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Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 2:50 pm
by beachbumz
Thanks for links and the information and I'll do the search (although I am lazy). I had actually read some of your posts while lurking in the past, but didn't remember seeing anything in particular on that subject.

Ben, we have considered a move to St. Maarten, and I was just curious on how actually living there would be vs visiting. Maybe you could expand on the pros and cons of living on a caribbean island sometime (not really fit for this thread). I wasn't planning on hunting you down and understand you wanting to keep a low profile; I know how you 007s are :lol: .

FTR, I am {almost} 38 and will have been retired for 2 years on March 1st!!!

Thanks to JWR1945 and Hocus for the warm welcome!

The Beachbumz

Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 6:04 pm
by ben
Not being THAT secret - sure we can handle it via some PMs. Cheers, ben

Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 6:54 am
by beachbumz
ben wrote:Not being THAT secret - sure we can handle it via some PMs. Cheers, ben
Thanks Ben, I was just kidding around a bit. The PMs sounds like a plan. (Right now I'm on "vacation", so have limited computer time)

The Beachbumz

Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 11:21 am
by ben
Vacation from FIRE? Man you live a rough life! 8)

Posted: Fri Feb 11, 2005 11:41 am
by JWR1945
ben wrote:Vacation from FIRE? Man you live a rough life! 8)
Yes. He does.

Along these lines, what does a dog do on its day off?

Have fun.

John R.

Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2005 3:12 am
by hocus2004
CatherineCoy is now saying that there are lines that are not to be crossed. Even at the Motley Fool board. Even by Board Generals.

Here's a thread titled "Does Bad FIRE Planning Cause Impotence?" You can probably guess who is responsible for the thread-starter.

http://boards.fool.com/Message.asp?mid= ... sort=whole

Intercst:: "Yet another surprising insight from the world of Hoco-mania.

[the intercst post then quotes some lines I put to this thread a few days ago.]

hocus:" I get lots of complaints that I have too many children and not enough dollars bills, and I see it exactly the other way. The odds are very much stacked against us on the "one more" thing. If I could trade in a good number of those dollar bills for better odds on the "one more" part of this business (actually, I have already done a bit of that until it reached a point where it did not make practical sense to continue), I would gladly do it.

"You all are ever so alarmed about my financial future, and the number one item on my prayer list is the "one more" that you are so worried is going to be the ruin of my plan. I know how to generate dollar bills, Ben. I have lots of experience at it. The prospect of generating more of the green demons fazes me not so much. I don't have what it takes to generate more of those guys who wake me up in the middle of the night to tell me that their stuffed bear fell between the beds and could I help them retrieve it. If you all are going to spend so much of your life energies worrying about something anyway, I wish that I could convince you to worry about something that I think is worthy of your concern. "

CatherineCoy: "You are now over the line, intercst. Over the line."

Juicy Observation #1: Intercst did not just last night go "over the line." Deliberate deception re what Bernstein says on SWRs (he says that Bernstein does not say on Page 234 of "The Four Pillars of Investing" that the SWR for a high-stock portfolio was 2 percent at the top of the bubble) is over the line. Death threats are over the line (intercst did not personally put forward the death threats, but he had a responsibility as board moderator to do something about them and instead he encouraged them, saying that they were the best solution he had seen to the "problem" of me reporting to the board community what the historical data actually says re SWRs). Cries of "troll!" and warnings of board bannings are over the line. This guy has been over the line since sometime in the afternoon of May 13, 2002. That's 33 months ago today.

Juicy Observation #2: Zero recs for this post. Signs of a maturing process emerging on our boards?

Juicy Observation #3:: This particular post is not the sort of thing that causes me to ask that intercst be removed from the various FIRE/Retire Early/Passion Saving boards. It's not a plus. There are people who do not like this stuff who will not participate in our discussions (to our loss) because they see this sort of thing appearing on our boards. But the damage done by this sort of comment is far less than the damage done by a deliberate deception on a money question. The real point of the boards is to help people learn what it takes to win financial freedom early in life. Deliberate deception on money questions directly undermines that purpose. That's bad stuff.

Juicy Observation #4: This post came in the midst of a discussion as to what to do in the event that Motley Fool does not award comps to all the Motley Fool board regulars (my guess is that they will). During that discussion, several posters indicated that they would not pay because there is too little on-topic discussion. Others said that they would move to the board associated with RetireEarlyHomePage.com IF new sections were opened up to off-topic debate at that board community. There was specific reference made to the need to do something for the board "clowns."

I point this out because I don't want people thinking that I refer to the current-day Motley Fool board as a "Clown Board" as part of some sort of tit for tat comeback thing. I call it a "Clown Board" because that it a fair description of what the board is today. I have nothing against Clowns, by the way. I only object to Clowns who are intolerant of discussions of FIRE at "their" boards. The Motley Fool board was built by about 100 posters with an interest in faciliatating discussions of early retirement, and I say that those people have the right to insist that on-topic discussion be permitted there regardless of any desires to the contrary of any Clowns who happen to have taken up residence there in recent years.

Juicy Observation #5: I was not aiming to make a reference to impotence with my comment re "I don't have what it takes..."It occured to me that someone might read it that way, but I had a point to make and those words seemed to me to make it, and I just decided, what the heck?, people can read into it what they want to read into it. Those who were predisposed to interpreting the line properly probably did so, and those who were predisposed to find something that wasn't necessarily there probably did that. So it goes.

I don't have what it takes to make another troublemaker. That's a fact. If you read the comment in context, you will see that I am making a comparison to earning money. I believe that I DO have what it takes to make money. So I am not concerned on that score. I am concerned on the troublemaker score because that is one where things are out of my control. Both my wife and I are at an age where new troublemakers don't tend to come along as often. That's just a fact of life.

I'm not going to go into the details of the process whereby new little troublemakers happen to come into the world. That's for another board. Let's just say that it generally takes a whole lot of love and leave it at that. Anyway, the bottom line here is that it is possible that we will see a new little troublemaker coming our way one of these days, and both of us hope we do, and we would be grateful for any prayers that any of you out there in Discussion Board World want to send in an upward direction on our behalf. Even DCMs should feel free to say a prayer or two on behalf of this effort!

I believe in the power of prayer and I wouldn't ask you to make the effort if I didn't think there was a chance that it would pay off. But I also try to temper my enthusiasms with a bit of realism, and I just have to acknowledge here that I don't think the numbers favor us on this one. That's what the doctors tell us. That's what the pretty little charts in the soft colored brochures they hand out to us tell us. I am in awe of all numbers-based analyses (that's a joke), and so I just have to go with what those soft colored brochures tell me. The bottom line is that, for the Bennetts, two troublemakers is probably going to just have to be enough. Perhaps we can persuade the two of them to make an effort to cause a little more trouble than they would otherwise be inclined to cause to make up the shortfall. Something like that might work.

Juicy Oberservation #6: I still have plenty of bullets in my gun. I really don't want intercst or any of the other DCMs picking up any mistaken notions re that one. That would probably not be a good thing for them in the long run and they are fellow community members after all is said and done.

Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 11:21 am
by beachbumz
ben wrote:Vacation from FIRE? Man you live a rough life! 8)
I know, I know. :lol:

I guess I define a "vacation" as: Packing our bags to go to some other place to do basically the same thing we do at home.

We love to travel and a change of scenery is always nice! But, now it's back to the grind. :oops:

The Beachbumz

Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2005 11:23 am
by beachbumz
JWR1945 wrote:
ben wrote:Vacation from FIRE? Man you live a rough life! 8)
Yes. He does.

Along these lines, what does a dog do on its day off?

Have fun.

John R.
John, you bring up a great point. I guess you only need a day off when you don't like what you are doing. BTW, I haven't had a day off now in almost 2 years. 8)

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 6:11 am
by beachbumz
Hi Hocus!
I was just re-reading this thread based on a new post over at intercst's board, under 'busted retirements'. I'm sure you have stated it before, but would you mind telling us your and your wife's ages. IOW, how close are you to being able to draw SS. Also, if it's not too personal, what is the good 'ole government projection your and your wife's SS benefit to be? Not trying to pry, but I kinda wanted to run my own numbers on your situation. :)

Thanks,

Beachbumz 8)

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 6:36 am
by hocus2004
I am 48. My wife just turned 46.

I don't know the answer to the Social Security one. We both worked part-time when we were in school and then full-time after we got out of school. My wife stopped working in late 1999 (she has done a little part-time work since but is not doing so currently). I left my corporate job in August 2000. But of course I'll be starting up my writing business in a few months.

We did send for the forms you can get from Social Security that tell you what you are entitled to. I have those in a file somewhere. I haven't used those numbers in a long time and I don't recall what they are. My belief is that we are both likely to get something from Social Security. My expectation, though, is that Social Security payments will be reduced from what they are today.

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 6:54 am
by beachbumz
hocus2004 wrote:I am 48. My wife just turned 46.

I don't know the answer to the Social Security one. We both worked part-time when we were in school and then full-time after we got out of school. My wife stopped working in late 1999 (she has done a little part-time work since but is not doing so currently). I left my corporate job in August 2000. But of course I'll be starting up my writing business in a few months.

We did send for the forms you can get from Social Security that tell you what you are entitled to. I have those in a file somewhere. I haven't used those numbers in a long time and I don't recall what they are. My belief is that we are both likely to get something from Social Security. My expectation, though, is that Social Security payments will be reduced from what they are today.
Thanks, Hocus! I had guessed you at 46 and your wife 44, no kidding. I'm afraid the SS payments may be more of a problem for us (38/37) than you, but we'll see :(

I had kind of guessed your benefit to be about 15K and your wife's 12K, but I don't know how close that is. You can go to www.ssa.gov to estimate your benefit, but since I don't know your final salaries before you quit, that would be a guess too.

Beachbumz 8)

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 8:13 am
by hocus2004
I had guessed you at 46 and your wife 44, no kidding.

I was thinking about this one on my way to lunch, and I realized that I could have done a better job with that earlier response. What I should have said is that I am a fading 48, and my wife is a hot 46. I'll mention to her that I told you all that after we put the kids to bed tonight.

As long-time readers know, my wife very much got the short end of the stick. Her problem is that she has always had this thing for wacky men, so she pretty much just got nailed. It's sort of sad, actually. Not for me, though!

since I don't know your final salaries before you quit, that would be a guess too.

My final salary was roughly $125,000. There really is no exact number. I worked for a consulting firm and they came up with a variable pay thing where the number depends in part on how the firm does. You could identify a lowest possible number, but that would not really be realistic. Or you could identify a highest possible number, but that would not really be realistic either. It was in the neighborhood of $125,000. I remember thinking how odd it was to be kissing away a paycheck that put me in that neighborhood.

My wife's final number was something between $40,000 and $45,000, as I recall.

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2005 11:28 am
by beachbumz
wife is a hot 46. I'll mention to her that I told you all that after we put the kids to bed tonight.
I think that's a really good idea on your part! :D

Using your numbers, the quick calculation on ssa.gov came up with about $14,400 for you and about $8K for your wife.

My wife and I made about 200K our last year working, and I've thought about it a couple of times, but I wouldn't change a thing. :)

Beachbumz 8)