Category Archives: Planning

18 Months of Kiwiarbitrage

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In my original Kiwiarbitrage article, I explained how I determined that my family and I could afford to “retire” to New Zealand (NZ). I also stated that I would write many more articles on New Zealand and geoarbitrage. Since then, I’ve written precisely none … until now!

This article starts with general lessons that any expatriate (EXPAT) pensioner should know before moving, some of which I didn’t. Secondly, since several readers contacted me over the past few months and asked what the cost of living in New Zealand is like, I discuss that below. The article is organized so people can read the sections they’re interested in and skip the rest. I also try not to concentrate too much on COVID-19 pandemic-specific lessons but rather lessons that apply to all environments.

Finally, this article is anything but definitive. There will be others. For instance, I want to write one for EXPAT US military retirees and veterans. However, I limited this article to just the general lessons I’ve learned from retiring overseas and cost of living insights for the sake of time. Continue reading →

6 Lessons From 18 Months as a Pensioner

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Back in Time

Wow! Where did the time go? I blinked, and my first year-and-a-half as a pensioner flew by. Before you start laughing about my use of the term “pensioner,” I’m aware that in many parts of the world, “old age” comes in front of the word “pensioner.” However, since I’m only in my mid-40s, I’m not ready for the Old Man Grumpus moniker just yet. Let’s just agree that pensioner describes someone who receives defined benefit pension payments, like me, for the past 18 months.

I’m not the first personal finance or Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) blogger to write about the lessons from their first X number of months in retirement. In fact, it’s a popular topic. That said, none of the articles specifically address pension-related lessons learned. This article fills that void. So, I’ll put aside my usually verbose introduction and reveal six pension-related lessons that I’ve learned during my first 18 months as a pensioner.

Continue reading →

Guest Post: How to Optimally Ruin All Your Plans

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A Message From Your Sponsor

This post is the latest in a series from friend of the blog, Chris Pascale. While his previous posts were mostly about the often strange intersection between life and money, this one is about fiscal planning.  Specifically, it’s about how your plans need to change to remain relevant when confronted with new circumstances. It’s a theme that fits in particularly well with this blog for several reasons: Continue reading →

The Golden Albatross vs. Kiwi Arbitrage

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Long Time Comin’

For more than nine months I’ve promised several readers an article covering the geoarbitrage potential behind Grumpus Familias’ pending move to New Zealand — which I’m calling “Kiwi Arbitrage” in honor of the beloved flightless bird native to New Zealand. Yet, for one reason or another, I kept putting-off that particular task. In other words, I procrastinated. That’s something of an Olympic sport in certain parts of my life.

That said, I had several good reasons for procrastinating this time around. The most legitimate was the lack of approved entry visas. I didn’t want to waste time writing an article on New Zealand only for some reason to appear that would prevent us from moving. If you don’t think that was a realistic possibility, then you obviously haven’t read about my lifetime of Charlie Brown-like luck.

Alas, I can procrastinate no longer. Grumpus Familias’ visas arrived several weeks ago and no major obstacles sprang out of the military retirement process. As a result, flights and movers are booked and Mrs. Grumpus and I are busy selling off or donating a large fraction of our worldly possessions that we can’t or don’t want to take with us. While we haven’t “burnt the boats” just yet, we are close — which means this move is on like the proverbial simian made famous by ColecoVision! Continue reading →

The Military Retirement Process: Lessons Learned (Part 1)

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For the Military Members in the Audience

When I first announced that I was officially retiring in 2019 via the blog and my Facebook group, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Amidst all those positive responses, Timika Downes, a fellow Financial Independence (FI) blogger, reservist, and FB group member asked me to share lessons I learned throughout the military retirement process. I was non-committal at the time because I had no idea if there would be anything worth sharing. However, now that I’m through the first phase of that process, I realize I have a few nuggets of information worth sharing — especially for military Financially Independent Retire Early (FIRE) seekers like me.

Admittedly some of my lessons are more or less relevant, based on what you want to do after the military. However, any military member contemplating either retirement or transition from Active Duty can take something away from what I’m about to share. Top among those takeaways is this: The Department of Defense (DOD); the Veteran’s Administration (VA); and many state, local, and benevolent organizations have put a lot of effort into ensuring that current active duty military members transition successfully to civilian life.

As a student of history, I’m well aware that the above takeaway was not always true. The VA, and the taxpayers who fund it, have failed to take care of U.S. vets on numerous occasions. As evidence, consider the string of VA scandals outlined by CNN in 2014. Continue reading →

GI(bill)arbitrage

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Did You Catch What I Did There?

I’ve invented a new term. Or maybe it’s a word. What do you call a word with parens in the middle of it? Do the grammar police allow such nonsense? Probably not. When I run this article through Grammarly, I bet it will have a field day with this new word-term-thing I’ve created. In any case, the term is GI(bill)arbitrage.

As a play on words, it’s quite clever … if I do say so myself. You can’t see me, but right now I’m patting myself on the back. It gets more clever still, but the meaning becomes less obvious if you drop the (bill) part and just go with GIarbitrage. Sounds a lot like the now infamous term Geoarbitrage used so heavily within the Financial Independence (FI) community, doesn’t it? It should because it’s a direct riff on the meaning of that word. However, because I didn’t want people to confuse GIarbitrage with Gastro-Intestinal arbitrage (whatever that might be?), I stuck the (bill) part in the middle.

There I am patting myself. Do you like my yoga pants?

What’s the Point, Grumpus?

Did you know the GI Bill can be used to study overseas? Neither did I until a few weeks ago. More accurately put, I never thought to examine the idea until Mrs. Grumpus and I decided we might like to emigrate to New Zealand after I retire from the military. By that point (and I mean all of about six weeks ago), I had already decided to retire from the military without transferring my GI Bill to my kids. I had also decided I was going back to school to use the GI Bill myself. Continue reading →

Retirement Anxiety: How I Retired Mine

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Anxiety Check

Retirement anxiety

I think it will take more than this to calm me down.

How are your retirement anxiety levels at the moment? I must admit my levels were high earlier this week. As described in my previous post, I recently realized that I’m (probably) not going to make it to 21-years of military service. Thus, I’m (probably) going to retire after my pension vests at 20-years. This means that I won’t secure the transferability of my GI Bill to my kids prior to retiring. As a result, I’m leaving a lot of potential money on the table.

I spiked my anxiety levels even further this week by breaking the above news to Mrs. Grumpus. She doesn’t routinely read my blog. She’s too busy with the kids and running the household to find the time to read my 3500+ word tomes (i.e. articles). As a result, if I come to some major insight about my life while writing, I can’t rely on her to read about it. This means I actually have to talk to her. Unfortunately, I’m a much better writer than a talker, so I usually make a mess of the conversation. Continue reading →

Trade War Part Quatre: 3-to-9 Year Investment Mitigation Strategies

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Last Call

This is the last article in my Trump Trade War series. In it, I address investment strategies to mitigate what I perceive as the worst potential effects of the Trump Trade War for investors on a three to nine-year investment horizon. This is by far the hardest time period for which to devise investment strategies due to the uncertainty surrounding the next potential recession and Bear Market. However, I felt I owed it to my readers who’ve stuck with this series thus far, and to those who also find themselves within this investing window. Continue reading →

Trade War Part Trois: Two and Ten-Year Investment Mitigation Strategies

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Trump Trade War Investment Mitigation Strategies

No trademark long-winded Grumpus Maximus preamble for this article. However, since this is part three in a series about the Trump Trade War’s potential impact on your bottom line; I suggest you read parts one and two prior to reading this. You’ll need the context from the previous two articles for this post to make sense. In the second article, specifically, I explained Risk, Risk Tolerance, and Risk Capacity. I also laid out my investment philosophy. As you’ll see in the next few articles, I refer to Risk and my investment philosophy continuously.

Assuming everyone is up to speed, I suppose it’s time to talk Trump Trade War Investment Mitigation Strategies (T-TWIMS), right? Hang on while I run out and register the trademark on T-TWIMS … OK, I’m back! I’ll assume that’s a “yes” since you’re still reading. Well then, what’s your investing timeline or time horizon? In other words, when will you need the money? Continue reading →

Trade War Part Deux: Risk Mitigation

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Trump’s Trade War

Risk Mitigation

What’s the worst that could happen?

Hey! How’s it going? In my previous post on President Trump’s Trade War, and its potential to impact your wallet and retirement, I mentioned a future post where I would outline prudent risk mitigation measures an investor might take. Given the fact that the main front of the Trump Trade War kicked off for reals with China on 06 July 2018, it seemed appropriate to pen further articles now. I’ve seen nothing in the intervening days to change my gloomy outlook. In fact, I may have underestimated how bad this situation might get.

I’m getting ahead of myself though. For those of you who missed the first Trump Trade War article, you can find it here. In it, I outlined what I thought was a significant misunderstanding of macroeconomics and strategy (or is that strategery?) within the Trump administration. I showed how the steps they’ve taken on tariffs, free-trade, taxes, and immigration seemed specifically designed to make the next recession worse. I also opined that the administration’s actions may be hastening the onset of the next recession through inflationary pressures. While I bemoaned the idea of a three front trade war, two of which are against some of our closest allies and trading partners; I didn’t necessarily dismiss the need for action on China. Only the method. Continue reading →