Investments

Why Not Keep Working and Saving? Are You Stupid?

42 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Life in Early Retirement, Saving, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

I’m only 43 years old right now (Ok, fine – I’m pushing 44!).  But this is still prime time to continue on with my career.  If I were to keep working, I could build up an even bigger and more secure nest egg. So why don’t you do that?  Why did you leave your job and retire early?  Are you stupid or just lazy? Haha, talk about cutting to the chase! I actually love when others ask me questions about …

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That Day I Sold My Coin Collection to J. Money...

That Day I Sold My Coin Collection to J. Money…

23 Comments / Investments / By / May 14, 2019

Another day where the personal finance community helps each other out.  This time it was with my very own coin collection. As we’re continuing to prepare for our big move to Panama later this summer, we’re cleaning house as much as we can.  Between selling, giving away/donating, and trashing all our stuff, we’ve been plenty busy. Eliminating the big stuff like furniture has been nice.  It’s been pretty quick to go on OfferUp and frees up tons of space.  We …

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8 Financial Tips I Wish I Knew When I Was in My 20’s

16 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Health and Fitness, Investments, Kids, Life in Early Retirement, Motivation, Real Estate, Saving, Self-Employment, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

My nephew recently started reading this blog and it got me thinking.  What would be valuable information for him as a reader?  What do I wish I knew when I was younger? He’s almost 20 years old and he just started a career in construction probably close to a couple of years ago.  At his age, I know I wasn’t very smart financially.  Don’t get me wrong – I thought I was, but looking back, I made some stupid decisions. …

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My Gamble with $691k in Retirement Money

20 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments / By / September 24, 2019

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 / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Life in Early Retirement, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

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 / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving / By / September 24, 2019

I’ve been considering providing a breakdown of our net worth for a while now.  I’ve held off for a couple reasons though: For some reason, this isn’t very common for many bloggers to do.  We seem to consider this to be sacred territory and almost taboo. I’ve been making a lot of changes and wanted to let the dust settle a little before talking about this. Well, I love breaking taboo – if you’d ask my friends, they’d tell you …

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Is One Million Dollars Enough to Retire On?

Is One Million Dollars Enough to Retire On?

23 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Life in Early Retirement, Saving / By / September 24, 2019

One million dollars.  It’s the coveted goal for many. Maybe it’s something you think is way out of reach.  Or maybe you’re on the other side of the spectrum and close to it or even long surpassed that number. Regardless, one million dollars just seems to be a good round number in our heads to strive for reaching.  In fact, it’s a number that many folks have had as their target number for financial independence or retirement for decades. You …

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For Those Who Hate Budgeting, Try Reverse Budgeting

For Those Who Hate Budgeting, Try Reverse Budgeting

4 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Spending / By / September 24, 2019

Last week, I talked about money throughout my life.  I’ve had my ups and downs with it just like most folks.  What I didn’t talk about though is my hate for budgeting. I’m probably one of the most organized people with a good old case of OCD you’d love to know.  I need structure in order to operate.  For me, everything has its place and making a plan is always the smartest way to do something. It’s actually soothing for …

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Why I Want a Stock Market Crash This Close to FIRE

18 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments / By / September 24, 2019

What kind of person actually wants a stock market crash just two months before retirement? This guy, that’s who! That might sound like a weird sentiment especially considering I’ve been worried about this exact thing over the past couple of years.  After all, a down market would kill my net worth at the same time I plan to start withdrawing my money. This discussion is specific to the mindset of getting closer to retirement.  If you’re in the accumulation phase of …

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Strategies We’re Using in Our Early Retirement Planning

14 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Geoarbitrage, Investments, Life in Early Retirement, Panama, Self-Employment / By / September 24, 2019

Early retirement planning.  You’d think the closer we get to our FIRE date, the simpler things would become. I mean really – I’m leaving my job in just a few months so as I continue to train my replacement, my workload should start to diminish over time.  Plus, we’re downsizing to an apartment soon (if we could ever sell our house!). What else could there be, Jim?  How much early retirement planning do you really need?  Didn’t you already get these …

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