Blog about personal finance, personal development, travel and designing a life you love!
Most people who embark on the path to F.I.R.E (financial independence, retire early) determine the amount on money they will need for life through principals of The Trinity Study. But does this really work? I wanted to study the impact of downturns, how long it takes to recover from one and if you stick to the 4% rule, does it work?
Continue reading “Will sticking to a 4% withdrawal rate ensure your money outlasts you”
The first part of this blog post was all about growing the top line. My focus till 2014 had always been about how to maximize the topline and investing regularly. But to get to a great Net Worth, you need to cut costs too. The value of this is two fold. It reduces your expenses so you can live on less. The amount you will need to get to Financial Independence lower since your annual cost is lower, its 25-30X multiple is lower too, and hopefully you can get there sooner. A lot of people think if you are financially independent, it means you are rich but that’s far from the truth. What it really means is you have enough. You have found ways to really cut your expenses and focus on your priorities, so you don’t need as much. And that’s exactly what we did.
Till this point in my life, I have been following the herd! But what now? This new life is unscripted and I am trying to find my own path forward. While that sounds really romantic, it is pretty tough and there are times, I lose it. I am definitely struggling with the change in identity and figuring out my true north, my true purpose. While our jobs are definitely not our self worth, we are so entangled in them, it gets hard to let go. And when I lose sight of what’s really important, going from making a 6 figure job to making less than what I made in my first job makes me feel like a failure. But there are many definitions of success. Ultimately I want a life I can feel good about on my death bed and that definitely doesn’t involve working long hours in an office.
In 2018, we reached financial independence in spite of the craziness of the market in the last quarter. We also both stopped working in corporate America.
And while 7% growth is kind of low, the market corrected between October and December.. ughhh 😔. At the end of September, our net worth was tracking up +15%! But that’s the market, there are ups and downs and you need to be in it for the long term. And 7% is definitely nothing to sneeze about.
We got serious about this journey June 2015 and in 3.5 years we were there. When I first calculated that number, I never thought it possible but real estate made it possible! We are free!!!! Free to pursue the things we enjoy.
https://gph.is/2zNGbFq
So how did we do? After all this is a financial independence site. Most of the growth in our net worth in 2018 came from our real estate investments and cash in flows, bonus and RSUs. If you want to read how we got to F.I.R.E. and the strategies we used, read the post, Freedom from the daily grind.
Continue reading “A year in review: 2018, the year we hit F.I.R.E.”
It was 2015, I had just started a role at a start up, excited to finally be in a place where I could make a big impact. I had been hired by a VP, who I admired, and we were creating a product that could make a real difference in people’s lives. Six months in, my boss changed and the situation didn’t feel the same anymore. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I came to the realization that what I was looking for was freedom, freedom to do what I loved and live a fuller, richer life, not be dependent on a paycheck from the corporate world. In my spare time during my commute and after the kids went to bed, my focus turned to financial independence. Here is some of what I learned.
The more you save, the faster you will get to FIRE, duhhh! And you would think most people spend less than they make but I read a recent article that talked about 50%+ of Americans spending more than they make.* A lot of the FIRE community reached FI by saving 75% of their income. We weren’t willing to save as much …… Continue reading “Freedom from the Daily Grind Part 1”
After working for 2 multinational corporates and then for a start-up, I finally acknowledged to myself that I didn’t like big or small companies. Both types were rampant with politics and the constant high stress levels left me feeling depleted and unfulfilled. So I started to search the internet for how to retire early. By this time I had missed my 35 year mark. It was 2014 and I was 38. The first article I came across was Jeremy’s story on Go Curry Cracker and I found it so inspiring, I started following them and digging into the whole concept around FIRE, Financially Independent Retire Early. It was like I had finally found my peeps, everything I had been thinking about was right there in front of me! I started reading Early Retirement Extreme and learned about how Jacob lived on $7000/year living in the Bay Area! Whew, I really wish I could do that but that’s closer to my monthly cost so I am never getting there. Then I discovered Brandon’s site, MadFientist (my favorite) which pointed me to Mr. Money Mustache and JL Collins Stock Series which led to me to reading, “Your Money or your life” by Joseph Dominguez. I realized that every minute I spent working was taking me away from doing the things I love. Continue reading “The Awakening: Embarking on the Financial Independence Journey through the 4% Rule”
I’m 41 and yesterday was my last day in the corporate nightmare of politics, territorial wars, bosses and power games. All I can think is whewwwww what a relief. 😅 But at the same time, I am terrified! This is unknown territory, living without a full time job! I’ve worked since I was a kid. My first paid job when I was 17 but I had numerous unpaid jobs well before that. I almost don’t know how to relax but I guess it’s time to sing a different tune, “He he he I am on vacation, every single day, every day-ay-ay-ay-ay….😀). I don’t plan to sit idle. I am creating a new life, crafting a life doing the things I love, and like they say, “Love what you do and you’ll never work another day in your life”.
Simplifying Life to achieve Financial Independence and Retire Early by the Bay
My husband and I and two kids live in the Bay Area. Both of us have left well paying, traditional jobs in our early forties and have retired to do things we are more passionate about. For my husband, that is about creating and teaching art and for me, it is about writing this personal finance blog to learn and share strategies to achieve Financial independence, Retire Early (FIRE)! Read about how we are redefining for ourselves what success means, simplifying our everyday, traveling and living by the rules we create rather than those of societies’. This is about our experiment with FIRE or semi FIRE! While geographic arbitrage can enable us to live comfortably in other parts of the US, we want to live by the Bay and so we are trying to create our own income streams to enable our dreams to come true. Come with us on this journey to see if and how we can make this happen!