Greetings From Dystopian San Francisco!
Complete with a Tom Petty cover by Stevie Nicks
This trip to San Francisco threw off my normal posting schedule. So I just wanted to check in. It’ll be for the better, as I have a whole slate lined up, starting this coming week into 2024 and beyond.
As I wrote at Medium and will expand on in the newsletter—related to Living The Semi-Retired Life—what “they’re” saying about San Francisco is dead wrong. Not like it took me visiting my daughter here to (re)confirm that.
Speaking of that slate of content. Now is a fantastic time to upgrade your membership—from free to paid or monthly/yearly paid to founding. Founding memberships instantly convert to lifetime subscriptions. Pay Today. Never Pay Again.
Because I post a lot, here’s what you might have missed over the past week or so, followed by what to expect going forward—
In those preview posts, you see examples of the type of personal finance and investing content we do—all related back to semi-retirement.
Going forward, my plan is to continue it—obviously—but take a basic to intermediate to, in some cases, advanced approach. We’ll cover the intro-level material on a subject (saving, retirement plans, investing, etc.) and then up the complexity after establishing a base. I’ll determine the level of complexity in association with the need for complexity. Sometimes more isn’t better (or necessary), it’s just more.
And we’ll continue discussing place and other qualitative, but still concrete issues as they relate to Living The Semi-Retired Life and, possibly, moving to maximize it. This includes following the journey (and process) me and my partner are on to move to Spain.
Then, there’s the February-long trip, which is fast approaching—
As promised, in February, you can expect—
7 posts from each of the seven cities we’re visiting (Barcelona, Girona, Montpelier, Lyon, Paris, Bordeaux and Toulouse) with urban and food photography, cost of living comparisons and general observations as they relate to Living The Semi-Retired Life.
10 excruciatingly detailed posts on investing, saving and work-related semi-retirement income streams. Because most of us need multiples.
I plan to take actual grocery shopping trips in the US and do hypothetical trips to buy equivalent items in Spain and France to highlight differences in cost of living.
We had a lot of great content from Spain and Italy this past February. And we hope to do even better in less than two months!
This post — How To Afford Travel — was among the most popular.
This is where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re going.
An excellent time to join or upgrade as a paid subscriber.
As I mentioned ahead of the trip, I was planning to see Stevie Nicks with my daughter and her friend. And we did it last night.
She was incredible.
Stevie opened the show by playing Tom Petty’s Runnin’ Down A Dream (not a cover, but the actual song). She told the story of how Stop Dragging My Heart Around (a duet with Petty) came to be before playing—and crushing—it. And she opened the encore with Free Fallin’.
Just a great show. Her voice is top notch. Lots of energy (she’s 75!). And fun storytelling. I recommend checking her out when Stevie Nicks resumes her tour in February.
San Francisco’s Mission District / 16th and Valencia
These people are so terrified of this city that they had to “retreat” to walking outside and going inside an endless array of bars and restaurants!!
Such a beautiful and culturally rich neighborhood. I loved Carnival season. There were really fun little local parades where we learned some fun Capoeira and all danced around the neighborhood. Thanks for the memories
I think Fleetwood Mac with Christine McVie in 2019 was the last time I went to a live concert event. I love that Stevie is still touring and sounding amazing. Glad you were able to have a great time out with your daughter making memories before your move to Spain!