The Week That Was!

TV - CBS - 60 Minutes
The 116th Congress was sworn in January. As per news reports it is one of the most diverse in recent history. The most popular among them all is of course Alexandaria Ocasio-Cortez. If you have not heard of her either you don't listen or watch or see any mass media or were living under a rock. She is the youngest of all members and still only in her 20s. The very good thing about her is she has nothing to lose and is so young and can only learn. I can't image how mature most people are at her age but she seems to know what she is doing and for the sake of her constituents lets hope she does know what she is doing. She is twitter savvy that she can stand up to the bully. I have only heard bits and pieces of what she says on TV and the confidence which she talks and takes on much experienced and older men who run for office and who are in office and like to tweet. Some of the older orange looking people just have to accept that they have met their match.

Watch this 60 minutes from past Sunday. Watch the first one which is the interview with Cortez, skip the next one if you don't care for an interview with a dictator and listen to the next one the unlikely inventor story which is also pretty interesting.


FIRE or not to FIRE
Financial Independence Retire Early is the new mantra these days apparently among the millennial crowd. I think it should be a mantra for all generations. Around here while DH and I completely agree with the Financial Independence part, the Retire Early part is where we have slightly different ideas, but not that divergent really. DH is of the opinion that if you like the work you should continue to work and I don't disagree but I think at however early an age we should have the financial freedom to call it quits if the work is getting you down or otherwise not allowing to live a happy life. I did just that a couple of months ago and I have been thinking a lot about it. We will talk more about that in the future posts.

That is where the FI part of the FIRE comes into play. All of this retiring early will only work methinks when there is financial independence. Recently Suzie Orman got into the middle of the FIRE conversation and an argument with the FIRE people. Her opinion is that FIRE is not right for everybody. She is basing this on the fact that if people are going to stay retired for a period of 60 - 70 years their finances better be in perfect order.

I saw a couple of articles about how FIRE did not work for a few. This does not mean that it will or will not work for everybody.

The forerunner for this FIRE concept is of course Mr. Money Mustache and his blog is here.

How to Retire in Your 30s With $1 Million in the Bank

FIRE - the movement to live live frugally and retire decades early

Podcast
Afford Anything - #153: Why I Hate the FIRE Movement, says Suze Orman
This is something you will enjoy if you are against the FIRE movement but if you are in the FIRE movement you might be put off but those of us who are not in either camp there is a lot of pointers you can get from Suze Orman.

Do you need $5 million to retire early? Suze Orman says so. But ‘FIRE’ devotees say no.

There are a few cautious tales why Retire Early is not for everybody.
Here’s why you shouldn’t retire super early — even if you can.


I retired at age 34, but 7 years later, I've decided to head back to work.


Have any of you done this? We will continue this conversation.

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