Heartland on FIRE

Blazing a Trail Towards Financial Independence

Blazing a Trail Towards Financial Independence

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Mr. Heartland on FIRE

Student Loan Arson

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Let’s burn through some loans!

Student loans…they come standard issue with the American Dream, right? Well after paying off my student loans and truck a few years ago we were still diligently and stupidly only paying the monthly balance on my wife’s loan. The sum was so seemingly large we were resigned to “It will always be there.” What were we thinking?! After paying for our 2016 kitchen remodel and my wife’s car loan with cash in savings we were finally feeling the itch that maybe we could make this loan go away. [Read more…] about Student Loan Arson

Playing with FIRE

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If you’ve found this blog you probably already know about the FIRE movement.  But if not, FIRE stands for Financial Independence/Retire Early.  The basic premise is to accumulate savings or investments as quickly as possible.  Once you’ve reached “your number” you then have the option to retire and live off 4 percent of your investments annually. The 4 percent rate is often referred to as the “safe withdrawal rate” as detailed in the controversial “Trinity Study” by three Trinity University professors in 1998 (and a 2009 update) who studied mixes of stocks and bonds based on published stock market data from 1925 to 1995.  Essentially, with a 4 percent withdrawal rate the theoretical retiree would not exhaust their funds during retirement through almost any market conditions.    [Read more…] about Playing with FIRE

What’s My FI Number?

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Our purpose here is to document our pursuit of reaching Financial Independence (FI).  As I’ve discussed previously, I am defining FI as having a portfolio value equal to 25 times our annual spending.  Put another way, we are looking at an annual safe withdrawal rate of 4% of the portfolio value.   

 So, what is that number for us?  [Read more…] about What’s My FI Number?