My Financial Independence Journey » Entries tagged with "Reflections"
7 Reasons why you will save money and live better by cutting TV consumption
There are very few instances where I feel at all compelled to embrace anything resembling minimalism. But TV is one of those. Don’t believe me? Go take a look at your cable bill and tell me if you think that you are getting anywhere near as much as you are paying for. Still don’t believe me? Read on! Danger: The below post is rated ‘R’ for serious ranting! … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reflections
Downsides of Extreme Saving
I spend a of this blog focusing on extreme saving, which I would consider to be anything above 20%. Why? Because extreme saving is an extremely powerful tool for achieving early financial independence or retirement. Without it, you’re going to resort to such fallback plans as rich dead relatives, becoming a drug kingpin, winning the lotto, or starting an unusually successful business. However, most people don’t have tons of money at their disposal, so pushing … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reflections
How to achieve your goals in only 4 steps – it’s easier than you think
Generally, people regard the New Year as a time to set new goals. Poppycock! There is no reason why you should wait all the way until January 1st to set a new goal for yourself. And what happens if you don’t think of your goal until February? Are you supposed to wait 11 months before working at it? There are plenty of other entirely reasonable times to set goals for yourself. For instance your birthday, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reflections
Is Home Buying Right for Me?
One of my goals for 2013 was to educate myself on home ownership and decide if buying a house was a good idea or not. To that end, I read some books and spent a lot of time reading about home ownership online. After all my research, I have come to the conclusion that home ownership may not be the best thing for me at this point. Below, I’ll work through my thought process. Hopefully, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Investing, Reflections
The 7 Incarnations of Money
Have you ever thought about money? Not about your finances or your investments. About money. I mean really sat down and thought about it and all the things that it can do. I spent some time recently thinking about all of the different forms, or incarnations, that money could take and has taken over history. I thought I’d share the results of my pondering with you today, so please allow me to wax philosophical for a bit during this post. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reflections
11 Paths to Passive Income
Passive income, or income for which no or minimal work is required, is the key to securing a comfortable retirement or just financial independence. Passive income on a smaller scale can be a great way to boost your annual income, or supply some extra spending money. In this post I want to explore 11 different sources of passive income that can bring in a few dollars per year all the way up to millions. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reflections
Grow Your Career to Achieve Financial Independence Faster: Part 2
Welcome to the next part of our career development series. We’ve already covered the rules of the working world. Now, we’ll begin delving into specific activities that will help grow your career. Specifically, we’ll focus on how to document our achievements and how to ensure that we look good and that people like us. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Career, Reflections
What’s your financial independence (retirement) number?
Did you ever see those commercials where people walk around carrying a giant number under their arm? This is supposed to represent their magic retirement number, or how much money they need to have saved up in order to retire comfortably. Apparently, “comfortable” is a very relative term because the numbers these people were toting around seemed to vary by a couple of log orders. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reflections, Retirement
Grow Your Career to Achieve Financial Independence Faster: Part 1
What does growing your career have to do with achieving financial independence? The short answer is: everything! Even if you’re an early retirement aspirant who wants nothing more than to make a permanent escape from the daily grind, growing your career is something that I would strongly suggest. I’ve already written about how having a higher income will help you save more money, and the more money you save, the faster you can achieve financial independence. Yes, you could concentrate solely on frugality, but you can only reduce your lifestyle down so far before life ceases to be any fun and savings becomes nothing more than a chore. Below, I begin a discussion about a variety of techniques and strategies to help you maximize your career potential. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Career, Reflections
Should I buy a new car or keep the old one?
I’m quite certain that I’ve mentioned somewhere or other that I drive a reliable, but old car. Occasionally, I catch flack from people about why I haven’t bought a new car yet. I don’t really feel like buying a new car yet – mostly because I’m cheap and lazy. So who’s right? My cheap lazy self, or my consumerist oriented acquaintances. It’s gonna get all consumerist vs frugality demolition derby style up in here today. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Reflections
