Black Friday Splurge 2024 – Retire by 40

Hey everyone. Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you are having an easy week. RB40Jr has the week off from school and we are taking it easy. Over the weekend, he helped me clean the gutter and prepare the house for winter. Also, I braved the grocery store on Saturday and picked up a few items from Best Buy. Whew, now we’re ready for Thanksgiving. I’m set to chill out at home for the next few days.

Black Friday Splurge

In the old days, people used to get up before dawn to go shopping the morning after Thanksgiving. I remember lining up at various stores, but I haven’t done that for years. Black Friday shopping is much more convenient today. The online deals are just as good as going to the store. Well, maybe you can get a better deal by lining up at 5 am, but that’s too much effort for me now. Alright, 2024 has been a great year for investors. Why not help the economy along by splurging a bit this Black Friday? In addition, I want to spend now because Dear Leader’s tariff plan is coming soon. Everything will be 10-20% more expensive next year, probably.   

Laptop – under $500

My current laptop is almost 10 years old. It is limping along, but it would be nice to have a smooth-running laptop. I don’t want to spend more than $500, though. There is a Lenovo laptop on sale at Best Buy. It has a Ryzen 7 5700U, 16GB memory, and 512GB SSD for $420. This should be good enough for blogging and general web browsing. I picked this up on Saturday, but I haven’t opened it yet. If I find a better deal, I might return it.

Xbox controller – $40

I got an Xbox controller for my son. This will be one of his Christmas presents. These Xbox controllers don’t last very long. Stick drift is a real problem. Maybe I should get a backup too.

Bluetooth speaker – under $100

Mrs. RB40 has been spending more time on her craft hobbies in the basement. A Bluetooth speaker would be a great present for her. Currently, she is listening to music with the phone’s speaker. It sucks. A new speaker will improve her music-listening experience tremendously. Maybe she’ll spend more time in the basement. Hahaha…  

Bass Ukulele – under $200

I’m taking a ukulele class at the community center this quarter. It is a lot of fun and now I want to try a bass ukulele. I probably will need a bass amp too, but that can wait. I’m sure there are plenty of used bass amps around.

All in all, I should escape with under $1,000. The laptop shouldn’t even count. It’s for blogging and I can deduct it.

Alright, that’s it for today. I hope you have a great Thanksgiving! What’s on your shopping list this year?

Image credit: AI generator. Don’t look too closely. It’s somewhat unsettling…

Please follow and like us:

The following two tabs change content below.

Joe started Retire by 40 in 2010 to figure out how to retire early. After 16 years of investing and saving, he achieved financial independence and retired at 38.

Passive income is the key to early retirement. This year, Joe is investing in commercial real estate with CrowdStreet. They have many projects across the USA so check them out!

Joe also highly recommends Personal Capital for DIY investors. They have many useful tools that will help you reach financial independence.