Welcome to The Golden Albatross Blog

I am your host, Grumpus Maximus. I’m a father, husband, author, pensioner, horticulture hobbyist, and retired U.S. military officer.

I have dedicated this blog to those seeking Financial Independence (FI) by grinding away at (mostly) thankless jobs to earn a defined-benefit pension. It is a situation I dubbed The Golden Albatross and isn’t a consideration most FI sites take into account. In fact, I found pension content on regular FI sites so lacking that I wrote a book to correct the deficiency!

While I have geared this blog towards pensionable workers, there are lessons and resources for anyone interested in achieving FI. So, even if you are not pension-eligible, please explore the resources collated within.

Site Navigation

I’ve broken up the site into easily digestible sections. If you are new, read the About Me and What is a Golden Albatross? pages first, then head to my Article Index. 

The Planning and Pensions sections are the most important and unique. They provide you with the knowledge and tools needed to plot your course to FI utilizing a pension (or not).

Parts 30 and 31 from the Pension Series go one step further. They distill everything from the Planning and Pension sections into a coherent pension-based retirement planning philosophy. I literally provide you a step-by-step road map with links to everything you need.

The Resources section is stocked with numerous references to the greater FI community and some handy information to get you started on your path to FI. 

The Life and Money section is where I discuss all my financial mistakes and hard-fought money lessons learned over the years. I hope you can learn from them without repeating them.

I placed articles that specifically address my mental health issues related to my pensionable career in the Mental Health and Work category. I suspect mental health issues are not uncommon among pensionable workers. It’s another reason why I decided to write my book.

The Intent of This Blog

My primary intent is to demonstrate to you (my readers) how I combined lessons from the FI community with the sacrifice it takes to work in a pensionable career field to achieve happiness through the Financially Independent Retired Early (FIRE) lifestyle. That means you should consider The Golden Albatross blog as an aide and resource. The planning considerations for pensionable workers are somewhat different from what I dub the mainstream FI community. I expand on this idea in numerous posts throughout my website.

This blog also acts as a chronicle of my journey. While I’m retired, I’m far from dead, and I’m also far from whole health-wise—twenty years in the military, eighteen of which, while technically at war, took its toll. As a result, the blog also serves as a therapeutic mechanism to examine the issues of pensionable careers, retirement, money, mental health, and happiness. Forewarned is forearmed; not all my stories are feel-good stories.

Support and Disclosures

What do I get out of it? As you’ll find in the About Me and The Golden Albatross pages, I receive the therapeutic satisfaction of helping other people. However, I also take voluntary donations via the blog’s Buy Me a Coffee page. Money donated helps cover running this one-of-a-kind website and keeps it add-free. Check out the Donate page to find out why I set this option up and my policy for donations received.

Please note, if you buy one of the financial resources or pop culture references linked in some of my older articles, then I may also get a small kickback. To date, I’ve made little from that association with Amazon and I discontinued building Amazon links into my newer articles. When I first established my blog, I had hoped to break even on the cost of running the site through Amazon affiliation. However, Amazon has too much money, and doesn’t need yours. As a result, I’m slowly replacing or removing the links on the site. It’s another reason I set up the Buy Me a Coffee page.

Establishing and maintaining trust in the Grumpus Maximus and Golden Albatross brands is important. So, I will continue to update my Disclosures page with any financial associations I make through this site. My Disclosures page also has other FTC mandated information as well.

Services

My latest solution to avoid paid advertising on my website is to provide pension analysis services. For an hourly fee, you can hire me to analyze your pension or a pension-related situation. It’s important to note that you are not hiring me for financial advice since I am not a certified financial professional. What I provide is a second set of experienced and pension-knowledgeable eyes. I supply you with information informed through rigorous analysis; you determine the necessary actions.

Why would you want to hire my services? That’s a great question! Ideally, you wouldn’t. I’ve published numerous articles on this website that demonstrate the techniques I’ve developed and used to analyze my own and various readers’ pensions. Examples include pension buybacks, lump-sum offers, and pension rollover scenarios. Those articles are tools for readers to learn to conduct analysis. If employed correctly, those tools can easily guide readers to a successful result. 

However, some people prefer a non-DIY approach. They’d rather someone with years of practical experience and theoretical knowledge (I’ve also written a master’s thesis on pensions) take a look. If this interests you, check out my Pension Analysis Services page or drop me an email at grumpusmaximus@grumpusmaximus.com. 

Contact Methods

Having fun while maintaining a friendly level of professionalism is my goal for this blog. I’m happy to take advice or constructive criticism to improve your experience. I can also answer short questions or point you in the direction of solid source material to further your knowledge. If you want to get in touch, you email me at grumpusmaximus@grumpusmaximus.com.

Alternatively, if you would prefer to follow what I publish passively, leave me your email in the form below. Doing so will put you on my email distribution list. You can also find/follow me on X (formerly Twitter — @maximusgrumpus) and Instagram (grumpusmaximustoo). 

In the meantime, enjoy the site and keep checking for new content!

— Grumpus Maximus