Investments

I’m Now a 401(k) Millionaire – Can You Be One, Too?

I’m Now a 401(k) Millionaire – Can You Be One, Too?

36 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / By /

So here’s something unexpected… I just became a 401(k) millionaire last week. As an early retiree, I had rolled over my 401(k) into a traditional IRA in March 2019. So on a technicality, I’m really a rollover IRA millionaire, but it’s still my 401(k) account sitting there with nothing new added to it since January 2019. I had even pulled a little over $60,000 out of the account in December 2019. That was part of the Roth IRA conversion ladder …

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Investment Portfolio Changes I'm Making!

Investment Portfolio Changes I’m Making!

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

It’s time to make some changes to my investment portfolio! I wrote a post last month called We Have a Lot of Cash in Hand Now… Too Much! that discussed how too much of our portfolio is sitting in cash. Apparently, that’s not uncommon right now as I received a lot of feedback in the comments and replies back from my mailing list (which I recommend you sign up for on the sidebar!). So I decided to write a post …

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How and Why To Open a Custodial Roth IRA at Vanguard

How and Why To Open a Custodial Roth IRA at Vanguard

74 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Kids / By /

I recently wrote a post called Teaching Kids About Money – Valuable Lessons Instilled. As I was in the process of writing it, I got motivated to open a custodial Roth IRA for my daughter, Faith. If you’re new to this blog, Faith is 10 years old (11 in a few months). When you hear that, you might be thinking, “What the @#$% does a 10-year-old need with a retirement account?” or “Um, Jim, don’t you need to have earned …

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Teaching Kids About Money – Valuable Lessons Instilled

Teaching Kids About Money – Valuable Lessons Instilled

14 Comments / Kids, Debt, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Spending / By /

Relying on schools to educate your kids about personal finance is generally not going to be a smart move… most schools don’t even have a curriculum to teach them the basics. When it comes to teaching kids about money, the onus falls on you. That’s good news because you have an opportunity to ensure that your children are learning the right information. Just as many parents haven’t been educated about personal finance, many teachers themselves haven’t been either. If you …

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We Have a Lot of Cash in Hand Now… Too Much!

We Have a Lot of Cash in Hand Now… Too Much!

37 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Real Estate, Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / By /

Having cash in hand is a good thing. Whether it’s for an emergency fund or money you’re saving up for something short-term like a car, having money at your disposal is a good thing. But there’s a limit to that goodness and having too much cash in hand can absolutely be a problem. When you have money sitting in the bank, it’s earning a little bit of interest (a real little bit in this day and age!). However, that interest …

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Owning Rental Properties Is Smart, but I’m Out, Jack!

Owning Rental Properties Is Smart, but I’m Out, Jack!

38 Comments / Real Estate, Debt, Investments, Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / By /

That’s right, folks – after owning rental properties since 2003, I’m now completely out of the game! In 2018, I sold the house I had bought as an investment property in 2003. And just a couple of weeks ago, we closed on selling the duplex we had purchased in 2015. Here’s the weird part – if you’ve been following my blog over the years, you know that I’m a strong advocate of owning real estate rentals. Each property can provide …

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$1.3 Million Net Worth… Yet Scraping By Right Now

$1.3 Million Net Worth… Yet Scraping By Right Now

30 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Spending / By /

Anytime you can throw the words “million net worth” into a discussion, the words “scraping by” shouldn’t follow. It just doesn’t fit the bill. Now before I continue, let me say that we’re fine, but we ran into an interesting financial problem that has messed us up this year. And, of course, my job is to share that with you so you can make sure you don’t run into a similar small dilemma. I’m always very forthcoming regarding our money …

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Is It a Smart Idea to Pay Off the Rental Property?

Is It a Smart Idea to Pay Off the Rental Property?

36 Comments / Real Estate, Debt, Investments / By /

I’ve been salivating over these insanely low mortgage rates out there right now. But I never even thought that another option might be to just pay off the rental property. Today I want to tell you about how I went from unsuccessfully trying to refinance to considering that maybe I just pay off the rental property. It even involves a discussion with the one and only Clark Howard! There’s always discussion in the real estate world about whether it makes …

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How I Got Over $181,000 of Free Money for Retirement

How I Got Over $181,000 of Free Money for Retirement

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

I had a thought recently that made me wonder how much free money for retirement was given to me during my last job. My former employer was always generous in taking care of employees through the 401(k) plan offered. So just how much of our net worth could be attributed to that facet of saving? I dug up my old 401(k) statements and expected the need to spend a lot of time breaking things down and then adding up all …

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The Recession - The Ultimate Test for Early Retirees

The Recession – The Ultimate Test for Early Retirees

30 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments / By /

Well boys and girls, like it or not, we’re soon to be in a recession – if we’re not there already. The COVID-19/Coronavirus pandemic appears to be the black swan event that became the catalyst for the downfall of one heckuva long bull market. To try to contain the virus and flatten the curve, many businesses were ordered to shut down temporarily.  In many places, bars, wineries, breweries, and restaurants (sometimes with the exception of takeout or delivery) were forced …

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