The Financial Ruin Of Early Retirement

  • May 2, 2026

Last night at the drive-in I had a great idea, which I then proposed to Bernard: in exchange for an abundance of postcards from my upcoming trip, he would pay me for each unique stamp I use to send them.

To be specific, the first stamp costs him $0.10, the next $0.20, and each subsequent costs $0.10 more. So if the first card has four unique stamps on it, he’d owe me $1 ($0.10 + $0.20 + $0.30 + $0.40). To trick him into agreeing sweeten the deal, I agreed he’d pay me nothing unless the total exceeded $10.

I laughed like a goon when he signed the contract!

The above is a plot of what he’ll owe me versus unique stamps. It would take fourteen unique stamps for the total to exceed $10 ($10.50 to be precise) and as you can see it rises quadratically. The equation, if you’re interested, is $n(n+1)/20 where n is the number of unique stamps.

Looking at this plot, the amount he’d owe me would surpass $100 at 45 unique stamps. For amateurs this would be a challenge, but he made the critical mistake of forgetting I’m far from an amateur. In fact, due to leftovers from previous trips, I already have enough unique stamps to surpass this amount.

But stopping at 45 is barely a challenge. How far could I push this?

Checking out the Australia Post website reveals several dozen current stamp issues. It’s hard to put a precise number on how many since the website is irritating to use, but I’d say it’s upwards of 40 unique stamps. Just from these alone (and including the ones I already have) I’m well over the $100 return.

But Australia Post also sells collectible ‘Stamp Packs’, one or two of which I usually buy on each trip. From the ones in-stock today there’s 123 unique stamps and I know from experience it’s not difficult to find older packs available in post offices.

So it’s not unreasonable to assume I could relatively easily find 150 unique stamps in Australia alone. Before you ask “What about the postcards?” remember who is writing this. The deal doesn’t specify anything about how the cards bear the stamps, so I’d just buy big cards and put 10+ stamps on each.

If you’re wondering about the cost of all these stamps, then yes it adds up. But a quick analysis of average prices vs returns shows I’d be making money after about the 15th stamp, and likely much earlier if I buy many small denomination ones.

And this is just Australia. Things get truly interesting because I’m also going to Japan…

Japan has a few dozen basic stamps available, all of which I bought on my last trip. Obtaining these is trivial, so getting up to over 175 stamps wouldn’t be much of a challenge (for me).

And they also have these limited sheets, and I know exactly where I could go (Tokyo Main Post Office) to purchase dozens of different ones. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for me to obtain at least another 100 unique stamps amongst these alone.

And then there’s the licensed limited sheets, and the stamp shop near my Osaka hotel that sells hundreds of old mint unused stamps. The sky is the limit. I could get to 500 unique stamps ‘easily’…

The above is a plot of returns vs unique stamps up to 500, at which point Bernard would owe me $12,525.00. While I believe I could exceed this amount, in the interests of good sportsmanship I’d probably end there.

Of all the crazy schemes good ideas I’ve hatched had, this may be the best. I get to buy lots of stamps, send lots of postcards, and I’ll make five figures (easily) out of it. What could go wrong?

Long Long Ago, 20th Century

  • April 30, 2026

That’s the closing theme to the 1987 tokasatsu series Kamen Rider Black. It’s a masterpiece among masterpieces.

The land covered in green
The flowers that bloom in the four seasons
The white sandy dunes
The lovely rosy seashells

People still had warmth in their hearts
The sea was still cobalt blue color

Good old times
Long long ago, 20th Century

I’ll write about the show in detail in a future post, but for now I’ll simply say it’s very dark and this closing theme suits it perfectly. But if a song reminiscing about the 20th Century was ironic when it was released – in the 20th Century – then it’s evolved into the sublime now.

The blessings of nature
Brought people and the cities together
Trees grow luxuriously along the road
Alongside towering skyscrapers

Men still longed for freedom
Back when women were still gentle

Nostalgic times
Long long ago, 20th Century

A couple of years after this song was released the Showa era ended in Japan, and then the economic bubble burst leading to the ‘lost decades’. For many Japanese the ‘good old days’ ended almost overnight and I wonder how many in those days listened to this song with new ears.

For those of us born during the 20th Century, this elegiac song stirs our memories of a time that once was and will never be again. It may have been composed for a children’s TV series, but the message here was for adults and only sweetens as we move further and further away in time.

Long, long ago the 20th Century indeed.

(Here’s the full version of the song if you’d like to hear it.)

Snake Mountain

  • April 23, 2026

This was one of my birthday gifts:

It’s a MegaBloks model of Snake Mountain from the old Masters Of The Universe toy series. This is a recently released companion piece to Castle Grayskull which I built five years ago.

As with Grayskull the presentation of the box is wonderful. The fortress is made in two halves, each of which were packed into two separate boxes and over 60 different bags of pieces.

This took me a long time to make! I started it not long after my birthday, and worked on it a few sessions a week, only completing it recently. While the engineering is every bit as impressive as any Lego kit, the ‘grip’ of the pieces is much stronger and putting it all together wasn’t as effortless as Lego typically is. There were even a few instances where I made mistakes and had a devil of a time separating the pieces!

The above shows the completed model, which is about two feet wide and a foot high when opened. It’s also very heavy, and will need a large and secure place to display it (which I plan to be next to Grayskull atop a bookshelf).

It has many play features, including secret doors, trapdoors, a prison, portable snake, portcullis and various other ways for the figures to interact with it.

It came with six figures, and I also got five other new ones that were released around the same time (and yes, Scareglow glows in the dark). As with those that came with Grayskull, I love these tiny recreations of the original MoTU figures, and think they add a lot of charm to the model.

That’s the model closed up with the figures added. This is how it will be displayed, since you can bet I never want to struggle with taking it apart!

It was a fun build, looks great, and was a fraction of what it would have cost had Lego made it. If you like the design of the old Masters toys, this is an easy recommendation.