Recently, I spent time with my youngest daughter, celebrating her graduation from high school. We shared some awesome moments and father-daughter conversations. I attended her high school graduation and took keepsake photos of the event. The next night, we had a party for her with about fifty of her friends and family. The night of […]
Saving
High School Graduation: A father’s letter to his daughter
Our daughter is participating in her high school graduation tomorrow and I thought it might be good to put my thoughts down in a father’s letter to his daughter. I do not believe she is aware of this website or blog, but will certainly find it at some point. Sweetie, I hope someday you enjoy […]
Hey, I Pick Up Pennies, Too!
I have been doing a lot of walking lately as part of reaching my goal of a healthy body at a healthy weight. I aspire to walk 10,000 steps, on average, each day over every seven-day period. Some days I walk as many as 14,000 steps, while on other days I log only about 6,000 […]
My Finely Tuned Spending Justification System
None of us is born with an instruction manual providing answers about how to live our lives. For that matter, even if we did have a manual, what would we do during those early years until we learned how to read? Many of us tend to spend our entire lifetimes trying to figure out the […]
A Picture Can Be Worth More than a Thousand Words
For more than a hundred years, people have used the expression “A picture is worth a thousand words.” While the origin of the phrase isn’t entirely clear—it was likely an advertising slogan—the saying itself has staying power, because it’s true. Even a simple picture can tell a story. Professional photographers understand this concept and create […]
Who Is “The Man” and Do You Work for Him?
I am part of a generation of people who grew up with certain fads, trends and slang that—back in the day—seemed timely. Each generation develops its own fads that sometimes look silly when we remember that era. Heck, I remember begging my mother to let me get bell-bottoms jeans, since they were what all the […]
Three Things at a Time
Does it ever feel like you are trying to accomplish too many things at once? It’s a common feeling—we rush from one task to another, sometimes leaving things half done or, if completed, done with less than our best efforts. In my reading, I happened upon an interesting concept: if we want to do things […]
Challenges with a Remodel: Our Experience with the Downsized Home
The last few weeks have been quite chaotic while working through the upcoming sale of our home and the new purchase of our downsized residence. We encountered several challenges with home inspection items of the home we are selling. This took weeks to resolve. We took on some quick remodel projects on the new residence, […]
Amtrak: Traveling in the Moment
In the next few weeks, I’ll be traveling to Colorado. My plan is to get a sense of the rental property business there and visit with family members. In the four years we’ve lived in Sedona, I have made this 1,400-mile round trip using a few different approaches—various combinations of driving a car, taking a […]
Simplicity: Considerations for downsizing our home
We have spent extensive time and energy considering downsizing from our current home in Sedona to a smaller townhome located less than a mile away. My in-laws currently own a townhome in Sedona, rented to tenants on a month-to-month basis. We are considering purchasing that townhome from my wife’s parents once we are able to […]