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Vanguard Backdoor Roth IRA Conversion Walkthrough

Written by Adam on February 5, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
6 min read. Canonical, Financial Independence, Investing, Featured, Blog. 34 Comments

Performing a “Backdoor Roth IRA Conversion” can sound intimidating. In actuality, it’s an incredibly simple thing that takes less than 5 minutes (really) at Vanguard. In this walkthrough, we’ll go through the entire process to do a Backdoor Roth IRA conversion. The broad steps for this are relatively simple:

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February 2018 Goals – Use Everything

Written by Adam on February 2, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
2 min read. Personal, Goals, Blog. 7 Comments

Every month I review how I did during my last month and plan out my focus for the next month. Since I do these goal posts monthly, you might want to read them all by checking out the goals category. For January, I focused on writing way too much and gave myself about a B- for my efforts. Here’s what I’m focusing on for February.

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January 2018 Goals Review – Minimal Investor Course Update

Written by Adam on January 31, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
4 min read. Personal, Goals, Blog, Canonical. Leave a Comment

Every month I review how I did towards my goals for the previous month and plan out my focus for the next month. Since I do these goal posts monthly, you might want to read them all by checking out the goals category. January was a tough month for trying to accomplish much, but I had a few successes over the 31 days.

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My Secret Weapon for Minimalism: A Crazy Fast Photo Scanner

Written by Adam on January 29, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
10 min read. Minimalism, Featured, Blog, Canonical, Personal. 10 Comments

A few weeks ago we decided to move across the country from Orlando to Salt Lake City. Our lives since then have been a whirlwind – attempting to prepare and sell our house, all the while minimizing what we own down the essentials. One area that I was especially worried about was paper clutter – photos, postcards, saved ticket stubs, paperwork and more. I’ve attempted (and failed) to slim down this collection in the past, but this time I wanted to go a paperless as possible with the help of a photo scanner.

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How Speculative Investing (No, Not $GME) Brought Me Closer to FI

Written by Adam on January 26, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
8 min read. Personal, Financial Independence, Investing, Blog, Canonical. 15 Comments

There are new “hot” investments every year. In 2018 it was Bitcoin. In 2021 it was GameStop – a surprise to everyone who thinks that a companies price is somehow connected to their value.

With the recent $GME short squeeze, the cryptocurrency craze, the housing market recovery, and stock growth everywhere, it can seem like every investment out there is going up. Even in my recent 2020 Year in Review, my investments increased 12% for the year.

Even The New York Times is writing about how Everyone Is Getting Hilariously Rich and You’re Not, which can make it can seem like you’ve missed the boat.

“Meme Stocks”, cryptocurrency, and other shortcuts sound exciting but are more often than not fads that will hurt your progress long-term. This post is about how I personally pick which “speculative” assets I include in my portfolio.

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Earning Time

Written by Adam on January 24, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
3 min read. Investing, Mindfulness, Minimalism, Blog. 2 Comments

One of my goals for the new year is to ask why more often. This is driven by the idea to continue reflecting on how I spend my time in order to better focus it on things that matter most to me. When it comes to financial independence, the why for many people is around time. Time to pursue interests, travel, and do more things they want to do – or more of things they enjoy already. The next why is more to the point: why aren’t you doing those things now?

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