How to Calculate How Much You Need to Retire
It doesn’t matter how old you are; you need to know how much you need to retire. The sooner you understand this, the better equipped you’ll be to plan your financial roadmap. If you plan to retire at age 35, you’d need a hyper-aggressive investment plan. If you plan to retire at 70 and are already 65, you may need to start considering a conservative investment portfolio. Regardless, you need to learn to calculate your retirement number so you can start working towards that goal. Surprisingly, you can calculate this in just a few simple steps. Read on to learn how!
Pros and Cons of Retiring With Debt
When planning for retirement, one of the biggest hurdles you’ll face is deciding whether to retire with or without debt. Debt can be a strong wealth-building tool, but it carries risks you may not want to have in retirement. However, determining its importance will ultimately come down to your risk tolerance and retirement goals. Today, we’ll explore the pros and cons of debt to help you decide if debt is suitable for your retirement.
5 Things I’ve Learned From My 1st Month of Retirement
I officially retired in early November of 2021. However, since we moved from Silicon Valley, California to Dallas, Texas in December, most of my time in November and December was spent packing, coordinating with movers for our vehicles and belongings, and actually doing the move right before Christmas. We then unpacked, cleaned, and settled in just 3 days. On Christmas Eve, we finally had time to put up our Christmas tree in our apartment. The rest of the winter break was spent with family at home and doing a little exploring in the new area.
Although I technically retired 3 months ago, I didn’t experience true retirement until the 2nd week of January. In this post, I’ll share my thoughts on how my life has changed, both personally and financially, as an (early) retiree!
2022 Business and Personal Goals
Happy New Year! To kick off every new year, I like to set goals for all aspects of my life, both personal and professional. By publicizing my goals, it helps me stay accountable for the things I set out to accomplish for the year. I also hope that some of my goals inspire you to set some for yourselves, too! Let’s get started.
My 2021 Year-End Review
At the start of 2021, I set out to accomplish some business and personal finance goals for the year. By the middle of the year, I published a review of how those goals were progressing, as well as some of my personal goals (not money-related). Now that we’re at the end of 2021 (crazy how fast it went), I will do one final review of both my money & non-money goals and share how I did!
I Just FIRE’d Myself At 31
When I was studying computer science in college just over 10 years ago, I told my partner that I was going to retire early. They didn’t understand what this meant at the time, nor was I taken seriously. We hadn’t even started working yet, so how could we think about retirement already? Well, fast forward to today, and I have 2 major life updates to share with you all!
First, I have officially quit my corporate career at the age of 31, having worked for just a decade. Second, I’m relocating from Silicon Valley, California to Dallas, Texas, accelerating my FI/RE timeline by nearly a decade! These were some of the hardest decisions I’ve made in my life, but they are ultimately right for me and my family. I’m positive that at least 80% of you have thought of relocating (however fleeting) and are also wondering why I am quitting my corporate career at such a young age, so I will share my thought process and reasoning in this blog post.
How To Save For Your Child’s College Education
To state the obvious, the cost of education is extremely high. According to Vanguard’s college cost calculator, the projected cost of a public 4-year college (in-state) 18 years from now will rise from today’s cost of $88,720 to $230,070! In today’s post, I will talk about the various ways you can save for your child’s education and what I’ve chosen to do for mine.
End of 2020 Reflection on My Retirement Accounts
It’s an understatement to say that 2020 has been a crazy year. Nevertheless, at the end of every year, I like to review how well my investments have performed. Regardless of how good or bad each account has done, I find it healthy to review them as objectively as possible to see if any changes should be made to them for the following year. In this blog post, I will go through each of my retirement accounts one-by-one, see if I met my contribution goals, check their overall performance, and determine if my current 401(k) plans need any rebalancing or reallocating.
What's A Mega Backdoor Roth?
If you like your Roth IRA for its tax-free growth, you’re really going to like a mega backdoor Roth! Contributions to a Roth IRA are funded with after-tax dollars and earnings grow entirely tax-free. Similarly, a mega backdoor Roth is also funded with after-tax dollars and earnings grow tax-free but with a much higher contribution limit!
Reaching Financial Independence in Silicon Valley With $10,000,000
Financial Independence, Retire Early, AKA the FIRE movement, has become a major theme among millennials this past decade, including myself. Shortly after you start reading about it, you’ll learn that FIRE means different things to different people. In this post, I’ll give my take on what FIRE means to me, why I think it’s important, and how I determined my FIRE number. That is, how much money one needs to reach financial independence and retire early.
Roth IRA or 401(k): Which One Is Right For You?
I hear it all the time, “Should I invest in a Roth IRA or a 401(k)?” To help you answer that question, first we need to know what they are and what some of their benefits are. From there, I will make several suggestions to help you think about your own situation. Ultimately, the answer will largely depend on your current tax bracket, your future retirement tax bracket, and when you plan on retiring. One thing I will say is that no matter how high your income is, it’s possible for you and your spouse to each use both!