Heartland on FIRE

Blazing a Trail Towards Financial Independence

Blazing a Trail Towards Financial Independence

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Dropping Our Financial Pants: 2018 Spending

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With another year in the books, it’s good to look back and see where all the money went. This is my second year of tracking spending by detailed categories and my second year of posting our spending online. You can check out our 2017 Spending here.

I got to say, that putting all this information out there feels a bit like standing in front of a group of people in my underwear. I feel a bit exposed!

So without further ado… how did we, ehhh, do?

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Our 2018 Scorecard and 2019 Personal Finance Goals

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It’s a new year and that means new resolutions, right? Last January I set some personal finance goals for our household. I wanted to take a moment and look back at the past year. Did we meet our goals for the year? Did we bomb in epic fashion? My grading system is simple PASS or FAIL. Read on for the results! [Read more…] about Our 2018 Scorecard and 2019 Personal Finance Goals

Living Below your Means: What Does it REALLY Mean?

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We recently had a conversation with another couple. During the discussion they mentioned that they only contributed enough to their 401k accounts to get their employer match. They maintain that they do not earn enough to max out their 401k contributions. Now that sounds like a fairly typical argument; however, from past conversations we learned this couple has an annual income over $250,000 per year! How crazy is that!

Maxing out 401k contributions would amount to less than 15% of this couple’s income. This conversation really underscored the point: Most of Us Do Not Live Below Our Means

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Company Christmas Club: Is It Worth It?

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An email circulated through my office the other day.  It read: “Christmas Club contributions will be included on the next pay period.”  The email then reminded everyone that enrollment into next year’s Christmas Club had just opened up.  

It got me to thinking… is the Christmas Club worth it?

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