If there's one thing I've learned about life in general, it is that there is no shortage of people who are willing to telling me what I should or should not be doing with my life.  Most of the time, it's unsolicited advice coming from the same people who also happens to love telling everybody else not to tell them what to do.  I always wonder if they are aware of their own irony in this?  The typical conversation is usually along the lines of:

Them: What you been up to these days?
Me: Not much, I'm retired now.
Them: Oh?  So early.  Why?
Me: I just want to live my life now, and on my own time.
Them: But you have so much time and energy still to do something, instead of just lying around doing nothing or being lazy, you should apply yourself more.  Do this or that, or get back to work again.

Normally, I just kind of laugh, agree that they are not entirely wrong, and change the subject.  However, if pressed, I do try to explain that I'm not unhappy with my life choices either.  Plus, it would eventually have to creep into some financial questions that I am actively trying to avoid discussing with them: How in the world am I able to retire in the first place?  Law enforcement, as anyone can attest, does not pay that well, and cops are not exactly the most financially-minded people in the world.

Now, to be clear, I have always kept my nose clean, OK?  I didn't become financially independent by being on the take.  In fact, on a few rare occasions, I've even had to yell at people that tried to bribe me that I can not be bought!  But I digress....

While I am not filthy rich by any means, but after saving, investing, and sacrificing for two decades, I was finally able to realize my life long dream of "buying" my own life and my own time back.  I did it the old fashioned way, it just took a while.

And yeah, such a pursuit doesn't look like anything at all is happening from the outside.  That's just the nature of saving and investing, right?  It's not like people are going to get excited or even see the money you chose not to spend.

Now, I don't know if saving and investing comes easily or naturally for you dear readers, but for me, trying to stay on the financial track is a daily struggle!  Some days, it's a very difficult stuggle!  I mean, if I wanted to book a hotel or cruise or whatever, I can literally do that right now.  Or order something crazy over Amazon, and have it delivered to me within 2 days.  No problem.  Why?  Because there is literally nobody here to stop me.  Little ole me is my own one and only safeguard... and sometimes, I make me nervous haha.  Like foxes guarding the hen house kind of situation or something.

With all that said, I can't disagree that I do have spare time and energy to focus into something more worthwhile.  I just haven't figured out what, if anything, yet.  Hmm.  What about you?  If you had more spare time and energy to do something, what would you with it?

We just had a tornado watch, and now the temperature has dropped again.  Kind of wild with one day at 90F (32C) during the day, and now it's like 30F (-1C) at night.  I'm back to dripping my faucet and turning my humidifier back on, and going from shorts and T-shirt back to sweat pants and sweat shirt with a jacket again.  This has been a wild week.

I am also trying to get my HoA to approve of a tree removal in my backyard.  It's already dead, and while we didn't get hit with any tornados here, the strong wind did knock some of the branches down.  It's kind of banging the house and littering the yard, if nothing else.  In fact, I actually have a picture of this thing, hang on let me see....

See how big this tree is and how it's leaning towards my house and the neighbor's house?

Here's all the branches that dropped in the backyard.  It's getting crazy, that's suppose to be a backyard, but right now it just looks like a small dump site for branches.

Sadly, even if they approve of it (and they should), the cost of the tree removal likely won't be cheap.  Still, some expenses are justified, especially when it's a safety hazard to both people and houses.

I don't always do monthly updates because either not a whole lot happens anymore now that I am retired, or some negative stuff can happen, so it's better to not look at it?  I can't help but feel that this is one of those negative months.  On the other hand, trying to make sense of the negative phenomenon happening in the world is sometimes worth mentioning, so here I am.

Despite being questioned for not releasing the Epstein Files, properly and in a timely manner, Pam Bondi's most intellectually thought-provoking response was that "The Dow is over 50,000 right now." Frosting on top, it almost sounded like she wanted to say it's $50,000 dollars.  What... in the... world?!  I would be laughing from the comedy of it all, if this wasn't the actual tragedy of our real life right now.

In the beginning of Feb 2026, the DJI was indeed over 50,000.  However, it is now currently sitting at 47,414, a drop of roughly 5.39%.  That's quite a correction for a single month.

And what does that mean to me?  Well, that roughly translates into a $26k loss in my total portfolio value, both taxable and retirement combined.

Moreover, that's AFTER I've rebalanced my portfolio to be much less aggressive, because I was anticipating more negative pressure from the Trump administration doing their best to clown their way through the US economy, and taking credit for its resilience despite this administration's own best effort to sink it through sheer incompetence.

Speaking of negative pressure, the latest jobs report for Feb 2026 just came out, and it was a net loss of 92,000 jobs.  Say, didn't Trump fire the Bureau of Labor and Statistics lady to make sure no negative job reporting could be made during his administration?  If so, why is it still making such a gloomy report?  Or, heaven forbid, is this the best glow-up the Trump-revised BLS can come up with, and the reality could be even worse?

The war with Iran, or "not-a-war" if this administration is to be believed... well regardless of what you want to call it, is having the unintended consequence of shocking the oil market to above $91 per barrel right now.  That's great news for Big Oil and human rights violators that may or may not be members of OPEC, but something tells me that we the average citizens might end up paying a bit more at the pump again.  According to the internet, the average price of gasoline has spiked 38% in the past 30 days....

Back to my own life, one of the key challenges of retiring early is being self-sustaining through just my own money alone.  In other words, until I am "all grown up", I am currently unable to access my retirement funds (without penalty), or social security, or medicare/medicaid, or even my annuity (yes, I actually have one).  Until I am able to do so, I have to be extra careful with my currently-limited financial bucket, and it seems nothing this administration is doing is helping the average American at all.

To end on a more upbeat note, despite the political clown show, I am still hanging in there, doing my best to be frugal, and it also somewhat proves that my portfolio can be resilient enough to weather this storm.  So far.  I really hope we don't end up in another recession though.