Control Your Spending

Are You a Casualty of Lifestyle Inflation?

6 Comments / Saving, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

I think a lot of us have done the years of living off Ramen Noodles just trying to get by, maybe while just trying to make it though college. While in school, I ended up getting a good part-time job at Walmart, which soon became a full-time job.  This was followed by a couple of department manager positions and then an assistant manager role at a few different stores. This all happened within the frame of a couple of years and I […]

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Rental Property Chase

The Rental Property Investment Chase [Part 2]

4 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving / /

Well that was fast.  Really fast.  One of the things that Robert Kiyosaki talks a lot about in his books is that you should look at 100 properties, make offers on 10, and buy 1.  Well, I was intent on looking at a number of them (maybe not 100) until a great deal pretty much unfolded right in front of me. If you remember where we left off at in Part 1, I had a potential rental property that my financial

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Emergency Savings

The All-Important Emergency Savings

3 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Saving / /

If you take in any financial advice, you’re bound to hear about it.  Some disagree on when to fund it and they all seem to disagree on how much you should put into it. Either way, everyone agrees on one thing and we’ve all heard it a million times… Make sure you have an emergency savings fund! Dave Ramsey wants you to put aside three to six months for your emergency savings.  Suze Orman wants you to put aside an eight months

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Why the Education System is Broke

Why the Education System is Broke

8 Comments / Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Kids / /

So yesterday one of my friends that I currently work with came into my office to talk business (as well as to chit-chat a little bit).  In the midst of our conversation, he mentioned how his young twin boys are starting to understand the general concept of working. As a side note, he’s the only one at my office who really knows about this site (and he reads it)… so he’s probably going to throw a rock at me for bringing him into a

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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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Rental Property Chase

The Rental Property Investment Chase [Part 1]

9 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Real Estate / /

An enormous help to financial freedom is owning assets.  The key to assets is that they pay you even when you’re not working.  I’ve talked previously about my rental house and how it’s currently paying for the mortgage and a little extra.  The big payoff though will be once the mortgage is paid off and I’m done with my full-time job.  That will be a nice stream of income coming in every month. You can save a ton of money in

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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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Should I Pay Off My House Early?

8 Comments / Real Estate, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) / /

You’ve been doing well with your finances.  You don’t have any car loans or credit card debt.  You’ve been socking away money in your 401(k), Roth IRA, and other investments.  Now you’re looking for more avenues to help put yourself in a better position with your money. Eventually, you start asking yourself that one question… the one that can really stir up some good debate… Should I pay off my house early if I can? On one hand, you have that huge feel-good aspect

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