Early Retirement Archives - Page 2 of 16

Is One Million Dollars Enough to Retire On?

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 suddenly gain the status of “millionaire” and you become part of the “7-digit club.” What could be more exciting than that? However, we all know that the dollar ain’t worth what it used to be. Inflation loves to strip away

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

Why I Want a Stock Market Crash This Close to FIRE

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 your life, you shouldn’t be questioning whether or not a down market is good. If that’s the case, a stock market crash is exactly what you want. You should already be saving and investing so a crash would just help

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

Guest Post on ESI Money: How to Get Up the Nerve to Retire

Hey, regular readers – just thought I’d drop a quick note to let you know about a guest post that I recently did on getting the nerve to retire early. John at ESI Money reached out to me recently to let me know that a number of his readers had a concern. The problem they were having is that they were close to early retirement but have been unable to pull the trigger. Since he knew that I’m close to actually leaving my job for good in just a few months (woo-hoo!), he thought I’d be the right guy to write a post on the subject. Sounded like a great idea and a lot of fun, so I made it

Strategies We’re Using in Our Early Retirement Planning

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 plans laid out months or years ago? I’ll tell you what – I read a lot of personal finance blogs with folks who’ve already left their jobs and it seems like the majority of what I read is: 1) Reach