Why I’ve given up trying to budget and am just going to focus on my savings rate for FIRE
Calculating My Savings Rate for FIRE – Why I’ve given up budgeting and still feel confident
Category: Saving/Investing
Coast FIRE: Achieved! 😎
A low-information but high-celebration post, since I’m finally confident we’ve hit our “Coast FIRE” number. What is Coast FIRE? If you’re not familiar with Coast FIRE/CoastFI, what it basically means is “you have enough money invested that you could stop contributing to retirement accounts tomorrow and still be able to […]
Jar 2.0: Taxable Early Retirement Fund
FreedomJar 2.0 – Focusing on the “early” part of early retirement. We need to plan how we’ll bridge the gap between early retirement age and 59½, when you can start withdrawing from retirement accounts.
Investing for Your Kids – Stocks are the new Savings Bonds
How we used ETrade for a modern take on Savings Bonds to invest for “our” kids instead of buying more junk While we don’t have any children of our own, we have something like 10 nieces/nephews/goddaughters. When I was young, my grandma used to give us savings bonds at Christmas […]
SEP-IRA: a 401k Alternative for the Self-Employed
A brief explainer on SEP-IRAs, something like a 401k for self-employed people (and side hustlers!) As a W-2 employee, I did a pretty good job contributing to my 401k, but decided to take a leap into the world of 1099 subcontracting. I knew I wanted to keep the retirement momentum […]
What is an Index Fund? A Wealth Cheat Code!
(Good) index funds are a low-fee, low-effort way to build wealth. This is part of a continuing series on the basics, where we look at things that probably should have been taught in school if they weren’t so busy having us memorize dates (or dropping out, in my case). While […]
4% Rule: The Key to Retirement at Any Income Level
Explaining the basic (but life-changing!) “4% Rule” – which lays out a path to retiring safely at any age. The “safe withdrawal rate,” also commonly referred to as the 4% rule is simply this: You can withdraw 4% of your invested assets…forever! It’s not a particularly new or complicated concept, […]