Today’s post is inspired by blogger SteveArk, who wrote up a nice piece about forgetting the effects of inflation when planning your early retirement. You really need to figure this math stuff out, since a dollar today is not going to buy as much tomorrow… The…
READ MORERetire Early!
The ultimate collection of articles designed to motivate you to begin your early retirement journey today! Topics combine a mix of personal finance and a heavy dose of lifestyle wisdom. Check out articles on Semi-Retirement, How to build a million dollar net worth in a single decade, and also learn about the pitfalls to avoid in retirement, like boredom. Set your goals and retire early!
Will You Actually Be BUSIER When Retired?
First thing’s first: No. I haven’t retired yet. But I do spend a lot of time daydreaming about Day 1. What does my daily routine in retirement look like? Will I be bored off my rocker, or will I have enough work on my plate to…
READ MOREEarly Retirement Countdown Reset (Again)
Here I thought I was a pretty decisive guy. Now, it appears my early retirement countdown has been reset, yet again. Plans have hit a snag (or two). At first the goal was to give up my cubicle job in March 2020. Then, it got accelerated…
READ MOREHow to Avoid the Biggest Retirement Mistakes
Today’s post really just scratches the surface of a very broad and deep topic containing all things “retirement mistakes”. A bunch of earlier posts I’ve fired off into the ethos of FIRE pantheon with a handful of views point to boredom in retirement, living without a…
READ MOREMaslow’s Hierarchy of Early Retirement Needs
Early retirement is rarely looked at as anything other than a glorious achievement. You’ve made it. You put in the time, toil, and effort, and voila! It’s finished. Time to soak up the sun and kick back, maybe read a book or two, go for a…
READ MOREHow Promotions Complicate Retirement Plans
And so, it happened. Finally. Got a promotion. Yippee!! I am stoked. It feels good to be appreciated and acknowledged for all the hard work and persistence. Early retirement? What’s that again?? Sure, this promotion took longer than I’d have liked. I could’ve reached this level…
READ MOREOur 2018 Household Spending Revealed
Let’s just get it out there from the get-go: This is NOT a bragging kind of post. Far from it. This past year we spent a lot of money with respect to our 2018 household spending. We didn’t go off the deep-end and buy matching jet…
READ MOREHow Much Should You Save in Your 401K?
This year marks another increase in the contribution limit to the sometimes controversial, but “everyone’s gotta have one” 401k. In 2017, the pre-tax contribution ceiling was raised from $18,000 to $18,500. That figure gets bumped again to $19,000 on January 1st, 2019. Nice, but how much…
READ MOREIs Early Retirement Keeping Millennials From Having Kids?
I’m spotting a bit of a trend. I might be way off my rocker with this, but it seems like more and more millennials are foregoing having kids in order to retire early. Personally, I think it’s a smart strategy. Why not get your financial act…
READ MOREHow to Survive Without TV (the Cord-Cutting Post)
I’ve got to heavily caveat the title of this post. We enjoy TV in our house, but only in very small doses. Cord-cutting continues to be a strong, albeit contentiously defined trend. People are ditching cable, but typically only to switch to dish or Sling or…
READ MORE365 Days Until I Can Retire Early
One year left until I can retire early. It sure took long enough for this early retirement expert to get here. The last four years have been long ones. Not bad. Just long. This journey started well before the blog did. Back in the fall of…
READ MORESemiFIRE: How to Semi-Retire Early
Now that we have FatFIRE, to go alongside LeanFIRE, I figured we just HAD to have “SemiFIRE” (i.e., how to semi-retire, early) to complete the collection. Why not? You can have all sorts of fun with SemiFIRE. Yeah, the featured image is pretty cool. But you…
READ MORERetire Early With the Million Dollar Decade
Today’s entry into the canon of Cubert is a sequel of sorts. The write-up a few weeks back was premised largely on how I squandered my 20s and early 30s, yet somehow managed to get into position for early retirement. Wondering how to achieve a million dollar…
READ MOREAre You a Fraud if You Work in Retirement?
Cubert is a Fraud. After all, he’s planning to actually WORK in retirement! Who does this guy think he is, writing all this drivel? No one’s going to believe the crap he writes here. Heck, his wife is still going to be working for at least…
READ MORECan I Retire Early? Yes, You Can!
Today’s post is inspired by a rockstar in her own right, Tanja from Our Next Life. After digging up old ledger numbers and notes from 10 years ago, Tanja could reflect on how far she had come, in a relatively short period of time (thanks in no…
READ MORE500 Days to Freedom (My Plan to Retire Early)
Some days you feel like you’re stuck in the middle of a Tough Mudder, crawling through mud and muck of your plan to retire early , virtually smelling the next guy’s dirty socks, while trying to keep under barbed wire. Retirement is so far out of…
READ MOREHow to Avoid Boredom in Retirement
It feels good to be back. Vacations are great to recharge the batteries, but I was getting antsy to hit the keys again. Not that I miss the cubicle. I’m not a sadist after all… Inspired by some wisdom gathered from my in-laws while out west,…
READ MORETread Lightly, Retire Early!
Today’s guest post is from my friend Angela, at Tread Lightly, Retire Early. Angela’s story is very inspiring and I’m sure you’ll enjoy reading her story. Take it away, Angela! —————————————————————— My financial story starts pretty typically – as a college graduate with $24,000 of debt. After…
READ MOREFinancial Independence or Early Retirement?
Today’s guest post comes to us from Jason at Winning Personal Finance. Jason has an admirable goal of helping each and every reader of his blog make optimized decisions, so they can live the life they dream of. He believes that the financial independence journey isn’t…
READ MOREWhat Elon Musk Can Teach Us About Retirement
What an incredible achievement. The Falcon Heavy tore up through the sky like a demon. I can’t remember the last time I was this excited about any kind of space launch. In fact, I might’ve been in elementary school when the teachers wheeled-in a cathode-ray tube…
READ MOREHow to Prepare for Early Retirement
That very enticing “one-and-a-half-years to go” milestone is coming up at the end of this month. I’m practically giddy. Time has flown by since I set this goal back in the fall of 2014, during one of the deepest funks of my career. It’s time to…
READ MOREYour Inability to Retire Comes Down to 3 Things
“I’m simply not able to retire. Not yet.” A colleague fast approaching 65 shared that sentiment with me over a beer not all that long ago. The notion of being stuck in a cube that long got me to thinking about our current lot in life….
READ MORECan OnTrajectory Tell You When to Retire?
This post may contain affiliate links… I’m going to fill you in on a retirement calculator I’m trying out called “OnTrajectory.” It’s a sophisticated simulator that takes a bunch of inputs and then shows you on a timeline where you’ll wind up by age 90 (or…
READ MOREMy Diabolical Plan to Retire Faster
While all my personal finance blogging friends are gearing up to go to FinCon, I figured I’d distract myself intense sadness and longing… by writing. What better tonic than to write about how I plan to accelerate the Grand Plan and retire faster! (Re FinCon: One…
READ MOREIt’s Okay if You Want to Retire Early
It’s been a bit of a slug-fest at work. These last few weeks have brought on a heavy dose of 11th hour drama that’s quite typical in the world of software delivery at large corporations. When you get close to the finish line and the customer…
READ MOREEarly Retirement Diary: Volume 1
It turns out that Minnesota, and the Twin Cities especially, is home to a disproportionately high number of bloggers seeking (and writing about) an early retirement. I’m going from anecdotal evidence. No research to prove it with stats or anything, but it’s clear if you visit…
READ MOREThe Top 5 Reasons to Retire Early
A few posts back, I wrote a a counter-argument to the premise of early retirement. Admittedly, after watching the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi, I came away with a revived interest in my cubicle work. SHOCKING!!! The trouble is, that new found inspiration only lasted maybe…
READ MOREWhy You Should Never Retire
You Should Never Retire… On a typical evening we put the kids to bed around 8 o’clock. Exhausted from a long day of work and chores, we spend the next couple of hours watching Netflix or YouTube clips from the comforts of our sofa. What could…
READ MOREHow to Retire Early on Less than Six Figures
Most of the advice you’ll find on blogs like this one come from authors who have achieved higher than average incomes. In many cases, incomes before retirement are in the six figures (or more) and both partners are high earners. If you’ve ever wondered How to Retire…
READ MOREIs Stress a Good Reason to Retire Early?
Stress can certainly pop up from a variety of sources, including relationships and sour outcomes of football games. Stress at work can be constant… Recently, after a period of relative calm in Cubicle Land, I was in a meeting with a handful of execs… and things,…
READ MOREOn Your First Day of Retirement
If early retirement is your goal, it’s awfully easy to get caught up in the journey and the anticipation of escaping a dreaded day job. Still, with an eye on both present and future, there’s nothing wrong with daydreaming about your first day of retirement. Before setting an…
READ MOREThe Zero Hour Work Week
No shocker here, but In my mind, it’s easier to write about financial wisdom than it is to actually practice it. Those of us aspiring to retire early are sometimes characterized as “cheap”, “tightwads”, and even flat-out crazy. If you’re familiar with the Four-hour Work Week,…
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