I was chatting with someone at a meetup here in Salt Lake City about finance and the subject of age came up. They were young – still in college and already way ahead of where I was at that time. Looking at the numbers from the Interactive Guide, they’re not alone! The group in the “college millennial” age has
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What Should You Do With a Sudden Windfall?
Having a sudden windfall is an exciting, exhilarating time. I’ve been lucky enough to receive two windfalls over $100k in my life (so far). The first time was when my mom passed away when I was 23 and I inherited $100,000. It completely changed my life by introducing me to investing much sooner than I would have otherwise encountered it.
The second time was when the company I was working at (Code School) was acquired. I was fortunate enough to end up with an extra $400,000 from the deal. I was 32 at the time and leading the largest team (by headcount). I’d started working there for about 4 years earlier, joining a month or two after the company was incorporated (in other words: right place, right time, and working hard).
[Read more…] about What Should You Do With a Sudden Windfall?101 Things I Want to Know, Have, Do or Be – My Bucket, Goals and Vision List
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15 min read.
Personal, Goals, Featured, Blog, adamfortuna.
8 Comments
We have a monthly event at my work called “Women at Pluralsight”. This is a well-organized chance to hear from women here at our company as well as other inspirational voices from around the world. For May, we welcomed Renee West who blew me away with her story and inspirational message.
[Read more…] about 101 Things I Want to Know, Have, Do or Be – My Bucket, Goals and Vision ListI’ve Tracked My Spending For 8+ Years and Here’s What I Learned
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9 min read.
Personal, Financial Independence, Blog, Canonical.
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At the end of each month, I pull up Personal Capital and categorize every transaction into a category. For years before this, I was writing down every transaction as it happened – saving receipts and entering them into a spreadsheet when I got home. Tracking every single expense in this way is a lot of work. I believe it’s a worthwhile exercise to try if you’ve never done it before – even if you only do it for a month.
After trying both of these systems for months and years (collectively 8+ years, but only 3 years with detailed, split out data), I’ve come to realize one thing is true for me:
[Read more…] about I’ve Tracked My Spending For 8+ Years and Here’s What I LearnedWhat’s the Difference Between Fire, Lean Fire, and Fat Fire?
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9 min read.
Canonical, Financial Independence, Featured, Data, Blog, Minafi.
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The financial independence community loves creating abbreviations with somewhat ambiguous meanings. In the past year, the /r/financialindependence subreddit has doubled in size. Not to mention a wealth of blogs touching on the subject (myself included). This has meant many of the same questions come up over and over again for discussion:
- How do you calculate savings rate? (total savings / total saveable income)
- What is a good safe withdraw rate for retiring early? (4% is historically safe, but no one can tell you what the future holds).
- What “type” of FIRE are you pursuing? Figuring that out is the goal of this post!
Let’s back up a bit and loosely define a few terms so we’re on the same page:
[Read more…] about What’s the Difference Between Fire, Lean Fire, and Fat Fire?Find Your Irresistible Staircase to Early Retirement
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7 min read.
Minafi, Minimalism, Financial Independence, Blog, Canonical.
5 Comments
In the architectural world, there is the concept of an “irresistible staircase”. This staircase is so magical and alluring that it draws people to take the stairs rather than rely on the elevator. In building design, stairs are often an afterthought – relegated to windowless areas behind poorly marked doors. There is a growing trend in building design to make stairs a more core part of the experience, bringing them from the shadows of a building into the foreground where all can see them.
You can see this in practice at most museums. As you’re going from room to room or gallery to gallery, you’re following a set path. Since they know your path they can design something specifically for you.
[Read more…] about Find Your Irresistible Staircase to Early Retirement