Like father, like daughter… Recently, my 7-year-old daughter started asking me some questions about my blog. She wanted to know what I write about and why I do it. I’m very deliberate in making sure that I don’t treat her like a kid when she’s interested in answers to something. I have a couple reasons for this: 1) I want to ensure she’s never afraid to ask questions. And so far, that’s always been effective. She never feels like she […]
You’ve heard it before – be sure that you track your expenses! But why would you want to do that? And is there an easy way to make it happen? When most of the mainstream media in the financial space talks, they want to push you toward using your income as a gauge on how prepared you are for retirement. You’ll hear various numbers thrown around such as that you’ll need 80% of your pre-retirement income to make it through retirement.
FU money… the dream of many a worker around the world. If you’re not familiar with the concept, FU money (aka F-you money) is the idea that you’ve accumulated enough bankroll that you can tell your boss “f*** you” if needed. Maybe you’ve just had enough and can’t take it anymore – you just want to quit and do something else. FU money gives that power… that flexibility. Perhaps you’re ready for a career change. On the other hand, maybe
As I became a little more familiar with the idea of FIRE (financial independence / retire early), I needed to learn where I should be putting my money. And I’m not talking about the specific investments – I’m referring to the type of investment account. Terms like taxable, tax-deferred, and tax-free can make a huge difference in the outcome of your portfolio. When I started out, I didn’t understand just how much of a difference each of these accounts could make in
Ah, the cost of living in Panama… something I should have posted about months ago. As my long-time readers know, the Route to Retire family has decided to move to Panama in a couple of years as part of our FIRE plans. I’ve also talked about how inexpensive it can be to retire to a place like this. It’s interesting that you can actually take advantage of the difference in living costs between two locations to help you financially. And there’s actually
The Cost of Living in Panama… Geoarbitrage at Work! Read More »
Ok, she didn’t physically kick me, but Paula Pant found a way to get into my head. She worked me up into a real tizzy (do people still use that word?). It crushed me and took me days to think through and re-evaluate some things. First off, if you don’t know Paula Pant, she’s the host of the Afford Anything brand, which includes her blog and podcasts. She’s also one smart cookie and has a great sense of humor. Intelligence
If you’ve delved into the FIRE community even slightly, you’re probably already familiar with the shrine that is Vanguard. The Vanguard Group is an investment/brokerage firm out of Pennsylvania that manages over $4 trillion in assets. Eh, who cares? All the big brokerages manage big dollar assets like that. True, but Vanguard’s different from the other firms out there in that Vanguard is structured as a mutual company. What that means is that it’s a private company where the owners are actually
FinCon. Holy @#$%. Was not expecting it to be as awesome as it was. Believe it or not, I consider myself not to be a people person. I would rather just be at home and hang out with my wife and daughter. However, once I’m out, I sort of flip that whole tendency upside-down. I’m usually the guy that starts a conversation with the people in line at the grocery store, the guy next to me at the bar, or
It started as a joke… until it wasn’t. This is the story of how I became a J. Money knockoff for the day. It’s something a little different from my regular posts. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show… I was at the FinCon expo for the first time this year. If you’re unfamiliar with the event, it’s an annual convention filled with financial content for bloggers and other money nerds! Philip Taylor (PT) started the event in 2011 and it’s been growing
Rule 72(t). The name sounds as boring as 401(k). And it should because it’s from the same place – the Internal Revenue Code. Both are part of the tax law that the IRS gets to govern. Coincidentally, both Rule 72(t) and 401(k) plans are pertinent to this post. I recently wrote a post about our FIRE plans titled The Roth IRA Conversion Ladder Dilemma. I talked about how we plan on using the ladder to access our tax-deferred accounts earlier than
