Heartland on FIRE

Blazing a Trail Towards Financial Independence

Blazing a Trail Towards Financial Independence

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Savings

How FIRE Can Help Mitigate Disaster

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Photo by Dawn Armfield on Unsplash
“Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies! Rivers and seas boiling!”
“Forty years of darkness! Earthquakes, volcanoes…”
“The dead rising from the grave!”
“Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together… mass hysteria!”
– The Ghostbusters

We all like to think glowingly about our future.  Raising our families, fun vacations, memorable meals, and retirement, of course!  We spend a great deal of time thinking and planning about what fun things we are going to do and how we will go about doing them.  In the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) community, we use high savings rates to reach Financial Independence (FI) much quicker than our non-FIRE peers.

But unfortunately, S^&T happens, and our best-laid plans could go up in smoke.  However, the same skills you use to propel yourself on the path to FI can serve you well when everything that can go wrong, does go wrong.

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How to Move Up the Credit Score Leaderboard

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Credit cards can be a polarizing topic in the personal finance community.  On one end, you have Dave Ramsey and his cash envelope system which abhors the use of credit cards.  At the opposite end you have the travel hackers, who churn credit cards for travel rewards.  The Heartland on FIRE household has covered the full range of the credit card usage spectrum.  In 2017 we essentially did not use our credit cards.  However, over the past year, we have become big proponents of credit cards.  As such, we have been paying closer attention to our credit score.  Let’s explore whether a credit card is right for you, and if so, the importance of a high credit score.  Also, I’ve thrown in a quick tip to raise your score.

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Our Money Missteps: The Lost Decade

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As a personal finance blogger, specifically an advocate of the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) movement, you might assume that the Heartland on FIRE family has a spotless past when it comes to money decisions.  You might think we’ve rarely, if ever, paid interest on credit cards, purchased only used cars, and made flawless house purchasing decisions.  I mean, if you look at our net worth progress, we are in better shape than many (most?) families in their early- to mid thirties.

You would be sorely mistaken

In this post, I am going to air out our dirty money laundry.  To come clean, as it were.  To demonstrate how, even after stacking poor decision on top of poor decision (FOR OVER A DECADE!!) you can still find yourself on the path to FIRE.

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