Book Review: Quit Like A Millionaire: No Gimmicks, Luck, or Trust Fund Required

Picture of a delicious-looking crêpe topped with ice cream sitting on a plate on a table beside the book Quit Like A Millionaire

This review is embarrassingly long-overdue. I won a free (signed) copy of the paperback in a contest on jlcollinsnh.com . It was a simple raffle, with no strings attached, but it is customary in circumstances such as these to review the book. Which has taken me a very long time to do because I am chronically ill/disabled, and for a long time, my brain was not working well enough to be able to read anything more taxing than social media or article abstracts. However, this year I have regained a bit of cognitive function, and have been able to read a few books, for which I am incredibly grateful. So, without further ado, here is my very tardy book review:

For a very long time, most of the voices in the personal finance space were male and white and economically privileged. In the US, that started to change in the 80s and 90s, with books like Making the Most of Your Money, by Jane Bryant Quinn (1991); Your Money or Your Life (YMOYL), written by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin (1992); and The Tightwad Gazette I, II, and III, written by Amy Dacyczyn (1992, 1995, 1996).

Personal Finance books started to reflect some societal changes, such as women in the workplace, with credit cards in their own names, money to invest, and the desire to plan for their financial security and their retirement. But the voices were still predominantly white and higher socioeconomic status (SES). Even the book The Millionaire Next Door (1996), which featured examples of men who had become wealthy in (mostly) blue-collar professions and who discussed their down-to-earth lifestyles (as contrasted to splashy millionaires on TV like those featured in Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, or fictionalized in the shows Dynasty and Dallas), mostly referred to their wives as stay-at-home coupon-clippers (in other words, they could afford to be single-income families, and the husband was the breadwinner).

As I began my adult life, I learned to get rid of debt and to begin to save. But once I reached that point, I was baffled about what to do next. No one *I* knew had investments or retirement accounts. The most financially-savvy people I knew had Christmas accounts, which saved an allocation from your paycheck each month so that you could withdraw your savings at the end of the year and be able to afford the extra expenses of the Christmas holidays. (That’s what they were called, and no one seemed to acknowledge that not all employees celebrated Christmas.)

In fact, to back my story up even further, I was a first-generation college student. And, boy, did I *not* know what I was doing when I went through middle school, high school, and college! The expectation that I would *go* to college was crystal clear and frequently reinforced, but how to get accepted to college, how to select an academic major, and how a college degree translated to getting a “good job” afterward were pretty mysterious to me. I pretty much flailed my way through all of it.

As I tried to learn about personal finance, I eventually turned to the personal finance section of my local public library and read nearly the entire section. Most of those books were helpful, but didn’t represent my circumstances. So imagine my delight, years later, to read a book written by someone who came from similar circumstances. In fact, in many ways, her childhood circumstances had been far worse than mine. While I grew up below the poverty level in America, Kristy Shen was born in abject poverty in Communist China.

In Quit Like a Millionaire, Kristy talks about things I never saw mentioned in other personal finance books, such as:

“When you’re poor, your choice isn’t between Barbie and My Little Pony. Your choice is between food, heat, and medicine, in that order.”

Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung, Quit Like a Millionaire, p.4

I remember My Boomer Parent begging the apartment manager for more time to come up with the rent payment. I remember the phone or the electricity being turned off because the bill hadn’t been paid. I remember having no medical insurance for most of my childhood, and therefore never seeing a doctor or a dentist. I remember finding ways to get to extracurricular activities (in order to have a college-worthy resume) because we couldn’t afford to own a car. But these are experiences I seldom saw represented in the personal finance/Financial Independence (PF/FIRE) communities.

Most people are talking about how to go from being well-off in affluent countries to being even better off, so that they can afford to stop working altogether and even travel the world. (Which is, in fact, what Kristy and Bryce have done – quit working and travel the world.) But Kristy is one of the only people talking about getting to that point after starting at a point so very, very far away from that – a point at which her family lived on forty-four cents a day.

While I enjoyed all of Kristy and Bryce’s book, the parts that resonated the most with me were the ones in which Kristy talks about education.

“Around the world, education often remains the only way out of poverty.” – Kristy Shen & Bryce Leung, Quit Like a Millionaire, p.24

Education was my pathway out of poverty, and it was Spousal Unit’s pathway out of poverty as well. And when I read chapter four, in which Kristy talks about how she selected both a college and a degree program based upon how much the associated career would pay after graduation in relation to how much the tuition was to attend said college and complete said degree, I suddenly flashed back to ninth grade.

Where I grew up, middle school/junior high consisted of grades 7, 8, and 9, and high school consisted of grades 10, 11, and 12. In the spring semester of ninth grade, guidance counselors came from the high school to the junior high school to help process our transition between schools in the fall. I distinctly remember the guidance counselor asking me what I wanted my academic major to be in high school. I was not prepared for this question. Not only did I not know I would be asked this question, I didn’t know what an academic major was, let alone which one I should select. The guidance counselor was very patient with me as I asked him numerous questions, but he refused to answer when I asked him which major was the “best” or which one I “should” major in. He insisted that I had to select for myself, and that he would not influence my decision.

I’ve thought about this moment a lot over the years, but it wasn’t until I read Quit Like a Millionaire that I finally fully understood this interplay. The guidance counselor might have had many reasons for not wanting to influence my decision. But he never understood my fundamental questions, which I didn’t myself know how to express: “Which academic major in high school is going to lead to the most career opportunities later in my life? Which academic major is going to lift me out of poverty? Which academic major will lead to financial security?” Eventually, I chose to major in math and science in high school, which led to a full-ride scholarship for college, a guaranteed job after college, and ultimately, financial security and financial independence.

But in ninth grade, what I was really asking the guidance counselor was, “How do I prepare in high school for a secure job in the future where I can make enough to pay my bills?” However, as well-meaning as my guidance counselor was, he couldn’t understand the questions I didn’t know how to word, because he didn’t have the same frame-of-reference I did: Poverty and determination to get out of poverty. Like Kristy, I wasn’t thinking about what classes I might enjoy in high school, or what my passions were. I was thinking about survival. The guidance counselor was asking me clarifying questions like “What do I enjoy?” and “What are my aptitudes?” None of that mattered to me then. From a survival mode, all I wanted to know is how to secure a J-O-B. “What would make me marketable?” Like Kristy and her dad, I wanted to know how to turn education into financial security.

Unlike me, Kristy found a way to express and quantify this idea, and her Pay-Over-Tuition (POT) calculation (pp. 27-28) has stayed with me ever since I read this book, and it’s a tool I highly recommend to others.

If you are financially comfortable, you might have the luxury to study whatever you desire. If you’re not, then Kristy’s calculations can help you decide where to go to college, how much to pay for college, and what academic major/future career to select, in such a way as to pursue the greatest potential rate-of-return.

Of course, as we’ve seen with the recent upheaval in the computer technology career space, there are no guarantees. Economies change. Politics change. The best you can do is make the best decision you can at the time with the information you’ve got. Quit Like a Millionaire helps you make those decisions.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading Quit Like a Millionaire and hearing voices and experiences represented with which I could identify. I hope we will continue to see more personal finance content that represents a broader range of the human experience and the financial experience. Everyone can benefit from access to financial information and financial conversations, and sometimes it helps to hear from a voice with which one can more closely identify.

NOTE: I was not compensated in any way for this review, other than having won a free copy of this book in a contest in exchange for my honest review.

Our Biggest Financial Liability is My Boomer Parent


Personal finance is personal – each person/family has a unique set of circumstances. Many of the loudest voices in the personal finance space are those of privileged individuals who have not had the additional struggle of providing for family members. But the experience of providing for or assisting family members is not uncommon, and I think it’s important to see that experience represented, and to talk about how it affects one’s financial journey.

We recently received our annual property tax estimate for the home in which My Boomer Parent lives, which prompted us to sit down and calculate how much it currently costs us to keep a roof over My Boomer Parent’s head. Which, in turn, caused me to realize that My Boomer Parent is our greatest financial liability. (Although the mortgage on the house in which we live is currently our biggest monthly expense, the expenses for the additional house in which My Boomer Parent lives is our second-biggest monthly expense, and would be our greatest expense if homeowners insurance hadn’t soared here in Florida. Between insurance where we live and taxes where My Boomer Parent lives, the costs of both houses keep increasing, and compete for which one costs us more. But we also occasionally help My Boomer Parent with other expenses as well.)

Supporting My Boomer Parent started out slowly and increased over time, much like the proverbial frog being cooked in a pot of water. First, my step-parent lost their job and was forced into early retirement. Without my step-parent’s income, my parents could no longer afford the monthly rent on their apartment in a high cost-of-living area (HCOL).

So, we moved them to a much lower cost-of-living (COL) area and bought them a house to live in. We figured this way we wouldn’t have to worry about them not being able to afford housing. They agreed to reimburse us for the monthly mortgage payments. This arrangement worked well until my step-parent abruptly passed away.

My Boomer Parent has always refused to discuss their finances, but they’ve always been working class. There isn’t much money to stretch. I helped them apply for Social Security benefits after my step-parent passed away. There was also a very modest pension. But, over time, their mortgage reimbursements to us dwindled and then stopped. We could afford to absorb the expense because Spousal Unit was still working, because we were frugal with our spending, and because we had purchased the house in a low COL area before house prices had skyrocketed. We took over the house payments because we felt like keeping a roof over My Boomer Parent’s head was the right thing to do.

A few years after my step-parent died, My Boomer Parent wanted to move to live closer to family. The new location was a higher cost-of-living area than where they had been living, but lower than where they had lived when step-parent had to retire. We sold their house and bought them a new, more expensive house (but still before housing prices skyrocketed). Spousal Unit was still working. We discussed the fact that this house was more expensive, but My Boomer Parent did not offer to reimburse us for any of the expenses. (They do pay for their utilities.)

Property taxes are much higher in the new location. (Their old state was in the lowest quintile for property taxes. Their new state is in the highest quintile.) The new house is located within a Homeowners Association (HOA), which has an annual fee. (Previous house did not have an HOA.) We also pay for insurance on the house and maintenance and repairs to the house and property.

More years passed. Real estate prices skyrocketed. Property tax assessed values increased significantly. And Spousal Unit has been retired for over a decade. We have worked diligently to decrease our fixed expenses. But the expenses for My Boomer Parent’s house keep increasing.

Spousal Unit and I are financially secure, due to a lot of hard work, some privilege, and some luck. [I acknowledge the role that all three play, and credit Angela Rozmyn of Women’s Personal Finance with putting the idea into words.]

As we toiled to become financially secure, we also assisted and provided for our parents and several of our siblings and nieces and nephews along the way. There are a lot of emotions that go along with that, but I am grateful that Spousal Unit has never resented our decisions to provide for our family members, even after I stopped working and Spousal Unit was carrying more of the financial burden. (Although, after more than two decades of paying for an additional house for My Boomer Parent to live in, and as the costs continue to climb, Spousal Unit is getting a little frustrated.)

To be honest, we never expected, when we made the decision to help my parents, that we’d be paying all of the expenses for decades. We thought we were helping My Boomer Parent and Step-parent get back on their feet after a setback, and helping them transition from a situation that was no longer sustainable to one that would be. I guess we are a cautionary tale about unintended consequences. Despite everyone’s good intentions, helping a family member financially can put a big strain on your own finances. Also, be very careful about deciding to co-sign a loan or a lease for a family member (or anyone else), because you might be stuck making the payments and if you can’t, your credit rating will be damaged and the debtor can sue you. It’s normal to want to help your loved ones, just try to do it in ways that won’t destroy your own financial security. [We’re fine. Just trying to pass along some financial wisdom.]

Reaching financial security while assisting family members and providing housing to several family members along the way has been more difficult than doing it without those extra expenses/responsibilities. Not gonna lie, sometimes I envy people whose parents have assisted their journey through life. But I also appreciate what I have gained by standing on my own two feet and working hard to leave poverty behind and reach financial security. However, I acknowledge that not everyone has the same privileges I have had, especially health privilege when I was younger, to be able to reach financial security through hard work. I also acknowledge that the current economy is very different than it was when I was working toward financial security.

If you choose to help your family financially, one challenge is to help them without enabling them to become financially dependent on you or enabling them to continue to make bad financial decisions. And another challenge is to be able to help loved ones without undermining your own financial position, if for no other reason than that you cannot continue to help them if you have nothing left to give. While we have succeeded at the second, I’m afraid we may have failed at the first. Given My Boomer Parent’s age and financial situation, we will most likely be paying for their housing expenses for the rest of their life (unless/until they need assisted living care). And while I do not want to see them out on the street, it’s also hard to avoid occasionally thinking about all of the other things Spousal Unit and I could have done with all the money we have spent housing My Boomer Parent for decades. There is an opportunity cost to spending one’s money helping others financially.

These are just a few aspects of the choice to help one’s family financially. There are others I didn’t cover here, such as the potential strains it can put on a marriage/partnership. Furthermore, helping one’s family financially is not just a financial decision, but also can be an emotional, spiritual, and/or culturally-based decision as well. No matter how you frame it, helping family members financially multiplies the number of people in your financial plan, and makes reaching your financial goals more challenging. It’s time we acknowledge that, and include these voices/stories/case studies in the personal finance space.

Have you helped family financially? What lessons have you learned from the experience? What advice would you give? Please share in the comments below.

Taboos: Talking/Not Talking About Money and Health

Today I was reading a new-to-me blog, and I was struck by an interesting thought. The blogger was talking about her near-death experience, but she chose not to reveal what her medical diagnosis was. I see that a lot on blogs. In fact, I’ve probably been cagey about some of my conditions as well.

Health, it seems, is one of the last things we don’t discuss in public.

Crew Dog, One Sick Vet

The fact that she chose not to reveal her diagnosis is interesting to me for several reasons. First, because she is a personal finance blogger, and they’re known for talking openly about another taboo subject – money. Second, she chose not to reveal her diagnosis even though she blogs anonymously. Third, as someone who is chronically ill myself, I always wonder what the unnamed condition is, and whether I can personally identify with/learn from this other person when I come across such a blog post.

So why don’t we blog more transparently about our health? How much of it is influenced by the ableist paradigm that is dominant in our societies? In the U.S., where I live, people are very uncomfortable talking (or even thinking) about illness, disability, or death.

While I will admit that it can be very tedious when someone traps you in a conversation in which they go on and on and on about every excruciating detail of their health issues, the great thing about a blog is that, if you don’t like, aren’t interested in, or find a certain post boring or uncomfortable, you don’t have to read it. You’re not trapped in the conversation (monologue).

Why else might someone choose not to discuss their health, or not to reveal their diagnoses/conditions? I’ve been thinking about this one a lot. And I think one concern is that social media can be used against the content provider. What do I mean, specifically? There might be an underlying fear that information provided on social media could be used against the individual by the healthcare insurer.

In the same way that job applicants occasionally find themselves not receiving job offers or having offers revoked, and students applying for higher education occasionally find themselves not receiving school admissions, or having offers revoked, due to content they have posted on social media, patients might fear that insurers could use information about their health or daily lives provided on social media to disapprove treatments, medications, or coverage.

Don’t believe that could happen? I’ve heard many chronically ill people state that their applications for disability were denied because a picture or a statement on social media was used as evidence that their condition was not as disabling as they claimed.

Like the Brady Bunch episode “Fender Benders,” in which a man unscrupulously tries to claim car and physical damages which were not caused by the minor car accident, but is exposed in the nick of time as a fraud when Mr. Brady drops his briefcase on the floor and the man turns his neck at the sound, proving his injury is false, people seem skeptical about any chronic illness or disability and they seem eager to disprove these conditions.

Don’t believe me? How many cases have you seen in social media of everyday citizens shaming someone for parking in a disabled parking spot because they can’t see the disability, or don’t believe the individual is really disabled, or because they “look too young to be disabled,” or even shaming a woman for parking in a disabled veterans designated parking spot – news flash, women are veterans too.

How many posts or memes have you seen shaming a person in a wheelchair or on a scooter for standing up to reach something off a higher shelf in a store? I’ve seen them. They usually say something like, “Look, it’s a miracle! They can stand!” Well, guess what? Not everyone who needs to use mobility aids is a quadriplegic, or even a paraplegic. Not everyone has visible signs of their chronic illness or disability. And you, average, everyday citizen, are not the disability police.

But what about the people whose actual job it is to process disability claims or investigate for insurance fraud? Would you be surprised to learn that most of them do not have medical degrees or training? Most of them aren’t chronically ill or disabled either. So why are they the ones making life-altering decisions affecting healthcare and finances of chronically ill and disabled individuals? For that matter, most DOCTORS don’t understand chronic illness or disability. So even placing medical personnel in these positions might not alter the outcomes. Their job is not to weigh the evidence and reach an accurate and fair decision – their job is to save the company (or the government) money. By denying claims. Denying coverage. Denying medications. Denying treatments.

In personal finance blogging, you can write about whatever you want, and no one will appear and take away your investments or your pension (should you be lucky enough to have one). The worst thing that could probably happen is that the IRS might decide to audit you in response to something you wrote in a post.

But in chronic illness/disability blogging, the stakes are much higher. Because, unless you’re able to pay cash for the medications, treatments, and consultations you need, you’re always vulnerable to your healthcare provider/insurer. You’re always vulnerable to them denying payment, or denying coverage, or terminating your coverage.

“Unless you’re able to pay cash for the medications, treatments, and consultations you need, you’re always vulnerable to your healthcare provider/insurer.” – One Sick Vet, onesickvet.com

The costs of healthcare are getting higher and higher, and institutions and organizations are looking to cut costs by reducing coverage and denying coverage. Many organizations have reduced healthcare costs by hiring mostly part-time employees with no healthcare benefits. Retirees with company healthcare benefits are finding the premiums going up and up in retirement.

So you can understand why a blogger might choose not to reveal their diagnoses, their conditions, publicly. Even if they’re not concerned that you would “look at them differently” after that, even if they decide they don’t care that they could be labelled and seen as “nothing more” than their disability, the biggest fear is that they would always be wondering, “Is something I casually share going to affect my healthcare coverage?”

It’s easy to see a person in a wheelchair stand up and think “They’re not really disabled.” Or to see a picture of someone outside and think, “See, there they are, doing the thing they said they couldn’t do. I knew they were lying.” But what you don’t see is the 20 minutes (or longer) that wheelchair user sat in the parking lot trying to get up the energy to get back into their vehicle, because they used all of their energy to stand up in the store and reach the thing they needed or really wanted, which was located out of their reach. You don’t see that the person who was outside doing the thing had been in bed for days beforehand, storing up as much energy as possible, and will be in bed for days afterward to recover from having done the thing. You don’t see the vomiting, diarrhea, migraines, inability to breathe, and other effects that come from exposure to your fragrances, and so you conclude, “See, they’re not *really* allergic to fragrances! I wore some and they were fine.”

There’s a lot you don’t see, and we probably would never tell you (unless asked compassionately), because we don’t want to be that person described above who traps you in a conversation about our illness, disability, or special needs that you’re not interested in hearing about. But just because you don’t see, or hear, or understand something doesn’t mean it isn’t real or true. And just because you see or hear something doesn’t mean the conclusions you draw from it are true or accurate.

So am I apprehensive to share on my blog that I have chronic, intractable migraines, in case you also hear or see that I eat chocolate? Does it make me a “faker” and threaten my healthcare coverage that I eat chocolate, because “everyone knows” that chocolate is a migraine trigger? No. Because EVERYONE’S BODY IS DIFFERENT. I happen to be able to eat moderate amounts of chocolate without getting a migraine. That does not mean that I don’t have chronic, intractable migraines. I do. I was diagnosed over twenty years ago. No medications helped (until Botox). In fact, because everyone’s bodies are different, one of the primary classes of medications given to migraine patients is contraindicated in my case. The supporting evidence that Botox significantly improves my quality of life is much greater than the supporting evidence (mostly anecdotal) that chocolate triggers migraines. That’s a health condition I’m willing to reveal, and a fight I’m prepared to fight.

Even though migraine is a woefully under-researched condition, and the condition is still little understood, there is sufficient evidence to defend my diagnosis, course of treatment, and personal behaviors. I have other heath issues that are even less understood, probably because they are even less researched.

These issues I have been more reluctant to talk about on this blog, for several reasons. First and foremost, I do not want to foster or spread false information. If I claim to have a condition, and I state certain things work for me, and then it turns out that’s not really what I had after all, I might have provided incorrect information to you. [Even though I AM NOT A DOCTOR, and anything I share on this blog is for entertainment or informational purposes only.] Second, since I don’t have diagnoses for these conditions, I don’t have research to guide my actions or defend my actions. I could be inadvertently jeopardizing my healthcare coverage if I say things on this blog that could cause a provider or insurer to disbelieve my physical limitations or to deny coverage or treatments. [Update since the original draft: I have received several more diagnoses from medical specialists, and may mostly have all my conditions diagnosed now.]

After all, if I talk about doing something, being active, in someone’s mind that means I’m not “really” chronically ill or disabled, right? You don’t see the two times I lost an entire year of my life to illness, and did nothing more than move from the bed to couch and from the couch to the bed (most days – some days/months I stayed in bed, or lived on the couch 24/7.)

Tanja Hester at Our Next Life is a big proponent for transparency in the FIRE [Financial Independence, Retire Early] community. As I understand her position, she believes that FIRE social influencers should be transparent about their sources of income and about whether their financial independence and/or early retirement statuses are due to the techniques and actions they espouse on their blogs/podcasts/channels, or whether there are supplemental sources of income such as inheritances or income from social media outlets that have enabled or supported their lifestyles. IOW, is what they recommend to others and assert they have done themselves replicable*? If you followed their advice, could you achieve the same result? [This transparency can be achieved whether one blogs anonymously or whether one’s identity is public knowledge.] *[See here for an interesting scientific article on the terms repeatability, replicability, and reproducibility.]

I applaud Tanja’s efforts to encourage the personal finance industry (or, more specifically the FIRE community) to be transparent about their recommendations and their outcomes (in scientific terms, their methodologies and results), so that others are not misled by purported results that are not replicable.

Since every human body is different, you could argue that replicability is difficult to impossible in human health. And yet, scientific experiments (like drug trials) do achieve replicable results that apply to a majority of human beings. But there are also typically outliers and exceptions. Research shows that there also may be differential results attributed to racial differences with some medications (see here and here for two medical articles discussing this topic).

So, can one blog transparently about personal health? Yes, I think so. In case I have not stated so publicly before, I do my best to present information on this blog that is scientifically-based, and to cite [link to] my sources. I don’t ask you to take my word for it – in fact, I prefer you to do your own research, your own due diligence, regarding anything discussed here.

When someone personally testifies that they tried a health product or a technique and it worked for them, you have an experiment that may or may not have been conducted scientifically and that is comprised of a sample size of 1 (possibly a few more if a partner or children are also included in the experiment). But when a research study or clinical trial is cited as evidence, you can read the study, report, or article for yourself and evaluate the methodology, samples, data, and conclusions for yourself. If a health technique or product has been tested multiple times, with a large number of participants, and the results have been primarily favorable, then the odds of it working favorably for you are much greater.

I pledge to write about personal health transparently, such that I will always cite the sources for the information I am sharing, and I will distinguish between scientifically-based and non-scientifically-based sources. I will present my own experiences accurately, and let you draw your own conclusions.

Crew Dog, One Sick Vet

Addendum: Since I originally drafted this post, healthcare has become even more fraught in the United States. Governing bodies are being decimated. Benefits are being slashed. Scientific evidence is being undermined. Chronically ill and disabled people are publicly mocked. Nevertheless, I will do my best to provide scientific evidence for information I share on this blog and all other platforms. And I will continue to share my thoughts and experiences.

If you want to join the conversation, let’s use the tag #TalkAboutDisability.

Admin Update – Memorial Day Weekend 2026

If there’s anyone out there still reading this blog…

I know it’s been dormant for quite some time (forever in online time).

It’s been quite a ride, with bad health and better health. I’m working on another project now, which takes all my time/energy.

But…I have a queue of draft posts that I’d still like to share. [Some are barely more than a few sentences – placeholders for thoughts/ideas.] So I’ll be completing them and publishing them this year (and possibly next year, as well).

So, hi. I’m back. Here’s some more of my thoughts about and experiences with chronic illness, disability, and personal finance. Thanks for reading.

Resolution Update: One Week

[This got lost in the ether. It should originally have published 15 JAN 2024]

It’s been a week since I posted my resolution to update my estate paperwork.

So how am I doing with my resolution? This week, I have been working on my annuity. I transferred the funds to a different investment (same account, same company, different sub-account), and I printed out the hardcopy paperwork required to update my beneficiary.

I also looked at outlines for updating my will, advanced health directive, and Power of Attorney. The U.S. Air Force has online guidance that enables you to prepare in advance before meeting with an Air Force lawyer to complete this paperwork. This news article gives a good overview of the Air Force legal assistance website. And this link is where you create an account and get started. The data you input is retained for 90 days – after that, it is dumped and you would have to start over. This legal assistance is free of charge for active duty military, their eligible family members, and retirees. In some circumstances, it is also available to reservists.

This week I also did some research on my burial arrangements. Spousal Unit knows the basics: how, where. But I did a bit of deeper digging into the specifics. I do have Croak Book materials that I purchased and downloaded, but we haven’t created the binder and filled it in yet. [A Croak Book is a binder full of information about your bills, investments, funeral arrangements, etc. that you leave behind as a road map for your executor/next-of-kin.] I purchased a copy for My Boomer Parent and created a binder for them to (hopefully) fill in, to make it easier for the family when they pass, but haven’t created ours yet. The burial arrangement information would go in this binder, to make it easier for our survivors/executor.

It’s going to take a while to complete everything on my estate planning checklist, but I’ve made a start. Now I’ve just got to keep making progress.

How are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions?

How Did I Do with My 2024 New Year’s Resolutions?

It’s another new year. So how did I do with my 2024 New Year’s resolutions? Well, let’s just say that I’m carrying most of them forward to 2025.

My resolution for 2024 was to review and update my estate paperwork. This consisted of multiple parts:

  • Update my advanced medical directive/living will
  • Update my medical power of attorney
  • Update my VA advanced medical directive
  • Submit my updated advanced medical directive/living will to my healthcare system (specifically to the hospital ER I use when injured)
  • Update my will
  • Review the beneficiaries on my investment accounts and update as necessary
  • Make sure my designated executor knows where to find my updated estate paperwork

In all honesty, I didn’t get very far with these tasks in 2024. After a couple of false starts, the legal paperwork remains un-updated. The only one of these objectives I accomplished in 2024 was to review and update the beneficiaries on my investment accounts. One of seven objectives accomplished. So I’m rolling the rest of these over into 2025.

I have no new resolutions for 2025. I’m just gonna keep working on last year’s. Leftover resolutions, if you will. These are important, so I’m just going to keep working on them until they’re done.

Pacing Myself: Nano Walks

I previously wrote about micro walks, or the way I was breaking exercise down into manageable ten-minute segments. But my bursitis (knees and Achilles heel) was often still giving me problems afterwards. The bursitis sites would get red, hot, and really painful, making it difficult to maintain a daily walking routine.

Since I got a wearable fitness device, I have been able to slowly increase the amount of exercise I am getting per day by doing what I’m calling nano walks. (Breaking my exercise down into even smaller segments.) My device is set to remind me to get a minimum number of steps per hour for nine hours of the day. I have found that breaking up the exercise into *even smaller* chunks than I was previously doing is enabling me to get more total exercise per day without my bursitis getting inflamed or sore. I still have to be careful not to exceed too many steps per day total and not to do too many steps at once, as that will cause my bursitis to flare and set me back. But I am learning my limitations and experimenting with types of increases to determine what my body will and won’t tolerate.

My world has gotten even smaller, as I walk around my house or yard to get the hourly steps rather than around my neighborhood. But I get beneficial exercise and I get out of the house to see what’s going on outdoors.

On the one hand, it takes more cumulative time than one or two micro walks a day, but on the other hand, it takes less preparation and less time all at once. For me, it seems to be easier to sprinkle it throughout the day than to carve out time for a longer walk. And even if I miss a segment or two during the day, I can make up for it during a later hour (after the designated nine hours) in order to get enough steps for my daily goal range.

I have determined a range of total steps, bounded on the low end by meeting my minimum goal (steps per hour x 9 hours) and on the high end by my bursitis, and I vary my total within that range by day, depending on how my body is feeling that day. And if I’m having a really bad day, I don’t stress about meeting my hourly or daily goals at all.

Pacing myself every day, and resting on the days when my body needs more rest, is enabling me to have more days when I can exercise and more total exercise.

Crew Dog, onesickvet.com

So breaking up my exercise into even smaller chunks and pacing myself is working pretty well for me. I guess I can modify the exercise mantra “Low and Slow” to “Low, Slow, and Nano!”

Have you tried breaking up your exercise routine into micro or nano segments? What has worked for you? (And what hasn’t?) Please comment below.

New Year’s Resolution 2024

I got sick after Thanksgiving and I continue to run behind. Christmas Cards have hit a snag and not gone out (yet?). And I didn’t think I was going to make any New Year’s resolutions this year either. (I often don’t). But inspiration has arrived (a week late), so here is my 2024 New Year’s resolution:

I resolve to update my estate planning paperwork this year.

To begin with, my will is very out-of-date. I need to change the primary and secondary executors, and I probably need to change the secondary beneficiaries as well. While you should update your will with every major life change (marriage, divorce, children, etc.), it’s also a good idea to review your will periodically as other circumstances change. For example, if one of your executors or beneficiaries dies or becomes estranged from you. Or as your net worth grows. Maybe your designated beneficiary would not be capable of handling a larger inheritance, or would need assistance to do so. This Kiplinger’s article includes 12 reasons you should update your will, including a few I hadn’t even imagined (like losing the hardcopy of your will). In my case, no major life events have affected my will, but some minor ones have, and I wasn’t periodically reviewing my estate paperwork, so I didn’t notice that I would no longer be satisfied with the outcomes of my estate settlement as written.

I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s really important to stay on top of this paperwork. In the military, I saw death benefits distributed to ex-spouses rather than current spouses or children simply because the service member had not updated their paperwork. In my own life, I’ve seen what happens when someone dies with an outdated will or when the named executor for a couple has a conflict of interest. It’s painful to experience an estate being settled in ways that you know go against the deceased’s wishes at the time of their death. And it can even lead to legal battles or extended probate that can be very draining for the estate, the executor(s), and the loved ones. Do the work now so that your loved ones don’t have the hassle later. Do the work now so that the government doesn’t wind up with assets you could have avoided giving them. Do the work now so that your beneficiaries are provided for in the way you wish them to be. Whatever your motivation, use it to propel you into action.

While I’m at it, I’m also going to update my durable power of attorney and my advanced directive for healthcare. Interestingly, when I became eligible for VA healthcare, I was required to do separate advanced directive for healthcare paperwork with the VA – they would not accept the one I already had. The VA paperwork, however, did not need to be drafted by a lawyer or notarized. I simply filled it out at my VA healthcare facility. However, since each VA facility is different, I don’t know whether my current VA facility (in a different state) still has my advanced healthcare directive paperwork on file and whether they accept it. Even if they do, contact information for my designated healthcare representatives has changed. [So that’s a reminder for me to check with my current VA facility and ensure it’s squared away.] Also, now that more healthcare “paperwork” is online, many healthcare systems are requiring that you bring a copy of your directive to the facility to be entered into their online systems. So don’t assume that a loved one bringing a copy of your advanced directive while you’re in the hospital receiving care will be sufficient anymore – you may need to have gotten it accepted by the relevant healthcare system ahead of time.

We don’t carry life insurance as we have no income that needs to be replaced or children that need provided for, but if you do have life insurance, you would also want to periodically review it to make sure you have enough coverage for your current needs and to update beneficiaries as necessary.

If you are in the military or are an eligible veteran, you also should periodically check DEERS (the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System) to make sure your beneficiary information is up-to-date and correct. This includes the who, how, and where. Make sure the DoD knows who all of your beneficiaries are, how much you want to leave to each (percentages of benefits), and how to contact each of them. If you don’t review this data and make sure it’s current, this is how money winds up going to an ex-spouse or other beneficiary you no longer want your death benefits to go to.

Additionally, you should periodically review the beneficiaries on any investments that you have. Make sure your accounts have primary and secondary beneficiaries that reflect your current desires. IOW, make sure your money would go to the people you want it to go to. This often changes over time, so you can’t just “set it and forget it.” (Unless you don’t care what happens to your money after you’re gone.)

In summary, if you care what happens to your hard-earned money after you’re gone, you should review your estate planning paperwork periodically (and in conjunction with every major life event) to keep it up-to-date and make sure it reflects your desires as you progress through life and circumstances change.

Since I very much care what happens to my hard-earned money, in 2024 I resolve to:

  • Update my advanced medical directive/living will
  • Update my medical power of attorney
  • Update my VA advanced medical directive
  • Submit my updated advanced medical directive/living will to my healthcare system (specifically to the hospital ER I use when injured)
  • Update my will
  • Review the beneficiaries on my investment accounts and update as necessary
  • Make sure my designated executor knows where to find my updated estate paperwork

Does anyone else want to commit to updating their estate paperwork in 2024? Let me know in the comments – we can be accountability buddies.

New Year’s Reminders

This is just a quick post to remind everyone that it’s a new year and a new quarter, so it’s time to do all the things: swap out your toothbrush; swap out your face masks (they’re good for about 40 hours of use); fill your pill caddies; change your HVAC filter; put more salt in your water softener; check your smoke alarms. Whatever you do quarterly, this is your reminder.

Okay. I will now resume watching college football bowl games.

Happy 2024, Y’all!

Micro Walk Update: Hourly Steps

This is an update to an earlier post I wrote about micro walks, which I define as short-duration walks (I usually aim for 10 minutes) with the purpose of getting in a little exercise without aggravating my health conditions. So, you might want to read that post before you read this one. (This post would also make more sense if I had already completed and published my draft about purchasing a Fitbit, but, hey, no one’s perfect.)

As you are probably aware, Earth has been setting heat records. July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth, and that includes South Florida, which definitely has been experiencing record-breaking heat. With overnight temperatures in the mid-to-upper 90’s, there is no time of day or night at which a walk is enjoyable (or even tolerable, depending on one’s health conditions). So I haven’t been walking. Not even micro walks.

But, as I alluded to in the first paragraph, I bought a Fitbit a couple of months ago. And *if* I ever get the post about that completed, you will read that I did it to monitor my heart, *not* because I’m jumping on a wellness bandwagon. In fact, I have been resentful of the device’s prompts to get in a minimum number of steps each hour, punching off the haptic alarm and growling at my device every hour. Until…

A friend of mine recommended a fitness influencer who discusses getting steps in indoors. And a lightbulb went off. Now, my house is small. I mean, really small by current standards. Definitely no room for a treadmill! But…my Fitbit has been nagging me to get a minimum of 250 steps per hour. And I suddenly thought: “What’s easier than a 10 minute micro walk outdoors, that requires me to put on outdoors clothes and shoes and walk in the oppressive heat? Walking around the inside of my house, as is, in the air conditioning.” So that’s what I’m doing.

Rather than getting annoyed that my fitness device is nagging me to interrupt what I am doing and get more steps, I decided to get up once an hour, when it prompts me, and get my required minimum steps – inside the house.

We’ve probably all seen the articles (or news reports) that “sitting is the new smoking,” meaning that a sedentary lifestyle is harmful to one’s health. I’ve been basically ignoring that conversation, giving myself a pass due to my health conditions. But the reality is that I still have enough health privilege that I *could* be less sedentary, especially since recent medication changes have lead to me feeling a bit better.

I want to be very clear that many in the chronically ill/disabled communities do not have that health privilege. I acknowledge that I *can* move more without harming myself, and that many of my friends and acquaintances in our communities cannot. I respect their conditions and support them in doing whatever they need to do (or not do).

For myself, this is an experiment to see how I fare when I take an hourly exercise break, focusing on completing a minimum of 250 steps per hour. I have seen no evidence to suggest that this would have the exact same effect as a 10 minute walk after meals (see previous micro walk post), but respected medical sources are unanimous that getting up and moving around hourly has health benefits (assuming one can safely do so). For example, this Yale Medicine article has useful information about the hazards of sitting and helpful tips for being a bit less sedentary. And this Harvard Health article explains that prolonged sedentary behavior can lead to insulin resistance and a decrease of the enzyme that breaks down fat in one’s bloodstream.

I see hourly movement as an easier way to get some exercise than trying to walk outdoors in this heat, and it breaks exercise into even smaller chunks than a 10 minute micro walk. So if you’re struggling with energy pacing, perhaps breaking walking up into even smaller chunks would be helpful. (And maybe don’t do it every hour – do it at whatever interval works for your condition.)

So, even though I continue to resist some of the health and wellness gimmicks such as 10,000 steps per day or competing with others online in performing fitness, I am currently hacking my health by complying with Fitbit’s hourly reminder to get up and move around a little bit. I’ll let you know how the experiment goes.

If you try it, please let us know how it worked (or didn’t work) for you.