#12: A Brief Update
What's Been Happening, and What's Next
My mom, who finally retired in her 70s, always tells me these days that she has more to do now in retirement than she did when she was working.
I’m not there, yet. Still, even without a full-time career, between various volunteer commitments, JSC meetings, work on our house and our dogs, I’ve been busy (I think Nova, who *lives* to fetch a ball, is going to lead to rotator cuff surgery for me at some point).
So I haven’t written much lately. Someone did send in a question, asking me “how did you retire at 58?” and wanting to know my financial strategy.
I actually wrote a response to that, and figured I’d do it in 3 parts (what drove me, what I did and how it worked). I finished the first part almost a month ago.
Before I could publish it, Trump’s “economic plan” and tariffs began to affect the U.S. economy. It hasn’t been pretty, and it is unlikely to improve for a long time, if ever (Full transparency: I do not believe tariffs work and we have tons of historical data that proves that … also? I lived it when I was part of Ball and Trump enacted tariffs on aluminum in his first term … I actually saw how it worked, and, well, it didn’t).
So, while our household financial strategy *has been working* and *should continue to work* it seems a bit early to say it did. There is too much uncertainty today. A recession is probable. Or worse.
I might still publish part 1, which is more about my motivations around money. But for now I’m off to our son’s college graduation and completing a bunch of work on the house. Stay tuned, I’ll get back to it.
Meanwhile, keep sending me questions or suggestions! This substack has not yet been announced or promoted, you all are my test audience. Give me some comments!
