Mr. Tako Escapes – Mr. Tako's Adventures in Early Retirement (with Kids)

Growing Passive Income In 2021

January 16, 2021January 17, 2021 Mr. Tako 9 Comments

Living off passive income is a bit like spotting a snow leopard in the wild. Snow leopards are (of course) one of the most rare and elusive creatures on the planet. They live in the Himalayas at significant altitude (9,800 to 14,800 ft), and it’s estimated there’s less than 10,000 of these extremely rare cats alive today.

Seeing a snow leopard in the wild is exceedingly difficult. Hardly anyone ever sees them. Naturalists can spend months in the Himalayas looking, and never actually see one. Despite this fabled difficulty, it is actually possible to see a snow leopard in the wild…

Dividends Investing Saving Uncategorized

2020 Year-End Net Worth Update

January 10, 2021January 10, 2021 Mr. Tako 24 Comments

Yes, it’s that time once again! Every year I make one of these “net worth” blog posts in January to add-up all the different accounts, and calculate my net worth. I do this only once per year, so it’s a complete surprise to me when I see the final numbers!

Honestly, I have no clue what my net worth is the other 364.25 days of the year…

Dividends Food Investing Kids Saving Uncategorized

December 2020 Dividend Income And Expenses

January 3, 2021January 5, 2021 Mr. Tako 32 Comments

Happy New Year! It’s no secret that I’ve had this blog on ‘pause’ for the past few weeks. I took some time off from writing to enjoy the Christmas and New Year’s holidays with the family. It’s been fun. I’ve spent a lot of time with the kids, playing board games, and ‘helping’ them test out their new toys. There’s also been plenty of socializing (virtually) with friends and family over Zoom.

It’s certainly been a very different Holiday season (to say the least), but we still managed to have a good one!

Build Saving

A Handmade Christmas

December 20, 2020December 20, 2020 Mr. Tako 22 Comments

It’s that time of year again — when the world gives-in to unbridled commerce and irrational overspending. Yep, that’s our modern holiday season!

While many people enjoy the ease and convenience of buying Christmas gifts for friends and family, I’ve actually come to dislike the practice…

Investing Uncategorized

A Hope And A Dream

December 14, 2020December 14, 2020 Mr. Tako 25 Comments

With 2020 nearly wrapped up, I think we can all agree it’s been a very difficult year. As the old saying goes, “The only constant in life is change”, and that was certainly true in 2020! The world is a constantly changing place… this year especially!

Despite 2020 being one of the worst years economically in recent memory, the stock market was actually up in 2020. Which seems a bit strange at first…

Dividends Food Investing Kids Uncategorized

November 2020 Dividend Income And Expenses

December 6, 2020December 6, 2020 Mr. Tako 30 Comments

If I’m being perfectly honest, November is really NOT my favorite month. Where we live in the Pacific Northwest, November tends to be extremely wet, cold and dark. This is usually not very conducive to a positive mental attitude. With only the Thanksgiving holiday, there aren’t even many holiday’s to look forward to in November.

This November was especially difficult, because like many other people we mostly stayed home due to the pandemic. I was feeling a little down to be quite frank…

Kids Saving

Happy Thanksgiving All Around The World

November 26, 2020November 27, 2020 Mr. Tako 6 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! While most of the audience of this blog already understands the meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday, a good 1/3 of you live outside the United States and probably don’t celebrate “that American holiday”…

Saving Uncategorized

Finding Your Frugal Superpower

November 22, 2020November 23, 2020 Mr. Tako 8 Comments

There comes a time in everyone’s life when something truly amazing happens — they encounter the financial independence movement. You either love it or hate it.

While I think most people can get on board with the idea of achieving financial independence, it’s the getting to it that’s the big problem. A lot of folks balk at large savings rates over very long periods of time, suggesting “I could never save that much for a decade or more!!!”

Investing Uncategorized

The Bumpy Ride Isn’t Over

November 15, 2020 Mr. Tako 14 Comments

Last week seemed like a game changer. At least at first glance. On Monday morning (11/9) investors got news of a COVID-19 vaccine that had preliminary data from human trials, and was found to be 90% effective. This was welcome news, and many stocks skyrocketed in response.

The market optimism was so overwhelming I had several stocks up over 20%! By Friday afternoon I was even seeing a weekly gain in some positions over 30%. Absolutely incredible!

← Previous