Well, it's that time again. Time to address the "it's easy to be wealthy if you make a lot of money, what about becoming wealthy if you earn little?" crowd. But this time it's going to be a bit different. You see, I think I've made a mistake. Here I've been writing about growing your career, creating a side hustle, investing in real estate, and the like so you could … [Read more...]
The Nine Stages of Financial Independence
I've seen a few people detail what they believe to be the stages of financial independence (FI), but none of those have been exactly right for me. So I thought I'd create my own list of the various FI milestones and share when/how we hit each of them. Then you can add your thoughts until we have a master list to die for! ;) Let me say that this is a difficult task for … [Read more...]
How to Become Financially Independent in Five Years
Back in October I was part of a panel discussion on the What's Up Next? podcast. Three of us "older" bloggers joined Doc G and Paul to discuss the subject "Is it ever too late to pursue financial independence?" The episode will soon be released but if you want to hear what we had to say, you can listen to it here now. In the discussion Doc asked a GREAT question (which … [Read more...]
The Case for Giving on the Road to Financial Independence
In September 2018 I sat in the audience of FinCon, the financial media conference, and watched an interview with Pete from Mr. Money Moustache. He's a very interesting character, quite down-to-earth and prone to saying things so full of common sense that you have to laugh because no one has said them before. Towards the end the audience was invited to approach a … [Read more...]
Why the Rich are Getting Richer
Shortly after I wrote How the Rich Get Richer I started reading Why the Rich Are Getting Richer by Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad Poor Dad. The author says the following about both books: If Rich Dad Poor Dad was elementary school, this book (Why the Rich Are Getting Richer) is graduate school. That sounded good to me. I'm always up for a higher-level money … [Read more...]
Living Like Old Money
I'm not sure where I saw it, but someone I follow online mentioned that they were reading The Old Money Book and recommended it to others. Always on the lookout for a good money book, I went to my library's website to see if they had it. Nope. I then hopped on Amazon to check it out. I liked the fact that it had two (not just one) subtitles. They are: "How to … [Read more...]
How the Rich Get Richer
You've probably heard the phrase "the rich get richer". There's (surprisingly) even a Wikipedia page on it with background and details. Here are some of the highlights: "The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" is an aphorism due to Percy Bysshe Shelley. In A Defence of Poetry (1821, not published until 1840) Shelley remarked that the promoters of utility had … [Read more...]
The Difference 1% Makes
Over the years I've received many comments from people saying how insignificant some of my tips are. They say that people need to focus their financial efforts on big-ticket items (like homes, cars, etc.) and the rest can be virtually ignored. As with most things, I think there's a balance. Of course you should pay attention to the big expenses in life. But you should … [Read more...]
The ESI (Earn, Save, and Invest) Manifesto
It still happens on a regular basis -- even after three years of retirement. I meet someone new, they ask what I do for a living, I say I'm retired, and they look at me like I just stepped off a ship from Mars. I can see in their faces that their minds are trying to compute what they just heard. They are seeing a guy (who looks like he's forty -- or so I've been told) who … [Read more...]
The Crossover Point: The Original Measure of Financial Independence
Back in 1992 I 1) was married for less than a year, 2) had just started to grow my career, and 3) knew virtually nothing about managing money. The terms "FIRE", "financial independence", and "financial freedom" were nowhere to be found, at least compared to how they are today. And they idea of financial independence/retiring early was certainly not as widespread. In fact, … [Read more...]
