FI for the People

Several weeks ago, I typed penned a post titled, “What Did I Do?!,” in which I gave a general download as to what I did during my first year after FIREing. As things turned out, I did a fair amount of work during the year. Hey, retirement police! I’ve always said that it was FI…

To the casual observer, this blog no doubt seems like a sputtering, nonsensical jumble of letters well-oiled machine. A word-spilling force of nature. A content-spewing juggernaut. Perfectly reasonable conclusions.  In reality, it’s kept a-tickin’ by a team of ornery, ill-paid gnomes your impressively lazy and dim-witted humble blogger. And one of the major responsibilities the…

In my last post, I reported on progress (and, in some cases, the lack thereof) I made on post-FIREing goals that I’d set for myself. Tl;dr: I did pretty good.  But I did much more than just pursue those goals in 2022. What’s that Dear Reader? You are not at all interested want to know…

Welp, it’s official. I’ve officially been a deadbeat FIREd for a year (plus a few days). If you’d have told me even just a few years ago that I’d be able to quit full-time employment at the end of 2021—let alone survive financially after having done so and, ideally, not have to work again—I’d have…

For entirely justifiable reasons, no one has ever called me the brightest light in the toolbox. Or the sharpest tool in the cookie jar. Or the smartest cookie in the shed. Yet here I sit stand, in an incredibly a fortunate situation.  Ain’t it just my luck? As I recently quipped about myself to someone,…

A while back I wrote about the motivating power of fear. I’ve written some other posts on the subject, too (see here and here . . . and ad nauseum occasionally in my Money, Man! series of posts..  I never wanted to be motivated by fear. Even after realizing its somewhat perverse “benefits.”  But the…

I wrote on this blog earlier this year that I had the opportunity to talk personal finance and FIRE with a college student who seems receptive to the knowledge. Because if I know anything, it’s that college students live to talk personal finance. It’s been fun.  I now have a second student (let’s call him…

I recently went to an FI meetup and, as per usual at these events in my experience, I met some fantastic folks. Smart, thoughtful, focused people. Also, contrarians, who both come up with and execute on great ideas and who are open minded enough to recognize and adopt others’ fantastic ideas.  Happy day One attendee…

I recently read the (as of this writing) latest post on the Bitches Get Riches blog. First, some background. The blog is authored by two bitches (their words, not mine) hilarious and terrific writers whose noms de plume are Kitty and Piggy. Kitty announced last year that she soon would FIRE. She was then 35….

I discovered FIRE in 2016 by way of an article in The New Yorker. The article was sort of a back-handed compliment to Pete, the blogger behind the Mr. Money Mustache (MMM) blog. But it sort of mocked him specifically, and the idea of FIRE more broadly. The author’s intent seems to have been to…