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    Viewing category: Career

    6 Takeaways from a Rather Unremarkable IT Career

    By Craig Stephens

    I recently left my 20-year information technology (IT) career to be a full-time blogger.  Most of my career involved partnering with a large government customer to modernize its massively-complex and outdated IT systems. My teammates trusted me. Managers gave me challenging assignments, and I exceeded expectations.  The client was always happy with my work. But…

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    Filed Under: Career

    12 Ways to Build Confidence to Change Careers

    By Craig Stephens

    After 20 years in information technology (IT), I decided to change careers to be a full-time blogger in early December. It’s an exciting milestone I’ve been planning for about five years.  Monday morning, after my last day at work, I sat down at a different computer without the looming threat of Microsoft Teams meetings.  I…

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    Filed Under: Career, Entrepreneurship

    Outside the Parameters of a Normal, Safe Life

    By Craig Stephens

    The 2022 HBO documentary Tony Hawk: Until the Wheels Fall Off is a fascinating biography of the skateboarding icon. As told through interviews with his Bones Brigade peers — all trailblazers themselves — Tony’s life is a story of risk-taking, failure, persistence, and entrepreneurship. Excelling to the top levels in any sport takes a natural…

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    Filed Under: Career, Unusual

    How Our Perceptions of Time and Money Change as We Age

    By Craig Stephens

    Our perceptions of the value of time and money shift as we age.  In early adulthood, time is abundant, while money is scarcer. We want more money and are willing to sacrifice our time to get it. By middle age, a thriving career helps us earn more, but job and family obligations consume our time….

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    Filed Under: Career, Personal Finance

    7 Smart Money Habits To Build Long-Term Wealth

    By Craig Stephens

    Smart money habits will help you reach your financial goals, with patience.  Most of us aren’t looking for extravagant wealth. We want sustainable and long-lasting wealth that provides financial security for our families and enough money to fund our desired lifestyle. That kind of wealth is more attainable than most people think. But there are…

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    Filed Under: Career, Debt, Investing, Stocks

    Don’t Follow the Money to an Unremarkable Career

    By Craig Stephens

    I fell into my career at age 23. A childhood friend worked for a nearby information technology (IT) consulting company in a hiring frenzy.  It was 1998. Dot-coms were booming. Y2K loomed. The U.S. government had a revenue surplus, and we lived in the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington D.C. Experienced talent was scarce, opening…

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    Filed Under: Career, Investing

    A Healthy Obsession with Money

    By Craig Stephens

    I’m obsessed with money. I think about earning, saving, and growing money most of the day. I’ve written about money for more than seven years.  Saying someone is obsessed with money might conjure to mind words like greed, fame, power, influence, and opulence. Picture a celebrity flashing fancy clothes and jewelry on Instagram and their…

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    Filed Under: Career, Investing, Personal Finance

    Don’t Let an Oppressive Mortgage Prolong Your Career

    By Craig Stephens

    A former manager was into office gift-giving.  Most of the team was over 50. As a joke, she gave everyone a pocket guide to texting acronyms. The “older folks” were still learning about terms like LOL, TL;DR, LMFAO, OMG, and WTF. This was around 2014 before we had our third child.  Flipping through the pages,…

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    Filed Under: Career, Personal Finance, Real Estate

    Intoxicated by the Romance of the Unusual

    By Craig Stephens

    Live the full life of the mind, exhilarated by new ideas, intoxicated by the romance of the unusual. – Ernest Hemingway This Hemingway quote came up in one of my social media feeds (read to the end to learn the quote’s origin). Most of the time, I roll my eyes at quotes and memes shared…

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    Filed Under: Career, Entrepreneurship, Unusual Tagged With: Favorites

    Retire Before Dead

    By Craig Stephens

    Someone on Facebook with a very dry sense of humor commented:  You misspelled dead. — Facebook Reader It took me a while — then, the epiphany. After seven years of blogging, I realized my blog name is one letter away from Retire Before Dead. And wow, far more people are probably striving for that goal…

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    Filed Under: Career, Personal Finance, Unusual

    Is Your Salary an Unhealthy Addiction?

    By Craig Stephens

    I’m grateful to work for a high-quality employer that appreciates my contributions and pays me a reliable paycheck 26 times a year. The retirement plan is best I’ve seen anywhere. The healthcare plan is first-rate — our family never worries about coverage or costs. It’s challenging work, and I occasionally even feel like I’m making…

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    Filed Under: Career, Personal Finance

    The Definition of Financial Success is Not So Obvious

    By Craig Stephens

    The Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge attraction recently opened at both Disneyland in Anaheim, CA, and Walt Disney World in Orlando, FL. Despite the long-awaited openings, Disney stock analysts were disappointed to see overall theme park attendance down 3% in the fiscal third quarter.  Visitors to the planet Batuu meet face-to-face with the Millennium Falcon and…

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    Filed Under: Career, Personal Finance, Unusual

    For the Happiness of All Humankind

    By Craig Stephens

    I’ve been thinking a lot about happiness recently. Not so much about what makes me happy, but about the mechanics of creating sustained happiness in life.  Over and over again, I read about successful people I admire who have all the money they need but still don’t feel fulfilled with their lives. The actor Jim…

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    Filed Under: Career, Personal Finance, Travel, Unusual

    How to Retire at Age 55 – An Interview with Fritz Gilbert of The Retirement Manifesto

    By Craig Stephens

    Not long ago, a fellow retirement blogger retired at the age of 55. I have the same retirement goal! So when I read about his triumphant exit from corporate America, I thought, who better to interview about how to retire at age 55 than Fritz Gilbert of The Retirement Manifesto? Fritz spent 30+ years at…

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    Filed Under: Career, Interview, Investing, Personal Finance, Tax Advantaged

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