How much it costs a couple to live a balanced early retirement - not frugal but not extravagant either.

A Rudyard Kipling poem begins: "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs...". During these Covid-19 times, keeping my head means sticki...

Our February costs were going pretty well until I bought some ski touring gear. How much can some skis, binding, boots, poles and skins cost? The answer is €...

We've had friends to stay - one thing I've learned is that if you want visitors, move to a ski resort, you suddenly become much more popular. I'm sure they'r...

Costs I suspect that after Christmas, most people hope for a less expensive January to get the finances back on track, an idea we seem to have completely ign...

Before I retired, the calendar moving from one year to the next wasn't a source of excitement for me. Work was what I spent most of my waking hours doing and...

I'm under pressure - today is the 27th December and I'm only now writing my November costs and targets post. Is it a new record for tardiness or a sign that ...

I've struggled to find time to write my October costs and targets post - it must be a sign that early retirement is going well when you struggle to fit every...

Because our costs go all over the place when we’re travelling, I’ll start this post by checking progress against my targets. Targets Realistically, my attemp...

It seems longer than five weeks since my last costs and target post, I think because of what we've packed into that time. There was a campervan trip in Germa...

Costs July was fairly typical, i.e. some cost lines were similar to previous months but there were others where we spent either more or less than typical. Ma...

2019 Targets I've booked some flights, so our trip for later this year is definitely on. Three months away - three weeks in California, four weeks in Costa R...

I recently read The Wealthy Finn's Passive Income Update. In broad terms, his portfolio is 25% real estate, 25% shares and 50% P2P loans and crowdfunding. Fo...

My spend always seems to be more than most other FIRE bloggers - sometimes by a lot. It makes me feel a little guilty even though I'm not sure it should. We ...

Oops, we've just had an expensive month! But on the plus side, the costs contain some good things. Trip to Paris This was my daughter, Rebecca's, idea. She g...

A comment on one of my posts asked whether, looking back, I would have done things differently? What did I think of my career choice, my investments to get t...

We spent much more than I expected in March. Each month I question why we spend more than most of the other bloggers who publish their costs. I understand so...

Keeping up with the Joneses is at the front of my mind again. One reason is a recent comment that many FIRE practitioners find that having less stuff is bett...

February is finished, so it's time for my early retirement cost update, and also a look at how I'm getting on with my targets. Costs We've now finished our s...

I'm back on the money trail, or at least back on the tracking my costs trail. Really, I never stopped the tracking, just the sharing. Last July to December i...