Taking Early Retirement - I Retired Early

June 13, 2010
by Jeremiah
0 comments

Retire on $1200 A Month!

Retire on $1200 a month? Am I crazy or am I still living in 1957? This is a typical monthly retirement budget for retirees in Johnsville. (For readers outside of the US the amounts shown here are in US Dollars.)

Rent	$1000
Electricity	70
Gas	20
Water & Garbage Collection	25
Auto Maintenance & Fuel	250
Phone land line	25
Cell phone	70
Cable television	50
Internet	50
Food*	500
Total	2060

HTML Tables

* Our food bill, for two, averages $97 a week and we go to Sam’s (You might go to Costco.) for bulk buying every two months and spend an average of $250 per trip. That comes out to $97 a week times 52 weeks = $5044 + $250 times 6 = $1500. $5044+$1500= $6544. If you divide that by 12 our monthly food bill would be around $545. We eat salmon twice a week so be sure we get our Omega 3s. Your food bill might be more or less.

The budget numbers are on the high side. My cell phone bill is about $25 for me and $25 for my wife. If you only have one cell, then your cost would be $25. This is a POP – Plain Old Phone. It’s not an I-Phone or the latest whiz bam phone. We can get calls and make calls. Our cable is also around $25. (No HBO, no On Demand, just basic cable television). But I doubled the price for Johnsville because your numbers might be different. Continue Reading →

June 9, 2010
by Jeremiah
0 comments

Benefits of Taking Early Retirement

I’ll tell you one of the benefits I like about Taking Early Retirement and that is I can take a few weeks off and put my feet up and not do anything. I’m not sure how to spell it but I call it sit around and “veg”. That would be “veg” like a vegetable.

I will admit it. I’ve not written any articles, I’ve not made any blog posts, I haven’t answered any e-mails, I haven’t done anything since May 22nd.

I’ve been bad, there I said it. But you know, that is one of the benefits about being retired. I am not sure I can list off 100 things I like about retirement, but one of them has to be that I can sit on my duff (for you reading this from outside the States, that is a euphuism for sitting on my behind or sitting on my fanny) and just get up in the morning and go to bed at night and not do anything. I haven’t been able to sit on my duff for more than a month. I start feeling guilty that I should be doing “something”. Continue Reading →

May 22, 2010
by Jeremiah
1 Comment

Please Post Your Comments

Please Post Your Comments to my articles here at the blog.

Thank you for posting your comments to my articles. Now that I am retired, I don’t post articles every day, since I have another life besides this blog. OMG did I just say that?

I read all of the comments you leave. I don’t approve them all, since a lot of them are SPAM, but I do read them all.

Please post comments as you see fit. If it is of personal nature, I will read it but will most likely not post it, since it is personal from you to me.

I get asked a few more times than I like;

I am married and love my wife. We have three beautiful children Continue Reading →

May 15, 2010
by Jeremiah
3 Comments

Retiring Early – Your Portfolio

I don’t know about you but my thought is this. If you are investing for the long term in the stock market and you are a “set it and forget it” type of investor, you are getting nowhere FAST!

Don’t get me wrong. I will go out on the limb right here. I’ll say that many of the investment talking heads will tell you that you can’t time the market and you need to buy for the long term and stay in the market. Maybe you have heard that and are doing what they say.

I am here to tell you that little old me, Jeremiah John says, “This is plain stupid!”

You can’t afford to buy a stock or a bond or a mutual fund and not pay attention to it at least once a month, at the minimum.

Can I prove it? Let me try. Let’s see how a set it and forget it account does, shall we?

Go to Yahoo Finance. Click on the chart on the right hand side of the page. When the chart opens look for the line above the chart that says, “Want more control over the chart? Try our Interactive Chart.” Click that link.

This will open up a new page, showing the chart for the day.

Maybe it would be better if I showed you in a video what I am talking about.

Continue Reading →

May 10, 2010
by Jeremiah
1 Comment

Are There Dangers of a Reverse Mortgage?

You have been considering a reverse mortgage for some time but now you’re afraid. Some people might be telling you about the dangers of reverse mortgages. These dangers can become apparent once you decide to get a reverse mortgage. (If you missed the article that discussed the Reverse Mortgage Overview, you can read it here.) But do these dangers have any basis in fact or reality? Or these are simply dangers that you should not mind because the benefits are just too good to ignore?

First, let’s list four major benefits:

Benefit #1 – You get to own your home or estate for so long as you are living in it, maintaining it, and paying its insurance and property taxes.
Benefit #2 – You get to enjoy the monthly cash flow from the loan without taxes and you can spend it without restrictions.
Benefit #3 – You get the option to use it on the education of your grandchildren or on other large expenses like uninsured medical.
Benefit #4 – You are protected by the federal government because of certain strict regulations and safeguards placed on this financial mortgage program.

There are many other benefits that one can get by getting a reverse mortgage, but just like any financial loan, whether taxable or not, there are also some dangers which you should know before deciding to take the reverse mortgage so you have some facts and avoid regretting the decision later on. Continue Reading →