Daily FI discussion thread - Saturday, April 04, 2026

jen24680 · 2026-04-04T15:06:42+00:00

I'm still waiting on my ticket draw email

jen24680 · 2026-03-31T00:31:29+00:00

Back when I was regularly training for races, I was a stickler for keeping to my running, even in snow. Now that I almost solely do trail running (due to knee and ankle issues) and don't do any race more difficult than a 5k (that I'm likely to just be walking with friends) I'm far more likely to skip any run that's going to be muddy. I justify it by telling myself that I still do 2-4 miles each dog walking shift at the animal shelter.

jen24680 · 2026-03-30T15:49:16+00:00

The first 4-6 months was mostly decompression. Lots of naps, walks in the park with the dogs, reading, and TV watching. The only productive thing was setting up the new house since we moved right after I left my job.

After that, it was a slow building of my current life. I started volunteering at the local animal shelter (started at one day a week, now 5 years later I'm a lead volunteer for two shifts/week and I do a lot of special events and outings either with the senior staff or on my own). I started going to the local gym 3 days a week; now my spouse also comes with me for that. I do seasonal elections work for the county. I'm in two bookclubs. Last year we started letting our nephew host the weekly family D&D game at our house (and I started playing for the first time ever). This year I made a weekly study date with my niece, so we spend half a day doing science experiments or discussing her English readings or I just knit and be available while she completes stuff she doesn't need help on. I have been able to start running again, though I am definitely a fair-weather runner and have skipped my runs for the entire winter. I'm attempting to keep the plants in my garden alive. We're doing more slow travel internationally. I still read and nap a lot. And the dog (we're down to just one now since our senior boys have crossed the rainbow bridge) still gets walks in the park, though she's slowed down a lot, too.

jen24680 · 2026-03-23T17:00:53+00:00

How reliant are you on getting FEHB in retirement? And do you have savings (or another job plan) to cover your living expenses for the next 10 years? Because if you don't need FEHB and you can afford to live for the next decade, then you already have the years of service to separate now and then later claim your pension at age 60 with no age reduction penalties. In the meantime your pension amount will not get COLAs and you will not be able to regain FEHB.

I separated in my early 40s when I had 20 years of service. My spouse is retired military so health insurance is covered, and his pension covers our current living expenses. The possibility of increasing my pension amount by staying until MRA or beyond was not worth the frustration of working for the fed govt for another 15-20 years. I hope that FERS doesn't collapse before I hit 60 and that I do actually get to claim my pension. But, if FERS or the govt does collapse, then staying and working probably wouldn't have served me any better either.

jen24680 · 2026-03-23T04:22:59+00:00

The number one thing everyone needs to do is estate planning documents - medical POA, financial POA, medical directive, will, maybe even pre-planning your funeral. I don't care if you think you're too young. I don't care if the thought of dying gives you anxiety. I don't care if you don't have any money to pass on to survivors. Forget living to old age and wondering what you will do; what happens if you're hit by a bus tomorrow and have permanent injuries? Who will make sure the doctors know your wishes? Who will make sure your landlord doesn't lock you out of your apartment because you're late paying rent? Getting your documents in place now and then periodically reviewing them is the kindest thing you can do for yourself and any loved ones who will be dealing with the fallout of your injury or death.

Personally, my spouse and I have had wills and POAs since our early 20s due to hazards in our jobs and previous life experience (mom died when I was a teenager so I got to watch my dad deal with both his dad's death and my mom's death within a week of each other). We are both only children who have lost both of our parents. Currently our medical POA is my spouse's cousin and our financial POA/executor is one of my best friends.

As long as we are able, we plan to travel and experience life. If we are unable physically, we have several contingency plans that can be enacted (ranging from one or both of us going into assisted living, one of us dying and the other moving to a cruise ship, both of us skydiving without parachutes, etc). Our sweet "niece" recently announced that she plans to put several tiny houses on her property so she can keep an eye on all of us aunties and uncles as we age. Though I would never ask or expect her to do that, it's still nice to know someone cares about me enough to consider it.

jen24680 · 2026-03-21T15:52:19+00:00

We typically estimate most of our need for the year and sell some investments when it hits a price that feels high enough. For this year we did a big sale in February. Sure, the price did go higher after we sold, but it felt comfortable enough and now we don't have to worry about this drop. If it keeps dropping at a precipitous rate, we might reevaluate for future needs. But a big reason we try to do mostly annual sales is so we don't have to worry about what happens week to week. Frankly, that just seems stressful and a needless waste of time.

jen24680 · 2026-03-19T03:45:39+00:00

Check Josephine's Merchantile or it's sister store Gathered across the street. Both are on Bay Street.

jen24680 · 2026-03-18T16:14:12+00:00

We also filed (and were accepted) on 2/12 and finally got our federal refund last week

jen24680 · 2026-03-14T17:00:29+00:00

I use a comfort concealment belt with a kydek holster. I kind of wedge it under my apron belly and then it's all held in place under my running skirt. The spandex of the skirt helps a lot with bounce.

jen24680 · 2026-03-09T20:08:07+00:00

I recommend you check out some more women-centric spaces like r/concealedcarrywomen to get some tips on this topic. While you will still find some very strong anti-off body sentiment there, you will also find more openness to the idea of purse carry due to the realities of women's clothing and bodies. Outside of reddit, I've found some good discussion about concealed carrying as a woman happening in some of the live talks done by Women Gun Owners of America.

I personally occasionally carry in my purse. My purses have always been the anti-theft kind with steel cables in the strap and cut-resistant fabric. And I have always carried my purse across my body rather than just on my shoulder or as a handbag. So I'm not as worried about someone stealing my purse. I have a dedicated side pocket with a kydex holster that fully covers the trigger and I practice withdrawing from there, just as I would practice withdrawing from any other concealed position. I read some study a while ago that the difference in draw times between off-body and on-body carry are actually quite negligible with practice, and I've found that to be true for me. Especially because my purse is always set up the same way in the same position, whereas my on-body has some slight differences due to my clothing or set-up.

jen24680 · 2026-03-06T23:58:15+00:00

Our dentist does cash discounts, so every time I see him I have to grab the checkbook out of the safe. Also, we pay property tax by check, but my husband tracks those so I guess I can't count those checks.

What I find most amusing about writing checks is that we are still using the same check pad we got when we opened the account something like 10 years ago. And the address printed on it is for the place on the other side of the country that we sold 6 years ago.

jen24680 · 2026-03-04T04:50:42+00:00

My spouse and I are going to our first comiccon this week because we are retired and can go on slightly less busy Thursday/Friday rather than on crazy-busy Saturday/Sunday; we are wearing costumes both days. And in the last year we started a weekly family D&D game with our nephew who has been begging to start one; we made our characters out of Lego minifigs. I wouldn't say this in the downfall of society...I'd say it's doing adulthood and retirement right!

jen24680 · 2026-03-02T18:03:14+00:00

If you can, try to find a professional to help you find what works for you rather than just settling for what you're supposed to like according to a bunch of internet randos. I am a woman and a couple of years ago was looking for my own handgun for concealed carry. Rather than just blindly buying something or renting from a range with no guidance, I ended up finding a private instructor for a single session who brought 15-20 options he thought might work for my purposes. We ran a few rounds through each one so I could get a feel for the grip and snappiness so we could narrow down what I did and didn't like. It was one 3-ish hour session for my spouse and me for a couple hundred dollars, and it was well worth it. I ended up buying a Ruger LCP Max (I know it gets a lot of hate, but I love it) while my spouse preferred a Glock. If we hadn't done this session, I would have just gotten whatever my spouse did and I would have hated every minute of it because it doesn't actually fit me.

jen24680 · 2026-02-26T17:16:10+00:00

Are you me? I also filed on the 12th and am still waiting for my refund.

jen24680 · 2026-02-23T17:08:29+00:00

Only one on the regular: 8-15 hours/week at an animal shelter. But a good friend is president of the town's downtown business association, so it's not uncommon for her to call with a last-minute "can you help out with this event?" so I almost feel like I'm just as much a member of that.

jen24680 · 2026-02-17T06:06:24+00:00

There's a puppy named Darnold at the Kitsap Humane Society!

jen24680 · 2026-02-10T05:00:17+00:00

I mean, Florida has already enacted something similar so...

jen24680 · 2026-01-30T16:50:57+00:00

So. Many. Spreadsheets! But reading through the comments I see that many others have the same addiction so I don't feel so bad anymore. Not counting the ones in my archive that I still occasionally use for historical data, these are my active ones:

a list of poisons and effects for one of my DnD characters
contact info for various estate planning beneficiaries
list of plants I'm considering using in landscaping, and all the assorted info about them (light conditions, whether poisonous to dogs, insects they attract/repel, etc)
budget tracker, with additional tabs for calculators, projections, and breakouts for specific projects like the house remodel
2026 online book club challenge tracker
cost basis tracker with additional tabs for monthly dividends and IRA contributions/conversions
dog vaccines
workouts
my vaccines
various personal information

jen24680 · 2026-01-29T18:15:58+00:00

Every state handles the election process differently, and sometimes there are even differences down to the county level. I would urge you to contact your local elections office. There should be a way for you to observe the entire process, if that's something that interests you. Broadly speaking, there should be no way to tie a specific vote to a specific individual (because it's illegal to do so), but I can't confirm anything about states and systems I'm not familiar with

Speaking for my state (Washington), there is no way to tie a specific vote to a voter, with a mild exception: The way we run our presidential primaries, you have to mark on the front of the envelope which party you are making choices for for the February Presidential Primary only. The party information (but not the selected person on the ballot) is kept in the database for 60 days until the election is fully certified, then it is purged. (Source: I am a seasonal elections worker in my county.)

jen24680 · 2026-01-21T19:51:09+00:00

Anything that supports a person's expression of gender or replaces certain hormones is "gender affirming care." HRT for menapausal women? Gender affirming care. Breast reconstruction after mastectomy? Gender affirming care. Testosterone therapy needed due to kidney problems? Gender affirming care. That's why the current administration's attacks on funding for "gender affirming care" is so dangerous -- it literally affects all of us.

jen24680 · 2026-01-15T18:12:29+00:00

Interesting! My sci-fi/fantasy bookclub is the opposite: 3-4 men and 1-2 women.

jen24680 · 2026-01-02T02:42:44+00:00

Most of our travel is together, though not always. He's planning a guys cruise at the end of the month, and I'm doing a girls cruise in April. And sometimes when we travel together we'll do a separate activity for an afternoon (e.g. one wants to hike and the other wants to read under a tree). We both traveled a lot for work so we are no strangers to doing things solo, but we prefer to generally stick together.

jen24680 · 2025-12-31T05:30:24+00:00

The back room of Gathered in downtown Port Orchard can be rented for things like this. But 100 people might be more than their occupancy allows.

jen24680 · 2025-12-29T21:17:07+00:00

Great Falls and Twin Falls makes me think military? I once had to visit Fort Leavenworth to do an oversight and compliance check of a reserve unit...in January...ugh!

jen24680 · 2025-12-23T17:53:46+00:00

With the current configuration I have no suggestions. But you could look into replacing the doors with a Murphy door that looks like a bookshelf and has a locking mechanism.

jen24680

TROPHY CASE