Retire@50

Target had a coupon for $10 gift card when you transfer a prescription so I went in town today and ran some errands. My prescription cost $5.50. I also got a box of 20 ct Finish dish detergent and a snack size planter's peanuts for .68 after coupons.

Target had several ads, but all the prescription coupons had been cut out of them. I wish I had known about the coupon on Sunday. I would have bought more papers.

I had a coupon for a free small size of Wendy's fries and got those and a small chili. Spent 1.07

Carwash - spent $7

Used bookstore - traded in a brown paper grocery bag of books, got about 6 new books to bring back home. No cost. I have almost $400 in credit now.

Dollar Store - 3 bags of eggs noodles - $3

Last night mom invited my sister and niece and me to dinner for Valentine's. I said that was weird to invite your kids over for Valentine's. She didn't want my sister to be alone, since she's in the middle of a divorce. She gave us all gifts. I got a $25 Red Lobster gift card.

We had steak and potatoes. Everyone's favorite meal. I was telling my niece about my free taco's and since she loves tacos, I showed her how to print them out.

I finished reading my book A Tan and Sandy Silence by John D. MacDonald. Mystery - very good.

I made a bad misjudgement yesterday. Mom called and instead of walking at Walmart she wanted to go up to Denver and walk in the mall up there. Dad needed to go up to Thornton to get some tires. So not really thinking about it I said ok. Everybody and his brother, his mother, his sister, his father, his neices, nephews and cousins were there. It was a zoo. I haven't seen it that busy in years. I have a big problem with crowds. I have started to hyper-ventilate in the past. Dad dropped us off with the plan of picking us up in 2 hours. By the end of the first hour I was gritting my teeth. I made it but it was very uncomfortable and I wish I had not gone. I get incredibly anxious in crowds and avoid them whenever possible.

I did get a free book at Borders. 50% off coupon and free gift cards from credit card rewards. And I found a really cute hourglass for $6 at Pottery Barn. I have wanted one for years because I like them and hadn't ever come across one. I wasn't actively looking just in the back of my mine I knew if I found one I wanted one. I put it next to a cool kaledescope I have on an end table and I've probably turned it over 10 times. It's a 5 min one.

We went to Red Lobster for lunch at 2:40 and they were packed too. We had to park in the last row. I used a coupon and one of my discounted gift cards and spent $9.01 with tax and tip.

While eating dad was asking what we got and I told him. Mom said "she actually bought something she didn't need". I buy stuff I don't need, it's just not that often Most times when we go shopping I may buy a book, that I don't pay anything for since I use my free reward gift cards, and lunch and nothing else. But I'm not really tempted by most stuff in the stores.

Today I went to King Soopers to pick up a prescription. I transfered it from Target and got another $25 RX rewards put on my KS card for free groceries. I spent $2.24 on the prescription and $1.50 on the Sunday Denver Post.

I got 3 more tacos at Taco Bell for brunch today. Spent $2.33 and used the last of my free taco coupons.

Tomorrow Subway is giving out a free cookie with purchase. They have all their footlongs on sale for $5 again so I may do that. Here's the coupon if you're interested.

I had to get another blood test today, so afterwards I went to Safeway and saved 74%, spent $5.55.

9.98 - 2 Oscar Meyer Carving board
-4.99 - BOGO sale
-2.00 - q
-----
2.99 or 1.50/each - I see several turkey sandwiches ahead. Good with a bowl of soup for dinner

2.47 - 1 lb 80% hamburger
-2.00 - safeway coupon from joy of football book
-----
.47

3.96 - 4 Milky Way candy bars
-1.98 - b2g2 sale
- .99 - buy2 get 1 coupon
-----
.99 or .25/each

3.96 - 2 snickers and 2 snicker peanut butter cubes
-1.98 - b2g2 sale
- .99 - buy 1 snickers get snicker peanut butter free
------
.99 or .25 each

.11 - taxes on candy bars

I got 3 more tacos for lunch/breakfast at Taco Bell for $2.33, 1 free one with coupon.

Kroger has a new game for winning groceries the Daytona 500 game. I won a free box of Reese's Puff's cereal today. Here's the website if you're interested.

I went to Taco Bell for lunch and had no problems using my coupon for a free crunchy taco. I got 3 tacos for $2.33. I'll probably go back tomorrow.

Went to King Soopers and saved 86%. Saved $23.70 in coupons and spent $7.20 for just under $50 in groceries.

6.76 - 4 Old El Paso refried beans
-3.00 - 3 .50 q's doubled
-----
3.76 - was supposed to get a $3 OYNO coupon wyb 6 and it didn't print so they gave me $3 in cash. Donated beans to food pantry

2.78 - 2 Old El Paso taco seasoning packets
-2.78 - 2 free wyb 2 Old El Paso products q's
-----
FREE - donated to food pantry

7 cans Kuner beans @ .69/each = $4.83

21.18 - 2 bottles Nature Made multivitamins 90 ct
.84 - taxes
------
22.02
-10.59 - bogo sale
-7.00 - wellness reward q
-3.00 - Nature Made q
------
1.43 - plus added 190 Nature Made points to my Wellness rewards toward another $7 q.

2.94 - 3 tubes 6.4 oz Colgate toothpaste
.23 - taxes
-----
3.17
-2.94 - 3 .75 q's doubled
-----
.23 - donated to food pantry

1.98 - 2 Mentos fruit mints
.03 - taxes
----
2.01
-1.98 - 2 .50 q's doubled
-----
.03

Dropped 4 bags of food at the food pantry. Dropped a bag of magazines at the library and picked up my 9 holds. Have a load of laundry started and need to empty the dishwasher. After that I'm planning to relax for the rest of the day.

I finished reading my book The Skies of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - very good.

Went to Walmart to walk this morning and before meeting mom, did a little shopping. They have the Swiffer 360 extender swiffer's on sale for $8.97 and they have a tag that says you can get a free subscription to one of 4 magazines when you buy the duster. The form is online and in the fine print it says instead of getting the magazine subscription, you can have the money sent to you instead. I opted for that option and will only have to pay taxes. I also had a coupon that when you buy the Swiffer starter kit, you get a free refill up to $4.99. The only refills were $7.97 so it wasn't completely free, but a starter kit and 6 refills for $3 and taxes is pretty good.

I also got a new toaster for about $20, my other one broke. I got 3 of the small sizes of the SeaPak popcorn shrimp for .64/each after using 3 $1 coupons. That's 2 servings of shrimp in each box - I love this. I have some more coupons so will get some more in a week or two.

Taco Bell has coupons for a free crunchy taco on their facebook site so I printed 3 of them, you can only use one coupon per visit and it expires in 7 days from the day you print, but we have a Taco Bell here and I like their crunchy tacos.

I finished reading the library book Sins of the Soul by Eve Silver. Paranormal - very good.

I was very happy to see Walgreens had the Skippy peanut butter on sale for $1.50 this week. I got 6 jars this morning, used 6 $1 coupons so .50/each. These will be donated to the food pantry since I already have 10 jars. About 3 months worth.

I also got a free small bag of Ruffles using a coupon I got in the mail. Also donating.

Subway has it's $5 footlong deal again on any sandwich, so after we walked mom and I both got one. I used a discounted gift card to pay for mine. I got ham and turkey.

I finished reading the library book Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews. Paranormal - excellent. I love her books. I've been getting all of them from the library, but I think I will buy them next time I see a deal. I have a $50 Barnes and Noble gift card I got for my birthday.

This book was written by Suze Orman and I got it several years ago before I retired. I just reread it and I really liked it. It has a lot of good advice for people who either are retired or will be shortly. I need to give it to my mom and dad to read, since there was a really good chapter on creating trusts.

Yesterday, mom, sister and I drove up to visit my niece and help her do her taxes. I ended up walking her thru them and sending them online. I also fixed her computer so it could print coupons. I send her good deals, but she wasn't able to print the coupons to get them. I took her 3 bags of groceries and some coupons that I thought she could use.

We went to Red Robin for lunch and I spent just under $10. We were only there for 3 hours since she needed to work.

It took 2 hours to drive up, but 3 to drive home. It started snowing pretty heavy about halfway back and the freeway was crawling. We finally got to a point we could turn off and take the back roads. We got around 6 inches, which is the most we've had so far this year. My back yard has 4 foot drifts. A good day to stay home.

I was reading MyMoneyBlog and he posted about a good deal at Lowe's if you need stuff from there.

Lowe’s has an upcoming promotion called their Tax Refund Card. Starting 2/8, if you buy a card with value of $500 to $4,000 – supposedly with your tax refund but they can’t tell and don’t care – then on 3/18 you’ll get an additional 10% of the initial purchase price on the card. Ends 3/14. Not bad if you’re already planning on shopping there. I’ll probably wait until March to see if I really need it, just hope they don’t pull the promotion.

Here is the link for the Tax Refund Card

I was on Card Pool and saw a Darden's gift card for 10% off. Darden's owns Red Lobster, Macaroni Grill and some other restaraunts. I got 2 $25 gift cards and paid $45. The funny thing is, if you buy the Red Lobster or Macaroni Grill gift cards you only get 8% off - so I saved an extra 2%.

I also got $200 in J.C. Penny gift cards at 14% off for my parents and a $100 Walmart gift card for me at 3% off. Used to be able to get Walmart gift cards at 4%, but haven't seen that in a while. I also use my credit card that gives me 1% back so it's like get 4% off the Walmart. Since I go there all the time I figure that 3 - 4% might as well be mine.

I went to King Soopers both yesterday and today because I had too many coupons to use in one trip. They limit you to 3 regular coupons and 2 internet coupons per like item each trip.

Yesterday I got $58.41 in groceries and paid .22 and got back a coupon for $1.50 on my next order. My parents also gave me $2.60 for things I picked up for them. I did 3 mega deals which accounted for $15, coupons were another $30.96 and I used the last of my pharmacy rewards of $12.45, leaving .22 cents.

Today I got $27.47 in groceries and paid $4.92. I did 2 mega deals at $10 and used $17.47 in coupons. I might do one more mega deal before the sale ends, I have more cheese and tea coupons.

Here are the highlights:

Free stuff

12 bottles Propel - 2 for niece
6 Yakisoba noodle bowls - food pantry
4 bottles Honest Tea - .25 moneymaker on each one
1 Mentos mints - niece
3 I can't believe it's not butter - 1 niece
4 Starkist tuna - food pantry

Cheap

8 cans RoTel @.17/each - food pantry
6 boxes 200 ct Kleenex .66/each - got $1.50 OYNO q
2 Hormel Chili Master .29/each - food pantry
3 Hunts diced tomatoes - .09/each - food pantry
5 Kraft cheese slices - .49/each - 2 mom, 1 niece
1 80 ct Excedrin - .50
2 loaves Sara Lee bread - .99/each
3 Hebrew National hotdogs - 1.82/each - 2 for mom, 1 for niece

Other

milk
bananas
potatoes

Went to Walgreens this morning. I had 5 RRs totaling $42, so I got a gift card for $40 and 4 cans of mushrooms for .50/each. Owed $0. The cashier kept rechecking to make sure it was really 0.

Made one more trip to Safeway since the peanut butter deal worked Wednesday. I wanted more for the food pantry. This time they told me it wouldn't work because you had to buy $10 worth of stuff that didn't include the sale item - what a crock, that's never been the rule before but she swears it's always been that way. So I just ended up with one free can of Chunky soup and a bag of Lays potato chips for $1.88. The soup was on sale for .99 and I had 1 .50 coupon that doubled to .99. Maybe Walgreens will have a peanut butter sale before the end of the month and I can get more then. I love getting peanut butter and tuna for the food pantry, those are my favorite things to donate.

Yesterday it started snowing like crazy and mom wanted me to go to the Outlet mall the next town up with her so I said ok. Dad drove. We went to a kitchen store and she got what she wanted, (a meat tenderizer) and we also went to Harry and Davids. They had their pepperoni out as a sample and it was really good so I got one at $6.95. We went to Black-Eyed Pea for lunch. I hadn't been there in forever so I didn't have any gift cards for them, but it was really good. The last time we went it was awful, which is why I hadn't been there in a long time. I had the chicken tenderloins, mashed potatoes and mac and cheese. All of it was excellent. I brought the corn bread home and had it for supper with my beans and ham. I had started beans in the crockpot before I knew I was going to the outlet place. I spent $8.50.

I finished reading my book Knock Out by Catherine Coulter. Mystery - pretty good.

It never made it to 0 degrees yesterday, but it's a whopping 7 today After walking at Walmart, went to Village Inn for lunch with parents. Spent $8 and since it's free pie today at Village Inn, I got a piece of lemon supreme pie to take home. It's my favorite.

I went back to Safeway to redo the peanut butter and meat sale and it worked fine this time. The coupons beeped but the cashier just pushed them thru. No nonsense about not being able to use a Safeway coupon with a manufacture coupon. I got 4 more jars of Peanut butter for .49/each. One for me, one for niece, 2 for food pantry. Also got almost a pound of 80% hamburger for .31 cents.

Went to Post Office to mail coupons for military overseas. Spent 4.90.

Last stop was Walgreens, where I had another moneymaker deal.

14.99 - 1 Netrogena PN - pain relief for diabetes
1.03 - taxes
------
16.02
-10.00 - coupon
------
6.02 - got back a $10 RR so made $3.98. I did this transaction twice, paying with Walgreens gift cards so no out of pocket. Will donate both.

6.64 - 6 Renuizit
.33 - taxes
-----
6.97
-1.90 - Walgreens in-ad coupon
-2.97 - buy 3 get 3 coupon
-----
2.10 = .35/each I use these in the closets

6.00 - 8 butterfingerz snackerz
-4.00 - 4 $1/2 coupons
-3.24 - Walgreens in-ad coupon
-----
1.24 profit

I got 2 Darden's gift cards at Card Pool. Value $25/each, total $50 and I paid $45 - 10% savings. Plus used credit card to buy will make another 1%.

I got the last DVD for season 1 of Glee in the mail today from Netflix. I've really enjoyed this show and I've decided to keep the Netflix subscription now that my one month trial period is over. I finished watching Michael Jackson's This is It online. He was a phenomenal performer, it was so good.

I finished reading the library book Crave by J.R. Ward. Paranormal - very good.

I know some of you might think that's not possible, but today I think it is here in Colorado. My furnace has been running all night and all day. During the day I have it set to 64. Outside the temperature hasn't hit 0 yet today. They think the high will be 2 degrees. We only got about a half an inch of snow, but man is it cold. Stayed home and didn't even go to Walmart to walk. I'll read a book and fix some spaghetti w/mushrooms and onions for supper.

I cleaned out my freezer yesterday and I have a whole shelf that's empty now. I'm sure I'll fill it up soon. There are still several King Soopers mega deals I want to do, just haven't made it to that store yet.

Paid credit cards online yesterday and I kept getting an error at Chase for most of the day that they couldn't get to the payment page. It sure does seem like a lot of websites are having problems lately. I don't know if they're not testing them right before they put them out, or if it's traffic or if they are getting hit by hackers. It just seems I'm running into a string of website problems lately.

My cleaners came yesterday and raised the price $5/visit. It's still only $67.50, which I think is decent for about 1000 sq ft that I have them do, including kitchen, full bath and half bath. I don't have them do my office, second bedroom and bath or craft room. My second bedroom and bath is almost never used and I clean it once or twice a year. My office and craft room have too much junk I would have to put away in order for them to clean, so I do them whenever ... or never

I like to start a jigsaw puzzle the day after the cleaners come so I have time to complete it before they get back in 4 weeks. I started a 1000 piece Tomas Kincaid puzzle this morning.

I finished reading the library book Queen of Swords by Sara Donati. Historical - excellent.

I really hate when a planned grocery trip goes wrong and you get a cashier that really messes you up. Went to Safeway this morning and the plan was to get free soup, cheap peanut butter and cheap hamburger and I guess I succeeded to an extent...

I had a Safeway coupon to make the Skippy peanut butter 1.49 only he said he couldn't use the Safeway coupon with the manufacture coupon, which is totally bogus. Anyways there were a million people in the store so didn't argue too much right then, said I would talk to the manager. I had 4 $1 coupons for the Skippy, which would have made them .49 each. He only rang up 3, even though he kept all 4. I didn't find that out till I was in the car trying to figure out what just happened.

The soup was .99 wyb 4. I had 4 .50 internet coupons, which would have made them free after doubling. He took 3 and told me he couldn't take the other one. No reason and there's no restrictions in their coupon policy. Again I just said fine since I planned to talk to the manager.

I got a pound of hamburger for 2.49 and he did take my $2.00 coupon so paid .49/lb.

And finally he forgot to give me a bag credit.

I talked to the manager and he said yes, they do take Safeway coupons and manufacture coupons and yes there is no restrictions on the internet coupons. So he gave me back 4.40 for the peanut butter and .50 for the coupon. I still ended up paying an extra $1 for the peanut butter since the cashier didn't actually ring it up. So 4 jars for 2.96 instead of 1.96. And I paid an extra .50 for the soup since it would have doubled if he had scanned it instead of just opening the door and giving me the face value. So .50 for 4 cans of soup instead of free. I wasn't going to argue any more at that point since I needed to meet my mom at Walmart to walk. But the whole thing was very aggravating. I sometimes think cashier's just make up the rules as they go.

I finished reading my book Forget Me Not by Marliss Melton. Mystery - pretty good.

Went into town to meet parents for lunch. We ate and Zios. Had a buy one get one free coupon, split 3 ways it saved me $3. Spent $8

I went to Walgreens and got the following

5.99 - Arnica pain gel
-2.00 q
-----
3.99 - got back a $6 RR

7.99 - Blink eye drops
-1.00 q
------
6.99 - got back an $8 RR

3.56 - 4 Butterfingers Snackers
-1.78 - 2 BOGO q's
-2.00 - Walgreen ad q
-----
.22 - money maker

Did the Blink and Arnica twice. One Blink will keep, one goes to parents, 1 Arnica goes to niece and one will be donated. Paid for all using Walgreens gift card bought with RRs, so no out of pocket. Have $28 in RRs from today will put on gift card later.

Next stop was Albertson's were I got 2 doz eggs for .89/each. I gave one to my parents. I also got 2 bottles of Ken's salad dressing for free. I'll keep one and give one to my niece.

I finished reading the library book The Emperor's Tomb by Steve Berry. Adventure - very good.

I got my Staples rewards in the mail today from buying ink and batteries last month. I was glad to see it since I had a coupon for 15% off at Staples that expired today. Staples also had pens and pencils on 100% rebate sale.

I have an Epson printer and I always look for the ink with the chair on it. They don't make it anymore. I was looking and looking. Fortunately I had 3 ink cartridges with me to recycle and could see the numbers I needed. I eventually figured out they changed the picture to vases instead of a chair. Not sure what the purpose of the change is, other than to make people nuts.

Anyways I got the following

21.49 - 1 Black ink cartridge
3.99 - Bic manual pencils - 5 ct
5.99 - Zebra Sarasa gel pens - 5 ct
-----
31.47
-3.82 - 15% off q - on pencil and ink - not pens?
-2.00 - Zebra q - was right in front of pens
-25.65 - Staples rewards check
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.85 - they printed out a coupon and gave me .85 cents back. Don't appear to have charged taxes. Weird. I paid nothing out of pocket and since I paid less than the check I got for the batteries I call it all free.

Anyways I will get a check back for the pens and pencils for 9.98 even though I only 'paid' 7.38 a profit of $1.60. I'll donate these to the food pantry, they collect school supplies too. I'll also get a check for $6 for recycling 3 ink cartridges. Enough to get one of the color cartridges next time.

I finished reading my book The MasterHarper of Pern by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - very good.

Last night I made this recipe. It's a takeoff on my Pasta e Fagioli soup recipe which was supposed to be a copy of Olive Garden's recipe. I've found I like it better with rice than pasta. To me the pasta gets gummy the next day or so, the rice stays good and even makes the soup better the next day. I make the recipe up to the rice part and then freeze half the soup. I add 1/2 the rice and eat the rest over 3/4 days. Very good with a slice of bread and butter.

Rice E Fagioli soup

Ingredients:

1 lb ground beef
1 small onion diced
1 large carrot small diced
2 stalks celery small diced
3 cloves garlic - garlic press
1 15 oz can diced tomatoes with basil and garlic
1 15 oz can white beans
1 15 oz can kidney beans
1 10 oz can chicken broth
1 10 oz can condensed tomato soup
1 cup long grain and wild rice
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon dried thyme

Directions:

1. Brown the ground beef in large skillet - season with garlic powder, salt and pepper
2. Add cut up veggies to hamburger and season with salt and pepper. Saute for 10 - 15 min until softened
3. Add all ingredients to large crock pot and cook on high for at least 1 hour.

I finished reading the library book The High King of Montival by S.M. Stirling. Sci/Fi - very good.

King Soopers is having another of their mega sales, buy 10 save $5. I did 2 deals, saving $10. I used my RX coupon and other coupons to get $22.35 in free groceries - 13.63 in manufacture coupons and 8.72 in the RX coupon.

Here's some of the highlights

4.47 - 3 boxes I can't believe it's not butter
-1.50 - mega deal
-3.00 - 3 $1 q's
-----
.03 profit

3.68 - 4 cans RoTel
-2.00 - mega sale
-1.20 - 2 .30 q's doubled
-.92 - 1 free wyb 3 q
-----
.44 profit - donated to food pantry

2.98 - 2 Uncle Ben's rice
-1.00 - mega deal
-2.00 - 2 .75 q's doubled
-----
.02 profit - kept one, gave one to niece

1.98 - 2 Mahatma saffron yellow rice
-2.00 - 2 .75 q's doubled
------
.02 profit - donated to food pantry

2.79 - French's honey mustard dipping sauce
-1.00 - q
- .50 - mega deal
-----
1.29

3.68 - 4 cans Hunts tomatoes
-2.00 - mega deal
-1.00 - .75 q doubled
-----
.68 - .23/each - donated to food pantry

2.97 - 3 cans Del Monte green beans
-1.50 - mega deal
-1.00 - .75 q doubled
------
.47 - .16/each

3.87 - 3 cans Hormel chili
-1.50 - mega deal
-1.50 - $1.5/3 q
-----
.87 - .29/each - goes to food pantry

Also bought milk, potatoes and 2 cans Kuner's white beans. Got some more hamburger at Safeway - spent .66 for a pound and a bit. Got 3 more bags of free Chex Mix at Walgreens for the food pantry. Dropped 4 sacks of food at the food pantry.

I finished reading my book Water Bound by Christine Feehan. Paranormal - excellent.

I went to Safeway this morning and got a pound of 80% lean hamburger for .49. Safeway has it on sale for $2.49/lb. Thier Joy of Football coupon book has a coupon for $2 off Rancher's Reserve beef. So only .49 cents after coupon. I have some more of these so will get a few more pounds to stock up the next month.

I also used 3 more $1 off Chex Mix coupons to get 3 more bags free at Walgreens. I'll donate these.

I went to GiftCard Rescue and got a $100 Sonic gift card for $81 and a $50 Wendy's gift card for $45. I used a promotion code from Hip 2 Saves' website to get an extra $9 off the Sonic gift card - HIP2SAVE10

I finished reading my book Mountain Vengence by Jason Manning - Western - ok.

Back in my early 20's when I made the goal to retire early I realized I had to figure out how. I had to make my small amount of money work for me. My dad made his money in real estate, but he was able to do all the hands on work needed to keep the properties up and he liked dealing with people. I didn't have those abilities, nor wanted to learn them, so I knew I needed a different way. I read a ton of books and financial magazines on investing and came up with my personal investment style. I was not a financial guru, buying and selling individual stocks. I was a patient best pratices investor.

My first investment was stocks from the company I worked for. Employees could buy them at 15% off using up to 15% of your salary. I started small about 5% and then after a year I sold them. I made a profit. That was good so I reinvested and did it every year after that I worked for that company, maxing out what I could invest. Company stocks are the only individual stocks I ever bought and sold.

So here are the basic rules I used for my investment style.

1. Invest NOW! At the same time I was buying the company stocks I deliberately decided not to invest in the company 401K even though they matched 100% up to 6% of your salary. The reasons were because it locked up your money until you were 59 1/2, (which was an eternity for a 23 year old), and it took 5 years to become fully vested. You vested at a rate of 20%/year. I did not think I would work at that company for 5 years. 3 years later I finally woke up and realized that it didn't matter it I only worked there a year. I got 20% of the company money in a year, I got all of my money, plus interest, dividends etc and if I had started 3 years ago when I could have I would be 60% invested by now. So I started investing.

That's one of the things I've learned is Invest Now. There is never a perfect time to invest. The market may be going up, it may be going down, it doesn't matter if you are investing for the long term. Invest it now and in 10 years you will make money. Even if it's only in interest/dividends/capital gains.

2. Reinvest. The second thing I always did until I retired was reinvest all my dividends, interest and capital gains. Now that I'm retired I don't reinvest the money from my after tax accounts, since it doesn't make sense to pay taxes on that, reinvest, then turn around and take money from those accounts and pay more taxes on it as income. Money in my pre-tax accounts is still reinvested. I also made sure while I was working to pick tax-advantaged accounts to put after tax investments in, so the dividends and capital gains taxes weren't too high each year.

3. Diversify. I almost always invested in index funds. Generally I invested 50% in large cap funds, 25% in small cap funds, 20% in foreign funds and 5% in health care and 5% in REITs. The health care fund was the only one that wasn't an index fund.

4. Cost control. I couldn't control the costs of the funds invested in my 401K plans, but for plans I picked, I picked ones with low costs. Another reason for choosing index funds. I also picked funds with tax advantages to lower the cost of taxes. I fully invested in 401Ks and Roth IRAs as much as possible to take advantage of tax deductions and company matches.

5. Don't panic. I invested through at least 7 recessions or major downturns. I didn't panic and withdraw or quit monthly investing. I knew that stocks would rise again and I would regain the losses and so far I always have. Sometimes it takes 3 years, but usually I'm buying during (dollar-cost averaging) those 3 years so the average cost of shares remains good and I make money over the long term. When I started investing the DOW was somewhere around 400.

6. Automatic investment. I invested thru company plans as much as possible where they automatically took the money out of my paycheck and I never saw it. I also increased my investments every time I got a raise. I was already living on that income and managing so before I could get used to living on more income I would increase my investments and never notice the difference. Once I maxed out the company options it was harder to save and invest that money in funds each month. I usually reserved the funds each month in my tracking spreadsheet and once I got to a $1000 or so I would write a check and send it off.

The biggest thing was I started investing early and had 25 years for my investments to grow using compound interest.

That's basically it, all the boring things the investment books tell you to do. Buy high, sell low, invest for the long term, dollar-cost averaging, tax advantage funds, low investment costs, automatic investing. Boring, but it worked.

In the last 10 years I've met a lot of people who do day-trading and they always tell you about the huge amounts of money they made on a deal. But you never see any signs of that money long term, to me it's like gambling. I know 2 who used to tell me how much they made and both had to refinance their houses because they ended up losing so much. Refinancing when you are 50/60 is a bad deal.

I finished reading the library book Longeye by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Sci/Fi - pretty good.

I got my latest $5 Amazon gift card posted on swagbucks today, which made my total of free gift card credits almost $30. I bought 2 44 oz bottles of extra virgin olive oil for $17.67. That's at least a year's supply - I hope. I have been using it a lot more in cooking. The original price was $20.79 + $8.18 for shipping. By signing up for the subscribe and save feature I get free shipping and a 15% discount. I can cancel the subscribe and ship before they send me another order in 6 months. I have been buying it in the store for about $6/16 ozs or $33 so 'saved' $15.33 or almost half.

I finished reading the library book Port Mortuary by Patricia Cornwell. Mystery - very good. I had a hard time putting this down.

Safeway has a new coupon book out called something like the Joy of Football. Anyways it has some really good coupons, one of which is $1 off Chex Mix. Walgreens has a Chex Mix deal that makes this a money maker.

3.99 - 3 bags Chex Mix - I got the ones that said 33% more so they were the 12 oz bags.
-3.00 - 3 $1 q's from Safeway book
- .99 - .99/3 WAG q from their January book
-----
FREE plus got a $1.50 RR back. If you buy 4 you get $2.50 and 5 gives you a $3.50 RR. These will all be donated to the food pantry.

I also got 2 boxes of 10 ct Old El Paso taco shells on sale for .99 each. I had 2 .50 cent coupons so .98 for 2. Will donate these also.

Spent about an hour on the phone with older niece. She's taking an anthropology class this semester and likes it so much, wants to change her minor to it. Now wants to see if their are any jobs that combine anthropology and psychology. I couldn't think of any, but who knows. I'm really enjoying the Great Courses DVDs I got on Existentialism and we talked about that for a while.

It's nice enough here that mom and I can walk outside after awhile. Looks like most of the rest of the country is getting our snow this year.

I finished reading my book Dragonseye by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - pretty good.

Swagbucks recently started giving you 10 points for each coupon you clip and use from their site. It takes 6 - 8 weeks to show up. I got my first post of 20 swagbucks today. Must have used 2 coupons somewhere. Just another way of stretching savings a little bit more. Save on a sale, save with the coupons and save by clipping the coupon from swagbucks When I use 45 coupons, it will mean another $5 gift card from Amazon.

I got a $20 check in the mail for the Olay moisturizer I got last month. Also got a free sample of Slim Fast peanut butter bar, which got donated to the food pantry. I dropped about 10 bags of stuff off yesterday, it's been awhile because of either snow or I've been busy on the days they are open. They had a ton of food which was good to see.

I finished reading Crystal Dragon by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. Sci/Fi - very good.

I love long hot showers, especially with the massager beating down on my shoulders and head. The last time I was in an actual bathtub was when we went to Canada and I used the whirlpool tub in one of the hotel rooms I stayed in. However, because I take a shower everyday, my brain skips when it comes to wondering if I already shampoo'd or not. This morning I was wondering if I shampoo'd and I thought I had, but couldn't remember for sure. A few minutes later I started wondering again if I had shampoo'd. I'm pretty sure I did between the first wonder and the second wonder, but can't really remember Old age, or just poor memory? The problem is I shampoo every morning so am I remembering this morning's shampoo or some other morning's shampoo? My hair looks ok, so I must have shampoo's at some point today. Who knows how many times

I got gas at $2.86/gal today - total $30.44 and I picked up a prescription for $5.50. I'm out of prescription coupons so no free groceries

I got a free slim fast peanut butter bar in the mail. I'll donate it to the food pantry.

I finished reading the library book The White Road by Lynn Flewelling. Sci/Fi - good.

I took my youngest niece to see Narnia today. It was worth seeing, but not as good as the first two, in my opinion. Spent $12 on tickets - at least it wasn't 3-D this time. Really tired of that trend.

We went to Wendy's for lunch beforehand. Niece was telling me about their new fries and how good they are. I agree they are pretty good. I haven't been there in months. Spent $13.18

After the movie we went to Cold Stone for ice cream. I brought half of mine home since I was still full. Spent $8.18

Had a good time with niece. Talked about several things including early retirement and how saving your money gets you good things in life. Also talked about college and how so many kids end up spending so much for college and then get a job that doesn't pay the loans and basic living expenses. Her new plan is to become a surgeon, but only in 10th grade so lots of time to decide for sure.

When I brought her back home her mom had locked her out. Good thing I always wait to make sure they get in the house safe. They live out in the middle of nowhere. I took her to my mom's since they have an extra key and then drove her back home.

I finished reading my book Raven's Strike by Patricia Briggs. Sci/Fi - very good.

Went to Walgreens this morning. They have Kraft Homestyle mac n' cheese on sale for $1.67/each. I got 2 and used 2 $1 manufacture coupons and 1 $1/2 Walgreen coupon to get them for .17/each. I'll give them to my niece.

I also got 2 packs of 2 ct Sharpie pens. On sale with Walgreens in-add coupon for .99/each. Saving $2.00/each. I used one of the $2 RRs I got last week from buying cereal to pay for them. These have been on my list for awhile so was glad to finally find them for a good price.

I finished reading the library book Side Jobs by Jim Butcher. Sci/Fi - very good.

As we grow up we often hear cautionary tales from the greeks and the bible about being too happy, or enjoying a possession too much. If you express your happiness it attracts the gods who then take away the object of your happiness. We often turn away compliments on things, or actions buy saying something to lessen the compliment, we even tell them about the flaws so they know it's not as good as they think it is. In many cultures artists deliberately introduce something to mar their creations so they are not perfect, thus turning away jealousy from the gods. We knock on wood when we say something is particularly good.

We are allowed to complain, and often do, about our lot in life, but people who state too often how happy they are, or how much they enjoy thier things are accused of bragging, or showing off. I wonder why our society puts more emphasis on being unhappy than happy. It's more socially acceptable to complain about things in your life than to say how happy you are about your life. The majority of advertising is about telling us how unhappy we are, or should be, with our lives and how if only we would buy xyz, we would be happy. However the accumulation of all the ads constantly telling us what is wrong with our lives adds up to an overall feeling of not being happy, of discontent with our lives or possessions.

Subconsciously we feel if we are too happy, or enjoy something too much we are tempting fate. If I compliment my mom on how healthy she is at 71, she always says something like, as far as we know, or there might be something bad we don't know about going on inside. I asked why and she said it's a way of not tempting fate so she becomes really sick. Like if the gods hear she is healty and she knows it and enjoys it, something will happen to her.

I frequently walk thru my house or sit in my chair reading and think about how happy I am with my life. How much I enjoy what I am doing or feeling. How much I like one of my things, like my comfy chair, or a picture on the wall. How I feel good as I'm walking, no pain, how pretty the day is, etc. I don't feel like I can say these things very often though, since it feels like bragging or unnecessarily bringing notice to the fact that I have something someone else might not. That's not to say my life is perfect, because it's not. I have days when I don't feel so well, or am just generally out of sorts with the world. But they are few and far between since I retired.

However, even though I am consciously happy much of the time, the things I talk about or blog about are often the complaints in life. Maybe the complaints are more interesting, but I think there's a kind of societal pressure not to be too happy, or if you are, not to talk about it much. Possibly because it makes others feel bad about whatever is wrong in their lives, possibly because it brings unwanted attention from the fates to see if they can make you unhappy once you've had a taste of happiness. Regardless of whether it tempts the fates or not, I want to acknowledge my happiness with my life. From the everyday small things, like the taste of an egg sandwich or how much I enjoy my reading chair, to the bigger things like how proud and pleased I am by the people my nieces are turning into or walking with my mom each day.

I finished reading my book The Girl Who Heard Dragons by Anne McCaffrey. Sci/Fi - ok

I had to go in town for a dr appt yesterday and took the opportunity to run errands. I had 5 Border's bucks at Borders and used a 33% off coupon to get a book for .33, which I paid for using a free gift card for my credit card reward. Free book

I stopped at Albertson's where they had a buy 8 get $4 off sale. As part of the sale I got:

2.98 - 2 tubs I can't believe it's not butter
-1.00 - wyb 8 sale discount
-2.00 - 2 $1 q's
------
.02 profit

2.00 - loaf of whole wheat bread on sale
-2.00 - free wyb 2 I can't believe it's not butter
------
FREE

4.47 - 3 jars Ragu spaghetti sauce
-1.50 - wyb 8 discount
-----
2.97 - got back a $1 RR making them .66/each

5.97 - 3 boxes Frosted Flakes
-1.50 - wyb 8 discount
-1.10 - wyb 2 q
-----
3.37 - these go to the food pantry

I got a car wash to get the big chunks of ice and crud off the car - $7. I miss the days of free car washes when you filled your tank.

At the Dr's he told me my kidney is leaking calcium. Calcium is what is causing my kidney stones. Based on my tests I have the second highest calcium retention number in my urine that he's ever seen. I've always been an over-achiever Anyways I now have a new medicine to take to stop this and I also have to take 1200 mg of fish oil/day.

I met my mom at Red Robin for my free bday burger. It was 9.44 before the coupon discount so I chipped in a $1.50 in tip for my meal. She wasn't feeling very good, so I felt bad she thought she had to meet me. My youngest niece has mono and strep throat and she breathed all over mom and me on Sunday when we met for lunch. Fortunately I didn't get sick yet. Mom was feeling much better today so not sure if she had the strep throat or what. She had a very sore throat and felt tired/achy, but feels really good now. Don't know if only lasts one day.

After lunch I went to Target. I had a coupon for $10 gift card when you get a new prescription filled and I used it when I got my new med filled. It cost $2.44. I spent $9.83 on the stuff I bought at Target so that was all free with the $10 gift card and I have .17 whole pennies left to splurge with

While waiting for the prescription to be filled I was checking out the fish oil. Target had 60 ct 1200 mg Nature Made fish oil on sale for half price $5 and I had $5 coupons. So I got 4 bottles for free, or almost if you don't count taxes When I got home I added the points to my Nature Made Wellness account and I had enough to order a $7 coupon.

I also got 2 free trial sizes of Tide at Target and they had deal of Ponds cleaning cloths wyb 30 get 10 free and I used a $1 Target q to get 40 for 3.96 - good price.

Today I went to King Soopers for groceries. I needed stuff I didn't have coupons for like milk, veggies and meat. I only had 3 coupons for which I got 1 lb of baby carrots free and 2 large tubes of Colgate toothpaste free. The toothpaste goes to the food pantry. The rest of my groceries added up to 30.11. I used my pharmacy RX coupons to pay for all of it - so more free groceries.

To summarize in the last 2 days I got the following for free:

1 book
2 tubs butter
1 loaf bread
1 burger at Red Robin
1 lb mini carrots
2 tubes of Colgate toothpaste
4 bottles Nature Made fish oil pills
2 trial size Tide
10 Ponds cleasning cloths
$10 of stuff at Target
$30 groceries at King Soopers

I finished reading my book Embrace the Night by Karen Chance. Paranormal - ok.

Social Security sends out Your Social Security Statement 2 months before your bday every year. I am just now getting around to filing mine. I love this document, it tells me so many interesting things.

For example between my employers and me, we've paid $134,834.00 into social security over 30 years of working. If I could have had that money to invest directly I'm sure it would be close to $300,000. According to the form if I start collecting benefits at 62 it would take 8 years to use up that money. If I start at 67 it would take 5 years and 5 months to use it up. If I wait till 70, I would use it up in only 4 years.

My employer and I have paid $31,642 towards medicare. I could use that up in 3 days in the hospital. No wonder that program is going broke.

I started paying SS in 1979 and finished in 2008. My first full year of working was 1981 and I made $6,617. My last full year of working was 2007 and I made $89,105. My salary increased 13 1/2 times in 30 years.

Over the 30 working years I earned a total of $1,099,097.00. More than a million dollars. An average of $36,636.56/year. However I didn't start making $36K a year until 1998. It was only the last 10 years I worked that I started making really good money.

If I start collecting SS at 62 I will get $1,414/month. That's more than 2/3rds of what I need each month to live on based on today's prices. Who knows what it will cover in 12 years, if I even make it that long.

I finished reading my book To Kiss in the Shadows by Lynn Kurland. Romance - very good, very sweet.

One of my goals this year is to increase things I do for charity. One of the things I decided to do was send my expired coupons to the military families overseas.

I get 3 coupon inserts each week. I buy 2 Denver Post subscriptions and my parents give me the coupons from the local paper that they don't want, usually all of them. I cut out the coupons I think I will use, if there is a good sale. Usually only a dozen or so a week. I file these in a plastic check file folder that I carry with me to the store.

The rest of the inserts I save in a file folder with the date on the front. Then if I read about a good sale on something I could get for the food pantry or a money maker, I go to the file and clip the coupons I need that week.

So each month I go through the coupons in my plastic check file and get rid of the expired ones. Then I have about 10 weeks of inserts filed by date in a drawer. Each week I take the oldest file and take out the coupon inserts and put the new inserts in the file. I cross out the date on the front and put the new date on and the file goes to the top of the pile.

I used to just throw the old inserts away, but now I am clipping every coupon in the old file to send to the military. It takes quite a bit of time, even combining inserts so I cut 2 - 3 at a time. Then the coupons have to be sorted by food and non-food and placed in a baggie to keep them seperate. I've been clipping them while eating breakfast.

I sent my first batch off to a place in the U.S. that will then send them overseas, so I didn't have to deal with filling out custom forms, etc. The coupons were about 4" thick, it weighed 11.7 oz and cost $3.09 to mail.

My mom sent me an email with my birth stats yesterday. I was born at 5:07 am, weighed 7# 2oz, was 20 inches long. I was a 10 month old baby so I was born with a 3" ponytail hanging down my back, you can see it in a lot of my baby pictures.

I finished reading the library book Out of the Dark by David Weber. Sci/Fi - very good.

Well I made it to half a century, and with any luck I might make another half a century It was a little iffy for a while last year on if I would make the half century mark. My brother died at 44 and didn't make it. The way I feel now though, you wouldn't know I was so sick last year. The only way to tell is by all the scars on my stomach from the surgeries.

Periodically I ask myself if you had a million dollars or if you knew you only had 6 months to live what would you change? The only thing I could think of last night was if I knew I only had 6 months to live I would try to get rid of a lot of my stuff to save my relatives from having to deal with it. I'm going to try to do some of that anyways this year. I want most of my stuff, but need to weed out the files and get rid of some of the things I don't use anymore.

But my life is pretty good the way it is. I just always feel so happy about the way I'm living now.

For my birthday I got 50 swagbucks. I also got a really nice jigsaw puzzle that looks challenging and a surge protector that automatically shuts appliances off when not in use, and a really cool space heater. It's a ceramic tower with a remote control. I can sit in my chair and turn it on/off, make it move back and forth, set it on a timer for 1 - 4 hours, and change the heat from 65 - 95 degrees. I really like it. My philosophy has always been to heat me and not the whole house.

After walking today mom and dad took me out to Village Inn for lunch, even though they already paid for lunch yesterday. Mom felt really bad that I didn't want a celebration for my birthday and have cake. I told her I didn't want a celebration and I would rather have pie than cake anyways. So she was bound and determined I would have a piece of pie. She wanted dad to go get it to give it to me after our walk, but he said lets just eat lunch there and get it then. So that's what we did. I got a piece of lemon supreme pie to go. That's my favorite.

I finished reading my book The Mage's Daughter by Lynn Kurland. Sci/Fi - very good.

I hit 4 Walgreens on the way to meet my parents, sister and youngest niece at Red Lobster for lunch today. My parents bought us all lunch to celebrate my 50th bday, which is tomorrow.

On the way I got a free bowl of Spaghetti and meatballs and a chiabatta roll at Noodles and Company, which I will eat tomorrow or the next day. Free when you sign up for their bday club. I got a chicken alfredo dinner for $5 off at Jason's deli, also a bday deal. I spent $3.68 on this so not free, but good deal. Will eat in the next couple of days. I still have a free burger at Red Robin. I didn't get as many free bday deals this year as I did last year.

I also went to Barnes and Noble and got 3 free books using a $25 gift card I got for xmas. My sister gave me another $50 gift card for my bday at lunch.

At Walgreens I got a lot of stuff for the food pantry, I used gift cards bought with RRs so no out of pocket costs. Ended up with $8 in new RRs.

4 packages 48 ct Stayfree
8 boxes Kellogs Special K cereal
3 boxes Quaker oatmeal
4 Reach toothbrushes

27.16 - 4 Stayfree
2.00 - taxes
-----
29.16
-2.00 - 2 $1 q's
-12.00 - 2 BOGO q's up to $6
-12.00 - Walgreens in-ad q's takes $3 off each one
------
3.16

20.00 - 4 boxes cereal
-10.00 - 4 BOGO q's
------
10.00 - got back $2 RR for every 2 bought. Reason why there was 4 transactions. So got back $8 in RRs making it .25/box

5.98 - 2 Reach toothbrushes on clearance 2.99
7.98 - 2 Reach toothbrushes on clearance 3.99
1.03 - taxes
-----
14.99
-4.00 - 2 $2 q's
-2.99 - 1 bogo q
-3.99 - 1 bogo q
-8.00 - Walgreen q $2 off each toothbrush
------
3.99 profit - when you have overage you need to make sure you buy something else to soak it up. In this case I used the Kelloggs cereal. This was done in 2 different transactions. I store had the brushes on sale for 2.99 and one for 3.99

9.00 - 3 boxes Quaker oatmeal
-3.00 - 3 $1 q's
-4.50 - Walgreen q takes off 1.50/box
-----
1.50 - .50/each

Last stop on the way home was King Soopers.

15.26 - 7 Lean Cuisine Market Creations
-4.36 - 2 free wyb 5
-3.00 - 3 $1/2 q's
-----
7.90 or 1.13/each - used my RX coupons to pay, so free.

I finished reading library book The Freedom Manifesto by Tom Hodgkinson. Non-Fiction. This was a very interesting book with a lot of interesting ideas, some good, some not, but it made you think about things like debt, thrift, work etc. I like it.

I bought my chair at the grocery store. It was regularly priced at 499.99 and on sale for 249.00. I got 5% back using my credit card and 249 gas points. I paid almost $20 in taxes.

My dad fell on the ice bringing it in. I felt so bad. He hit his head and shoulder. I'm sure he's hurting, but he shrugs it off. I'm really glad he didn't break anything. The chair was in two pieces so it wasn't that hard to bring in and they loaded it at the store. It fits well although it is 6" wider than my last one. Very comfy though. It's a dark brown.

He took my old chair and plans to see if the Goodwill will take it. I can't imagine anyone wanting it. It's got cuts in the leather and major sections of it are worn off. I think it would be better to just get rid of it. I don't care to have strangers come to my house, since I live alone, so I'm not interested in freecycle or craigslist. If the goodwill doesn't take it he plans to take it to the place I found that will charge $12.

I took him and mom to lunch at Texas Roadhouse as thanks for the help.

I finished reading the library book Shadows Return by Lynn Flewelling. Sci/Fi - pretty good.