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 possible), and others 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.
Stacking Benjamins show Zen and the Art of Better Money Decisions (Google podcasts link) “…”Well I can save at the end of the month.” No no. That’s money you just didn’t spend…” This part of this episode appealed to me. As someone who usually uses the second paycheck of every month to dedicate to saving while the first is to cover my budgeted expenses and then save the entirety of the second paycheck. I’d suggest giving this episode a listen.
I liked this post from Accidental FIRE looking at personal finance as a series of peaks to traverse. It was an excellent way to reframe the decision.
Sometimes it’s good to have absurd dreams. This post from Financial Samurai takes a look at some of their crazier dreams.
Flexibility is often touted as a solution to many problems after taking RE from Sequence of Returns Risk to outliving your savings. This post from Early Retirement Now takes a look at some of the flaws with that method
Happily Disengaged looks at how it can take some time to get your wealth creation system working and how that can be hard to let go of. This post came to my attention from Accidental FIRE’s roundup.
While I don’t know if I’ll personally implement the SWOT framework Five Year Fire Escape has in this post I thought it was an interesting framework others might be interested in.
How often should you rebalance? I’ve looked at this question a lot, and while my only rebalancing right now is through additions of funds rather than rebalancing, when I FIRE I’ll need to have a plan. A Wealth of Common Sense provides some interesting thoughts.
Being able to focus on a task or a goal can be extremely beneficial to achieving their goals. The White Coat Investor takes a look at how focus can be useful for your financial life and goals.
We’ve all seen the headlines or heard about how the average attention span is slowly being eroded to ever shorter amounts of time. This post from Collab Fund highlights one way to look at where paying attention can go well and where it isn’t really useful.
While I believe that some balance is necessary to continue seeking FIRE, I liked this post from Life Outside the Maze looking at the recent slew of posts in the FIRE blogosphere about how we need to learn to spend.
In a similar vein, this Money with Katie takes a look at the other side of this coin and how spending more may not be so bad. Isn’t going to cost you that much and will increase your overall happiness over your lifetime.
I thought this episode of How to Money was interesting in how it talked about owning houses and some of the personal finance side of that.
While I don’t think renting forever is a great idea unless you like the nomadic lifestyle, I do think for savers it can be an extremely powerful way to boost your savings rate. This Fiology post takes a look at some of these advantages.
I’m still convinced that having a mortgage for more than a handful of years if at all is a financial mistake. Appears I’m not the only one, this post from Financial Success M.D. looks at some of the reasons you should pay off your mortgage even if it’s a low-rate mortgage.
It should come as no surprise that with my dislike of mortgages, I also dislike adjustable rate mortgages (ARM). This post from Financial Samurai takes a look at some of the upsides of an ARM from personal experience.
I find demographics fascinating. I like looking at how they’ve changed over time. This post from Money with Katie looks at exactly what changes have been driving the shrinking of the middle class.
“If I just make it to FIRE everything will be great.” I’m sure that’s what a lot of us have thought at one point or another even if we know that it’s wrong, there is no panacea for life. The Darwinian Doctor looks at this Arrival Fallacy and provides some of their thoughts.
I plan to do a bit of slow travel in the first few years post-FIRE, I’m still working out the specifics but I have close to a decade to figure that out. 1500 Days to Freedom shares their experiences with slow travel.
I don’t think quiet quitting is the solution to work’s ills. This post from Money with Katie looks at some of the other solutions someone could take instead.
While right now is a terrible time to buy a house, just how bad is it? A Wealth of Common Sense takes a look at the current housing market and looks at how bad it is to be a buyer right now.
Lifestyle inflation can be a killer both on the way to FIRE and once you’ve started on RE. While you shouldn’t, in my opinion, be living on beans and rice it can easily get out of hand. Five Year Fire Escape takes a look at some of the common ways you can fall into lifestyle inflation and how to avoid it.
Everyone who’s ever had a 401(k) has seen those milestones (you should have 1x your salary at 30) for saving that you should be meeting. A Wealth of Common Sense looks at some of the problems with these kinds of milestones.
This post from The Best Interest takes a look at why you shouldn’t mess with your investments as a gut response, especially in a downturn.
If you had trouble dealing with last year’s decline, this post from A Wealth of Common Sense once again can serve as a reminder to stay in the market even if it gets tough.
While you might be some slick stock picker able to pick the stock that’s going to go to the moon, I’m not. I tried it and it’s a lot of work for the return you get. Instead, I’ve come around to the index fund boat. A Wealth of Common Sense goes into detail on why index funds will pick those stocks for you.
For those that haven’t had enough, I had to correct last month’s article roundup as I had incorrectly put down the date I had graduated. If you want to check out that roundup again. Take a look here.
That’s it for this month’s article roundup. As usual, we’ll be back next week with my budget post for June.
