I was an avid reader of financial independence, retire early (FIRE) blogs on the path to my own early retirement. They served as inspiration and education. However, I found them to be an echo chamber. Each tries to outdo the next in an effort to show you how to optimize your life. Then you can …
Are Health Care Sharing Ministries A Viable Alternative To Health Insurance For Early Retirement?
November 19, 2018 By
Like many Americans planning early retirement, our family’s biggest challenge is obtaining affordable health insurance. We’re searching for an affordable, long-term solution to bridge the gap from employer provided coverage to Medicare. My recent research shows purchasing Affordable Care Act (ACA) compliant insurance on the marketplace presents several challenges. For those who have variable income, …
Navigating ACA Tax Credits to Purchase Affordable Health Insurance
November 12, 2018 By
A massive challenge for Americans planning to retire early is determining how we’ll obtain affordable health insurance. The earlier you want to retire, the more challenging it is to determine how much you need to bridge the gap until Medicare eligibility at age 65. Health insurance costs increase faster than the rate of inflation. Medical …
Pretirement: What Is It and Why Should You Care?
October 15, 2018 By
Pretirement is a term being proposed to describe a phase of life between career and retirement. Pretirement is a process that takes place over years, even decades, versus a single decision to retire. It is characterized by cutting back on work earlier in life, but continuing some work indefinitely. Why do we need this new …
How Accurate Should Your Retirement Calculation Be?
October 1, 2018 By
You run out of money. That’s the fundamental event that most retirement calculators try to predict. If there’s a strong probability that your money will last your lifetime — congratulations — you’re financially independent! But, if not, then you need to keep working, or generate retirement income, or curtail your lifestyle. There are many possible …
A Week In The Life of a FIRE Household
September 17, 2018 By
My journey to financial independence and retiring early (FIRE) started largely because I was burnt out on my career. This led to an oversimplified solution. If my career was the source of my unhappiness, I should pursue the opposite: retirement. In the process of planning for early retirement, I realized retirement with no work and no …
Retire With Abundance
June 11, 2018 By
The following is an interview with ESI from ESI Money, a blog about achieving financial independence through earning, saving, and investing (ESI). It’s written by an early 50’s retiree who achieved financial independence, shares what’s worked for him, and details how others can implement those successes in their lives. He is also the author of …
Exploring the Pros and Cons of Retiring Before Your Spouse
April 23, 2018 By
I recently made the decision to retire early. My wife did not. She continues to work the same number of hours at her same job. Our path enables me to be free of a job I was burnt out on, improves family dynamics, and allows us to live with financial abundance. No decision is without …
Deciding to Retire With High Market Valuations And Low Interest Rates
April 16, 2018 By
A combination of high stock valuations and low interest rates creates a challenge for investors contemplating where to deploy their capital. This environment is especially scary for those approaching retirement, worried about retiring at the wrong time. Many contemplate working one more year. Despite recent market volatility, stock valuations sit near all time highs. Higher …
Leaving a Prestigious High-Paying Career in Your Early 40’s
April 9, 2018 By
The following is a guest contribution from blogging friend Physician on FIRE, an anesthesiologist transitioning to early retirement. Physician on FIRE focuses on issues facing high earners looking to retire early. His writing combines technical investing and tax planning insights with an emphasis on living purposefully and giving back. I invited him to share his …
Debugging Your Retirement Calculations
March 5, 2018 By
“When a thing is done and past, even fools are wise at last!” —Homer Hindsight is 20/20. The further you go in life, the easier it is to look back and understand the results of your earlier decisions. Nowhere is this more true than in personal finance. Relatively small changes in your work, your purchases, …
What If You Can’t Retire Yet?
February 12, 2018 By
Can I Retire Yet? It is pretty safe to assume that if you are reading this blog you have an interest in answering that question. There are common themes that cause people to start asking. Many of us feel the tension of never having enough time for the things we want to do while working. …
Launching 2 New Retirement Calculators: Behind the Scenes
February 8, 2018 By
If you’re an Android user, please take a minute to download our new Free retirement calculator from the Google Play Store. This simple, easy app gives you a quick snapshot of your retirement situation. You’ll get answers in minutes. Or, if you’d like a full-blown financial planner in the palm of our hand, try out …
The Fundamental Problem With Retirement Planning
January 22, 2018 By
I recently read “The Personal MBA” by Josh Kaufman. The book describes universal principles that can be applied to any business. As a student of personal finance and retirement planning, I saw many parallels between business principles described in the book and principles of managing my own personal finances. I kept thinking of JD Roth’s …
Hello, I’m Not Mr. Money Mustache
January 8, 2018 By
I recently had the opportunity to sit down to dinner with a group of writers who focus on real estate investing and entrepreneurship. At dinner, I shared that I wrote about early retirement planning. I revealed that, at the time, I was a few weeks away from my own early retirement at the age of 41. After …
How to Hedge Your Retirement Plan
December 4, 2017 By
The following is a guest contribution from blogging friend Stephen Chen, the founder and CEO of NewRetirement, an online retirement planning service focused on helping people prepare for and make the most of their resources in retirement. Steve’s experience spans financial services, education, investing and retirement planning across firms that include Charles Schwab, Wells Fargo, …
A Flexible Plan For Health Insurance In Early Retirement
October 16, 2017 By
Health care costs present a major planning challenge for a pending retiree. The earlier one would like to retire, the more daunting the challenge of bridging the gap to Medicare eligibility. America has the most expensive health care system in the world. Costs continue to increase far faster than the overall inflation rate. Retirees buying …
Conquer 3 Critical Early Retirement Challenges by Redefining ‘Retirement’
September 12, 2017 By
For the first decade of my adult life I was saving diligently while coasting through life with vague ideas that someday I could retire early. As my wife and I reached our mid 30’s, we paid off our home and saw our investment balances building. We realized early retirement may actually be a possibility. I …
Getting a Mortgage When You Have Assets But No Income
August 28, 2017 By
Most early retirees have no pension, annuity, or Social Security income. Even if you’re a traditional retiree, you might have only one of those income streams. But what if your lifestyle plans require a home purchase? Even if you have the savings to afford a house, you might not necessarily be able to liquidate enough …
A Strong Marriage in Retirement
March 19, 2017 By
A stable marriage is the bedrock of personal and financial success for many of us. Having recently celebrated my 30th anniversary, maybe I’m entitled to talk just a little bit about what works, and what doesn’t. Though, I know there is no “formula” for human relationships. Each is unique. And each relationship requires effort every …
Retirement Calculator News, and a Mystery Solved…
February 14, 2017 By
It was a blustery winter day, just about a year ago, when I stayed indoors all afternoon to work at my desk. The snowflakes stacked on the railing outside as I broke ground on new software, something I hadn’t done in years. It would be a modeling framework that I could use to research and …
