One of the things (maybe the only thing) I dislike about Mr. Money Mustache and the swarm of like-minded individuals he spawned with his philosophy is that he didn't come around 20 years earlier.If he had, I would have been retired much earlier.But in my generation, retiring early was at 60. Now it's somewhere around 40.If I had known that there was a different way … [Read more...]
Maxing Out a 401k and Early Retirement
In my post titled Three Sentences that Lead to Wealth, I made the following comment: The 401k up to the full match is a no-brainer. After that, it depends what you are trying to accomplish and by when. I maxed out all my tax-advantaged accounts and wish I had put a bit of that money into taxable accounts for easier access. One reader responded to that with the following: In … [Read more...]
Money Resolutions Everyone Should Consider
As regular readers know, I'm a New Year's resolutions guy.I set tons of resolutions each year, then develop steps to achieve them by the assigned timelines.Then I track them all on a spreadsheet I review daily.It's a bit over-the-top, I know, but it keeps me accountable and on track. I want to be sure I'm regularly making progress on what matters most to me.I … [Read more...]
If You’ve Won the Game, Stop Playing
Here's an interesting quote I just recently ran into: If you've won the game, stop playing. It actually has a couple of iterations/similar quotes floating around the web but the idea is the same: if you've already reached financial independence (FI), you don't need to keep doing what you did to get there.In fact, if you do keep at it then your financial independence could … [Read more...]
The Paradox of a Career’s Impact on Financial Independence
Please, please, please do yourself a big favor, open your mind for just a couple minutes, and read this post.Doing so and taking action on it could net you millions in extra net worth and cut your time to financial independence (FI) substantially.That's worth a read and consideration, right? Yes, I'm Begging So why did I begin this post by begging you to read it? … [Read more...]
Where Does Giving Fit with Financial Independence?
I read a hundred blogs on a regular basis, many of them in the FIRE (financial independence retire early) movement.As you might imagine, they cover a broad spectrum of money topics.I enjoy reading so many because they have such different and interesting perspectives.But even though I consume hundreds of posts each week, I rarely find one on giving.And I'm not … [Read more...]
Three Sentences that Lead to Wealth
A few months ago the Freakonomics podcast ran an episode titled "Everything You Wanted to Know about Money But Were Afraid to Ask."A major part of the show featured the author of The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn't Have to Be Complicated.The book, a best-seller for sure, basically said that everything anyone needs to know about money can be written on an index … [Read more...]
How to Reach Financial Freedom and Retire Early Serving in the Military
The following is a guest post by Hank Coleman from Money Q&A. Hank is an Army Major on Active Duty with four years left until early retirement.When I retire from the Army in four years, I don’t plan on getting another job. I don’t plan on coming back to work for the federal government as a GS (government scale…we love our acronyms in the military, right?) employee or … [Read more...]
A Great Example of Working the ESI Scale
Several months ago I wrote Working the ESI Scale to Financial Independence.In that post I rated my performance in each of the three categories we discuss here -- earning, saving, and investing.A couple weeks ago I had a reader send me an awesome email where he did the same thing.I just had to share it with you.Here goes: I am writing you today in great thanks … [Read more...]
How a Side Hustle Business Can Get You to Financial Independence in 10 Years
I've been writing about financial independence (FI) for many years now.More recently as I've dived deeper into the subject (i.e. retired and started a new blog) I've been considering the impact of a side hustle on FI.The bottom line: it's pretty significant.I thought I'd detail just how important a side hustle is so those of you out there working towards FI can … [Read more...]
