The story of the Mexican Fisherman and why retiring early is important to us. Have you ever heard the parable of the Mexican Fisherman? I’ve heard several versions, but I like this one, retold by Courtney Carver over at bemorewithless.com (which you should also check out): An American investment banker Read more…
How to become financially independent – a 3 step plan. (i.e. how we’re doing it!) We’ve defined financial independence, but how do you actually become financially independent? In this post, we’ll describe the 3 steps we took. What you’ll learn: Step 1 – Become debt free Step 2 – Grow the Read more…
We have lived on a monthly budget for over 15 years now. Although many people have a negative reaction to the word budget, over that time, we have found it freeing and it actually causes fewer fights about our money. Let’s come right out and say that living on a Read more…
Let’s start here before this goes completely off the rails: we are huge Dave Ramsey fans. We were deeply in debt and needed his baby steps to get out of the mess we had created. His books, Financial Peace University, and radio show have served us very well. It helped build Read more…
Or “definitions for a community that prides itself on not being defined.” The irony is thick that a community that refuses to accept traditional definitions (retirement begins at 65 then you quit, travel, and grow old on a beach) attempts to add clarity to FIRE by creating definitions for the Read more…
Well, reluctant may not be the right word but today we’ll take on the topic of how, at least in our marriage, we’re wired differently. For us, that provides balance in ways that make us more effective but can lead to conflict in pursuit of financial independence, early retirement, and Read more…
Just how are we going to pull this off? These are some grand dreams, aggressive goals, and this path is not for the faint of heart for sure. It is also a long slog. It’s more like a marathon than a sprint. So how do we think we’re going to Read more…
In our last post we talked about the importance of having a plan in order to pull off your big dreams. We gave some of our personal insights on how we’re working toward our financial independence, early retirement, and grand adventure plans. We also shared some of the resources (life Read more…
To tell you a story about where we are in our FIRE journey and when we expect this all to happen, it first makes sense to lay the groundwork for where we’ve been. The Dark Ages (Before Dave Ramsey) When I graduated college in 1998, I had $26,000 in student Read more…
What is the epic adventure we are embarking on when we share the onFIREfamily story? The Inspiration Our vision and plan for what to do with a sabbatical, a mini-retirement, a gap year (whatever you want to call it) came out over a dinner conversation with friends. Over dinner, our Read more…