We recently finished watching a quirky superhero K-Drama on Netflix called Cashero. The show got me thinking about a topic that doesn’t come up often in FIRE conversations: how much your spouse or partner can affect your ability to achieve financial independence.

Over New Year’s Eve and the first five days of the new year, my wife and I did our annual FIRE (Financially Independent, Retire Early) reset , which includes creating our 2026 Goals Bingo cards and completing our no-spend challenge. This reset helps us stay intentional about health, spending, and how we want early retirement to actually feel—not just how it looks on paper. This will be our first full year in early retirement since exiting the rat race in 2025. Last year, we w

As part of our year-end tradition , my wife and I reviewed our Goals Bingo cards and reminisced about the places we visited and the things we did throughout the year. For fun, we also voted on our personal “Best of 2025” across a few categories—including Best New App. This year, we both chose an app that saves us money, helps the environment and businesses—and creates a little excitement. Our Best New App of 2025 is Too Good To Go. Note: I am not affiliated with Too Good To G

As the year comes to a close, I still find it hard to believe that we actually retired before turning 50  this year. When we were in our 30s, retirement at any age seemed like a pipe dream . Despite having low-paying jobs and no direction, we somehow still managed to cross the rat race finish line early. With less than a week left in 2025, we’re now making preparations for two annual traditions to close out the old year and ring in the new one. A few friends started copying u

As the six-month mark of my early retirement approaches, I’ve started looking back at how it’s gone so far. Before I retired, I pictured waking up late, spontaneous adventures, and maybe a new hobby or two. And while some of that has happened, the reality has been a little less “vacation mode” and a little more “figure out how to make retirement enjoyable” mode. Many people assume retirement is like flipping a switch—you leave your job on Friday and wake up Monday in permanen

Today, I thought I’d share my tips for landing your dream job. These tips are based on my experience in human resources and as a hiring manager. I'll even teach you a game-changing interview question that has helped many friends land their dream jobs. Even if you’re currently employed, knowing what I’m about to share will be helpful if you want to reach financial freedom faster. Increasing your income should always be part of your plan, and finding ways to boost your salary i

Even if you hated math as a student, you’ll love learning the Rule of 72; it takes less than a minute to learn. The Rule of 72 explained simply is an easy, yet powerful mental shortcut to quickly estimate how long it takes for money (or debt) to double. For example, if someone asked you how long it would take for their mutual fund to double in value if it's compounding at 10%, you'll be able to tell them within seconds without the use of a calculator. The Rule of 72 is my fav

Getting furloughed during the 2020 pandemic turned out to be a blessing in disguise because it helped me realize my wife and I needed to...

“Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it…he who doesn’t…pays it.” —Albert Einstein Perhaps...

You know your current net worth and your average annual expenses. You also have your target number . So, now it’s time to start putting your financial independence plan together. And I’ll share my tips on creating a plan that will work, including my best tip that I learned watching basketball. You might be wondering if it’s even necessary to create a plan. Why not just wing it? Yes, I know making a plan isn’t always fun. I like to wing it  on most things myself, but I don’t

If you followed along in my last post, you would have calculated your net worth , which tells you where you currently are in the rat race. The next logical question is: How much to save for retirement? To escape the rat race, you must figure out your ultimate goal: What net worth do you need to achieve your Financial Independence Number? Why is it important to figure out this target number? Well, imagine if you were in an actual physical race, except that there’s no clear fin

It’s been roughly four months since I retired and almost six months since my wife did. We often talk about how this was a great choice, but early retirement wasn’t always the plan. As mentioned in my first post , I had doubts we’d be able to retire at all, let alone early. Back in 2006, we weren’t thinking of retirement. We were thinking of starting a family. One day, I was killing time at a Borders Bookstore—remember those?—when I came across a book about how to make money

Before I officially retired, I told friends that I was going to start a blog titled “FIRE before 50.” The number one response I got was people asking if I got fired. They questioned if I was hinting that I got ( wink wink)  laid off. It made me chuckle and also realize that not everyone is familiar with FIRE (spelled in all caps). So, I thought I’d share the different types of FIRE retirement today because it is, at the very least, interesting. It’s also somewhat cool to lear

A close friend recently asked if I used CDs (Certificates of Deposit) and would recommend them. So I thought I'd share my thoughts on CDs and tips on how to build a CD ladder. Let me start by saying that CDs are not great investments if you want to grow your wealth. Because they have such low risk, their rates of return are also very low. The annual percentage yield (APY) of CDs usually falls somewhere between 1%-5%. Not great at all. Sometimes, the APY can even fall well bel

If there’s one thing that is constantly in the back of my mind when it comes to personal finances, it’s inflation. The effects of inflation on your financial health and retirement are devastating. Like many people, I used to brush off inflation as just a minor annoyance to put up with. But then I finally sat down with a calculator and saw how 3 percent inflation destroys savings over 20 years. And that’s when I had another oh, shit moment because I realized we were screwed i

Did you know that only 50% of Americans are considered financially literate? If you’ve been out of school for a while, 50% would be a solid F grade. Yikes! This statistic isn’t a one-time fluke either. According to an annual study by the Global Financial Literacy Center , this average has held steady over eight years, from 2017 to 2024. Globally, the picture doesn’t get better. A survey of 150,000 adults in over 140 countries determined that only 33% of adults are financiall