Blog
Weekly articles about how to live a secure, fulfilling retirement.
Retirement lessons from Walden
I’ve had Walden on my reading list for as long as I can remember, but I didn’t get around to reading it until earlier this year. I was struck by how closely several of Thoreau’s key philosophies paralleled with those of us here at Intentional Retirement. Below are 7...
Seven decisions you will never regret
One of the benefits of my job is that I get to see a large group of people all making decisions about the same thing: Retirement. Over the years, that has given me a large data set of decisions and their consequences. Some of those decisions are minor, while others...
Your biggest retirement expense (and how to get rid of it)
Let’s take a poll. What do you think will be your biggest retirement expense? Travel? Healthcare? Plaid pants? Mai Tais? Actually, according to a recent report by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), you’ll likely spend the most (40-45% of your...
5 key elements of a great quest (plus book giveaway update)
Before updating you on the book giveaway, I just wanted to say THANK YOU! You guys are fantastic. To enter the contest for the free copy of The Happiness of Pursuit, all you had to do was leave a comment or drop me an email to tell me where in the world you call...
The Happiness of Pursuit
A few weeks ago I received an advance copy of Chris Guillebeau’s new book The Happiness of Pursuit (catchy title, no?). For those who don’t know Chris, he has a hugely popular blog and is a New York Times bestselling author, but he is probably best known for his goal...
The most important question to ask about your to-do list
If you’ve had a chance to read A Brief Guide to Retirement Bliss, you know how important I think it is to decide what you really want out of life and to take those plans really seriously. If you don’t decide, then three things will likely happen: Other people will...
Are bonds safe or a ticking time bomb?
I mentioned in my last post that I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about bonds. There seems to be a pervasive fear (fueled by the media) that because rates are at historic lows and the Fed is winding down their quantitative easing, that bonds are a ticking...
3 ways to protect your nest egg and prepare for the coming volatility
Last week we got a taste of something that we haven’t experienced in awhile: Volatility. A wave of anxiety swept through the markets, pushing the Dow into negative territory for the year and handing the S&P 500 its worst week in two years. What is causing the...
Want to retire early? Do this one thing.
Have you ever noticed that the time it takes you to do something expands to fill the time you allow yourself to do it? I see this most frequently at work. If I have 5 tasks to do and all day to do them, it takes me—surprise!—all day. If I only have half a day to do...
Weekend reading. The best retirement articles from around the web.
Retirement planning affects almost everyone so, not surprisingly, there are a lot of people writing about it. I do my best to bring you helpful information each week, but there are lots of other writers out there producing great stuff as well. With that in mind, I...
One month ago I left for a mini-retirement. Here’s what happened.
“One cannot really come to appreciate one’s life, save by playing with it and hazarding it a little.” ~ Jack London Just over a month ago we packed our bags and hit the road for Mini-Retirement #1. The trip was part vacation and part experiment as I tested out some...
Bon Voyage!
Greetings from seat 22C, somewhere over the Atlantic en route to Ireland and England. Wow, that came up fast! When I decided last September to take our first mini retirement sometime in 2014, it seemed more like a thought experiment than an impending reality. Fast...