October 2017 - Route to Retire

My First 24 Hours with the J. Money Mohawk

It started as a joke… until it wasn’t. This is the story of how I became a J. Money knockoff for the day. It’s something a little different from my regular posts. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show… I was at the FinCon expo for the first time this year. If you’re unfamiliar with the event, it’s an annual convention filled with financial content for bloggers and other money nerds! Philip Taylor (PT) started the event in 2011 and it’s been growing ever since. Like-minded love to get together and this event is definitely no exception. I’ll be talking about my FinCon experience in a later post… just know that I loved every minute of that expo. I went to the conference

Is Rule 72(t) the Escape Tool for Me?

Rule 72(t). The name sounds as boring as 401(k). And it should because it’s from the same place – the Internal Revenue Code. Both are part of the tax law that the IRS gets to govern. Coincidentally, both Rule 72(t) and 401(k) plans are pertinent to this post. I recently wrote a post about our FIRE plans titled The Roth IRA Conversion Ladder Dilemma. I talked about how we plan on using the ladder to access our tax-deferred accounts earlier than the traditional retirement age. The problem we ran up against is covering the 5-year gap in the meantime until we can access the funds. We need to have enough money in our taxable accounts to make that happen… and we

We’re All on the Same Journey

The journey to FIRE can be an arduous path. Sometimes I struggle with the content I want to put on this blog. It’s not due to a lack of ideas, but rather a matter of wondering if the reader can relate. Some of you are just starting to get interested in the idea of financial independence. Perhaps you’re saddled with debt, but know there’s got to be a way out. Others of you are in your wealth-building stage of your life and you’re working on banking whatever you can. And then there are some of you who have already reached retirement – whether it be early or not. Finally, there is a group of you who have not only reached

The Roth IRA Conversion Ladder Dilemma

I’ve been a bit moody the past couple of weeks. I’ve been focusing a lot on trying to pinpoint our exact retirement date and I’ve been struggling. The problem all stems with the Roth IRA Conversion Ladder we plan to do. First off, if you’re on the path to FIRE (Financial Independence/Retire Early) and you’re not familiar with how a Roth IRA Conversion Ladder works, this could be important to you. It’s not the end-all-be-all solution, but the ladder is a method that many early retirees are able to use to make FIRE actually happen. You see, normally you don’t have access to your traditional 401(k) and other retirement accounts until 59½. This is a problem for young whippersnappers trying

What to Do with Your Money Right Now

We’re in an interesting cycle of the economy right now. Things are looking good, which helps boost the value of your money. When it comes to investments, stock prices and property values are generally up. And if you’re selling, that’s a good thing. Retirees and folks selling their houses or some of their stock investments are partying it up during these times. However, if you’re still in the wealth-building phase of your life, this isn’t as exciting. Sure, it makes your portfolio look good, but if you don’t need the money right now, it’s taking its toll on your buying power. Using your money to buy new shares in the stock market is expensive right now. Expensive is a subjective word,