General Thoughts Archives - Page 2 of 17

A Moment to Exhale… So Now What?

Well, we’re finally over the hump. We actually had a moment to exhale. We sold the house and moved into an apartment. Everything should start to get easier and easier as we get closer to the big move to Panama next summer. I started this post while at the airport on our way to Miami to get our cruise kicked off. We booked this trip at the beginning of the year thinking we’d have nothing going on at this time. Yeah, we were wrong. Once we got through security here at Hopkins airport here in Cleveland, I got a text from my agent telling me everything just finished. The closing is officially done and they’re in the process of filing

Money Throughout My Life

Money. We all know its importance or you wouldn’t be reading this post. Whether you like it or not, it’s what the world runs on. You could opt out of playing the game and become a hobo, but there are very few of us that can live happily ever after in that position. You can’t let money rule your life, but it’s important to understand its role. Once you can control your capital instead of it controlling you, you’re one step closer to freedom. The old adage that “money can’t buy happiness” is only partially true. It can’t directly buy you a life of bliss, but it can buy you freedom – and that freedom can give you the opportunity

FinCon… It’s Really All About the People

I’m writing this post on the airplane coming back from Orlando. I just got finished another great FinCon conference. Not only that, but I’m writing it while on the plane the old-school way – pen and paper. Sure, I’ve had to rewrite the whole thing to get it online because I bailed on bringing my laptop to the event. But I care about you guys so much that it’s worth the effort… you’re welcome. This is the second year I attended FinCon. Last year, I wrote a couple of posts recapping the event – My First 24 Hours with the J. Money Mohawk and My 6 Favorite Fincon17 Moments. This year, I decided I wouldn’t go into FinCon with a specific

The Hardest Part of the Path to FIRE is…

The path to FIRE (financial independence / retire early) can be a long and sometimes arduous path. Each of us runs into our own obstacles and stumbling blocks along the way. One piece of good news is that, unlike the early trail-blazers that went down this path, there’s now a wonderful community on the big old Internet. If you look past the get-rich-quick garbage out there, you’ll find a lot of supportive and helpful folks who want you to succeed. Another plus in your favor is that FIRE continues to become something more folks are doing. It’s far from mainstream, but it’s more common than it has been anytime before. Because of that, there are a lot of success stories providing

The Next Steps in Our Early Retirement Plans

I thought I’d take a step back from my normal posts to update everyone on our status – where we’re currently at and the next steps in our early retirement plans. My regular readers know that I’m leaving my job at the end of this year and we’re moving to Panama next summer (2019). It seems like an eternity away, but it’s really not a lot of time. So the good news is that the adventure is almost ready to begin! The bad news is that we have a lot going on to make this happen successfully. I’m a planner by nature, but it’s been a little stressful as each of these big steps has a lot of little steps.

Is FIRE Possible Without Knowing Your Numbers?

Growing up I was always good at math. I pretty much ran circles around the other kids in the class in elementary school and had no problems throughout high school as well. Knowing your numbers back in those days was a whole different ball game. Then college happened. Some of the classes were easy peasy, but then there were subjects like business statistics and macro/micro economics. I think my grades in those tougher classes accurately reflected my understanding at the time – not so good. Fast forward to today and I’ll tell you something that not a lot of folks know about me. I don’t know the intricacies of my numbers like a lot of others do. Sure, I keep