Blog - Emusements by Randy Parker

How and Why Our Family Became Happy Vegetarians

February 11, 2019

I always thought I was the last person who would become a vegetarian. Yet more than a year ago, my family decided to become vegetarian. How did this happen? Areas of Resistance For most of my life, I’ve had numerous reasons for resisting the idea of giving up meat and fish. Family Background Like most Americans, my parents raised me in a meat-eating household, and I always enjoyed eating most kinds of meat and fish. Despite growing up in a…

Cats On FIRE Appear on the ChooseFI Podcast

January 28, 2019

Milo

Cats, Personal Finance

Cats on FIRE, Milo and Toby, take a break from their busy napping schedules to appear as guests on the ChooseFI Podcast. Notes from the (Homo sapien) editor: Special thanks to Katrina, Spencer and Kip in my local ChooseFI Sacramento Facebook Group for proofreading this post before publication! If you have any questions or comments about Milo and Toby’s path to feline indifference, please leave a comment. (Note: I moderate all comments so you may experience a delay before your comment…

Stockpile: A Fun Gift Idea for Kids But a Bumpy Signup Experience

January 20, 2019

Randy Parker

Personal Finance, Technology

After I started listening to personal finance podcasts about a year ago, I began hearing mentions of sites which allow consumers to buy fractional shares of stocks and ETFs. I don’t invest directly in individual stocks myself, so I did not give these services much thought. But in December, I had the idea that Stockpile gift certificates might be fun and novel Christmas gifts for my two middle school-age kids, especially since personal finance and investing have been big themes…

Measuring Up Against Paula Pant’s One Tweak a Week Challenge

January 15, 2019

Randy Parker

Personal Finance

One of my favorite podcasters is Paula Pant, who hosts Afford Anything and is a regular on Friday editions of The Stacking Benjamins Show. Paula is a master at taking the advice she and her guests give and breaking it down into actionable items. On her final podcast of 2018, entitled One Tweak A Week In 2019 — Easy Improvements To Your Financial Life In 2019, Paula outlined “26 easy, actionable ways that you can improve your financial life.” She…

How I Tamed Peak TV with EpisodeCalendar

December 28, 2018

Randy Parker

Entertainment, Technology

I’ve always been an avid but discerning viewer of both movies and television. I have gone through periods where I’ve focused more on one than the other, but for most of my life, I probably would have named movies as my favorite art form. In the past ten years, however, television has arguably become more compelling than movies, as we have moved into an era of “Peak TV” where the number of “must-see” shows (especially scripted dramas) has far exceeded…

How I Introduced My Kids to Star Trek

December 13, 2018

Randy Parker

Entertainment, Star Trek

I am a first generation Star Trek fan. TOS (The Original Series) debuted about a year before I was born and concluded when I was almost two years old. I watched the show after school while it was in daily syndication in the mid-1970s, along with my other favorite show at the time, Batman starring Adam West. Back then, kids could easily discover Star Trek in organic ways. The show was in syndication across the country on broadcast television. TAS…

The Walking Dead Or The Handmaid’s Tale – In Which Dystopia Would You Rather Live?

December 10, 2018

Randy Parker

Entertainment

Where would you rather live? In a zombie apocalypse where the flesh-eating dead run rampant and the comforts of modern society have disappeared. In a totalitarian government where fundamentalist religious zealots run rampant and personal freedom and liberty have disappeared? I have been thinking a lot about this question lately. Dystopian Television Series For the last 10 to 15 years or so, dystopian TV shows have been in vogue as a genre. Most of them have been set after an…

Our Journey Down the FIRE Trail – Part 4

November 11, 2018

Randy Parker

Personal Finance

This is the final installment of a 4 part series in which I share some of the details of the road my wife and I took to pursue financial independence. In Part 1, I explained our backgrounds, shared some details of our married life together, and discussed the first key factor which enabled us to reach FI (namely, Motivation). In Part 2, I talked about four more key factors (Salary Growth, Controlling Lifestyle Inflation, Long-Term Investing, and Real Estate). In…

Our Journey Down the FIRE Trail – Part 3

November 11, 2018

Randy Parker

Personal Finance

This is Part 3 of a 4 part series in which I share some of the details of the road my wife and I took to pursue financial independence. In Part 1, I explained our backgrounds, shared some details of our married life together, and discussed the first key factor which enabled us to reach FI (namely, Motivation). In Part 2, I talked about four more key factors (Salary Growth, Controlling Lifestyle Inflation, Long-Term Investing, and Real Estate). Our Keys…

Our Journey Down the FIRE Trail – Part 2

November 10, 2018

Randy Parker

Personal Finance

This is Part 2 of a 4 part series in which I share some of the details of the road my wife and I took to pursue financial independence. In Part 1, I explained our backgrounds, shared some details of our married life together, and discussed the first key factor which enabled us to reach FI (namely, Motivation). Our Keys to Reaching FI (Continued) In this post, I will talk about four more key factors in our journey. Salary Growth…