While all this comes in handy now, why do so many wait this long? You should republish a similar article mid next year saying do these things while you still have time.

This is a very true statement. Too many people I talk to about retirement and investing in general are too overwhelmed to know where to start.

My last company used to offer dinner at the company restaurant for free (vs $5 for lunch) for this sole purpose.

I discuss money in private with close friends that are in similar jobs/industries but at different companies.

Google the brand you are going with as all are different. Note that excess wear and tear is defined by the lease holder, so the examples only apply to manufacturer leased vehicles. A lot of the horror stories you hear are from private leasing companies.

I just did my first lease ever and let me run the numbers to show you why:

Dubrovnik, Croatia. We did a European cruise and didn’t really care much about Dubrovnik. It ended up being one of our favorite places.

I just went through this on a new car deal.

One big problem with this calculator and a lot of others is that they assume that you need 85% of your salary at retirement.

Did this (although we were light on France) and went to the following places:

I applied for a job at a company where the interview process took 3 months from their first phone call to me to offer and required approval from the CEO (this wasn’t a small company).

For cruises, travel agents don’t normally charge commission and will often give you perks (like on board credit) that you wouldn’t get going through the cruise line.

I had a seamless internet experience at a Toyota dealership. I emailed the 2 local dealerships, said I was looking for a car. Got a good price from one, had a couple back and forth negotiations, got responses within 15 minutes and bought the car that weekend.

I refi’d my mortgage in 2012. I went from a a 30 year with 25 years remaining at 6.25% to a 15 year at 3.25%. My payment increased by $70 to take 10 years off the loan. In the past 3 years, I’ve paid more in principal than I would of in 8 years on the previous loan.

I worked in a Fortune 500 company with 15,000+ employees straight out of college, a mid-size private company with about 4000 employees after that and am currently a small <50 person company. There are definitely pluses and minuses to all of them. I have a limited subset of experiences, but here is what I found, and it…

Lesson one: Total cost of compound interest

Having driven the track, I will agree with the sentiments, except the leather soiling.

Unfortunately, I won't getting a refund this year and owe a very large chunk of money, but it means that I will get a big refund next year. The government is interesting sometimes...

There was also a commercial flight chartered for a similar purpose

I just wish they would do a manual V6 sedan. I had on 08 6/6 Accord and liked the car overall, but when the kids came, so did a 4d.