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Reader Case: Can this 24-year-old from DC Retire Early?
Wanderer
Latest posts by Wanderer (see all)
- Reader Case: Can this 24-year-old from DC Retire Early? - January 18, 2019
- Our 2018 Finances Part 2 - January 14, 2019
- Reader Case: Does FIRE Math Apply to the Elderly? - December 21, 2018
It’s Friday, and you know what that means: Reader Case time! And for the first Reader Case of 2018, we’re gonna pick a doozy. Income Gross Income: $95,000 (Combined) Myself: $50,500/year. My Husband: $60,000/year Net Income: $75,000 (Combined) Myself: $30,600 ( After tax, health insurance and 401k contributions) My Husband: $45,000 (we pay his taxes deductions at the end of the year) Monthly net income: Myself $2,550. Husband: $3,750 [Combined: $6,300/monthly] Monthly Spending: Transportation – $575 month (Ubers really add up quickly) [$6,900/year] Cable – $127 (he can’t seem to live without sports channels) [$1,524/year] Cellphones : $150 (both of […]
You Can’t be On FIRE if You Can’t Stand the Heat
FIRECracker
Latest posts by FIRECracker (see all)
- How to Become FI with 6 Kids, Zero Privilege, and a Small Salary - January 11, 2019
- Our 2018 Finances - January 7, 2019
- Happy New Year 2019! - December 31, 2018
“The markets are crashing, this whole FIRE thing isn’t going to work!” “The world is going to end! 2008 is happening again, we’re all going to be screwed!” “A recession is coming! Should I sell everything in my IRA?” These are just some of the comments, messages, and e-mails we’ve been getting lately. With the S&P 500 down 11% since the the beginning of the year and 18% from the peak, I can see why readers who haven’t been through a market crash would be spooked. But here’s the thing about becoming FIRE. You can’t be on FIRE if you […]
Reader Case: Does FIRE Math Apply to the Elderly?
Wanderer
Latest posts by Wanderer (see all)
- Reader Case: Can this 24-year-old from DC Retire Early? - January 18, 2019
- Our 2018 Finances Part 2 - January 14, 2019
- Reader Case: Does FIRE Math Apply to the Elderly? - December 21, 2018
Today’s reader case is a rather interesting one. A reader is writing to us about their 70 (!) year old mother, and asking us how to manage her retirement finances. Now, finances for the elderly is a bit trickier than normal finances, because they can’t recover if anything goes wrong. This situation is doubly risky because I’m giving advice to the reader (who admits she’s relatively new to this FIRE stuff), and she’s relaying it her 70-years-old mom. The odds of a broken-telephone communication problem are high here. So while I’m happy to give my two cents, consult a financial […]
How Much Are You Paying to Work?
FIRECracker
Latest posts by FIRECracker (see all)
- How to Become FI with 6 Kids, Zero Privilege, and a Small Salary - January 11, 2019
- Our 2018 Finances - January 7, 2019
- Happy New Year 2019! - December 31, 2018
“Can you write about how much you’re paying to work?’” We got this e-mail from a reader recently. Apparently, once-upon-a-time I’d mentioned in a post how we don’t realize how much we PAY to work. I said I’d be writing about this in a future post, but then forgot to, you know, write it. Oops. In my defense, there are a lot of saunas and spas in Europe and they’re not going to visit themselves. Anyway…without any more excuses, here’s my better-late-than-never post on how much you’re paying to work: When we’re working, we love focusing on the fatness of […]
Reader Case Update: The South Korean English Teacher Returns
Wanderer
Latest posts by Wanderer (see all)
- Reader Case: Can this 24-year-old from DC Retire Early? - January 18, 2019
- Our 2018 Finances Part 2 - January 14, 2019
- Reader Case: Does FIRE Math Apply to the Elderly? - December 21, 2018
On this blog, we have a lot of fun. We make a bunch of dick jokes, we make fun of home boners, we do a WHOLE lot of MATHING SHIT UP, and, occasionally, we change people’s lives. Hopefully for the better. But as much as I’d like to take as much credit for these cases as I can, the truth is the only thing we can do here is trivially minor. We do some analysis, we provided a few insights, maybe suggest a few changes people could make, and that’s pretty much it. A blog post by itself does nothing. […]
