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The coming of AI (Artificial Intelligence) apocalypse for white collar workers: Why it’s even more important than ever to plan for FIRE (financial independence retire early) these days!

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  Earl Nightingale:  “As in all successful ventures, the foundation of a good retirement is planning.” As an early retiree, the advent of the AI (artificial intelligence) age has been a huge boon to my portfolio.  Who would’ve guessed just 10 years ago that a company that makes gaming graphics cards, NVIDIA , would become the world leader in the field? I have to admit that I am only somewhat responsible for picking this company to my portfolio, as this company was included in one of my mutual funds which I’ve owned since around 2009.  The fund portfolio manager ( Steven Wymer ) deserves most of the credit here, as he had the foresight to buy this company at an early stage of AI revolution. I do deserve some credit for choosing this particular mutual fund out of around 20 different ones in my company’s 401k plan though.  Why not let the pros do what they do, and just reap the rewards of their investment strategy and savvy? Sometimes luck does play a role in inv...
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Spending another 8 nights in Ocean City, Maryland: 5 nights free compliments of Hilton and 3 nights paid…

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  As our free 15 nights at the Home2 Suites Ocean City was coming to an end, my wife and I were looking forward to 8 more nights in Ocean City.  Why Ocean City again, after staying there for 15 nights? That’s easy: Ocean City has a beautiful ocean with a really well maintained boardwalk, and during the offseason, prices are tempting.  Why stay elsewhere when you can have the ocean view with about the same price range as a non ocean view hotel? Thanks to all the Hilton points we had accrued during the year, we still had well over 200,000 points to use even after accounting for the free 15 nights stay at the Home2 Suites.  We would be using roughly 120,000 for this 5 nights stay. Our hotel of choice would be one of our favorites in Ocean City: Hilton Garden Inn Oceanfront .  This is a hotel we know well, after staying there just the previous year on a 4 nights stay.  We really liked the all oceanfront rooms at the hotel, the restaurant, and the modern, clean...
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Spending 15 nights free at Ocean City, Maryland thanks to Hilton Honors Rewards Program!

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  Back in December 2023, my wife and I were planning our American South road trip, and we were looking for a place to stay near  Hilton Head Island, South Carolina . We were members of Choice Hotels rewards program then, so we had initially booked a 5 night stay near Hilton Head Island, about 30 miles away. As soon as we booked this hotel, and started to read the reviews of the hotel, we had this bad feeling that we had made a big mistake!  Most of the reviews were bad to worse, with many comments saying the same things: bad customer service, poor maintenance of the hotel, bad breakfast, and iffy safety near the hotel.   That same day, we cancelled this hotel, then I started my search for a better place.  I found one, right in Hilton Head Island, called Home2 Suites by Hilton .  This hotel had much better reviews, was right in the heart of town near the beaches, had better customer service, and had cleaner rooms!   As soon as we booked this hotel, we ...
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