Services and Utilities That Are Great Time Savers

What a great time to be alive.   There are so many services provided to me that I have much more time than people from 100 years ago.

Here are some of the services that make life easier and better:

• Running water - For drinking, cooking, washing, bathing and human waste removal.  It would take me lots of time to haul water to the house, boil/sterilize it, and disposed of used water.  It only costs us about $200 a month and takes almost no time.
• Garbage collection - For $90/3 months, our garbage is taken away weekly and recycle is taken away every other week. It would take lots of time to haul our garbage to a dump.   Just takes a few minutes a week to put the garbage at the curb.
• Grocery shopping -  Yeah, it still takes several hours a week to grocery shop.  However, that beats the amount of time  growing, harvesting or hunting/cleaning our own food.   
• Electricity -  This powers all of our appliances to use in our house, which saves a lot of time.  Washing machines, dishwashers, furnaces, air conditioning, water heater, oven, stove, refrigerator, etc, etc, etc.   I would be working exclusively on 

These are basics that I take for granted every day and yet, if I didn't have them, I would be spending way more time on getting necessary things done every day.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial nor services advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

My Rules to Manage Spending in Retirement

I wrote this back in 2017 but forgot to post it.  Most of the points are still relevant so I am posting it now.  We're still following the principles, though the percentages may have changed some.

I am not a big fan of budgeting.   Here are a some rules that we used to control our spending while were saving for retirement.

• Pay yourself first - When I first started working, I would pay all my bills and expenses first and whatever was left at the end of the month was my savings.   Except for my first month of working, I was pretty good at having something left at the end of the month.   Later, I realized a better approach would be to take out my savings first, and the pay my bills and spend on expenses afterwards.
• Buy only what we need -  Marketer are adept at getting consumer to buy stuff.  The challenge to sort the needs from the wants.   Do I really need a smart phone, cable TV, a large screen TV or a luxury car?  The answer is probably not.  Not buying these can reduce spending by hundreds of dollars one time or every month.  A related rule to this is to live below our means.
• Spend only cash - Using only cash is an easy way to limit spending.  Once the cash runs out, the spending stops

By using these rules, it was easier to control spending to better meet savings goals.

However, now that we've both been retired almost ten years, I've concluded we need a different set of spending rules.  We have been living primarily on our retirement savings, so the above spending rules prior to retirement many need to be adjusted.  For us, this is important, since we don't have pensions and are not eligible for Social Security yet.

Here's what we've been doing on an experimentation basis:

• Use an allowance - We've been giving ourselves a monthly allowance that covers our living expenses, except for paying taxes (income and property) and health insurance.  I estimated the amount based on our pre-retirement spending pattern This has seemed to work well for most of the time, even when we have a large expenditure such as a new appliance or a vacation.  This worked well in a low inflation environment, which we may not have in the upcoming years.
• Use a percentage  -  When I add the taxes and insurance in, we are withdrawing about 4% of our  current retirement savings each year.    It was closer to 6% during the great recession in 2009, but our investments have grown since the bottom.  So we use a percentage to allocate our allowance each year.   Also, we may need to adjust the percentage in years where the market declines or advance significantly.
• Keep 3-5 year cushion in cash/cash equivalents - That way if the market decline significantly, we can avoid selling investments for a few years while continuing to make the same withdrawal. This will allow the investments to recover instead of selling them when they are down.

This has worked so far.  So we are going to continue this approach of giving ourselves a 4% allowance.  An adjustment we may make is to increase our withdrawal slightly after a good investment year and either increase our spending that year, or set it aside for additional spending in a future year.  Another adjustment may be giving ourselves a raise periodically, especially after several years of good return.

Finally, we'll need to get used to spending down some principal as we balance withdrawals with mostly earnings and part principal.  This will be a toughest adjustment for us to get used to  since our pre-retirement goal was to always maintain or grow our principal.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back Fridays for a new segment.

This is not financial, retirement or spending advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

House and Car Expected Features Creep

Buyers expect much more from their homes and automobiles than when my parents were purchasing these items. Part of the increased costs of cars and houses is due to the increase in expected in these products.

In my parents first purchased house, they had all the contemporary amenities: air conditioning, dishwasher, Formica countertops, intercom system, car port, and a 1/4 acre lot in a newly build subdivision.   The first car my dad bought was a stick shift and maybe a radio.  The second car he bought had automatic transmission and a radio, which was the first car that I drove.   The third car was the same, just automatic transmission and a radio.  Finally, in the fourth car, we got air conditioning.

The first house I bought was a 70 year old fixer upper, from which I learned I wasn't good at renovating houses.  I only had the basics refrigerator, stove over an oven, Formica countertop and steel sink without a garbage disposal.  The second house, which I bought 20 years later had still had a basic kitchen, but also had a laundry room, a whole house vacuum system, whole house stereo speakers,  a finished basement and a three car garage.  It also cost 8 times more. 

The first car I bought new was a manual shift, because I wanted one, with A/C and radio which were now standard.  The second car I bought used was still a manual shift, with A/C, radio and tape deck, electric windows/mirrors and was a convertible.  My third car, was used also, added air bags, ABS brakes and multi CD player.  For my fourth vehicle, which I bought new, I regressed and bought a manual pickup truck, with air bags, ABS brakes, A/C and radio/cassette player.

 Of course, no one wants to go back to only the base features that were only available many years ago.  And I realize that a portion the increased costs for houses and automobiles may be due to features that are now expected. 

For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday for a new segment.

This is not financial, car buying, nor home buying advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Avoid Living Above One's Means

It's not easy with all the spending temptation that are available nowadays.  However, going into debt live above one's means will have a negative impact on wealth building.

Although it requires discipline, living below one's means is better option to me.  Of course, one should still buy what is definitely needed.   

One strategy that worked for me is to "pay myself first."    By that, I mean put a significant portion of take home salary into savings, starting with 10%, keep increasing and putting raises and bonuses in savings until reaching 20%.  Invest that 20% and avoid using it, if possible, since this should be in addition to emergency funds or saving for large purchases.

Another strategy is to pay off credit card statements completely before or at the due date, to avoid late fees and interest charges.   This keeps one living within one's means.

Finally, if all else fails, live on a cash basis. It forces one to liven within one's means.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial nor wealth building advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Appliances are Great Time Savers

Appliances that can independently do most of the work are the best time savers.  Washing machines, dryers, dishwashers and robotic vacuums are great examples.  One just needs to press the start button and that frees up time to do other activities while the work is being done.

Other appliances involve one's participation but significantly reduces the time and effort.  I include automobiles, lawn mowers and vacuum cleaners in this class.  I still have to spend time and effort but it is much less than if I didn't have an automobile, lawn mower, and vacuum cleaner.

To me, it's worth the cost of the appliance, even if they are expensive, many times over if it either frees me from doing major work or significantly reduces my time and effort.

For more on Ideas You Can Use, check back every Tuesday  for a new segment.

This is not financial nor appliance advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

"Pay Yourself First" Was My Foundation for Wealth Building

Often people save only if there is money left over after expenses and discretionary spending.  This is how I started when I started working.   Here is the spending priority:

1. Necessary expenses - Rent, Utilities, Groceries, Gas, Car Payment
2. Discretionary expenses - Entertainment, Eating out, Vacation
3. Savings - Retirement accounts, Bank Accounts, Investments

Putting Savings first helped me build wealth faster, and building wealth was my top financial priority.  Here's the priority, I switched to later:

1. Savings - Retirement accounts, Bank Accounts, Investments
2. Necessary expenses - Rent, Utilities, Groceries, Gas, Car Payment
3. Discretionary expenses - Entertainment, Eating out, Vacation

After a few years, I began putting my annual raises primarily towards savings.  What I found is the first 10 years of accumulation seem to be very slow growing.   It wasn't until after 20 years, significant growth was evident on a yearly basis.

I have tried to instill "pay yourself first" mentality with my kids.

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday  for a new segment.

This is not financial, wealth building nor saving advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Multi-Year Tax Strategy in Retirement

When I was working, I earned a paycheck and paid taxes.   Since I had some, but not much, control over my annual income, I just did my tax return with limited planning, such as charitable contributions, and tax loss harvesting, for taxes.  I probably controlled only 10-20% of our taxable income via dividends and interest.  In general, I tried to maximize our income.

In retirement, I have I still have Social Security income which is like a paycheck and I don't have much control.  However, instead of a paycheck being 90+%  of our income, Social Security is about 27%.   Interest and dividend account for about 53%.   By using tax exempt interest options, and staying in the 12% tax bracket, I can reduced our taxable income and therefore, our tax liability significantly. Also, by managing our AGI, I enable us to take some tax credits that are phased out at higher income.  20% is rental income and enables us to take the Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction.

In the next few years, we have RMDs, both inherited and from our own.  This will be additional paycheck income that we will have less control over.

If we exceed certain income, I will need to pay additional insurance premiums for Medicare, call IRMAA, which I would like to avoid if possible since there is no benefit increase.   In addition, we would lose or phase of the bonus senior deduction.  

As a result, designing and planning an income and tax strategy for at least the next 5 years, and maybe even the next 10 years, will be beneficial to maximizing income we keep by minimizing our tax and IRMAA liability.

For more on New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial, retirement, nor tax advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Major Flukes in my Life

Sometimes seemingly accidental occurrences have great beneficial outcomes.

I was the starting fullback on my high school football team for four years, that included being State runner ups my junior year and State Champions my senior.  I was a good but not great athlete. In fact, I played running back one season in my previous five years in little league football.  I was a lineman most of those years.  However, my high school coach, who just moved from the local university to our high school my freshman year,  was exceptional at putting average players in positions that allowed them to be stars.  I was one of those players. I was outstanding because of my coach.  He put me where I could excel and make a difference.

I had a ruptured appendix just before senior year of high school. It took me all summer to recuperate.  Still I was determined to go out for football.   No one expected me to play, not the coach, not my teammates and especially not my parents.   The coach allowed me to join the team, but only had me be a backup for the first couple games.   By the third game, I was starting at fullback again.   I went on to have my best season ever, rushing for almost 1000 yards and winning the State Championship.   While I was a good student, I think overcoming the life difficulty helped get admitted to all the colleges to which I applied, including 2 Ivy Leagues schools.

When I was in college, I signed up for job interviews with visiting companies for summer internships.    I would usually check back the day before and make sure the appointment was still happening.  One time, I couldn't find the company I signed up for on the schedule.  I asked Career Services and they answered they are no longer coming.  The next day, I happen to be in my dorm room when the he phone rang.  (This was in the time of landline phones.)   It was the interviewer from the company I signed up for.   He said, "I'm supposed to interviewing you right now."  I said I was told you had cancelled.  He asked if I could come in the next few minutes. I answered, "Yes," and threw on my sport jacket, grabbed my resume and ran up to the interview.  He only had enough time to give an overview of the company.  I was impressed and it was obvious I had not researched the company.  After 15 minutes, he said, "My next interview starts in a couple minutes.  Do you have a resume?"  I said, "Yes," and gave him my resume.   I assumed that would be the last I would hear from him.   One week later, the interviewer called back and offered me a summer job.  I took it, ended up working their permanently for 27 years before retiring before retiring with full benefits in my forties. 

Early on, when I was working, I was an average employee.  My bosses boss asked me to take on an assignment that, truthfully, was undesirable.  However, our general manager wanted it staffed.  The position was a great match for me.  I was able to make the work important to both the general manager and the business.   As a result, I was promoted two levels, to the level of my boss's boss, in five years and offered an international assigned, which I declined at first for personal reasons, but later accepted.

While in college, I learned to play rugby in the offseason from football, which was my main sport.   I joined the local rugby team when I started working.  I met my future spouse through teammates on my rugby team since she lived in the same apartment complex.  We've been married over 30 years.

For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Stock Trading Entertainment

In my younger days before being married, I used to get some entertainment from sports, regularly social meetups with friends and being engaged with colleagues in work projects.    These still give me some joy, but I have less or very little to no opportunity to experience these events very often anymore.  This is one of the downsides of being retired and older.

My entertainment is mostly with family and the kids' activities.  Kids' sports, extracurricular activities, and vacations.   However, kids want to be with their friends more than with family as they get older.  So I am  expanding my entertainment options.

My father was a stock investor.  I've always liked investing in and trading stocks.  However, based on experience,  I've decided that investing in market index is a much better strategy than picking individual stocks, at least for me.  It's exciting when I make a good pick. 

I will continue to make "bets" on a few individual stock occasionally, just for entertainment. Much better than going to a casino, which I see many older people at when I go to play craps every few years.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday  for a new segment.

This is not financial, stock trading nor gambling advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Not Buying Any More Stocks ...Yet

Based on my experience when I was younger, the stock market has the look and feel of likely falling further. It seems like buying now is like catching a falling knife.  I'm going to hold what I've already purchased, but I'm going to wait for stocks to drop further before buying.   

If I'm wrong and it has already bottomed, I have enough holdings to benefit.  If it does fall further, waiting to buy will turn out to be a right decision.

For more on Crossing Generations , check back every Thursday for a new segment.

This is not financial nor stock investment advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2026 Achievement Catalyst, LLC