The Friday Feast ~ the 19th of June

The personal finance community is filled with so many talented writers and truly inspiring people and families who want something much different in life than the traditional plan of buying lots of stuff and retiring in their 60s.  Here is a look at the best of this week's personal finance blogs.

In this episode of Friday Feast: RetireBy35, Go Curry Cracker, Our Next Life, Reaching Our Balance, Money Mozart, Saimaalife, and FI35.

Tell me, what does your early retirement look like?  After you finally call it quits, do you have a plan, goal or strategy in place to keep you busy, productive and happy?  RetireBy35 does, and it looks a heck of a lot like mine.  We are both avid travelers and our post-retirement lifestyles probably include a good amount of travel and exploration of our world, enjoying the best that it has to offer.

If I were to ask you what the best idea ever was, what would you say?  If you ask early retiree and recipient of jealousy-infused hatred and misunderstanding, Go Curry Cracker, the best idea ever is, indeed, early retirement.  In his blog post, he tells the tale of an article from a mainstream financial content factory who attacked the entire notion of retiring in your 30s (and him personally), proving the impossibility of precisely what Mr. Curry - and an increasingly number of others - is up to.

Future early retirees are, quite naturally, set on the future.  Saving now to benefit our future selves.  Setting a course in place so our future goals are met.  It's all about the future.  But Our Next Life has made sure that we keep a solid balance between living for tomorrow...as well as for today.  After all, as they've written, the future is never guaranteed, and enjoying our lives today will better prepare us to accomplish our goals tomorrow.  It keeps us in the right state of mind.  It keeps a smile on our face.  It means that we never feel "deprived" in our current life.  Amen.

Have you ever thought about having "the talk" with someone?  That's right, the talk about money?  As Reaching Our Balance points out, it is not an easy thing to bring up.  On one hand you want to be helpful to the other person, but on the other, who are you to question the personal decisions of someone else?

Be honest with yourself - how many money excuses have you made in the past?  Money Mozart wrote an eloquent post about how easy it is for us to make excuses about why we can't save "right now", or why - for this or that reason - we need to spend money because the sale price is just too great!  You can't afford not to buy it, right?

On a slightly different topic, how well do you know yourself?  I mean, do you truly understand and recognize both your strengths and weaknesses and, perhaps most importantly, how to overcome them?  Believe it nor not, this can be tough for many people to grasp.  Mari Pennanen from Saimaalife tells the unique tale of what makes her tick.  Could you do the same?

Just like FI35, I'm ready to retire.  How about you?