This guest post is from Todd Tresidder who retired at age 35… 13 years ago. He wrote a book teaching you when to retire and publishes the web site FinancialMentor.Com providing various retirement planning tools including articles and calculators. I retired at age 35 (I’m now 48) and learned a... Read more »

I just spent money on a “want” for the first time in over six months(*). Obviously I had a bit of a streak going there, so what caused me to break it? A new pair of headphones that’s what. I just bought a pair of Grado SR60 headphones and compared... Read more »

Game theory is the mathematical description of the structure of strategic decisions when the choices of two agents directly influence the other. Much work has been dedicated towards finding optimal strategies; in fact much military and political strategy is built on mathematical foundations, but it also governs economic decisions. Consequently... Read more »

Lately I has been made clear to me that a life without buying things can not possibly make me happy. For one, I also realized that people would have a hard time knowing what I stand for when I do not associate myself with brand name lifestyles(*). It has also... Read more »

A couple of weeks ago I posted the controversial statement that travel is not worth it. This elicited many comments and so it is obviously something people feel strongly about. I think, therefore, I should clarify things a bit. First some definitions: Travel: The process of getting from point A... Read more »

Learn how to retire early with kids from the dad who has 14 of them! Rob shares how his family achieved FIRE six years ahead of schedule. Read more → The post How to Retire Early With Kids (14 of Them!) appeared first on Mad Fientist.... Read more »

I finally talked to the person who introduced me to the idea of financial independence - Jacob Lund Fisker from Early Retirement Extreme! Read more → The post Early Retirement Extreme – A Systems Approach to Lifestyle Design appeared first on Mad Fientist.... Read more »

There's a better alternative to resolutions and goals...especially if you're pursuing financial independence and early retirement. Read more → The post A Better Alternative to Resolutions and Goals appeared first on Mad Fientist.... Read more »

Military servicemembers have access to incredible tax, investing, and travel benefits that can accelerate the journey to FI! Read more → The post Military FIRE – The Tax, Investing, and Travel Benefits of Military Service appeared first on Mad Fientist.... Read more »

The Ultralearning Experiment was a bigger success than I'd even hoped and here's what I learned from it (plus a massive announcement)! Read more → The post 8 Key Lessons from the Ultralearning Experiment (and a Huge Announcement) appeared first on Mad Fientist.... Read more »

How does every month fly by so fast? Is it really May already?! I'm going to hit the pause button for a minute and reflect on the last month.  It was a very busy month for us. The kids had spring break in early April with lots of fun times... Read more »

Well folks, here we are in April. It's no longer winter but it's not quite summer yet. Maybe we'll enjoy a little bit of spring before the heat sets in? Right now we're suffering through the horrible intermediate phase of "pollen season" here in North Carolina. It lasts a week... Read more »

Unless you are an heir to a big fortune or you have won the lottery, you have to work hard to have money.  To accumulate wealth, you have to make more money than you spend.  The key is to keep your expenses low.  And there will be sacrifices.  Nothing crazy... Read more »

Time flies when you're having fun, right? Although in the case of February I think it flew by because it's the shortest month of the year. Only 28 days! Here we are in March, just a couple of weeks away from the official start of spring.  I'm looking forward to... Read more »

Y'all still having fun out there? At this point of the year we are officially more than half way through winter. Spring is just around the corner! Here in North Carolina, January was more wet than cold for us. Although we did get a light dusting of snow that lasted... Read more »

Dividend Aristocrats are stocks that have increased their dividends for 25 or more consecutive years. They’re basically the cream of the crop when it comes to dividend growth stocks. After all, in order to fund a reliable, rising dividend for decades, you must have produced reliable, rising profits for decades.... Read more »

Would you like to own a slice of one of the best businesses in the world? Want a market-beating yield with double-digit growth? Like the idea of so much demand for a company’s products and services that its backlog exceeds its market cap? Well, this stock offers all of that... Read more »

I’ve received one question from other investors maybe more than any other question. That question is this: How many stocks should I own in my portfolio? It’s a great question. And it’s one that I’m answering today. For more on how many stocks you should hold in your own portfolio,... Read more »

Every Sunday, I uncover a high-quality dividend growth stock that appears to be undervalued. These pieces are published at Daily Trade Alert, which is a site that focuses on dividend growth investing, stocks, and unique investment opportunities. I’ve been writing for them for years now, and they’re just great over... Read more »

Dividend growth investing is a no-brainer investment strategy. Dividend growth stocks are some of the very best long-term wealth growers in all of the stock market. There’s nothing out there that offers the passivity of dividends. And high-quality dividend growth stocks are typically increasing their dividends at rates greatly exceeding... Read more »

I'm back on the blog after a long time away to write my next book, Wallet Activism, and to reflect on what's actually worth saying after the last year. Though this wasn't a break I intended, it taught me a lot about the value of stepping away for a while,... Read more »

My last post was about how the discourse of the FIRE community upholds systemic racism, but today's is much more personal. This is about how our choices as individuals -- as investors, as people choosing where to live, as earners, as tax payers and as charitable givers -- impact and... Read more »

It's deeply uncomfortable for a lot of us, white Americans especially, to talk about race. But if we care about helping people with their finances, or about not upholding systemic racism built into our system, we have no choice but to talk about it. Here is the tough but necessary... Read more »

We're in an unprecedented moment in history, with people staying home, businesses closed, stock markets going for a wild ride, and most of all, fear for our lives as the coronavirus pandemic worsens. What does all of this mean for the FIRE movement? What does it mean for you? Read... Read more »

One of the biggest things I've discovered in the last year is how badly I still want to be challenged despite having left my career behind. In fact, I want it so badly that I'm having to redefine what "challenge" even means to me. A real challenge involves some risk,... Read more »

Quote from: lhamo on Today at 09:42:52 PMWhen we bought in a similarly hot market in 2017 we did pre-offer inspections.   On the first house, we saw it the first day on the market and had the inspector booked for two...... Read more »

Quote from: oneday on Today at 08:11:51 PMWas recently reminded that thrift stores take plastic shopping bags. Adding the stash of those that has accumulated from curbside pickup to the few stragglers that are in the ...... Read more »

Quote from: nessness on Today at 01:52:11 PMWhat does 12127 mean? Noon to midnight (or vice versa) seven days a week? My job has pretty good work-life balance, at least in non-management positions. I'll occasionally...... Read more »

Doing on this challenge. Had some anticipated purchases (gear: hiking boots & necessary:bras) but snuck in a thrifted jumpsuit. No other clothing, feeling good about that!... Read more »

Quote from: Malcat on May 03, 2021, 10:33:53 PMHe's been secretly buying new dried beans and smuggling them into the house. His mother can never know.This is very relatable. And kind of hilarious.  A 99c bag of ...... Read more »

It's been a couple months since my sudden retirement, readers, and the days have been calm. Rewarding, even. This is the type of balance I need, at least while the pandemic drags on, Mrs. Done by Forty continues to work, while nearly nine months pregnant, and Toddler AF seeks our... Read more »

2021 is determined to deprive us of nice things, so some tired click bait has been making the rounds again: claiming that a $400k income somehow qualifies as middle class in some coastal cities. I don't have to link to this junk, right? No, I don't. We won't. We don't... Read more »

Now that congressional Democrats have moved past the Republican's latest political showboating (this time in the form of a twelve hour vote-a-rama) the non-fascist party can move forward with a COVID relief bill. They'll likely do so through reconciliation, a process that allows certain bills to pass with only 51 votes in... Read more »

I wasn't sleeping, and for the usual reason. I was so stressed from work most nights, thinking about deadlines I wasn't able to meet and the series of conversations I'd need to have explaining when we could deliver, that I couldn't turn my brain off enough to relax & doze... Read more »

Like so many other Americans, we celebrated a bit these past couple weeks. We felt some relief that a (too-small) majority of Americans made a choice for competence, decency, and democracy. And because of that, we're allowing ourselves to feel a little hope, too.It's premature. The primary problem with voting... Read more »

What You’ll Get Out Of Today’s Show Do you want to give your children the tools they need to guarantee their path to financial independence? If you give them the right skills, becoming a millionaire can be a mathematical certainty. Achieving the objective of becoming a millionaire isn’t nearly as important... Read more »

After four years of talking about the aggregation of marginal gains and the idea of getting 1% better, ChooseFI has accumulated quite a lengthy list you can stack together. If you can invest a little bit of time to fix something, you’ll never have to invest that time again. Brad... Read more »

Life gets busy when you have a new baby, so Chris Hutchins is on a quest to learn all the hacks, optimize his life, and share what he’s learned with you in his new podcast, All the Hacks. The goal of the podcast is to help listeners upgrade their lives... Read more »

Back in another installment of ChooseFI’s Households of FI series are Troy and Lindsay. In episode 241, Brad helped them calculate their FI number, but Lindsay is a teacher with the potential to earn a pension. In this episode, they touch base with Grumpus Maximus to discuss the health of... Read more »

In last week’s Facebook Live episode with Frank Vasquez, he pointed out that we are in the Golden Age of Investing. In this episode, we explore what that means and if we appreciate how good we have it. In an ideal world, we would all like to maximize investment returns... Read more »

Long-overdue greetings to all my readers out there.  With 2021 right around the corner, it’s a perfect time to start your tax planning for next year.  You know what means, right?  Yeap, it’s time for my most requested post of the year, 2021 Free Money!    What Exactly Is Free... Read more »

Great News:  We’re Still Healthy! Warm quarantine greetings from swampy South Georgia!  Tomorrow starts week 3 of no school for us (and most of the country).  All in all, our daily life is pretty normal except that we no longer have jobs to report to.  It’s almost like we’ve re-FIRE’d... Read more »

Okay, I know this post is late, but here it is.  Before I get into last year’s accomplishments and this year’s goals, it’s worth mentioning that there are many things in life that are more important than money:  family, community, faith, health, and love.  As I write these words, the... Read more »

Happy New Year!  I just wanted to let you know that I did an interview with Breanna Reish of the One Million Apples podcast.  We talked about our 2019 hardcore savings, geo-arbitrage, my Twitter “rants,” and my never-ending obsession with Bigfoot.  I hope you enjoy the interview. Gerry... Read more »

The holiday season is upon us:  fall weather, pumpkin spice, falling leaves, cool breezes…actually, who cares?  It’s tax-planning time, so it’s time for my most anticipated post of the year:  2020 Free Money! Refresher:  What is “Free Money!”? For the uninitiated, my Free Money! posts are an attempt to simplify... Read more »

[smart_track_player url="https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/paulaandjaymoney/AA315.mp3" title="The Science of Behavioral Change, with Katy Milkman" artist="Paula Pant" social="true" social_twitter="true" social_facebook="true" social_gplus="true" social_linkedin="true" social_stumble="true" social_pinterest="true" social_email="true" ] Do you ever grapple with the differences between your present self and your ideal self?  Your ideal self might eat healthy meals 80 percent of the time, save 50... Read more »

[smart_track_player url="https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/paulaandjaymoney/AA314.mp3" title="Ask Paula: I’m Worried About My Parent’s Retirement. What Should I Do?" artist="Paula Pant" social="true" social_twitter="true" social_facebook="true" social_gplus="true" social_linkedin="true" social_stumble="true" social_pinterest="true" social_email="true" ] Briale opened a Variable Annuity inside a 403b at work when she was 23. She has 17 years to go before retirement. As an elementary... Read more »

[smart_track_player url="https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/paulaandjaymoney/AA313.mp3" title="The Unspoken Rules that Could Cost You Thousands, with Gorick Ng" artist="Paula Pant" social="true" social_twitter="true" social_facebook="true" social_gplus="true" social_linkedin="true" social_stumble="true" social_pinterest="true" social_email="true" ] Are you aware of the unspoken rules that govern your workplace or industry? ...the rules that determine how you’re perceived by your managers? ...the rules that... Read more »

[smart_track_player url="https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/paulaandjaymoney/AA312.mp3" title="Ask Paula - How Should I Invest $5,000 Per Month?" artist="Paula Pant" social="true" social_twitter="true" social_facebook="true" social_gplus="true" social_linkedin="true" social_stumble="true" social_pinterest="true" social_email="true" ] After paying basic living expenses and maxing out their 401k’s and Roth IRAs, Caroline and her partner have $4,000 - $5,000 left each month. Where should they... Read more »

[smart_track_player url="http://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/paulaandjaymoney/AA311.mp3" title="The Surprising Solution to Overthinking, with Jon Acuff" artist="Paula Pant" social="true" social_twitter="true" social_facebook="true" social_gplus="true" social_linkedin="true" social_stumble="true" social_pinterest="true" social_email="true" ] Do you ever feel like there's a voice inside your head that insists on repeating all of your fears, insecurities, or mistakes? Does this voice craft invisible scripts that... Read more »

Welcome to “Thank God I’m FI” Friday, Volume #42! Here are some things I really like and that you might too.    Finance Articles We All Have a Time Machine, it’s Disguised as NOW (Financial Success M.D.) – “Every time... The post T.G.I.F. Friday: Volume 42 appeared first on Accidental... Read more »

I love reading predictions of the future from the past.  When I was a kid in the 70’s and 80’s I thought by 2020 we’d surely have flying cars and that everything would be powered by the sun.  Clearly I... The post Financial Independence Or Not, Work Will Never Stop... Read more »

Subscribe To New Posts Here! The post My Shit-Togetherness: An Analysis appeared first on Accidental Fire.... Read more »

Where were you 30 years ago in 1991?  If you weren’t born yet or were too young to recall, it was a pretty big year in history.  It was the year of the formal dissolution of the Soviet Union, and... The post The Myth Of Increasing Violent Crime In America... Read more »

Welcome to “Thank God I’m FI” Friday, Volume #41! Here are some things I really like and that you might too.    Finance Articles Even More Things I No Longer Do Thanks To Financial Freedom (Fates On Fire) – “Financial... The post T.G.I.F. Friday: Volume 41 appeared first on Accidental... Read more »

Burnout and Finance I was recently asked to speak to a bunch of medical residents about my story of burnout and my general philosophy on finance and life. I declined for a variety of reasons, but upon reflection I realized that this was a topic I had not addressed. This... Read more »

Hey philosophers, just wanted to let you know about a couple of small projects I participated in recently. I haven’t had much time or motivation to write these last couple of weeks. I have been paying the work price for my two week vacation to Alaska. Flexibility to take a... Read more »

As my feet rhythmically hit the belt of the treadmill, it briefly occurred to me this was perhaps the weirdest time to start my journey back to some sort or reasonable physical fitness. The treadmill was gently rocking side to side and I was looking out at an endless expanse... Read more »

As an evangelist of part-time work for physicians, I occasionally get an e-mail from a physician reader asking if cutting back on work is the right move for them. Often times they are early in their training, and I’m not sure how to respond. I feel conflicted. I know what... Read more »

A feeling of dread suddenly came over me. The numbers just didn’t add up, yet I could not figure out where I went wrong. Maybe I typed something in wrong or missed a section, but everything looked more or less complete. Maybe I’m just getting too old for this and... Read more »

For those of you following along, you know I've been a bit busy lately. In addition to my own music, podcast, and software projects, I've also been popping up on other people's podcasts. A few weeks back I sang a few bars of Michael Bublé on The FI Show with... Read more »

Back in November of 2017, a tired, burned out version of myself was pushed past his breaking point. After months of mandatory unpaid overtime, morning self pep-talks, stress-eating, and yelling at coworkers, the old Joel finally had enough. He walked up to his boss, and with a surprising, zen-like calm,... Read more »

Wait a minute. Strike that – reverse it! I know, I know, I haven't updated this blog in months. What gives?! If things get any more sporadic around here I'll be on the Miss Mazuma publishing schedule! 😉 Maybe I should adopt the slogan of Wait, Buy Why and claim that I'll have... Read more »

This week, I'm thrilled to be featured on Coryn Quester's “Discover What's Possible” Podcast! In the interview, we talk about everything from the ‘Why' of FI,  to the most challenging aspects of financial independence for those just starting out. But one of the more interesting questions she posed really got... Read more »

This past weekend The Wife and I went to see Crazy Rich Asians, and really enjoyed it! (Featured image credit: Entertainment Weekly) Having been on the FIRE journey for a few years now, it was fun taking in all the over-the-top luxury on the screen. Of course, this wasn't the... Read more »

Entrepreneurial success stories are often focused on financial accomplishments or wealth building. For many entrepreneurs and side hustlers, the primary motivation is not money or wealth itself, but rather the freedom to live and work on their own terms. Instead of being forced into a career that drains energy and... Read more »

Real estate is bought and sold year-round, but finding great deals can take time and patience. Knowing who to connect with and where to look is half the battle. Leverage the internet, social media, and connect with locals from wholesalers to Uber drivers who can lead you to great deals.... Read more »

Personal finance books are extremely popular and there’s an endless number of excellent options available to us; some focus on saving, others on reducing debts. The books listed here are all focused specifically on the tried-and-tested methods and advice that can allow the reader to achieve full financial independence, meaning... Read more »

The credit card industry is highly competitive and issuers are always looking for ways to entice new customers to sign-up and spend with them. One way they do this is through incentives or signup bonuses. Typically, the company will reward new customers with a signup bonus in the form of... Read more »

If you like saving money and getting deep discounts, Rebaid is a website you’ll definitely want to check out. As one of the best Amazon rebate sites, you can get huge savings and even free products. This Rebaid review will cover all the details about the site, how it works,... Read more »