Is it any wonder that financial planners will tell you to keep working? It’s right in their title. Truth in advertising. Save more, work longer, plan and plan some more, leave a big estate. Worry about what happens if you live till you are 90, or 100. Work till you are 60? No, work till…
Category: Freedom; the escape
Freedom: How we sold our house, gave away our possessions, quit job and moved to the beach in Michigan
T -133 Days: And you will lose your mind
“There’s no time to lose”, I heard her say Catch your dreams before they slip away Dying all the time Lose your dreams and you will lose your mind Ain’t life unkind? — Keith Richards I have carried that song within me most of my life… mournful, yet still hopeful. Put me in the “better…
T -138 Days: Ikigai… “a reason for being”
Ikigai… “a reason for being” The diagram below is the usual way of illustrating the concept, but I find it imperfect. Why does “What you can be Paid For” have to be so central to self-actualization? Randy Newman famously sang “It’s Money That Matters”…. but it was irony. Ikigai … without being paid for it…
T -142 Days: If you want your dream to be
If you have been with me since Day 200, you know this blog wanders. I like to view it as purposefully multi-faceted. The obvious and perhaps mundane day-to-day in preparing to move to Michigan. Stories of the past. Current observations of Michigan. What comes to my mind on a daily basis. But always there, deeper, is…
T -161 Days: Stir the soul
A coworker retires tomorrow. His dream is to travel North America, going wherever the wind pushes him. A great plan. An excellent adventure. A pleasure of mine is song lyrics. They come alive for me. A tiny piece of alternate reality, forever captured in my mind, they burst forth as life goes on… this one…
T -166 Days: Driving south
Have you ever dreamed of just getting in your car and driving? Driving south with no particular destination? A guy I worked with in Oregon did that with three buddies. When they graduated from college, they bought an old VW van, loaded it up and drove south. Way south. All the way south. They drove…
T -180 Days: Grab it!
When I was very early in my career, I worked with a bitter old man named George. As I slowly got to know him, we occasionally would go to lunch. One day, George told me his story. When he was young and married with small children he got together with his next door neighbor to…
T -185 Days: Slow
When we drove to Michigan on Wednesday, we noticed that in the Indiana construction zone hell, they had set up an express lane on the left. With the concrete barriers on both sides, only one chance to get on it… and one chance to get off… and it went on for many miles. We didn’t…
T -186 Days: Financial sense
I hadn’t slept, or at least slept well, for a week. First it was the nasty virus. Then, it has been my mind spinning, playing life out in my head. Even when change is good, even when you control the change, it activates the mind. When the day turns into night, and life quiets down,…
T -194 Days: Worn down by life
It’s not all tribbles and sunsets, tonight goes deeper. Field of Dreams is a movie chock full of great quotes, one of my favorites is less well-known: Ray: “Oh my God….It’s my father…My God! I’d only seen him years later when he was worn down by life. Look at him. He’s got his whole life…