What Iu2019m Reading, Watching, Playing
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Reading: Iu2019ve been in a bit of a rough patch with reading lately and have mostly been juggling a few non-fiction books for long-term health optimization like u2018The End of Alzheimeru2019su2019 by Dale Bredesen, MD and u2018Genius Foodsu2019 by Max Lugavere (both highly recommended by the way!).
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I was recently reminded of the wonderful article u2018The Tail Endu2019 on the Wait But Why blog and this helped put reading in perspective for me a bit:
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If Iu2019m incredibly lucky, I have 50 more years on this planet.
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Iu2019ve sadly been reading fewer than 20 books a year recently, so, at that rate, I have 1,000 books left to read in my life.
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And thatu2019s assuming 50 years and 20 books per year, so it could be far fewer.
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With that in mind, Iu2019m doing something fun now: Iu2019m reading the books my daughters are assigned in class at the same time as them, and weu2019re now able to discuss them in a book club fashion.
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This gets me more quality time with them and helps me read some new books. That looks like u2018Sarahu2019s Keyu2019 by Tatiana de Rosnay and u20181984u2019 by George Orwell at the moment.
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Watching: My favorite show of all-time is u2018The West Wing.u2019 Erin didnu2019t watch it back when it came out, so over the past few months weu2019ve made our way all the way to the final season and only have a few episodes left.
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Itu2019s really a beautiful show and the cast of characters is as good as any Iu2019ve ever seen on a TV show.
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If youu2019re looking for an uplifting look at the world and government, itu2019s hard to go wrong with this show.
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Playing: I played a few games recently at Camp FI, including u2018Skull Kingu2019 which is a trick-taking game I mentioned in this newsletter last year.
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Recently weu2019ve reintroduced an all-time classic back into our game rotation: Monopoly Deal.
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This might be my favorite go-to game for 10 minutes of fun and strategy.
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In more real-world u2018playing,u2019 weu2019ve also started playing ping pong at our gym, and it reminded me just how much I enjoyed playing that game when I was a kid.
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Itu2019s fun, fast-paced, requires a tremendous amount of hand-eye coordination, etc.
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Expense Audit and Money Challenge
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Episode 586 came out yesterday and Jonathan and I spent the time talking about an u2018Expense Auditu2019 and how we think this is an essential tool for financial independence, no matter how long youu2019ve been in this community.
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We also discussed a u201cmoney challengeu201d for you to opt into where you undertake this expense audit and track your spending and look for areas where you can realistically save 10% without hurting your quality of life.
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If youu2019re interested in commenting on Ep 586, downloading the expense audit spreadsheet or joining the money challenge, you can find all three by clicking this link.
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Free Annual Credit Report
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Cody Garrett published a helpful post on Twitter a while back that I wanted to pass along:
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u201cTime to check the annual credit reports from Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax!
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Review your contact information, payment history, account numbers, responsible debtors, opening and closing dates, credit limits, and highest balances.
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Free at AnnualCreditReport.comu201d
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This is entirely free and this is different from just checking your credit score. Each of the 3 main credit bureaus have a file on you and you should periodically check it for accuracy.
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Since each bureau is mandated to offer this free service annually, you may as well give it a quick glance at the beginning of every year.
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Pro Tip: If you really want to stay on top of things, you can log in every four months and just pull one report from one credit bureau each time. If you do it this way, youu2019re getting an updated credit report every 4 months (letu2019s say January, May and September), and youu2019ll just cycle through the 3 bureaus each year.
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Note: The Annual Credit Report home page now says, u201cFree weekly online credit reports are available from Equifax, Experian and TransUnion.u201d But it goes on to say, u201cGet a free copy of your credit report every 12 months from each credit reporting company.u201d so itu2019s unclear precisely how often you can get these reports!
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I work for a municipality and am a member of the defined benefit pension program. My employer also gives us access to a 457b plan with reasonable, low cost index funds as options for self-directed or assisted investment (along with target date funds).
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Since the municipality contributes to our pension, employer contributions to the 457b plan are uncommon. Through my role with the organization and with my penchant for personal finance, I got the Town to sponsor a $200 contribution to anybody with a 457b plan as of October 1.
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We did a “lunch and learn” to get more people signed up and in my little town of 40 employees, we went from 12 participants to 17! I will forever be a 457b evangelist and seeing the real time impact of my policy decisions has been awesome.
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u2014 Jeremy
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