General Thoughts

To Reveal or Not to Reveal the Numbers...

To Reveal or Not to Reveal My Numbers…

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

We’re coming up on a year of my site’s first post in a couple of months and with that, I’ve been able to really get to know you guys as well as some of the other financial independence sites out there.  As I’ve been investing a lot more of my time reading the other blogs, I’ve noticed that it really makes for an interesting read to see where people are at on their journey.  One of the dilemmas that I’m facing […]

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Is 50¢ Too Much Money for Garbage?

Is 50¢ Too Much Money for Garbage?

6 Comments / Kids, General Thoughts / /

50 cents…  two quarters. That’s what we pay our daughter every week to gather the trash from all the bedrooms, put new bags in the cans, and bring all the garbage downstairs to stuff in the bag to go out.  50 cents a week for one of her chores. Ah, chores – a subject of great debate. Now, there are a couple different ways to look at this.  Maybe you’re thinking… “Jim, you can’t pay your daughter to do chores!  Aren’t

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Another A-Ha Moment

Another Aha Moment for Financial Freedom!!

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

I had my first aha moment when I figured out that there was a way out of the rat race.  I realized that reaching financial freedom and retiring early is not just a long-shot dream – anyone can do it!  That was a real eye opener for me, so I’ve been putting my nose to the grind and working on making this happen.  I’ve been building up my 401(k) plan, Roth IRA, and savings accounts.  I also bought my first rental property a number

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What Are You Reading?

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

I read… a lot. I’m usually a non-fiction kind of guy because I enjoy learning (I’m an odd-bird!). However, I do slip in some fiction every now and again just to change things up.  With a five-year old daughter, I don’t get as much reading done as I would like, but I cram in the reading whenever I can. I also think that the Kindle E-reader is one of the greatest products on the planet. I have a ton of books on there,

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I Enjoy My Job... But Not Working

I Enjoy My Job… But Not Working

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

It seems to be inevitable… any time I’m in a discussion with someone and they hear me utter that I plan to quit working at an early age, they ask “Why?  You don’t like your job?” That’s a tricky question and one I sometimes struggle to answer to make people understand.  The gist of it is that… I Enjoy My Job… But Not Working. They’re actually two different things. My job right now is managing the engineers at an IT company.  And

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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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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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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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