This is part two of my quest to spend more in retirement to be happy. In case you missed it, part one was Our Search for Happy Retirement Spending. You should read that post before this one as it sets the stage for what happens here. As a reminder, I ended the last post with the following: Now remember, these two, seemingly different, things were happening at the same … [Read more...]
Our Search for Happy Retirement Spending
It all started with me considering how I could invest, spend, and enjoy (ISE) the rest of my life. Those of us in the Millionaire Money Mentors (MMM) forums have been talking about ISE and spending (versus saving) in retirement almost since the day the forums launched. This is because it's an issue faced by many who have accumulated wealth. It's common that people who are … [Read more...]
Be Happier by Investing in Others
Today we continue sharing from the book Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending. In case you've missed any of our posts in this series, the best way to catch up is to begin with the first post, Be Happier by Buying Experiences Over Things, and then click through to the other posts in sequential order. In this post I'll highlight principle 5 as well as give you my … [Read more...]
That Time I Interviewed David Bach about Real Estate
In going through posts on my first site (FMF) I discovered something that I didn't remember -- I interviewed David Bach. Yes, THE David Bach, author of The Automatic Millionaire and creator of thoughts like making your finances automatic and the latte factor. I can't believe I forgot that... Anyway, it was 2006 and he had just written his latest book The Automatic … [Read more...]
How to Grow Your Career by Volunteering
How would you like to grow your career (and work towards earning more money) while also using your skills to help others? Well, then I have something for you! Today we're going to talk about the advantages volunteering can have on your career. More specifically, we'll detail how volunteering can assist in two of the seven steps to growing your career: helping … [Read more...]
How ESI Money Readers are Giving and Volunteering
As you know, I'm a big fan of giving both time and money to help those who are less advantaged. I have my own favorite charities, like anyone else, but I don't advocate that you give to them -- unless you like them. Instead, pick charities near and dear to your heart and support those organizations. I received several notes about giving after I launched my Salvation … [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...]
Help Me Give Away $50k
Almost 15 years ago now, I started my first personal finance blog. One key feature of that site was that I gave away 100% of the profits. At first it was no big deal as the site didn't earn much. Then I had a couple great years and the charitable contributions shot up! One of the programs I created to get readers into the giving spirit was a matching gift challenge … [Read more...]
The Advantages of Using a Donor-Advised Fund
I've talked about giving several times on ESI Money. It's been an important part of our lives, and since this site is about what we did to become financially independent and retire early, it makes sense that giving is covered like the other issues. To be more specific, even while we were saving for financial independence, we were also donating 26% of our gross income to … [Read more...]
