As I've done every year on this site, I want to review my past year's financial results as well as make a forecast for the year to come. FYI, I'm writing this at the beginning of January even though it won't post for a couple months. As such, the numbers I'll be sharing aren't final yet (I'll sort through the official ones when I do my taxes). These have not been … [Read more...]
Spending $4k at a Moment’s Notice
Question: When is an 18-year old furnace most likely to stop? Answer: Once the outside temperature drops to zero. This is the story of how we had to make a multi-thousand dollar decision very quickly in a 55-degree home. History of Our Furnace As most of you know, we moved to Colorado in the fall of 2015. When we bought our house we had it inspected (of course). Part … [Read more...]
My Current Money Management and Investment Plans
It's been some time since I shared my asset allocation. In fact, my last update was just after I retired. Now that I've been retired some time and am getting used to it, I'm looking at my assets with new purposes in mind. Given this plus the fact that one of my 2017 financial resolutions is to review my investments, I thought I could kill two birds with one post. :) As … [Read more...]
2016 Net Worth and Retirement Budget Update
Here's an update on how our net worth performed in 2016. For background on my net worth status and results, see 2015 Net Worth Review and The First Million is the Hardest. In addition to the net worth update, I'll detail how our retirement budget has performed so far (five months into retirement) so you will be all caught up. :) 2016 Net Worth Summary Here are my net … [Read more...]
The Gap is the Key to Wealth
This will go without saying for most ESI Money readers...and yet I have to say it. We've talked a lot about the essentials of building wealth, how to retire early, how to become a millionaire, how to become financially independent, and a whole host of "this is how you become wealthy" posts. There is one aspect of money management that is VITAL to success and is demonstrated … [Read more...]
My Retirement Budget, Income Allocation, and How I Plan to Diversify
Today I wanted to give you some insight into the financial process I went through to decide I had enough to retire. We'll review the budget I set up (both income and expenses) and I'll give commentary on where I stand now and some steps I'm planning. We will cover them from a pretty high level (no one wants to go through a line-by-line budget) but give enough information … [Read more...]
Income and Spending Scenarios and the Impact on Wealth
We've talked about how cash flow over time leads to building wealth, which is also called net worth. Today I'll add a bit to past discussions by showing how these two work together in various scenarios, and what the wealth impact is in each case. Two Factors I've noted previously that there are two factors that account for whether you accumulate wealth or not: income and … [Read more...]
The Importance of Tracking and Managing Cash Flow
Now that we've covered the importance of measuring and tracking your net worth, let's move on to a financial measure that's almost as important. It's important because it's a major driver of net worth. It's called cash flow. What is Cash Flow? Cash flow is simply income minus expenses. It's what you make/earn less what you spend. Income less expenses. The difference … [Read more...]
