Sep 20, 2017
I was enjoying a walk downtown with my son recently, when I noticed something wasn’t quite right. A man was emerging from the background of other pedestrians, trying to make eye contact. We kept walking. “Excuse Me! Gentlemen! How much are you paying for your Cable TV right now?” I could now see that he was…
By this point you probably know all you ever wanted to know, and more, about Mr. Money Mustache’s long-ago path to early retirement. But my story is only one of an infinite number of possibilities, which means it is valuable to look around at how other people are doing it. Because of that, I’ve been…
Update January 2019: The HQ has been so much fun that we decided to quadruple our interior space and welcome more members – full details at our HQ Page or you can even Join Immediately if you’re feeling really bold! Almost exactly six years ago, I wrote a simple post about a pawn shop opening up…
A Note from the Future: This article was first published in June 2017, and at the time of course we had no idea when the next recession would be. Some doomsday types thought it was imminent, and others thought the boom was just getting started. In retrospect, the correct answer turned out to be “33…
In this extremely wealthy country of ours, the chief barrier to wealth is often the information, or misinformation that gets stuck inside our own heads. People with the right knowledge can develop the right habits, and these habits lead them to accumulate wealth very quickly. Meanwhile, the majority of people pick up incorrect financial ideas and…
Well, I might as well come clean on our spending for last year. It either went up, or way up, depending on how you want to account for things. Every year, this annual report seems to come out a little bit later – mostly because I’m no longer all that interested in how much money we…
You know what I have come to realize is almost always ridiculous? Contracts. Contracts, paperwork, and bureaucracy. Guarantees, warranties, and excessive caution in an attempt to ensure a trouble-free future. Not all of it is bullshit, but the older I get, the more I realize that a surprising portion of it is. I mean sure,…
In early April of 2011, I started a blog. Although I secretly hoped that lots of people would end up reading it, it was partly just a form of personal therapy – a place where I fight back against a world that had obviously lost its mind, by sharing some financial and living advice that…
For the past two years or so I’ve been keeping a secret from you, and I think today it is finally time to spill the beans. The secret is that my wife is no longer really retired, and in fact she started a business that is now big enough to fund our entire family’s lifestyle.…
One of the joys and frustrations of being an engineer who is also a hopeless dreamer, is that you can see the beauty of what the world could be, while also feeling the burden of every single thing that is in the way of achieving that beauty. Envisioning this potential (and sometimes even having the…
Since 2014, I’ve been using the Betterment investing service for a growing portion of my own savings. I funded an experimental account with $100,000, and have had a monthly auto-deposit adding in an additional $1000 per month since then. The results have been documented on a page I call The Betterment Experiment. So far, the…
About three years ago, my family was happily living in a comfortable, mortgage-free house. There was more than enough room for everyone, it was in a walkable neighborhood, and thanks to some unexpected boosts in our family income, life was more affordable than ever. But suddenly, perhaps due to some combination of a romantic whim*…
About five years ago, one of the earliest readers of this blog was generous enough to share the life story of his beloved father, who had recently died before his time. I called the post Eulogy to a Great Dad. It was one of my favorite stories, because it was apparent through his son’s words…
If you look around on the street these days, you might get the impression that it is really, really difficult to stay in shape beyond the age of about 30. Sure, there are a few competitive athletes, movie stars and Navy SEALs around that still manage to keep in strong form, but if you are not…
This year, I’ve been spending a lot more time at the local elementary school, as our boy has rejoined his friends in fifth grade after two years of homeschooling. Through the daily bike rides to and from school, and my weekly gig as a volunteer math/engineering teacher for a small group of boisterous advanced learners, I…
Here’s a little quiz: Suppose you are living an extremely happy life – all your material needs and wants are met, and there is still money to spare. Then suddenly, you get even more money. Do you: For many people, this might seem like a trick question. After all, needs are cheap but how…
