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Early Retirement, Part 1: The Mindset

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Since about the first day I started working, I've dreamed of retiring.  It's not that I don't like my profession.  It's more that I want the freedom to do what I want, when I want.  And I want more time.  I have so many hobbies and interests and not enough time to devote to them as I would like, not to mention the many new ones that would be fun to try out.  Working 40 hours a week takes up way too much time. I have lots of thoughts to share on this topic.  So many that I couldn't fit it into a single post, so I'm going to make it a series.  Like all great trilogies, mine will have three parts. Part 1: The Mindset Part 2: Income Part 3: Expenses The Mindset covers my philosophical approach to early retirement.  In part 2, I cover plans for income during retirement.  In part 3 I will detail managing expenses both to enable early retirement and while in retirement. Disclaimer: I am not a financial professional.  For your own financial safety, nothing in here shou
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The Audio Industry Free Market is Failing Me.

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  I'm feeling pretty disappointed after looking for a receiver upgrade for my home theater system.  I recently ran across a spreadsheet comparison table I made ten years ago when I last thought about upgrading my 15-syear-old-so-obsolete-it-doesn't-even-have-HDMI-inputs receiver.  At that time, I decided it was not worth spending the money on a receiver that would probably be obsolete in another few years.  I was right! [pause for applause.]  That table showed that even the most expensive receiver I looked at, the $2K Denon AVR-4311CI is woefully out of date today.  It only supported HDMI v1.4!  That wouldn't be much use with my current 4K TV and computer.  In addition, none of those receivers were prepared for the rise of music streaming and wouldn't be able to play music from any of the streaming services available today. I recently struggled, and failed, to get the on-screen menus from either my receiver or SACD player (another obsolete piece of equipment) to show up
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The Old Car Files: Exhaust Hole

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 This is the first in what I expect is going to be a recurring topic.  Today's post is brought to you by my 2003 Honda Element which I purchased used in 2006.  When I was a kid, I heard that a car is considered antique when it reaches 20 years old. Cars have improved their quality and longevity since then.  Nowadays, based on my sampling of Google results, it seems ~25 years old is the threshold for considering a car a classic and ~40 years for an antique.  This car has spent it's 19 years in New England.  Winter snow and road salt is harsh on vehicles causing them to deteriorate faster than they would in say, Southern California.  New England car years are like dog years, so by that measure, my E is a New England antique! While the E is old, it is still in pretty good shape and only has about 100K miles. Because there is no currently available vehicle that is its equivalent in terms of versatility and practicality, I'm determined to keep it on the road and do as much of th
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The Best Fruit You Have Never Heard Of

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I'm referring to the hardy kiwi.  OK, some of you have probably heard of it.  Go ahead and leave an angry comment below if you have.  I had never heard of this plant until I went searching for a shade-producing vine to grow up the new pergola I built over our deck.  It met all my criteria: fast growing, survives New England Winters and had an added bonus of bearing fruit.  The hardy kiwi is like a little cousin to the kiwi fruit you are familiar with in the grocery store but with one key improvement: it doesn't have the fuzzy skin.  Instead, it is smooth like a grape and you eat it whole.  It is sooo much easier to eat than the work that goes into preparing a traditional kiwi.  Why aren't these everywhere?  I guess, like with imperial measurements, we like to do things the hard way. This the hardy kiwi shown next to an apple for size reference: In my ongoing quest to turn my suburban yard into a farm, I decided to grow some.  I bought my vines on e-bay.  I got a female Ana
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Enough with the Shaky Camera Work

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It's time for a rant.  Today's target for my ire is movies and TV shows with intentionally shaky camera work.  At best, it is annoying and at worst it makes a movie unwatchable (think the Bourne Supremacy and the Bourne Ultimatum) I take my movie watching seriously.  I want to be immersed in the film and have little patience for interruptions and distractions.  Much like in a movie theater, a BIG screen and powerful surround sound system play a key role in achieving this effect in my home theater.  The downside of a big screen is a movie with excessive camera shake (and I'll lump fast cuts in with this) ends up being physically uncomfortable to watch.   I've seen some excuses from directors for this technique.  Some say it is to create a sense of speed and action.  Or chaos.  Some say it is to make a scene more realistic.  If that's what they are going for, they are failing badly.  Very few shaky cam scenes have ever achieved this effect for me.  The only one I can
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Into the Metaverse

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How I Met Your Metaverse I had never heard of " Ready Player One " until it showed up on my Prime Video feed.  The title didn't interest me (It sounds like a gamer movie I might have enjoyed as a kid, right?)  I didn't recognize any of the actors on the poster either, so I didn't watch it.  A while later I learned it was directed by Steven Spielberg and that piqued my interest, so I finally watched it.  I loved it! The storyline was interesting, the acting was fine, the overall production was, of course, Spielberg quality.  Lots of 80's nostalgia was a pleasant bonus. But what really made the movie stand out was the vision of the metaverse it presented.  It was an entire virtual world complete with haptic hardware allowing you to truly be immersed in it.   Side note:  I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the movie was based on the book " Ready Player One " by Ernest Cline ( Purchase through this link and earn me a commission .  Why isn'
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There Are No Heroes

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  This is a topic I have been pondering for a while.  With the holiday formerly known as Columbus Day approaching it seems like a perfect time to dig into it. At any time in my life if you asked me who my heroes are, I don't think I would have an answer.  I have never been prone to hero worship, and the more I think about it, the less sense it makes to me.  To be clear, I think there are many people who do heroic things and acts of heroism big and small should be celebrated.  But the act must be separated from the person and one act (or many) does not a hero make.  Noone is a saint.  I'd speculate that even Saints weren't saints 100% of the time! Our contemporary society, with so much or our lives taking place in public on the Internet, is making this clearer than ever.  No idol can survive the magnifying glass scrutinizing their entire life.  So, let's not idolize anybody.  Let's idolize worthy actions and ideas instead! Instead of celebrating Christopher Columbus,
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Popular posts from this blog

What does a post-growth society look like?

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  A recent article in The Morning newsletter from the New York Times rekindled a smoldering ember of thought that resides in a corner of my mind.  It has never burned hot enough to inspire me to serious study on the subject, but this time it has at least motivated me enough to write about it.  The topic is growth; how our society and economy are dependent on it, why I think that is problematic, and how it can change.  My thoughts on this subject are not well formed at this time and, unusually for Wisdumb, I offer no answers, only more questions. The Times article covered the aging population of Japan and showed the chart below projecting other major economies and the world as a whole being on the brink of a rapidly aging populous. The article primarily focused on the social impacts of this aging population, in particular that Japan is running out of workers.  It posits the only solution is to bring in more immigrants.  This is what bothers me and stokes that ember in the back of my min
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Dolphin S200 Pool Cleaning Robot Drive Motor Repair

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 I've spent the past two weeks doing battle with my pool cleaning robot and want to share what I've learned so others can fix their own if they run into the same problem. My robot is a Maytronics Dolphin S200.  The internals are probably very similar or identical to other models, and I think there are even rebranded versions, so the details below likely apply to a fair amount of the population.  These robots are pretty expensive to buy, but they are, in my opinion, the best way to clean my pool.  My pool is surrounded by pine trees and they are always dropping stuff in the water, so I keep my robot in the pool and it runs daily on its timer with little intervention from me and uses much, much less electricity than my previous pressure-side pool cleaner. Rant on Robot Manufacturer Greed There is a lot of markup on these robots.  The S200 I got for $600 in 2017 (and its equivalents) now sell for more than $1000.  The exact same design.  No new technology in it.  No new R&D to
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Car Shopping in 2023

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It's new car buying time in the Wisdumb household.  Well, not "new" new (you've read my financial advice on cars , right?).  And not exactly "buying time".  Rather, it is time for the prep work to figure out what steed to add to our stable when the first Wisdumb young'n reaches driving age next year.  Boy am glad I'm starting early; finding the right car seems more difficult now than it has ever been.  This post is going to explore why I'm having such a hard time finding the perfect car. Is it me? You have likely figured out by now that I am very particular about product features, and my desires often run counter to the mainstream.  I blame the mainstream for that, not me!  Things I want in no particular order: Good Highway Gas Mileage Reliability Good towing capacity (3500lb min, 5000lb preferred) Minimum 35 cu ft usable cargo capacity with 4 passengers.  >40 preferred. Wireless Android Auto Heated and Ventilated Seats Adaptive Cruise Control
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