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

Lockdown Week 4: Birthdays, Projects, and Frugal Food Failures

April 4, 2020April 5, 2020 Mr. Tako 24 Comments

Week 4 under lockdown is complete! Schools have been closed for only a month, but right now it feels like years. Can stay-at-home dads get PTSD?

If this pandemic has taught me anything (and it’s already taught me several things), it’s that I have the greatest respect in the world for teachers. People who willingly teach 20-30 rambunctious kids, day after day, year after year, without going insane are amazing people. They’re obviously saints or super-humans. Possibly both…

Food Investing Kids Uncategorized

Lockdown Week 3: Board Games And Investing In Bear Markets

March 28, 2020 Mr. Tako 14 Comments

Are you starting to get a case of “cabin fever” under the coronavirus lockdown? Maybe you’re not under a lockdown order yet. Some places around the world are just now starting to go into lockdown mode, but here in the Pacific Northwest we’ve already been at it for 3 weeks…

So, the cabin fever has really started to set in!

Just kidding. It’s quite the opposite in fact…

Investing Kids

Lockdown Week 2: Homeschooling, Bikes, And Making The Best Of Things

March 21, 2020March 22, 2020 Mr. Tako 30 Comments

Hi folks! It looks like I’ve managed to survive a second week of full-time homeschooling and SAHD (stay at home dad) life! It’s been quite a week, but the kids are now starting to settle into this “new normal” routine.

I can’t believe I’m calling this normal now… Life certainly does bring many interesting turns.

Investing Saving Uncategorized

Lockdown Week 1: Lock Downs And Toilet Paper

March 14, 2020March 22, 2020 Mr. Tako 20 Comments

It’s been one hell of a week. You’ve probably been noticing a few small changes around this little blue ball we call the Earth. Lots of people are getting sick. The stock market is going nuts. Schools are canceled in the entire state of Washington, events and public gatherings are now canceled…

Food Recipes

Garlic Butter Yaki Udon

March 8, 2020March 8, 2020 Mr. Tako 8 Comments

When it comes to Japanese cuisine, most people are pretty familiar with what you can find in restaurants — Sushi, ramen, tempura, miso soup, and perhaps (if you’re really adventurous) sukiyaki.

It’s too bad, because many delicious Japanese dishes just aren’t very popular here in the States. Udon in particular gets very little love. Maybe it’s the wide chewy noodles that turn people off…

Dividends Food Investing Saving Uncategorized

February 2020 Expenses And Dividend Income

March 4, 2020March 8, 2020 Mr. Tako 17 Comments

February was a pretty wild ride. I started the month with a bad case of the flu, and ended the month with a bad case of a stock slump! What a month!!

Why did stocks slump? Most likely it’s due to the Coronavirus pandemic. People are freaking out.

We live right next door to the hot-bed of the virus infection in the USA too — Kirkland, Washington…

Dividends Investing Saving Uncategorized

Stock Sell-offs, Pandemics, And A Black Swan

February 27, 2020February 27, 2020 Mr. Tako 22 Comments

Oh what a difference two weeks makes in the realm of personal finance! As I write this, the DOW is down over 2,000 points from its all-time highs. The stock market is in panic mode as stocks drop day after day.

The day’s newspaper headlines look like they came straight from a horror movie…

“Pandemic fears send stocks crashing”

“Dow Plunges for a second day on virus fears”

“Coronavirus fear sickens stock market”…

Uncategorized

Flu Recovery And A New Interview

February 22, 2020February 22, 2020 Mr. Tako 18 Comments

This winter has been a rough one for the Tako family. For one, the weather has been absolutely miserable here in the Pacific Northwest. As I mentioned in a previous post we only had three days without rain or snow in January!

That was rough. Imagine spending an entire month indoors (without a single day of sunshine), and you’ll understand how things went down in January…

Food Saving Uncategorized

Don’t Miss Out On Life’s Incredible Abundance

February 15, 2020February 16, 2020 Mr. Tako 9 Comments

When I see personal finance blogs writing about abundance, they’re usually talking about abundance in the context of “There’s a huge abundance of money in the world!! Go out there and start a side hustle to capture some of that abundance!”

Which is completely preposterous when you think about it — money is simply a method of transferring value. Managing the money supply is one of the primary jobs of the Federal Reserve…

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