I was recently sent a self help presentation that basically asked that we all learn to separate what they called Means Goals and End Goals. A Means Goal is basically a means to an end and the End Goal is that end result. My Means Goal is to reach financial independence through working and saving while still living life to the fullest. Continue reading “My Ideal Retirement: The Perfect Life”
State of the Union: 2014
I thought it would be good to create an annual State of the Union to remember what I did each year regarding my investments and why. This was a big year – the first year I really dove in and learned how to have my money make money of its own.Through my reading of the books and articles I listed in my first post I’ve gone from knowing basically nothing about the stock market and calling my parent’s mutual fund manager to ask what 401K plan to enroll in to at least an intermediate level. And with that knowledge has come a sense of calm and an understanding that flexibility and knowledge are the only kind of security.
Continue reading “State of the Union: 2014”
My 10 Year Plan
Based on my end goal of financial freedom I’ve accumulated information from various books, blogs and traditional retirement calculators to determine how much I need to save to be able to live off of indefinitely. Overall I’m basing my calculations on the updated Trinity Study from 2009 that reinforces the 4% safe withdrawal rate for investments with a 75% stock, 25% bond asset allocation even when adjusting for inflation every year. Mr. Money Mustache makes a lot of excellent points about how this study in itself even builds in a large safety margin by assuming that a person would not adjust spending to account for economic reality, such as a recession, or substitute goods to compensate for the inflation of an individual item.Discovering FIRE Bloggers
My partner enjoys reading reddit and had mentioned that I should read the blog of Mr. Money Mustache. I went to his site and read a random article about him being sued, decided this blog wasn’t for me and moved on. I had such patience back then 🙂 . A few months later I returned randomly, saw the site had undergone a complete overhaul and was welcomed by a giant Start Here. Instead of reading about him being sued I was taken on a step-by-step journey of how he retired at 31. This began a month long obsession of reading everything MMM has ever written. Continue reading “Discovering FIRE Bloggers”
New York City: The Land of Dreams…and Debt
New York City is the self proclaimed best city in the world. As a kid I loved watching movies and at the epicenter of most of these movies was New York City. It seemed that 90% of urban movies took place there and the remaining 10% was in a nondescript ‘American city.’ So from the beginning New York City seemed important and I was dying to go there and live like everyone in the movies.
My first actual visit to NYC was a bit of shock, but set the stage for me slowly realizing that movies almost in no way reflect real life. My first visit to NYC was for a school Drama trip. We drove all night in a bus and I ended up sleeping on the floor because it was warmer and more comfortable than the tiny seat. Continue reading “New York City: The Land of Dreams…and Debt”
10 Years to Financial Independence
A few months ago I decided that I am now 10 years to retirement. According to my calculations growing a nest egg that would allow me to retire in 10 years (at age 35) is more than doable based on my current salary and savings rate. Even though I’ve only been working for 3.5 years it was quickly apparent to me that working for other people, commuting to an office every day and working towards goals that are not aligned with my own is not something I want to do for 40 years. So I decided to change it.