2015

Am I Focusing TOO Much on Retirement??

10 Comments / General Thoughts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

I’ll admit it… I am passionate about becoming financially free and quitting my day job.  I think about it 24×7.  It’s constantly on my mind and I’m always trying to figure out ways to make it happen more quickly.  I consider that to be a very good thing to help make my goals come to fruition. However, it can also be a bad thing.  And by that I mean that if I’m focusing entirely on early retirement, I’m not focusing all my […]

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Rental Property Chase

The Rental Property Investment Chase [Part 1]

9 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Real Estate / /

An enormous help to financial freedom is owning assets.  The key to assets is that they pay you even when you’re not working.  I’ve talked previously about my rental house and how it’s currently paying for the mortgage and a little extra.  The big payoff though will be once the mortgage is paid off and I’m done with my full-time job.  That will be a nice stream of income coming in every month. You can save a ton of money in

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What if…

4 Comments / General Thoughts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

I’ve talked a little bit about the company I currently work for, but I wanted to share an interesting scenario with you guys. The company I work for employs around 50 people.  In the managerial hierarchy, the company president is obviously the big dog.  I (along with a couple other managers) report directly to him.  There is also a vice president of sales, but I don’t directly report to him. Now, here’s the “what if” scenario… The president of the company

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Is Retiring Early Selfish??

4 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Kids / /

Financial freedom… I think about it more and more every day.  I wish I had put more focus on this in my younger years so I could be even closer to the goal than I am today. Part of my desire to retire early is to have more available time to spend with my daughter.  Unfortunately, with my late start, she’s going to be 15 years old when I finally quit my job.  Although that’s still young, it’s going to be a

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Second Opinion

I Got a Second Opinion Last Week…

2 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

So, I had been talking with one of my mentors a couple of months ago and we got on the subject of taxes… particularly taxes regarding rental property.  If you’re a regular follower of my site, you know that I currently have one rental house and I’m looking for a second so this was an important topic for me. My friend that I was talking with has five rental houses and is extremely savvy when it comes to the financial details

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Should I Pay Off My House Early?

8 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

You’ve been doing well with your finances.  You don’t have any car loans or credit card debt.  You’ve been socking away money in your 401(k), Roth IRA, and other investments.  Now you’re looking for more avenues to help put yourself in a better position with your money. Eventually, you start asking yourself that one question… the one that can really stir up some good debate… Should I pay off my house early if I can? On one hand, you have that huge feel-good aspect

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Four Weddings and Maybe My Funeral…

10 Comments / Spending, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Travel and Vacation / /

Today I’m getting slightly off track because I need to rant and, well, it’s my blog so I’m going to go for it! Ok, first off, maybe four weddings is an exaggeration… I have three to go to in the next month. And maybe it’s not really going to be my funeral, but it sure feels like it! Here’s the problem… Wedding number one is out-of-town – it’s in the big city… New York City. I hate the big city.

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Should You Compromise Your Lifestyle to Retire Even Earlier?

24 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving, Spending / /

If you’re reading this right now, you’re most likely either looking for a way to retire early or you already have a plan in place.  Either way, the thought repeatedly comes to my mind of ways to make retiring early happen even sooner. I run an interesting gamut of being frugal with most things but still splurging by taking cruises and other fun vacations on a regular basis.  It drives me nuts to waste money on things I have the ability

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Dividend Stocks on Sale!!

Leave a Comment / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments / /

My grandfather used to always say “When everyone’s running in one direction, you should be running in the other.”  Well, this past week was a great opportunity to follow that advice and pick up some new dividend stocks. When the stock market started to drop, people started to panic… everyone and their brother was hurrying to sell what they could before “they lost it all.”  The media hyped it up even more and got people even more worried. The good news is

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You Don’t Need to be Rich to be Financially Independent!!

Leave a Comment / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Real Estate / /

When I was in my twenties, I had this vision that I would be very rich.  Rich, rich, rich!!  I thought I needed to have all the money in the world if I was ever going to be done working. I mean, how else can you retire if you aren’t rich and sipping champagne on a yacht near your own private island in the Caribbean somewhere??!! Now, although that vision coming to fruition would be great, it took me until the past

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