Hey everyone! How are you doing on your journey to Financial Independence? If you’re just starting, the best way to surge ahead is to be frugal and invest more. My advice is to save 15% of your income and increase it to 50% over time. We did that when we were young and it paid off. Now, our investment gains outpace our earnings almost every year. Frugality is a superpower and it helped me achieve FIRE. But here’s the thing: life isn’t static. Our needs and priorities evolve. What was essential yesterday might be a needless sacrifice today. At this age, I want to loosen up a bit and enjoy life ..read more

How much do you need to save for retirement? The consensus from the financial industry is around 10-15% of your income. Personally, I think this saving rate is way too low. This standard advice is a disservice to young people. A new graduate who is starting a full-time job will look at this recommendation and try to save 15%. Once it becomes a habit, it can be very difficult to increase your saving rate unless you make a huge effort. Okay, saving 15% will probably be enough to fund a comfortable retirement, but is that all you want? Do you really want to work for 40 years and then retire when ..read more

Recently, Mrs. RB40 has been declaring – “I’m done being cheap.” Uh oh, that smells like trouble… But, I can understand where she’s coming from. She has a good income and she is working hard. We have extra money in the bank. She should feel free to spend some money on fun stuff and activities. Why work if you can’t spend, right? Actually, I’m perfectly fine with Mrs. RB40 being less cheap. She has been frugal since she was young. To her, financial security is much more important than spending money. She has to resist the urge to horde money. Spending doesn’t come naturally to her. In fact, I ..read more

Hey Everyone! I need a little help. Last week, I received a question about inflation spending. Basically, the reader asked if there is anything we should buy ahead of time to head off future inflation. I did some research and only came up with a few things. Okay, here is the question (edited for clarity) and I’ll share my thoughts after. My wife and I thought of an idea to buy things early that could help avoid future inflation. For example, we bought new bed sheets and left them unopened. Imagine you want new bed sheets every 5 years. If you expect to live another 50 years, you could b ..read more

Hey young people, I’ve got great news for you. Recent research based on the life-cycle model says young people shouldn’t save for retirement. Instead of saving, you should live it up while you’re young. When you make more income in your mid-30s, then you can save for retirement. This will help you maintain a consistent standard of living throughout your lifetime. If you save and invest when you’re young, you’re depriving yourself. Researchers call this the “welfare cost”. This theory assumes you don’t retire until you’re 65+. This also assumes your income will increase until retirement, for a ..read more

Hey Everyone! I need a little help. Last week, I received a question about inflation spending. Basically, the reader asked if there is anything we should buy ahead of time to head off future inflation. I did some research and only came up with a few things. Okay, here is the question (edited for clarity) and I’ll share my thoughts after. My wife and I thought of an idea to buy things early that could help avoid future inflation. For example, we bought new bed sheets and left them unopened. Imagine you want new bed sheets every 5 years. If you expect to live another 50 years, you could b ..read more

Well, it looks like inflation will stay high for a while longer. The U.S. inflation rate hit another new high this year – 8.6%. Many economists expected inflation to go down, but they were wrong. As a consumer, this isn’t surprising at all. Food, gas, housing, utilities, hotel rooms, and flight tickets are all noticeably more expensive than last year. We’re going on a summer vacation soon and I spent a ton of money to book everything. It was painful. I don’t like spending money, but we need to go see families and friends. It has been too long. This is why the economists got it wrong. Consumer ..read more

Come on everyone, be honest and complete this sentence with me. Oh man, inflation is crazy. I know it’s been high since 2021, but the numbers have been off the charts lately. In case you’ve been stuck in a Shanghai-style lockdown, check it out.    Recently, inflation has been over 8%. Everything is more expensive these days. Gasoline, groceries, eating out, and travel are just a few things that I’ve been loathing to spend money on. It was a big shock when I came back from spending 3 months in Thailand. This is the highest inflation I’ve experienced in my adult life. It sucks! Inflat ..read more

Whew! I finished our taxes and sent them in on time. Unfortunately, we owed the government over $3,000 because I didn’t pay enough estimated taxes. I also contributed $5,000 to my i401k for 2021. That reduced our tax liability a bit. Unfortunately, these big payments reduced our cash savings to an uncomfortable level. I usually try to keep around 2-3x our monthly expenses in our bank accounts. Also, we plan to travel a lot this summer so we need to save up for that too. We’ll have to watch our spending over the next few months. What about you? Did you have to pay the IRS or did you get a refu ..read more

Hey, everyone! I’m in Chiang Mai to help out my parents for 3 months. I’m living quite well, but I’m not spending much money at all. That’s mainly because I’m staying with my parents for now. I go out to eat every day and it isn’t too expensive. However, the cost of living in Chiang Mia has increased over the last few years. In particular, the price of pork and other meats has increased recently. I read that there is an African swine fever outbreak going on. They had to cull a lot of pigs hence the higher price. Anyway, I’ll share the Big 3 expenses so you can get a taste of how much it costs ..read more