The Golden Albatross Vs. Risk (Part 2): Emergency Fund Debate Club, Round 1

Debate Club

Pop quiz. What’s the first rule of Debate Club?

Surprisingly, it’s not “do not TALK about DEBATE CLUB!”.

It turns out the first rule of Debate Club is “read all your preparatory material”. Or at least that’s what I presume it is. I based that presumption on memories of my high-school Debate Club friends who spent their free-study hours furiously highlighting reams of printed journal articles they’d found on microfiche in the school library. Yes, I realize I’m dating myself with the microfiche reference.

I know what you’re thinking, and I agree — the Fight Club reference sounds way cooler. Then again, what do I know? I spent the majority of my time in high school cutting weight for the real fight club (the wrestling team). Which, by the way, no one ever talked about … probably because no one ever attended high school wrestling matches (other than parents). While my choice of extracurricular activities may have prepared me well for the lonely life of a blogger with three devoted readers, it probably didn’t prepare me well for a debate on investing the Emergency Fund (EF) against some of the heavy hitters in the Financial Independence (FI) community. Continue reading →

Why I Trust My Plan … For Now

Posted on 05-March-18 by Grumpus

Procrastination Pays Off

Failure to properly plan …

I’ve had a draft version of this article sitting in my inbox for some time. It never gelled, so I left it alone. However, a blogging friend and mentor of mine, Doug Nordman, recently published an excellent article at his blog The Military Guide entitled “Don’t Buy A Home When You Leave Active Duty“. The article challenged several of my planning assumptions and acted as a catalyst to complete this post.

I consider challenges to my retirement plan a good thing. They force me to re-examine and update it as I gain more knowledge, and as facts on the ground change. As such, this article isn’t so much a riposte to Doug’s article, as it is an acknowledgment of it. It’s a confirmation that Doug’s article contained great points which forced me to re-examine my planning assumptions, but despite the challenge, my plan still passes scrutiny. It’s a healthy, Bayesian inference exercise that everyone should conduct with their plan routinely. Continue reading →

Thankfulness and Bounty

Posted on 23-November-17 by Grumpus

The Meaning of a Grumpus Thanksgiving

I am sitting at home on Thanksgiving 2017 with a turkey breast on the smoker and some time on my hands to reflect. I find the Grumpus Minimi (pronounced min-EE-my) thankfully entranced with Charlie Brown specials, and Mrs. Grumpus busy making the pumpkin pie. Yes, for this five minutes my life feels like a Norman Rockwell painting (ignoring the Hawaii climate). I have much to be thankful for with respect to my life, this year more than any other. I hope as you’re reading this you feel the same way. If so then I believe our thoughts are aligned with the original intent of this holiday.

We’ve moved on to Paw Patrol apparently.

I’ve always loved Thanksgiving. A day set aside by one of the richest nations to ever exist in human history in order for its citizens to reflect with friends and family on the bounty that life found fit to bestow upon them, always appealed to me. Declared a national holiday in 1863 at the height of the U.S. Civil War, I would also suggest that part of the original intent included a belief by then President Lincoln that we should be thankful despite the hardships life has set in our path. As any student of U.S. history can tell you, my nation has thankfully never again seen such hardship as the Civil War. Continue reading →

Multi-Task Your Way to Financial Independence (FI)

Posted on 28-June-17 by Grumpus

Since the day I met her, Mrs. Grumpus has insisted that men cannot multi-task effectively, unlike women. My typical Confucian-like retort used to be something along the lines of, “the woman who splits her attention among multiple tasks does none of them well”. These days though I believe I’ve harnessed my inner woman enough to master the art of listening to podcasts while doing other more menial tasks. Work and family demands mean time is too precious to let self-improvement opportunities slip by while commuting, cutting the lawn, gardening, cleaning the garage, driving the Grumpus Minimi (pronounced min-nee-my) to swim lessons, or listening to Mrs. Grumpus talk (just kidding honey!).

Confucius had nothing on me

In fact not only do I double-up on tasks, I now triple-up by commuting on my bike with a pair of earbuds. For you math challenged out there: commuting, exercising, and listening are the three tasks.