retirement planning Archives - Page 3 of 6

Our Money Went Where? September 2016 Update

What a month September was for us! It was our lowest monthly spend so far this year – with daycare reduction being a YUGE part of that (couldn’t resist…). Beyond some minor one-offs everything still seems to be on track with usual or even below last year’s benchmarks and the plan is still a go for Summer 2018 for at least me to quit anyway. I’ll discuss how that plan is evolving and more details of our last months’ spending. Enough of that jibber jabber, let’s get into the details!

By Mr SSC
Posted on October 5, 2016
35 Comments on Our Money Went Where? September 2016 Update

August 2016: Our Money went where?

August, what a great month! It’s my birthday month, yeah Leo’s, it starts the slow trend toward cooler weather around here (it’s still supposed to be 92 today), and now we have school starting to add to the list for August since our oldest started kindergarten this year. How did all this affect our spending though? There were some minor upticks in spending due to kindergarten, life, and oh yes, the allure of a new grocery store. For the full report out and comparison spending chart read on.

By Mr SSC
Posted on September 7, 2016
29 Comments on August 2016: Our Money went where?

Will your retirement have an ikigai?

Until Mrs. SSC left her old job to teach, she was miserable. Her company continually reminded her she was just a number by dragging her and others through long protracted layoffs. Even though she didn’t get let go, the whole process left her with zero job satisfaction, and ultimately she lost all drive to work there. I felt very similarly working for that company my last year there, and after failing to get moved to a better position, I also left that company. We had both lost our ikigai…

What’s ikigai? Ikigai (pronounced icky guy) is a Japanese term that translates as “the reason to wake up in the morning.” In other words, it’s your driver in life, what keeps you going and motivated. Does that mean we really need a reason to get up in the morning if we’re retired?

By Mr SSC
Posted on August 23, 2016
51 Comments on Will your retirement have an ikigai?

How we got FIRE’d Up!

Recently, Nick over at The Money Mine put out a challenge for people to describe how they got “FIRE’d Up” and what were the catalysts for your change in life to achieve that goal.

“What if everyone in the Personal Finance community could write about how they found their goals? Maybe newcomers would relate to one of these stories and decide to make these goals their own? What if that could help someone FIRE?”

Since this blog has been around for a while now and we may have newcomers that haven’t read some of our initial stories, here’s our version of how we got “FIRE’d Up.”

Our money went where? July 2016 Update

Ahhh, another month and another budget update. Although budget is such a non-term around here, since it’s really more of a spending tracking update. Overall, the numbers look good though! No big surprises anywhere, which is always awesome. So, without further ado, here’s our July recap.

Our money went where? June 2016 Update

Well, another month has come and gone and we are now halfway through the year. So far tracking how our our “real” budget numbers compare to our anticipated Fully Funded Lifestyle Change costs we seem to be pretty close. We have been averaging $4035/month spending and that’s assuming no mortgage, which ends up being ~$48420/year needed. We like to add in a little slush/cushion to round up to $55k, which is what we are generally assuming our year to year costs to be and we’re right on track. Heck, we’re even under budget, which I will never complain about. So what were the big hits and little misses that we saw this month?Time to get into some details!

By Mr SSC
Posted on July 12, 2016
34 Comments on Our money went where? June 2016 Update

The Meaning of Financial Independence: Now, Time Equals Money — Guest Post from Living Dubois

Hey guys, welcome back Lois from Living Dubois back for another guest post on how their financial situation has changed 1 year into FIRE. Her last guest post discussed what overall life was like one year into FIRE and now she gets into more of the financial changes accompanied with such a big change.

Road Less Traveled – SSC Style

Last week, the folks over at Our Next Life proposed a challenge called The Road Less Traveled. They laid out what seem to be the “Commandments of FIRE” and they’re hilarious and pretty spot on, you should go read them if you haven’t already. Some of my fav’s are “Thou shalt make thy choosing between Vanguard index funds or dividend-yielding stocks” and “Thou shalt be frugal in all things, and shall not partake of worldly temptations like cable television. Bigger riches await those who partake only of self-powered travel.” Outside of these sort of Personal Finance community commandments, the challenge is what do you do that is different than these sort of “rules” everyone seems to profess and follow. I don’t know that we have much that is different from “The Commandments”, but I’ll let you be the judge.

By Mr SSC
Posted on June 14, 2016June 13, 2016
30 Comments on Road Less Traveled – SSC Style

Is investing on your own that scary?

Something funny started happening a few weeks ago – first with a close friend, then again with numerous colleagues… I have been having more and more conversations about financial advisors and investments. Now, you may think this shouldn’t be so funny, I mean, I do blog about personal finance (well, sometimes). But, if you had told Mr. SSC from five years ago that he would be having multiple conversations about finance where he was considered the ‘expert’ of the group – well, younger Mr. SSC would’ve thought you were drunk.

By Mr SSC
Posted on April 26, 2016
42 Comments on Is investing on your own that scary?

Making a profit by downsizing – Round 2

If you recall, a few months ago we got a flyer in the mail that made us seriously consider downsizing our SUV, but after running the numbers we came to the conclusion it was more expensive to downsize… Earlier this month we got another flyer in the mail, but this time for our home. The flyer stated that if we wanted, we could let this team of realtors

1. Sell our home for free (no closing costs)

2. No buying fees on a new house, and

3. Get $20k in upgrades in said new house.

Dude, now that sounds like a bargain!! Actually, it sounds too good to be true, especially since this development is just up the road from us, and we think it’s the prettiest, best designed “new neighborhood” going in around here.