Blazing a Trail Towards Financial Independence
It’s the beginning of a new month. That means its time for me to do a little roundup of the month that was and to update our net worth numbers for all you tens of readers.
You can always check the latest and greatest info on the Track Our Progress page.
So, what the heck happened in January? [Read more…] about Progress Update 2
If you’ve read the About this Blog page you know that the Heartland on FIRE crew lives near St. Louis, MO. Smack dab in the middle of America’s Heartland… a place that many call “Flyover Country”.
Now at first blush, the Heartland doesn’t offer ocean views, rocky mountains, the trendiest restaurants or shopping, or the highest paying jobs in country. It’s also true that the weather tends to be bipolar (super hot and humid in one moment and bitterly cold the next). As I am writing this the temperature has dropped from the mid 60s down into the 20s! What the hell? So, it’s understandable why many think the way they do.
[Read more…] about Life Can Be Grand Living in the Heartland
2018 is just around the corner. If you recall, 2017 was dedicated to immolating our last remaining student loan. With that goal quickly approaching the Heartland on Fire household is turning our sites to aggressively increasing our savings and investments for the upcoming year. So, if you want to see the game plan and hold us accountable at the year’s end keep on reading. [Read more…] about Our 2018 Savings and Investment Plan
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
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?
