T.G.I.F. Friday: Volume 104
Welcome to “Thank God I’m FI” Friday, Volume #104!
Here are some things I really like and that you might too.
Financial Independence/Work Life/Retirement Articles
The Benefits and Drawbacks of Taxable Accounts (Can I Retire Yet) – “…supersavers planning for early retirement may have no choice but to use taxable accounts if you want to save more after maxing out all of your tax-advantaged options.”
Following My Heart Instead of the Money (One Frugal Girl) – “Financial independence offers a world of opportunities. So which one do I take?”
Video
Time for nature porn again! Enjoy this amazing tour of Deschutes National Forest, a place I’ve done some hiking in but really need to get back to. As always with 4k or 8k nature porn, don’t watch this on your phone. Put it on the big screen, chill out, relax, and enjoy.
Who’s Inspired Me
Coco Gauff.
Gauff just won the U.S. Open Tennis tournament at the age of 19. While not nearly as young as Martina Hingis or Monica Seles when they struck grand slam gold, Gauff is the youngest American to win one since Serena Williams in 1999. This is great for American tennis. And it continues the streak of female talent coming out of the states. Unfortunately American men aren’t quite shouldering their load. Gauff’s post-win interview was also awesome and showed lots of maturity for a 19 year old.
What I’m Grateful For
A top ten result in a recent bike race. To be honest I was hoping for better but I’m learning to have perspective and see the big picture more. I’m just grateful I was able to throw down with the fast guys and make a showing.
Lyrically Speaking
All along I thought that you were gonna save me
All along I thought of you
From “All Along” by The Boo Radleys
The Boo Radleys released their first album in 1990 and started garnering fame and fans, mostly in Europe. Their 1993 album Giant Steps was an underground and critical smash and won them a cult following. They toed the line between the 90’s shoegaze and Britpop movements, but still stayed largely unknown in America. I’ve always been a huge music nut and had heard of them but don’t think I had ever heard a single song.
They went on hiatus in 1998 and seemingly were done and dusted. Then in 2022 they resurrected with a new release called Keep On With Falling, and it’s really good! Often when once-great bands reunite and make new music the new stuff tends to be, well, kinda lame. I’ve been listening to Keep On With Falling and their follow up, 2023’s Eight for a while now and love the rock-pop sounds. The song highlighted above, “All Along”, is my favorite by far and has a super-hooky melody that I can’t stop humming.
As for the two lines in the song above, if you think being financially independent is going to solve all of your problems and save you, well, you might be in for a let down.
Miscellaneous
How Cardio Fitness, Exercise Counteract Cognitive Decline – “Our findings suggest that a lifestyle involving moderate to strenuous physical activity may help maintain cognitive processing in the prefrontal cortex of older adults that matches that of younger adults.“
Cough syrup killed scores of children. Why no one has been held to account – “Toxic cough syrup made and sold in India may have been the start of a recent global wave of contamination.“
Rising number of ‘predatory’ academic journals undermines research and public trust in scholarship – “Predatory publishing creates a major obstacle in the drive to ensure that new research on critical topics is well-founded and truthful.”
man, i remember a couple of dozen bands reminding me of the boo radleys in the mid 90’s. the jellyfish particularly come to mind back when i would bother to go see small shows in local venues only holding a couple of hundred. cheers!
well done on that bike race. i’m in a race to see how fat i can get.
They just never got on my radar in the 1990’s, and that’s because as you know back in those days our musical knowledge was largely limited by what our local radio stations played. I did get a music magazine or two, but still never found them. And thanks for the kudos!
Congrats on the top 10 finish! That’s quite an achievement for anyone. Cycling competition can be fierce! My best finish was a 100k gravel bike race. I finished 18th and I’m pretty happy with that one considering the weather conditions were terrible. Once I hit my retirement date in 2025 I’ll probably get more serious about my training and do some more racing. I’ll probably stick to gravel and maybe branch out to mtb xc racing if my wife will let me add a new bike to the stable 🙂
Congrats to you too, that’s awesome. I did one gravel race this year and had a blast, problem is I don’t have a great gravel bike. I use an aluminum cross bike that’s about 24lbs from 2010 – it’s a great bike overall and it’s my bikepacking workhorse but on the hills in a gravel race the extra weight is a penalty. Part of me wants to buy a race-worthy gravel bike but then I wouldn’t want to use that for bikepacking since that gives a bike a beating, so I’d keep my cross bike and then I’d have WAY too many bikes. Right now I don’t want the stress 🙂
Nature porn, love that phrase! Way cooler than food porn. Can’t get enough of pine trees and water.
Shelter, clothing, pine trees and water… the essentials 🙂
That’s concerning about the predatory journal stuff. When trying to figure something out I try to read the underlying research instead of relying on the takeaways as summarized by some brief news article. Guess now I’ve got to go an extra layer deeper to make sure the journal is legit. Blerg.
Even though I denied it, I subconsciously hoped FI and retiring early was going to solve a lot of my problems. You are absolutely right, it did not. Everything’s not magically better, but I’ve had the time to work on me instead of working for someone else. So, it sorta did save me, or at least gave me the space to save myself. Which has been pretty freaking awesome.
Anyways, stoked you got into the top 10 (way better than my solid middle of the pack series finish). And major congrats on the perspective shift. That’s probably worth way more than getting on the podium.
As for the journals, just look up the “Grievance study” controversy. Bonkers. And I’m with ya dude, as selfish as it sounds my free time over the past 5+ years of part time work has largely been spent on ME, specifically getting healthier and staying that way. Nothing wrong with looking out for #1. Lastly keep racing that bike, I’ve been “middle of the pack-jack” more times than I can count and that’s okay too. Better than last 🙂
Another issue related to the predatory ‘academic’ journals is the pay-to-publish world going after high school kids (and parents) to improve their resume for college applications. Most admissions officers don’t have time to check if the journal is real or predatory, so if it sounds plausible, it can boost the kid’s chances. Typical process is to pair the student with a junior prof at a college/university, do some research at home (e.g. science fair experiment), student writes the paper, company edits/re-writes, prof submits the paper to journal owned by the company. Only ones hurt are the kids without the money or savvy to do the same. Not a big deal, right?
Yeah I’ve heard about this too. Seems like paradoxically in a world with more access to information than ever it’s also simultaneously becoming harder to get to the truth.