Become Financially Free with Me!
Hello 2 blog readers!
Sorry for the very long delay between blog posts. The holiday season has really taken over all of my free time…funny enough many of my free blocks of time are disappearing without things being crossed off the list. Not SURE what’s going on there. Anyhoo, I want to continue with FIRE status reports, since that is the reason I’m doing this blog…to keep myself in check! Continue reading “2 Months of FIRE – Status Report”
Although I was really “gung-ho” last month, focusing a large amount of effort on achieving financial independence is well…exhausting. I am finding it difficult to keep up with:
I’ve been attempting to achieve FIRE (or even just FI) for just over a month. I wanted to do a summary post of what we have achieved so far. Also, what is measured is improved, so I’m helping myself by telling you all about it!
There have been 3 main ways I’ve attempted to improve our financial situation: Continue reading “1 month of FIRE – Status Report”
Guys. I was listening to the ChooseFI podcast last night.
A recurring theme is “How much you need to save monthly or annually to achieve financial independence”. The amount that is continually thrown around is 50% of your income. Which, unless we sell our house, cars, and start riding bicycles to work, isn’t going to happen. Continue reading “Financial Independence – Is it doable for me?”
One thing that YNAB is good at is making you obsessed with budgeting. I am in there literally 10 times a day. I must say the web version seems much more user friendly than the app, though this could be my inexperience talking. Regardless, it really works to laser focus your budget efforts. Dare I say it, adjusting budget values and categorizing transactions is kind of fun. I get excited when i see there are transactions to import. I think I may be getting old. Continue reading “YNAB (You Need a Budget) Update – Week 2”
What’s FIRE you say? Not just hot stuff. Financial Independence, Retire Early. I initially heard about this philosophy from my neighbor who sold her big house in suburbia and moved to a small house in suburbia with a rental in the basement in order to achieve FIRE. In 7 years. This young woman is setting herself and her husband up to retire in 7 YEARS. She is in her 30s.
Needless to say, I was inspired. I’m dreaming of getting out of the rat race more and more. Why? I want more time for family and friends. More time to pursue artistic endeavors. More time to travel. More time to Netflix and Chill. And, probably some other things.
I began researching about principles of FIRE and what financial independence really means. fortunately there are lots of blogs and articles providing the details about various strategies you can use to achieve FIRE.
To give credit where credit is due, the FIRE-storm all started with the book “Your Money or Your Life,” by Vicki Robin and Joe Dominguez. The book was written in the 90s. It’s really not a new idea, but it seems to be catching on in recent years, and for good reason. 
After a bit of research, I now realize there are 2 things I need to do to achieve the goal:
It probably seems like a no-brainer, but just doing these 2 things with fervor will eventually get you there! The earlier you start the better; unfortunately I learned about the FIRE movement in my early 40s. That said, starting at the age of 42 is much better than not starting at all. My favorite way of describing how to get to FIRE is:
Increasing the gap between Expenses and Income, and investing the difference.
This blog will be to document my journey to FIRE – the successes and the failures! I hope you will stick with me and hopefully pick up some small tip that will benefit your life in a positive way. I also look forward to you sharing your successes in the comments so that I may learn from you. Thanks!
