Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE)

Roth IRA Withdrawals for Early Retirees: Tracking What's Accessible Now

Roth IRA Withdrawals for Early Retirees: Tracking What’s Accessible Now

8 Comments / Taxes and Financial Planning, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments / /

I retired at the age of 43 at the end of 2018 so I could spend more time with my family and choose how I want to spend each day. It’s been amazing so far and I’m looking forward to the years to come. Strangely, you need this thing called “money” to be able to pay for your expenses in life. They getcha coming and they getcha going, don’t they?! 😉 Fortunately, we were prepared for that and socked away […]

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Investment Risk: Rebalance Your Way to Peace of Mind

Investment Risk: Rebalance Your Way to Peace of Mind

12 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Taxes and Financial Planning / /

Another day, another dollar… hopefully. Aside from some small hiccups along the way, the stock market has continued its way upward since 2009 after the 2007-2008 financial crisis. As an early retiree, I’m happy to see that happen as our portfolio easily continues to outpace our spending. When I retired at the end of 2018, our net worth was not quite $1.1 million. Currently, we’re floating at a little over $1.75 million even while it pays our living expenses No

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The Realities of Adventure: Are the Headaches Before and After Worth It?

The Realities of Adventure: Are the Headaches Before and After Worth It?

12 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Kids, Panama, Road Trip, Travel and Vacation / /

There’s no doubt we’re making the most out of our early retirement freedom. I left my career at the end of 2018 and we’ve done a lot of unique things since then, including: The point is that we’ve stepped out of our comfort zone to do some different things – some involving a fair amount of adventure. There are two on that list that really stand out though on the adventure list just because of the commitment, work involved in

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Breaking Up With PocketGuard: Why Quicken Simplifi Won Me Over

Breaking Up With PocketGuard: Why Quicken Simplifi Won Me Over

9 Comments / Spending, Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

Well, I’ve gone and done it again… I switched personal finance apps in my quest to find the right one for what I needed. I thought PocketGuard was the one, but it turns out I was wrong. I only used PocketGuard for about 6 months but it had some shortcomings that just didn’t work well for me… so I decided to bail on it. Fortunately, I think Quicken Simplifi will be the answer I have been looking for all this

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The Case for a Little "Fun Money" in the Stock Market - My $800 Bet That Turned into a Mind-Blowing $43,000!!

The Case for a Little “Fun Money” in the Stock Market – My $800 Bet That Turned into a Mind-Blowing $43,000!!

12 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

I admit it – I’m a boring guy when it comes to my investment portfolio. Over the years, low-cost broad-based index funds now make up over 77% of our investment portfolio. REITs and bond funds account for another 22%. So what’s the remaining 1+% invested in? Well, that’s our fun money in the stock market. And that number accounted for a lot more until recently when I cashed in on some gains. But why have fun money in an investment

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Unveiling the Pros and Cons of ACA Healthcare in Early Retirement: Our Story

Unveiling the Pros and Cons of ACA Healthcare in Early Retirement: Our Story

36 Comments / Insurance, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Life in Early Retirement, Product and Service Reviews / /

There are likely thousands of blogs and websites dedicated to pursuing financial independence and early retirement if desired (FIRE). These can be extremely beneficial for the motivation you’ll likely garner and for the potential of finding new ideas to streamline your approach. That said, there aren’t a ton of blogs from folks who have made it to the point of reaching early retirement. Figuring out the math and how to get there is one thing, but knowing what actually transpires

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Wellness, Wealth, and Wanderlust: Paving the Way for 2024

Wellness, Wealth, and Wanderlust: Paving the Way for 2024

18 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Investments, Kids, Motivation, Road Trip, Spending, Travel and Vacation / /

In the blink of an eye, 2023 has come and gone. Whether you had a great year or not, it’s time to decide if you’re going to make 2024 a better one! Our 2023 was something truly different and not anything I would have imagined. Our wanderlust took over and we ended up buying an RV, letting the lease lapse on our apartment, putting our stuff in storage, and set off to travel the country. We’ve been learning the RV

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Risk and Reward: Overcoming the Doubt Can Transform Your Life

Risk and Reward: Overcoming the Doubt Can Transform Your Life

8 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Self-Employment, Travel and Vacation / /

When I was younger, weighing the risk and reward in a decision was a lot easier. In your youth, you’ve got time on your side and most of the chances you take aren’t going to make or break you. If you’re in your younger years, remember that. Don’t be afraid to take calculated risks that can change your life for the better. As time marches on though, the choice between risk and reward can sometimes be a lot tougher. When

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Your Money, Your Choices: Why Personal Finance Is Deeply Personal

Your Money, Your Choices: Why Personal Finance Is Deeply Personal

12 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Investments, Saving, Spending, Taxes and Financial Planning, Travel and Vacation / /

Personal finance is such an interesting facet of life. It’s a part of every one of our lives whether we like it or not and most of us think we know what’s best for ourselves… and everyone else. But the reality is that while we can learn as much as we want about the subject, we really should only focus on what’s best for ourselves. Why is that? It’s because, funny enough, personal finance truly is personal. You might have

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Adventure Planning: I’ve Made This Mistake Twice

Adventure Planning: I’ve Made This Mistake Twice

8 Comments / Travel and Vacation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Life in Early Retirement, Road Trip / /

You might have noticed that I’ve been MIA on this blog for a few weeks now… that’s starting to become a little common lately. I’ve wanted to focus on all sorts of different things, like learning to code in Kotlin for Android and just trying to be in the “now” a little more. In the midst of things, we took a month-long trip back to Boquete, Panama from late June until late July. I tried to focus more on being

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