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October has been a great month for content around the web. Shamelessly I’ll start by mentioning a podcast appearance from yours truly on the What’s Up Next Podcast:
We spent some time on the question of is financial independence for everyone? I don’t think that really matters. The principals of financial independence can be for anyone. One of the fellow panelists reminded us of this in the discussion and wrote this follow up, Find Financial Improvement First.
You can check out all of my appearances in the new Around the Web section of the site.
Featured Personal Finance Content of the Month
Whether its for early retirement or a career break, leaving a professional identity is difficult. I personally worked an additional nine months due to indecision. In a post this month, A Purple Life asks – Should I Lock Myself Into Quitting?
Real Estate took center stage this month. We’re enjoying the freedom of renting after nearly fifteen years (and some painful losses), but miss a few benefits of owning a home. Chris Mamula explores How Does Home Ownership Fit Into An Investment Portfolio And Retirement Plan while Karsten at Early Retirement Now reminds us that renting vs. owning is a personal decision and explores the debate in How To ‘Lie’ With Personal Finance – Home Ownership Edition. I’ve spent some time researching the housing market where I live and debated where are we in the housing market cycle?
What I’ve Been Reading
I’ve finished up my binge on Howard Marks with his first book, The Most Important Thing. The idea of managing investment risk now that we’re financially independent hits home and Marks is a self-made billionaire under the motto of “If we avoid the losers, the winners take care of themselves”.
If you want an easy listen/introduction to Marks, check out his appearance in mid 2018 on the Tim Ferris Podcast.
Chasing Daylight by Eugene O’Kelly. Gene O’Kelly was the CEO of KPMG when he was diagnosed with a terminal illness at 53. This is a fascinating read for anyone considering their work-life balance or separating themselves from their professional identity. His comments about describing a perfect moment then seeking to capture more of those stuck with me.
I recently built out a list of my favorite books, check it out.
Featuring The 2019 Early Retiree Cohorts:
I was not the only person who left my corporate job in 2019 and there are many others exploring life after their career:
Physician On FIRE explores Spending Money On What Makes You Happy, which can be challenging when the inflow of cash stops from leaving your job.
Bonus Nachos continues to update us with their travels, most recently wrapping up Four Weeks In Penang.
The Frugal Engineers discussed Where to Live in Early Retirement, which we’ve found to be a challenge and will eventually figure out before traditional retirement age.
Mr Enchumbao gives a first half update including early retirement. Their family is also debating where to live in retirement, electing to move into a rental home and snowbird in Florida while figuring it out.
Adam at Minafi did pull off moving in the same year he retired early and talks about slow minimalism. I can relate as we also downsized by 1,000sqft in our move and might be able to do a little more.
Lisa is now six months removed from quitting her job as a lawyer and reflects on the challenges of the profession.
Rethink the Rat Race reflects on the first month of their new adventure in the sunny Mediterranean.
Other Content of Note:
Scott Galloway has been outspoken about the absurdity of WeWork and some of the valuations unprofitable companies are receiving. This month he discusses Margin, the value add of the business world.
The Millionaires Unveiled Podcast has a fascinating interview drop in late September, Millionaire #99. They interviewed a divorced female engineer who never earned more than $82,000/year, but now has a net worth of $5.5mil in her 60s.
Cooking at home instead of eating out was a pillar of achieving financial independence. One of my fellow personal finance writers has dipped into this space, founding the site Meal Prepify.
My Favorite Tweet of the Month:
I can relate to this when it comes to attempting to help some people, both when it comes to family members with finance and when I was leading employees professionally. Sometimes people are looking for a the magic answer and don’t want to accept the obvious they already know. This can also apply to personal finance, the path of earning more, spending less, and investing the difference doesn’t change.
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I really like this roundup! You’ve inspired me to do an Australian FI blogger monthly roundup, highlighting what they’ve been doing or writing. Thanks for the idea.
That’s great! I realized these will have a limit on how well the post performs on my site and I don’t want to do this weekly, but we all have different readers and it’s nice to send people around to other sites to see what I’ve enjoyed reading/listening to for the month