Annuities
- Why an Annuity Could Be in Your Future…
- A Floor with an Upside: The Best Strategy for Lifetime Income?
- The Optimal Mix: How Much Annuity Do You Need?
- Annuity Shopping: GLWBs and Asteroid Insurance
- Annuity Shopping: Time to Buy a Deferred Income Annuity?
- Deciding Whether to Take a Pension Lump Sum: The 2 Opposing Methods
- Annuities: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
- Analyzing a Variable Annuity
Estate Planning
- Do-It-Yourself Estate Planning
- How Much Should You Leave to Your Kids?
- Dealing with an Inherited IRA
- Doing Good Better with Your Money
- Helping Aging Parents With Their Money
Frugality
- Wish Lists and Dining Cash
- Recurring Expenses: Why “A Dollar a Day” is Really $9,000
- 8 Tips for Saving Big and Retiring Earlier
- Luxury or Essential?
- How to Buy a Used Car
- Frugal Home Renovation: Kitchens, Bathrooms and More…
- Financial Simplicity: What is Your Time Worth?
- Running Low in Retirement: Expense Strategies
- Maximizing Retirement Spending: Is That Really What It’s All About?
- We Finally Get Better Credit Cards
- Budgeting or Expense Tracking: How Much is Enough?
- Making the Transition from Spender to Saver to Achieve Financial Freedom
- Should You Consider a Car Share?
Health Care
- A Guide to Retirement Health Care – How Will YOU Get It?
- Blueprint: Retirement Health Care
- Shopping Obamacare: Good Deal for Retirees?
- Shopping Obamacare: Comparing Plans / Awaiting a Verdict
- Staying Fit in Retirement
- A Flexible Plan For Health Insurance In Early Retirement
- Navigating ACA Tax Credits to Purchase Affordable Health Insurance
- Are Health Care Sharing Ministries A Viable Alternative To Health Insurance For Early Retirement?
- Staying Healthy and Mobile in Retirement
- Staying Strong in Retirement
- Retirement Health Care: What Are Your Options?
- Does the American Rescue Plan Change Health Care Planning for Early Retirees?
Insurance
- When Should You Self-Insure?
- Larceny and Road Kill: Self-Insuring Revisited
- Long-Term Care Insurance: Beyond the Sales Pitch
- Long-Term Care Insurance: Why We Aren’t Buying It
- How Much Umbrella Insurance Do You Need?
Investing
- 3 Proven Investment Strategies
- “Debt” – The Big Picture
- Should I buy gold?
- Investing for Income When Interest Rates are at Historic Lows
- How Much is Too Much in a Single Investment?
- Diversification: Why Seeing Red Can be a Good Thing…
- Blueprint: Asset Allocation
- 3 Sure and Simple Indicators for Stock Market Success
- Do You Really Need a Financial Advisor?
- Computing Your Overall Investment Return
- Asset Classes for Early Retirement
- Should You Be a Dividend Stock Investor?
- My Biggest Investing Mistakes
- 5 Simple Asset Allocation Strategies
- 10 Steps to Investing Success
- 5 Factors To Consider Before You Roll Over Your 401(k) To An IRA?
- A Closer Look at Using a Health Savings Account (HSA) to Save for Retirement
- The Best Options for Investing an HSA
- The Worst Investment Advice I Ever Heard — Everywhere
- The Perfect Storm — Demonstrating Conflicts of Interest With Investment Advice
- 5 Reasons You Need a Financial Advisor
- DIY Investing Resource #1: JL Collins “Stock Series”
- DIY Investing Resource #2: The Little Book of Common Sense Investing
- DIY Investing Resource #3: The Intelligent Asset Allocator
- DIY Investing Resource #4: All About Asset Allocation
- Is The Three-Fund Portfolio Right For You?
- Getting Higher Returns on Your Cash
- Why Is Investing So Difficult?
- Preparing for the Next Recession
- Manage Your Portfolio Like a Professional Investor
- Should You Invest At Market Highs?
- The Ghosts of Investments Past
- Coronavirus, Market Volatility, and “Buying the Dip”
- Is It Time To Rebalance Your Portfolio
- Going For Gold?
- Socially Responsible Investing Revisited
- How the “Experts” Invest Their Money
- Do High 401(k) Fees Outweigh Their Benefits?
- How to Monitor Your Investments
- The Next Bear Market: How Bad Could It Get?
My Investment Portfolio
- How My Investments Prospered in the Lost Decade
- My First Dip Into Principal: Market Timing or Cash Management?
- My Investment Portfolio: Full Disclosure
- My Investment Portfolio: 2014
- My Investment Portfolio: 2015
- Socially Responsible Investing: Worth the Price?
- My Investment Portfolio: 2016
- My Investment Portfolio: 2017
- My Investment Portfolio: 2018
- Our Investment Plan: What We Do, What’s Changing, How We’ve Performed
- My Investment Portfolio: 2019
- My Investment Portfolio: 2020
- A Year of Big Portfolio Moves
- My Investment Portfolio: 2021
News
- Don’t Miss These 6 Investing and Retirement Blogs if You’re Serious about Financial Independence
- What I Learned from the World’s Best Personal Finance Bloggers
- Year-End Projects
- Looking Ahead: Another Retirement, and a Book or Two…
- Retiring Sooner – My New Book
- News, Views and Summer Travels
- Money News, Calculator Reviews and What You Might Have Missed…
- My Favorite Personal Finance Blogs: 2014
- Book Excerpt: Do You Need a Financial Advisor?
- Book Excerpt: Buckets and Your Retirement Paycheck
- Can I Retire Yet? — The Book
- My Political Travels
- My Favorite Blogs: 2016
- Gone Fishin’
- My Favorite Blogs: 2017
- January 2018–Best of the Web
- February 2018–Best of the Web
- March 2018 — Best of the Web
- April 2018 — Best of the Web
- May 2018 — Best of the Web
- June 2018 — Best of the Web
- July 2018 — Best of the Web
- August 2018 — Best of the Web
- September 2018 — Best of the Web
- October 2018 — Best of the Web
- My Favorite Books and Podcasts: 2018
- November 2018 — Best of the Web
- December 2018 — Best of the Web
- January 2019 — Best of the Web
- February 2019 — Best of the Web
- Building Your Work Optional Life
- March 2019 — Best of the Web
- Choose FI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence
- April 2019 — Best of the Web
- May 2019 — Best of the Web
- June 2019 — Best of the Web
- July 2019 — Best of the Web
- August 2019 — Best of the Web
- October 2019 — Best of the Web
- November 2019 — Best of the Web
- December 2019 — Best of the Web
- January 2020 — Best of the Web
- February 2020 — Best of the Web
- March 2020 — Best of the Web
- April 2020 — Best of the Web
- May 2020 — Best of the Web
- June 2020 — Best of the Web
- July 2020 — Best of the Web
- August 2020 — Best of the Web
- September 2020 — Best of the Web
- October 2020 — Best of the Web
- November 2020 — Best of the Web
- December 2020 — Best of the Web
- January 2021 — Best of the Web
- February 2021 — Best of the Web
- March 2021 — Best of the Web
- April 2021 — Best of the Web
- May 2021 — Best of the Web
Passive Index Investing
- How Investment Newsletters “Beat” the Market
- Passive vs. Active Investing: Will We Ever Learn?
- My Top Investment Picks for the Future…
- What to Do When the Market Tanks
- A Short Course in Investing
- Is a Robo-Advisor Right for You?
Real Estate
- How We Sold Our House in 24 Hours
- Investing in Real Estate
- Renting vs. Buying: The True Cost of Home Ownership
- Does Owning a Vacation Home Make Sense?
- Designing Your Home Ownership to Retire Earlier
- Getting a Mortgage When You Have Assets But No Income
- 5 Lessons Learned In My Year As a Landlord
- Using Real Estate to Retire Early
- Investing in Land
- Building Your Retirement Getaway Home on the Cheap
- Using Rental Properties to Create Retirement Income
- How Does Home Ownership Fit Into an Investment Portfolio and Financial Plan?
- How Much House Can You Really Afford?
Rebalancing
- Is Rebalancing the Achilles’ Heel of Passive Investing?
- When and How to Rebalance Your Portfolio
- Rebalancing: Should You Bother?
- How I Rebalanced Through Perilous Times
- Blueprint: Rebalancing
- Is It Time to Rebalance Your Portfolio?
Relocation
- Short-Term Housing
- The Ideal Retirement Location
- Moving West – Part 1
- Moving West – Part 2
- The Ideal Retirement Location – Will we stay in Santa Fe?
- Using Domestic Geoarbitrage to Retire Sooner
- Where Should You Retire?
- Finding Your Ideal Retirement Location
Retirement Calculators
- Why Most Retirement Calculators Don’t Work
- The 3 Best Free Retirement Calculators
- The Best Free Retirement Calculators: Round 2
- The “Perfect” Retirement Calculator
- Should You Pay for a Retirement Calculator?
- Review: The Pralana Retirement Calculator
- The Best Retirement Calculators
- My Favorite Retirement Calculators
- Is Your Retirement Calculator Designed for Accuracy?
- Retirement Calculator News, and a Mystery Solved…
- Launching 2 New Retirement Calculators: Behind the Scenes
- Debugging Your Retirement Calculations
- How Accurate Should Your Retirement Calculation Be?
- The Pralana Gold 2020 Retirement Calculator
- NewRetirement PlannerPlus Retirement Calculator
- 10 Tips for More Accurate Retirement Calculations
Retirement Equation
- Most Financial Plans are Dubious Attempts to Predict the Future
- Your Retirement Roadmap
- How Can You Be Certain About the Retirement Decision?
- Understanding the Two Sides of the Retirement Equation
- Blueprint: Can I Retire?
- Three Wildcards for Boomer Retirement
- How to Model the Retirement Income Gap
- The 3 Unknowns that Dominate Your Retirement Calculation
- My Retirement Fears
- The Good News About Retirement
- Should You Work One More Year?
- The 6 Crucial Questions to Answer Before You Retire
- Dealing with Uncertainty in Retirement Calculations
- The 3 Great Misconceptions About Retirement Saving
- My Retirement Flexibility Scale for Choosing Your Safe Withdrawal Rate
- What If You Can’t Retire Yet?
- Deciding to Retire With High Market Valuations And Low Interest Rates
- Using Leverage to Create Retirement Income
- 3 Bad Financial Decisions That Helped Me Retire Sooner
- Going Back to Work
- Playing Offense in Retirement
- Because You Never Know
- Retirement Mindset Shift: Saver to Spender
- Pulling Your Retirement Levers
- Retiring With Extreme Low Interest Rates
- 7 Advantages When You Start Saving for Retirement Late
- Not Going Back to Work
- Case Study: Retiring Before a Stock Market Crash
- Challenging My Retirement Assumptions
Retirement Income
- Is the 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate Obsolete?
- New Ideas for Retirement Income
- Constant Retirement Withdrawals: Realistic or Not?
- How Do You Know if You’re Running Out of Money in Retirement?
- Blueprint: Retirement Income
- Retirement Withdrawal Strategies
- Why You Need Multiple Sources of Retirement Income
- Running Low in Retirement: Income Strategies
- Are You Feeling Lucky? The Two Schools of Retirement Income…
- New Research: The Best Retirement Withdrawal Strategies
- The Best Retirement Withdrawal Strategies: Digging Deeper
- The 3 Stages of Retirement Income
- What to Do With a Lump Sum in Retirement
- Generating Retirement Income Before Age 59-½
- Raising Cash: My Retirement Withdrawal “System”
- Managed-Payout Funds: One-Stop Shopping for Retirement Income?
- Retiring With Extreme Low Interest Rates
- Developing Systems to Conquer Your Early Retirement Fears
Retirement Lifestyles
- What Do We Mean by “Retirement”?
- How Much Will it Cost You to Live in Retirement?
- What is Your Personal Rate of Inflation?
- “Working” in Retirement
- Early vs. Traditional Retirement
- Having Kids vs. Retiring Earlier
- What Will You Do When You’re Retired?
- Our Retirement Expenses: Where Does the Money Go?
- Is Early Retirement Irresponsible?
- Retirement Gifts: My Favorite Toys…
- The Downside of Retirement
- A Strong Marriage in Retirement
- Conquer 3 Critical Early Retirement Challenges by Redefining ‘Retirement’
- Hello, I’m Not Mr. Money Mustache
- The Fundamental Problem With Retirement Planning
- Downsizing, 5 Years Later: Any Regrets?
- A Week In The Life of a FIRE Household
- Pretirement: What Is It and Why Should You Care
- Does FIRE Make Life Harder?
- Financial Autopilot
- 4 Things I Gave Up to Retire Early
- Reasons to Live: Finding Your Purpose after Retirement or Financial Independence
- 3 Reasons a Child Can Help You Retire Sooner (And 1 Big Reason Why You Shouldn’t)
- Divorce Proof Your Retirement
- A Tale of Two Retirements: FIRE and Traditional
- Preparing for Your Children’s College Education While Saving for Early Retirement
- A Tale of Two Retirements: FIRE and Traditional
- Keys to a Successful Retirement
- Next Generation Financial Independence
- Marriage, Mental Health, and Money: Protect Your Most Valuable Assets
- 5 Lessons From 3 Years of Early Retirement
- 5 Reflections On a Year of Pandemic Life
- The 6 Stages of Retirement
Security
- An Early Warning System for Your Investment Portfolio
- Protecting Your Assets in a Digital World
- Y2K and Black Swans: Investing for the Next Crisis
- Financial Security in an Uncertain World: Assessing the Risks
- Financial Security in an Uncertain World: Protecting Your Wealth
- Accepting and Managing Risk
- Alternative Investments for Savvy Retirees – Part 1
- Alternative Investments for Savvy Retirees – Part 2
- Identity Theft Strikes Home!
- How to Hedge Your Retirement Plan
- My Biggest Retirement Fear
- Making Sense Out of Chaos
- What Does Financial Independence Have to Do With Surviving a Pandemic?
Small RVs
- One Solution for Cheaper Retirement Travel: A Small RV
- Choosing a Compact RV or Camper for Retirement Travel
- Living Efficiently in a Small RV
- Traveling in a Small RV
- Camping in Retirement
- Maintaining a Small RV for Retirement Travel
- Outfitting a Solo Camper Van
- A Cost/Benefit Analysis of the RV Lifestyle
Social Security
- Can You Count on Social Security?
- How Much is Your Social Security Worth?
- New Social Security Rules: Do You Need a Calculator?
- Comparing the 2 Leading Social Security Calculators
- When to Take Social Security
- How Does Retiring Early Impact Social Security Benefits?
Starting Out
- Paying for College: The Last Retirement Hurdle?
- To Build Wealth: Avoid Changing Locations or Partners
- Your Retirement Roadmap
- How to Retire Early
- Mastering the Fear of Stocks
- Blueprint: Building Wealth
- Blueprint: Paying for College
- Retirement Savings Vehicles: What Do You Drive?
- The 3 Paths to Wealth
- Financial Freedom on a Shoestring
- Tools for Financial Independence
- Getting Organized for Financial Independence
- Paying it Forward – An Early Retiree Case Study
- The Stages of Financial Independence
- Making a Fresh Start
- Do You Need Good Luck to Achieve Financial Independence?
- Case Study: Creating a FI-lexible Lifestyle
Taxes
- Why I Don’t Fret About Taxes
- My Income Taxes: 2014
- Roth IRAs and Roth Conversions: Who Needs Them?
- My Retirement Income Taxes: 2016
- One Retirement Number You Can’t Afford to Get Wrong
- A Surprising Contender for Tax-Efficient Retirement Saving…
- Why Taxes Matter for Retirement Calculations: The New Law
- My Retirement Income Taxes: 2018
- Early Retirement Tax Planning 101
- Order of Operations for Tax Advantaged Investing
- The Amazing Tax Benefits of Semi-Retirement
