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How Pet Owners Can Prepare For Retirement

For a budding early retiree, nothing is more satisfying than being able to plan for every aspect of your retirement, pet ownership included, which is totally optional. If you opt to do so, please clean up after your dog’s poop, and properly dispose of the waste. The following is a guest post from a reader who is fond of pets. When most people plan for their retirement, they include their…

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5 Questions I Ask Myself To Avoid Impulse Buying

We were at an Apple Store when my wife noticed me staring at a pristine-looking MacBook Air. Weighing only 2.8 pounds, I was obviously in awe of how light, thin-looking, quiet, and fast the machine ran. “You’ve been staring at that item for well over an hour!” she teased. “I’m buying this for us,” I replied. “For real??” she asked. I gave her a nod and quickly went to see the salesperson. Her…

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How to Save Money in Car Repairs and Maintenance Big Time

I’ll be the first to admit: I’m worried about inflation. The war in Ukraine is making matters worse. It makes me want to hang a picture of Putin on a wall, so I can throw darts between his eyes. Putin ina mo, Vladimir Putin!! That’s sort of how you say S.O.B. in Tagalog. I wrote about how to fight inflation before, e.g., buying stocks, locking your housing costs, etc. However, like everything…

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War is Stupid, So is Panic Selling

Russia has invaded Ukraine, another black swan event to wreak havoc in the stock market just when the world has barely recovered from the effects of COVID-19. Putin must have lost his mind— a scary proposition considering that Russia has the most nukes in its arsenal. What’s next? China invades Taiwan, and the start of World War 3? Instead of working together to solve climate change, we end up…

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Should You Marry for Love or Money? Why Not Both?

If you are fairly attractive, your shortest path to wealth could be to marry for money. But should you? The old joke is to marry some rich old guy (or gal) and marry for love after they die. But that only makes you a glorified prostitute. Since it’s Valentines Day, let’s explore the options. Marrying for love without the money A close friend of ours married the man of her dreams. I can tell…

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#Valentines

How to Calculate your Savings Rate the Right Way

I recently got interviewed by the FI community on Instagram, and one of the questions the content curator asked was, “How much is your savings rate?” to which I responded with 40%. But in all honesty, I grabbed the number out of thin air. I’ve been religiously tracking my annual spending and overall net worth, but I never actually sat down to calculate my savings rate— until now. Of course, the…

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How I'm Teaching My Xbox Addicted Son About Investing

How I’m Teaching My Xbox Addicted Son About Investing

My son once told me he someday wants to earn big bucks working for Microsoft. “So you want to be a software developer like me?” I asked. “No, I want to be a cashier; that’s where the money is!” he quipped. That’s when he was nine. Kids this age have a very simplistic view of money. They’re old enough to know money doesn’t grow on trees but too young to understand how they’re earned or made. Now…

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How to Avoid Being Conned This Black Friday

It was the Christmas season of 1993 when I decided my personal computer needed an upgrade. One limitation of PCs at the time was they couldn’t talk or play real music. Floppies also weren’t spacious enough to store large files like audio. I had to buy a Sound Blaster upgrade kit, which I knew came with a CD player and an electronic version of the entire contents of the Britannica…

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The 4% Rule is Not for Everyone, Use this Calculator Instead

The first time I heard about “safe withdrawal,” I thought it was a family planning method. I was like, “I’m an expert!” Well, it turns out it’s for a different kind of planning— your retirement. Specifically, it answers the question, “How much can I safely withdraw from my retirement account?” In turn, this helps you figure out how much you should save for retirement. The rule states that you…

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Being in a "Position of F--- You" Gave Me the Power to Say No

Being in a “Position of F— You” Gave Me the Power to Say No

What is the best thing about being financially independent? It puts you in a “Position of Fuck You.” Once you have enough money, you don’t need a boss— nobody can tell you what to do. Or, if you wish to remain employed, nobody can tell you where to do your job without first letting you go. It sucks to have no options. Financial slavery is real. Throughout my entire career, I’ve been a good and…

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Don't Cry Over Spilled Milk, Be Thankful For What You Have

Don’t Cry Over Spilled Milk, Be Thankful For What You Have

In the 1990 movie, Mr. Destiny, Larry Burrows (played by James Belushi) blames all of his life’s misery on the fact that he struck out during a crucial moment of his state high school baseball championship game 20 years earlier. Every day, Larry wishes he had done differently and hit that baseball. Fresh from being fired from his job, he drives home through a rough part of the city when his…

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The Benefits and Perils of DIYing a Basketball Court

If you happen to have a spacious backyard and want to utilize the space to maintain an active lifestyle for you and your, otherwise Xbox-obsessed kid to enjoy, one option is to build a pool. But the maintenance cost has the potential to suck your discretionary income dry. The last thing a budding early retiree needs is a bump in living expenses. So we’ve built a “luxury” mini-basketball court…

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#DIY

What Turning 50 Means to Your Finances

My first birthday party in 34 years If you’re wondering why you haven’t seen a new post in weeks, it’s because I was extremely busy. For starters, I’ve built a mini-basketball court in my backyard, moving 20 tons of gravel using a wheelbarrow (more on this in my next post) in the process. My employer also demanded that we start working in the office, which took some of my free time. I also…

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Calculating Warren Buffett's Rate of Return (and what you can learn from it)

Calculating Warren Buffett’s Rate of Return (and what you can learn from it)

In a 2018 Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholder meeting, Warren Buffett stated that if someone invested $10,000 in a stock index fund back in 1942, it would have been worth $51 million. An index fund is a type of mutual fund designed to match the performance of the overall market. For example, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index represents the largest 500 companies in the U.S. Index funds weren’t…

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#Asset Classes #Compounding #Interest Rate #Warren Buffett

Top Careers That Could Make You a Millionaire (and tips on how to maximize ROI)

Decades ago, I saw a big ad in a Manila newspaper that featured jubilant college graduates tossing their caps in the air. Right down to the bottom says, “Computers are the Future. Enroll Now!” It was an ad for a school that claims to have pioneered computer education in Asia. Interestingly enough, it’s also the school where the notorious “I LOVE YOU” virus, causing an estimated $10 billion in…

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The True Cost of Luxury (or why the Joneses sucks)

My wife and I had a small money argument the other day. I opened a newly delivered Amazon box in my name, and it turned out to be a hiking bag she bought and already owns. We’ve been spending many of our weekends and holidays in the Appalachians lately. “Didn’t you buy the same backpack a month ago?” I inquired. “Yes, but that’s in a different color,” she countered. I thought to myself, what…

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How to Lose Weight and Save a Ton of Money

Would you rather be fat and wealthy with no guarantee of ever becoming fit? Or would you rather have excellent health for the rest of your life with no guarantee of having good fortune? Any smart person would pick the second right away. If you’re guaranteed good health, you’re already a very wealthy person. If there’s one thing that you must do to improve your health, it would be to stop…

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