because during the weekdays and Saturday, I'm usually doing some...
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7 Retirement Savings Mistakes Nurses Make

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 I got the idea for this post because I remembered one older nurse. When I recalled that older nurse, I recalled another nurse and others and some attitudes I've come across working with other nurses. My hope is that this post will encourage you to start contributing to your employers retirement plan if you don't already. If you do, I hope you will look at increasing your contributions.  The first nurse had not set up a work 401k. Actually,  she's not the only one I have encountered who didn't have one. Oh...wait...She isn't. I encountered another one years later who also hadn't set one up. Dear Nurses in the US, not signing up for your employers 401k is giving away free money. Free Money!  In the past four or so years, I've helped a colleague sign up for one.  She is a nurse - RN. There are people I've helped set up their work 401k at work simply because it comes up and I tell them that they are missing out on free money. There was one lady I worked wit...
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Snow Days when FI/RE'd (Financial Independence Retire Early)

 Happy New year!  Last night, I was on the phone with a friend who asked if I was working and I said no. And she may have said something about it being good because "you don't have to worry about the snow". I simply thought she meant this season. I didn't bother to look outside until this morning when I realized that it has snowed overnight. I'm pretty sure schools are closed because I didn't see much activity outside.  So one of the things I was grateful for this morning was the fact that I don't have to go outside. I thought I would go out and clear the snow but I didn't feel like it. I really wasn't expecting a snow storm. We really haven't had one for a few years and I'm so glad I exited before we got one. Whew! One of the benefits of getting FIRE'd is not having to worry about getting to work during snowstorms. I got some groceries on Thursday and I have enough food available. So what did I do today? Lived. I actually did some cook...
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Things I do more since FIRE'd

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 There's something I've found myself doing lately. I sometimes walk into the bedroom on my second floor and look out the window. I didn't use to do that. I had family there and they would do that. They were retired but they didn't look out always. Still I had to change the blinds so that says something. I was usually amazed they knew who lived where, who was pregnant, who did what when I didn't even know. Or I would ask "is so and so pregnant" and would hear something like "...long time". While I didn't work full-time for the longest time and so was here, I still didn't look out or bothered with what was going on around here. I had houses sell on the block that I didn't even notice were for sale.  Today, I looked out and saw a pick-up truck across the street. The man in it had what looked like a cigarette and the windows was up. I was wondering why one would smoke inside a parked car with the windows up. I was also on my computer havi...
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What to do with your FSA before you quit your job (FIRE)

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 The simple answer? Use it if you have things you need to get. There are lots of things you can use your FSA account for.  I'm leaving my job, what should I do with my FSA money? I've seen variants of this question sometimes but I don't think the people I see ask are nurses. I think a lot of times, one is so focused on moving onto the next job and not thinking about retirement accounts, insurance or FSA. And that's because most people are leaving one job for another. I think I tend to see most people worry about retirement accounts when they leave their employer. But if you have an FSA, it would be good to think about the funds in there also. Ideally, best time time to retire is January😉 Your Flexible Spending Account (FSA) contains money you have elected for the year to use. The money is sorta "preloaded" at the beginning of the year. Your employer deducts it from your paycheck during the year. If you do not use the money during the year, it's sorta gone...
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One of the benefits of being FI/RE'd is

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 not having to wake up to an alarm clock.  Although it's got it's downsides. For example, a friend's text woke me up this morning. Although I would've preferred to be up earlier than I did. I was up late. As for the text, it came after 10 a.m. I have my Do Not Disturb set to automatically come on at 10  p.m and go off at 9 a.m. It used to be 9:30 but I changed it recently. And my current phone is so good about it that I don't get any kind of notification. The downside to that is that if anyone calls me before the time, it doesn't ring. It's been helpful in terms of those who've tried calling me at 7 a.m. That early? Why?  I had been wanting to wake up early and had gotten better at getting up at 7:30. A couple weeks ago, I got up late during the week and I was back to doing good this week except for today. Another downside is that I'm trying to exercise and eat breakfast early and so I didn't exercise today since I was up later than usual. I'...
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Can a Nurse attain FI/RE?

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Yes. Nurses can attain Financial independence and Retire Early or FIRE. Nursing is a good way to reach FIRE and you don't have to do travel nursing to do that. You can do it working a regular staff job and practicing what I call Financial Prudence. This involves investing. And there are various ways to do that. All investments require risk. And no matter how risk tolerant or risk averse you are, you can work your way toward Financial Independence and Retire Early as a nurse. You FIRE yourself.  So if you ever wonder: Can a nurse reach FIRE? Can a nurse attain Financial Independence and Retire early? Again: Yes. Nurses and other "non-tech" professions can also reach their FIRE goal. You don't have to be a tech worker to gain financial independence and retire early. I'm writing this because I've seen posts on Reddit where people want to know if people working "regular jobs" can reach FIRE. Because a lot of times, you have people with high-paying tech j...
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Time Value of Money (Inflation? Or the "T" word?)

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 I went to IKEA last weekend. I had a coupon that was going to expire and because I knew I wasn't going to get the chance to go on Sunday, I stopped by after going to the Japanese Festival . I almost went to Greekfest after but most of us decided to go home. I  decided I'd like to use the coupon now than have it wasted since IKEA was less than a couple miles away and on the way home. I spent $0.75 with tax for a set of dishes and a serving bowl . The dishes were $0.79. I got 11 of them and one serving bowl because I had already purchased one to try out. I wanted to try it out because it is white and I wanted to see if it will stain. It doesn't. So I went back to complete the set. I added the serving bowl because the coupon was $10 off a $10 or more purchase. The serving bowl was $1.99. I got the small bowl-like instead of the small plates because I thought that would be of more use to me. They look like the small plates but with the curve so I felt they would still work f...
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A Week In The FI/RE'd LIfe: Wednesday - Saturday

 Okay, my goal was to write for each day but I think I'm going to combine the rest of the week. I just didn't have the time for this.  Wednesday: my goal was to prime some walls. However, I spent so much time in the morning trying to tape up stuff that closer to the afternoon, I had to put that on hold for an appliance delivery. They got here early with the new stove and took the old one away. Then I was debating on getting a sprayer. So I researched a few, debated and eventually went to the store. I looked a few there but decided the prep of the sprayer and cleaning it was something I didn't want to deal with this time. So I didn't start painting until after 6 p.m. I did until 9 p.m. Okay, there were other things in between like a phone call and other stuff. The thing is that I only ended up doing half of it. Had I started earlier instead of debating on the sprayer, I would've finished the whole thing.  Thursday: I finished my coat of primer. I may have been out la...
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A Week In The FI/RE'd LIfe: Tuesday

My plan was to visit a particular city, see their downtown area and have a meal. I thought it was an 1.5hrs away but it was a bit farther and I took the longer route so it turned out to be 2 hours. The issue is that I didn't leave home early. I left closer to 1 and the restaurant I was going to was going to be closed when I got there but would reopen at 4 🙄 With that discovery, I decided to detour to another town and see what it's like there. When I got there, I saw they had Long John Silvers. I haven't seen those around here and it had been a while since I ate at one. I decided to order an old favorite. Big Mistake! I feel like they took all the salt in Utah and dumped it into the batter. The hush puppies were good, the Coleslaw was good and the fries were good. The shrimp and fish were hot but it was so salty. I tasted the corn and trashed it with the rest of the fish. For me to throw food away, it means it was bad. All I really wanted was the shrimp which I ate.  The la...
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