Mr. Tako's Adventures in Early Retirement (with Kids)
Sushi is one of those extremely polarizing foods. Either you love it, or you hate it. Well, the Tako family loves sushi! We also like having our financial independence, so keeping food costs under control while eating this fantastic food is key. Can we have mind-blowingly good sushi dinners without busting out the benjamins? Why yes, yes we can!
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Memorial Day marks the unofficial start of the summer, and the start of summer grilling season. Apparently, Memorial Day is the second most popular holiday for grilling in the United States. With an estimated 65% of the population grilling at some point during this long weekend — that’s a lot of grilling!
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Occasionally when I write these blog posts I get a few unhappy visitors. They usually give their negative feedback in the comments, or send me email via the contact form. It’s no surprise! That age-old-adage from Field of Dreams still applies: “If you build it, the trolls will come!”
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Hollywood has us convinced that millionaires somehow live a life of extreme luxury, very different from our own. Hollywood tells us that “money” gives millionaires the ability to entertain themselves in luxurious ways “the little people” will never see. Well, I’ve got bad news for you, Hollywood got it wrong…
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There’s a lot of polarized views about buying a home. Depending upon who you ask, a home might be the greatest investment you’ll ever make, or the greatest nightmare ever. Let’s make no bones about it - housing is extremely expensive. Most people borrow to afford a home. That, I think is a tragic first mistake for a new homeowner.
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All markets go through cycles. Boom and Bust. Some years stock prices will be booming, some years they’ll be in the gutter. Business cycles are just the way capitalism works. Good companies survive the market cycles. Poor companies get tripped up and fail. Obviously if we want our money to grow, making good investments is key.
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It’s no secret that I happen to live in a high cost of living area. The real estate prices are quite high, but not as bad as mega-cities like NYC. Along with the high cost of real estate comes jacked-up prices for almost everything else. Groceries in particular are very expensive…
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Waiting on investment returns to make you wealthy is like waiting for the wind to blow. In most cases, we as individuals don’t have control over our investment returns. Like me, you’ll probably invest the vast majority of your savings into passive investment assets. Returns are usually average, and we have to take what the markets give us. It’s a “hope for the best” situation…
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Ever have one of those months where you spent a ridiculous amount of money, but don’t have any outrageous expenses to account for it? April was like that for us. We had a large number of small expenses that added up to a really big bill in the month of April.
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