Investments

The Funny Thing About Sequence of Returns Risk…

The Funny Thing About Sequence of Returns Risk…

15 Comments / Investments, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Spending, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

If someone decides to retire and live off of their investment portfolio, an important detail called the sequence of returns risk can be one of the most critical components to comprehend. You might have an understanding or at least a notion of the 4% rule that helps give you some direction in retirement planning. The idea is that you likely can take out 4% from a given portfolio every year and never run out of money. There are several caveats […]

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Why a Part-Time Job Might Be the Next Chapter in My Early Retirement

Why a Part-Time Job Might Be the Next Chapter in My Early Retirement

42 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Blogging, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Motivation, Self-Employment, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

Life is interesting. And that’s a good thing. How boring would it be if every day on this planet was the same? For about a decade now, we’ve made some choices that have swung our days into some crazy adventures. There’s no doubt this took us out of the realm of monotony. Between retiring at the age of 43 at the end of 2018 and then moving to Panama for a few years starting in 2019, we got a lot

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Roth IRA Withdrawals for Early Retirees: Tracking What's Accessible Now

Roth IRA Withdrawals for Early Retirees: Tracking What’s Accessible Now

8 Comments / Taxes and Financial Planning, Education, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments / /

I retired at the age of 43 at the end of 2018 so I could spend more time with my family and choose how I want to spend each day. It’s been amazing so far and I’m looking forward to the years to come. Strangely, you need this thing called “money” to be able to pay for your expenses in life. They getcha coming and they getcha going, don’t they?! 😉 Fortunately, we were prepared for that and socked away

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Investment Risk: Rebalance Your Way to Peace of Mind

Investment Risk: Rebalance Your Way to Peace of Mind

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

Another day, another dollar… hopefully. Aside from some small hiccups along the way, the stock market has continued its way upward since 2009 after the 2007-2008 financial crisis. As an early retiree, I’m happy to see that happen as our portfolio easily continues to outpace our spending. When I retired at the end of 2018, our net worth was not quite $1.1 million. Currently, we’re floating at a little over $1.75 million even while it pays our living expenses No

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Breaking Up With PocketGuard: Why Quicken Simplifi Won Me Over

Breaking Up With PocketGuard: Why Quicken Simplifi Won Me Over

9 Comments / Spending, Debt, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

Well, I’ve gone and done it again… I switched personal finance apps in my quest to find the right one for what I needed. I thought PocketGuard was the one, but it turns out I was wrong. I only used PocketGuard for about 6 months but it had some shortcomings that just didn’t work well for me… so I decided to bail on it. Fortunately, I think Quicken Simplifi will be the answer I have been looking for all this

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The Case for a Little "Fun Money" in the Stock Market - My $800 Bet That Turned into a Mind-Blowing $43,000!!

The Case for a Little “Fun Money” in the Stock Market – My $800 Bet That Turned into a Mind-Blowing $43,000!!

12 Comments / Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Investments, Saving, Taxes and Financial Planning / /

I admit it – I’m a boring guy when it comes to my investment portfolio. Over the years, low-cost broad-based index funds now make up over 77% of our investment portfolio. REITs and bond funds account for another 22%. So what’s the remaining 1+% invested in? Well, that’s our fun money in the stock market. And that number accounted for a lot more until recently when I cashed in on some gains. But why have fun money in an investment

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Wellness, Wealth, and Wanderlust: Paving the Way for 2024

Wellness, Wealth, and Wanderlust: Paving the Way for 2024

18 Comments / Life in Early Retirement, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), Health and Fitness, Investments, Kids, Motivation, Road Trip, Spending, Travel and Vacation / /

In the blink of an eye, 2023 has come and gone. Whether you had a great year or not, it’s time to decide if you’re going to make 2024 a better one! Our 2023 was something truly different and not anything I would have imagined. Our wanderlust took over and we ended up buying an RV, letting the lease lapse on our apartment, putting our stuff in storage, and set off to travel the country. We’ve been learning the RV

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Why I Chose PocketGuard as the Best Mint Replacement for Me

Why I Chose PocketGuard as the Best Mint Replacement for Me

10 Comments / Here's Why I'm Liking..., Debt, Investments, Product and Service Reviews, Saving, Spending / /

If you haven’t heard, Intuit decided to shut down the Mint personal finance site/app on January 1, 2024. They made this announcement on October 31, 2024, giving users only about 2 months to decide what they were going to do. All I can do is shake my head at how disrespectful this is to their loyal customer base. UPDATE: I just I received an email from Intuit on 12/17/2023 stating that I can continue using Mint until March 23, 2024,

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Your Money, Your Choices: Why Personal Finance Is Deeply Personal

Your Money, Your Choices: Why Personal Finance Is Deeply Personal

12 Comments / Motivation, Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE), General Thoughts, Investments, Saving, Spending, Taxes and Financial Planning, Travel and Vacation / /

Personal finance is such an interesting facet of life. It’s a part of every one of our lives whether we like it or not and most of us think we know what’s best for ourselves… and everyone else. But the reality is that while we can learn as much as we want about the subject, we really should only focus on what’s best for ourselves. Why is that? It’s because, funny enough, personal finance truly is personal. You might have

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Masterfully Crafted: How ChatGPT Wrote a Compelling Article on the Power of Saving and Investing

Masterfully Crafted: How ChatGPT Wrote a Compelling Article on the Power of Saving and Investing

23 Comments / Blogging, Here's Why I'm Liking..., Investments, Product and Service Reviews, Saving / /

I’m both excited and scared about the concept of Artificial intelligence (AI) including ChatGPT, which is currently all over the technology news. The technical and engineering side of my brain is fascinated by the whole idea. The potential of artificial intelligence growing up and being able to make our lives easier in different aspects is incredible. We have 3 of those Google Nest Minis in our apartment (we got 1 for free and paid $1 each for the other 2).

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