Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE)

My Gamble with $691k in Retirement Money

20 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

Retirement money is definitely something you shouldn’t be gambling with.  But hey, it’s only your future on the line… what could go wrong? I admit it – I love gambling.  That’s not something you’d expect to hear from a blogger in the personal finance community, but it’s true. I’m not an avid gambler – I just enjoy some table games or video poker at a casino every now and again.  Sometimes I’ll even throw a little bit at a periodic […]

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The Drawdown on Investments - Our Game Plan

The Drawdown on Investments – Our Game Plan

14 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Spending / /

After last week’s post on the breakdown of our net worth, I thought it might be a good follow-up to provide more detail on our drawdown plans… a part II, if you will. “Why?”, you might ask.* I realized that there aren’t a lot of folks in the trenches talking about this subject.  Many FIRE sites talk about the strategies of getting to the point of early retirement.  However, it seems like there aren’t too many that talk about actually drawing

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The Breakdown of Our Net Worth Savings & Investments

The Breakdown of Our Net Worth Savings & Investments

19 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving / /

I’ve been considering providing a breakdown of our net worth for a while now.  I’ve held off for a couple of reasons though: Well, I love breaking taboo – if you’d ask my friends, they’d tell you how I tend to say things that seem inappropriate, but are usually what everyone is thinking.  It might be some stirring the pot but it gets some good conversation going! When our net worth hit the $1 million mark back in 2017, a

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Guest Post on the FIRE Stories Site

Interview on the FIRE Stories Site

2 Comments / Guest Posts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement / /

Hey everyone – just wanted to let you know about an interview I just did for Tim Pittman at FIRE Stories. FIRE Stories is a newer site that Tim started just this past January.  He interviews folks who have achieved financial independence and retired early.  His aim is to determine how they got to where they are today, what mistakes they’ve made along the way, and garner advice on how to start adopting the FIRE mindset. I didn’t know Tim when

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My First FIRE Presentation on Geoarbitrage

10 Comments / Podcasts and Other Appearances, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Life in Early Retirement, Panama / /

Yup, you read that right… I did a FIRE presentation regarding geoarbitrage and our plans to move to Panama. Deanna (aka Ms. Fiology) asked me to do a talk for the ChooseFI local group in Northeast Ohio.  I’m a reasonably outgoing guy, but public speaking is a whole different ball game. I had never done a presentation like this before, but I decided why not push my comfort level and give it a shot?  So I agreed. Although my stipulation was

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Being a FIRE Millionaire Doesn’t Mean You’re Rich

22 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Spending / /

There’s an interesting mentality that I notice creeps up periodically.  It’s the idea that some people think that being a millionaire makes you filthy rich with plenty of money to throw around. Folks who aren’t as entrenched in the personal finance world tend to think that if you’re a millionaire, you actually have $1 million ready to spend.  In other words, if you’ve hit that mark, you must be sitting on bushels of cash just ready to be spent. This

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Christopher Guest Post on Physician on FIRE

Christopher Guest Post on Physician on FIRE

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

I first met the face behind Physician on FIRE at FinCon17.  Not only did he turn out to be a good guy, but he was giving out koozies for free… I love free swag! Physician on FIRE and I have a few things in common: Our blogs are both a handful of years old (mine started in 2015 and PoF’s in 2016) We’re both 43 – we’re aging like fine wines! We’ve both spent a little bit of time in

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Finding Balance in Early Retirement with Kids

31 Comments / Kids, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Life in Early Retirement / /

Finding balance in life is tough.  Between your regular job, chores, time with spouses or people you’re dating, and going out to play with friends and family, time is limited. The fact is that we all only have 24 hours per day… 168 hours each week. Then you throw a kid into the mix… ha!  Good luck!  It’s like a turbulent hurricane of confusion every day.  And the frenzied mess doesn’t scale well either.  With each additional child you have,

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FIRE Gives You the Freedom to Fail Miserably

22 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Motivation / /

Who creates a headline to talk about the “freedom” to fail miserably?  That’s depressing! This guy does – that’s who! Most of you likely read this blog for one of two reasons – you’re striving to reach financial independence or you’re already there. And the reasons you aim for that goal will vary… maybe you want to quit your job because you can’t stand your career anymore.  Or maybe you just want financial security to give you more choices in

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What Did We Just Do?!! Thoughts from a New Retiree

28 Comments / General Thoughts, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement / /

So, I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out what I wanted to talk about for my first post as a new retiree.  I have all these things on my mind, but I’ve been struggling to figure out just the right topic. And that’s when it hit me… why not just talk about some of the random thoughts that have been floating around my head this week? Maybe some of what’s going on in this noggin of mine could

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