As the title of this post implies, I’ve been thinking a good bit about the time before Covid-19 impacted all of our lives here in North America. We could freely ...
As many of you know, I am a big proponent of travel hacking. I started 4 years ago this week, back when I was working a job with no paid ...
I’m must admit, I’m in a pretty fortunate position. I was the first person in my family to go to college, and first to graduate. Within a year of graduation, ...
I've only been home for 30 minutes at the time I post this, so it's all fresh as I wrapped up my trip tonight. I thought I had a really ...
It was 22 years ago last week, during the annual high school basketball County Tourney. I was a freshman in high school, trying to sit with the cool kids in ...
The guys on the ChooseFI podcast talk about it all the time, how life doesn’t just suddenly become wonderful overnight. Each and every small change or improvement we make adds ...
It was my birthday last Thursday, and instead of wallowing in self-pity that I’ve now hit my Upper Thirties, I wanted to share a running list of the items or ...
In past years, I set goals for the upcoming year. In January 2017, I wrote a letter to myself using FutureMe.org, mostly related to beating my financial progress from 2016, ...
Becoming a lifelong learner was not something I ever envisioned for myself. Sure, I enthusiastically worked ahead on learning multiplication tables in Kindergarten at my grandmas kitchen table, and I ...
I have lived in Southwest Florida for the better part of the past 15 years, but it wasn’t until last weekend that I finally visited one of the most famous ...
As you may have read, I recently returned home from the Adventures to FI Retreat in Whitefish, Montana, where nearly 50 FI-seekers from around the US and Canada got together ...
Joe Dirt famously said “Life’s a garden. Dig it!” But what happens when you neglect your garden? Your chosen plants wilt and die, quickly replaced by weeds. If your life ...
A common focus in many personal finance articles is the eradication of debt, no matter what the interest rate the borrower is paying. Sure, there’s some quibbling about which order ...
If you’ve ever contemplated opening a credit card for the sign-up bonus, you’re probably aware of some of the terms: “Spend $x,000 in 90 days to receive xx,000 points/miles”. I’ve ...
Growing up, I had a lot of good friends, but never really any close friends. I attended multiple proms as a friend ask, not because I was ever actually dating ...
I'm no stranger to using web apps to track my personal finances. I currently have 3,417 days of history saved on Mint.com, which I only started using after an earlier ...
As I’ve written before, I have been tracking every penny coming into my life (from sources outside of my regular paychecks) for the past 4 years. When I originally published ...
As I wrote about in my last post, a mortgage is a debt that must be paid within a prescribed and agreed-upon time frame. And as with all debts, it ...
The greatest lie ever told in America is the one about The American Dream. That the only way to truly prosper and live the Good Life in this country is ...
If you are reading this blog, there is a good chance you have already heard of the Playing with FIRE documentary and accompanying book, but for those who have stumbled ...
2019 is halfway over already, and I can’t decide if it’s been THISQUICK or i n c r e d i b l y s l o w. It’s been ...
When I say the word Leftovers, most of you will probably think of the extra portion of last night’s supper, that you package and take to work with you for ...
The ChooseFI guys say it all the time – it’s all about community and the genuine connections we make that help us along the path to Financial Independence. I live ...
I’m obsessive. Once I tried it, I just had to have more of it. The feeling was just so good, and I wanted it again. But each additional dose gave ...
Last week, I wrote a somewhat tongue-in-cheek post about being Lazy. If given the choice, I would rather laze about my house and stream some of my shows or watch ...
Lazy. For a short little word, it sure comes with a bad reputation. And it hangs out with a notorious crew of other words: fat, boring, stupid, sluggish. To be ...
I went to college in the early-to-mid 2000s, and I’m sure this sounds familiar to a lot of you. Tables would pop up around the campus with all sorts of ...
Have you ever wondered how much you have made (from W-2 income) in your life? If you started as a teenage like me, it can be hard to remember allllllll ...
For as long as I can remember, I was involved in extra-curricular activities. From swimming lessons at 18 months old and t-ball at 3 years old, to basketball in 4th ...
I bought my townhouse in April 2006 from a husband and wife duo; she was a Realtor and he was a contractor. They would buy properties together and flip them. ...
Obligatory disclaimer: If you are not a person who can pay off your credit card bills in full and on-time each month, stop reading now! The techniques in this article ...
In my previous job with State government (circa 2014-2018), I was in a position without benefits. That meant no paid holidays, vacation or sick time, and no pension contributions. So ...
Back in the early 1990s, a restaurant chain called Chi-Chi’s spread rapidly across the United States. On one visit to my local Chi-Chi’s, I overheard someone in the restaurant tell ...
By the time you read this, there will likely be less than 2 weeks left in the year 2018. This is the time of year that I like to slow ...
There is a widely-cited statistic that 40% of Americans cannot pay an unexpected $400 emergency. Are you one of these people without an Emergency Fund capable of footing that bill? ...
It was only 10 days ago, on a Friday evening after work, when I learned my internet friend Dumpster Doggy was going to be in New York City for a ...
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines shame as a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety. Synonyms include humiliation, regret, disgrace, odium and reproach. I think we are all ...
By Josh October 23, 2018 Yesterday, an awesome new curation site went live called The Money Middletons. You may be asking yourself, “WTF is a Middleton” and you would be ...
October 1, 2018 Along with half of the Twittersphere, I just returned home from Orlando where I attended FinCon 2018. FinCon is an annual conference for money nerds of all ...
I've been quiet around here for a few weeks, because I wasn't really sure how to put some of my ideas to words. Instead, I just read 3 books in ...
By Josh August 9, 2018 (Warning, post is over 3,600 words) Sometimes, I feel like a broken record. Pause that, rewind a bit... As a total FIRE enthusiast and fledgling ...
By Josh July 28, 2018 Ever since J. Money used to write about his "Challenge Everything" mindset/challenge/fund a few years ago, I have been meaning to do something similar and ...
By Josh July 26, 2018 Despite making more money at my (new) day job than I've ever made before in my career, I am constantly looking for other ways to ...
(This post will be maintained periodically) I thought it would be a good idea to share a list of the trips that my travel hacking [obsession] has allowed me to ...
By Josh July 10, 2018 Hey reader! Overall, my home ownership story has been a truly awful experience that I wouldn't wish upon anyone... but these days, I am finally ...
Hello reader! As I began typing this post, I was sitting on an Amtrak train on the Coast Starlight route, from Los Angeles, California to Seattle, Washington. The trip took ...
By Josh June 30, 2018 Can you believe that 2018 is already half over? It's been a really busy year for me so far (details below), so time has just ...
If you’ve stumbled across my site and haven’t heard of the Trinity Study and the 4% Safe Withdrawal Rate, go ahead and click over to Google to read about it. ...
On the evening of January 5th, 2018, I posted this Tweet and it generated higher-than average interest, including a request for a blog post to explain what all of this ...