Month: November 2018
I wrote a year ago about why I stopped saving Health Savings Account Receipts. We had accumulated a low five figure balance worth of HSA expenses but I was frustrated with the high fees and poor options available in my employer's plan. The math said we were better off taking a distribution and putting that money in a low-fee and tax efficient index fund. My employer finally made some changes to the plan and its time to update the original…
Transportation is one of the big three expenses that must be managed to get to financial independence. In this segment, we're going to focus on transportation and specifically transportation for those who have to use a vehicle. If you can use a bicycle for all of your needs, this post is not for you. Related: Your Car is Not a Status Symbol Three economical situations to choose a vehicle: Situation #1: The Traveling Professional. I've fit into this mold for…
I was revisiting old posts from early in the blog and it has me reflecting on the rise and fall of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It was obvious hysteria between Thanksgiving and Christmas 2017. The internet and financial independence forums were taken over by crypto-bros, bragging about how much money they made in Bitcoin and writing nonsense about various "currencies", ICOs (initial coin offerings), and discussing building "mining rigs". If you attempted to debate them, they would respond with…
Every day I drive to work and I'm surrounded by people who show their vehicles as status symbols. The car brands of choice in my neighborhood seem to be BMWs, Mercedes, and Tesla. Sprinkle in a few more exotic choices, such as fancy brand names like Porsche, Maserati, and Bentley then there's a massive amount of cash (or debt) sitting inside people's garages. On my evening run I am constantly amazed by the small houses that are torn down…
FIRE can be a controversial topic to the masses. Look at any of the comment sections on a featured article it'll be full of the emotional responses of fear, anger, jealously, rage. Those of us who write about Financial Independence have a responsibility to be transparent about how we made it because there aren't shortcuts to financial independence. The math is four components: Income, expenses, investment returns, and time. Everyone's features about financial independence includes four parts to the story.…
What is a Non Qualified Deferred Compensation Plan? These can also at times be referred to as a Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan. Our early retirement strategy makes use of a Non-Qualified Deferred Compensation plan. These vehicles are widely available in large companies, but most employees don't know about it until the day they get an eligibility letter in the mail. This is not meant to repeat what can already be found at Wikipedia - it is to give a high level…