It’s OK to Fail Americans abhor failure, or so we’ve been led to believe. I joined the U.S. military in the late 1990s and can remember the Zero Defect Mentality the post-Cold War peace dividend bred into our military leaders. … Continue reading
Grumpus the Story Teller If you are one of my three avid readers, then you may have wondered if I was ever going regale you with more (true) stories about my rather substantial money mistakes. Well wonder no more, the … Continue reading
“You only have to do very few things right in your life so long as you don’t do too many things wrong.” — Warren Buffett Learning Lessons the Hard Way In the fall of 2004, I sold 300 shares of … Continue reading
Pension Maximization Part Deux This post is a direct continuation of Pension Series Part 30. In that article, I introduced my general framework for maximizing your defined benefit (DB) pension, which I call Grumpus Maximization. I also walked through the … Continue reading
Permanence and Pension Money Greetings, long-lost readers! It’s been over a year since I published my last post about my return to work to qualify for a New Zealand residence visa. A lot happened over that time, so much so … Continue reading
I’m mourning the death of my defined benefit pension-enabled Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) in New Zealand lifestyle. Continue reading
Owning brings certain loss. Renting guarantees it. Continue reading
Fear of missing out on a better exchange rate is just like the fear of missing out on a better stock price! Continue reading
Chapter Three Refresh Welcome to the “End of Chapter Resource Page” for Chapter Three of The Golden Albatross book. As a refresher, in the third chapter, I discussed why I decided to stay at my pensionable job, despite suffering a … Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving “What are you thankful for this year?” is a commonly asked Thanksgiving question. It’s usually asked around dinner tables, which is where we Americans typically celebrate this holiday designed to bring us together and reflect on the bounty … Continue reading