by Michael
It’s the end of the month, and that means it is time for another monthly roundup. As usual, this is a curated selection of my favorite posts for the month from around the web. Some of these I’m a regular reader, some came from other people’s roundups (credited when I could), and others just sort of popped into my feed.
I try to keep the focus on FIRE-related topics but it could be anything. At the end of the day, I found every post or article included in these to be interesting and thought they were worth sharing with others interested in FIRE.
Stop Ironing Shirts had a great post about how long it took them to adjust from their high-stress corporate lifestyle to a lower-stress FIRE lifestyle. I’d give Four Years of FIRE Detoxing from Corporate Life a read.
Stop Ironing Shirts has been doing some reflections upon reaching 4 years of FIRE. This one touches on some of the pros and cons of leaving corporate life compared to the above post about adjusting to FIRE. Check out Four Years of FIRE: The Corporate Job.
Money With Katie had an interesting post on how to reframe goals into what the actual goal is. It helps shift the focus to what you need to do to be successful in the goal rather than the outcome. Check out Financial Goals Lost the Plot Focus Inputs not Outcomes.
Money With Katie looks at some of the issues in scalability in lots of different ways, even FIRE suffers from an issue of scalability. If everyone did it, no one would be able to check out Everything’s a Pyramid Scheme.
This post from That Girl on FIRE shares a few different ways you could cut some expenses if the recent economic crunch has hit you hard. Check out 5 Ways to Survive and Thrive During Recession.
This post from the Humble Dollar was about some advice when traveling. While I don’t know if I’ll go full geo arbitrage when I retire, I liked many of the ideas in this post. Hopefully, when I’m traveling one day, I’ll keep some of these ideas in mind. Check out Worldly Wisdom.
I liked this Can I Retire Yet post looking at some good ideas for helping reduce parts of your budget. Check out Cost Cutting Round 2 Back to Budgeting Basics.
I liked this post from Of Dollars and Data looking at lessons learned from publishing a book. Not all of them are unique to just publishing a book. Check out 3 Lessons I Learned from Publishing a Book and How They Can Help You.
Rich and Wealthy are often used interchangeably, Dollars and Data takes a look at the differences between Rich Vs Wealthy.
A Wealth of Common Sense had a follow-up to the above articles. This one focuses on the balanced way of not spending too much or saving too much a happy medium. Check out Are You Spending too much Money.
A Wealth of Common Sense talks about One of the Biggest Mistakes in Investing. There’s some good advice in there at the end about risk tolerance.
I use the mental bucketing strategy mentioned in this article to conceptualize how I will divide different assets between accounts, even if I only have one portfolio. Check out The Mental Accounting of Asset Allocation from A Wealth of Common Sense.
A Wealth of Common Sense looks at current interest rates and where you could be putting more money. Take a look at The Biggest no Brainer Investment Right now?
One quote that stuck out to me from this post from A Wealth of Common Sense: “If you look at the long-term trend of wealth, adjusted for inflation, millennials are right on track relative to previous generations at the same point in their lives:” I’m used to all the doom and gloom about where Millenials are financially. Check out Demographics vs Inflation.
A Wealth of Common Sense had an interesting post talking about the issue of having a significant portion of your wealth tied up in housing. Check out The Problem with Being House Rich.
Physician on FIRE looks at some myths physicians hear about retirement. I’ve even heard some of these before around my office too. Check out Nine Retirement Myths.
Early Retirement Now looks at how homeownership plays into your safe withdrawal rate in Safe Withdrawl Rate Series Part 57.
Retire by 40 has an interesting post examining what generational wealth is. Check out What Does Generational Wealth Mean to You.
Rich Frugal Life returns to something we talk about a lot in the FIRE community, cost as a function of the time it would take to earn that cost, a good reminder for those that like this method. Check out How to Figure Out the Real Cost of Everything You Buy.
The Wealthy Accountant looks at some of the cold truths of the world and makes some literary connections. A good reminder of some of the harsh choices that have to be made. Check out The Cold Equations of Personal Finance.
Not that long ago I wrote this post giving my thoughts (read blatant speculation) on the recent decline in readership for FIRE blogs. Check out Financial Fives April Update Are People Losing Interest in FIRE? This post came into my feed from Accidental FIRE’s article roundup.
I liked parts of this post from Financial Mechanic, mainly the details about how everyone’s “Rich life” is different. Check out From Skeptic to “Ah Hah!”: A Review of the Show ‘How to be Rich’ with Ramit Sethi.
HisHerMoneyGuide had a fantastic post on early retirement and working past when you have reached FI with your current lifestyle as well as the issues with just pursuing FIRE with arbitrary goals. Some of these ideas were similar to ones that sponsored my recent posts on looking at why I had decided on the numbers I have for my FIRE goals. Check out Early retirement is an opportunity to change your whole life.
