I lived for my job, being valued made me feel successful and important, the pay and perks were great too. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else, my life seemed to be on the right track. The world seemed perfect until I was unexpectedly fired, leaving me ashamed and confused. This was a job security wake up call that I desperately needed, it ultimately changed my life. When I was old enough to earn money I was expected to find a job. My Mother only seemed to care that I had a job, rather than how much I was earning. The ability to work for money opened up a new world, where my effort and ski ..read more

I decided from an early age that becoming rich would be my purpose in life. My family struggled with money through much of my early childhood, so it seemed like the only real choice. I spent all of my energy in school, as an employee, then as an investor working toward this goal. When I finally reached it in my mid 30s, I realized I’d never considered what my life would look like afterwards. I was left with no clear purpose and didn’t know what to do next. I tried to cope for two years before falling into depression, then I found a way to recover and move forward. My understanding of being r ..read more

Understanding the words I use, and why I use them, is one of my secrets to achieving my goals. Realizing this skill exists, and how to use it, didn’t happen until I was well into my working life.  For a long time I used phrases like:  “It should work”“I’ll try to…”“Maybe I will”“One day I’ll”and my favorite – “I hope…”When I used them I knew I wasn’t really committing to anything. Saying “I would” complete a task on time was riskier than saying “I would try”. What if I didn’t complete the task?  As a kid I remember entering a Karate Kata competition. Before the competition began, I told my mot ..read more

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This content is password protected and only available to newsletter subscribers. To view it please enter the current password below. Not a subscriber? Use the newsletter form on the right to receive the latest newsletter and password.Password: The post Investment Resources appeared first on Retired Joe ..read more

We tried several times to cut back on luxuries, and even some necessities, to gain financial breathing room. It was always a temporary fix, and never worked for more than a few months for us. Years before we formed a personal spending budget, we came across a radical idea, which had helped others reach financial freedom. The idea was to create an income shortfall, by putting money into savings before paying expenses, or having expenses that were higher than income. The pressure of covering the income shortfall encouraged these people to get creative and find additional sources of income.  I ne ..read more

When I read and engage with people about FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early), the focus seems to be on the Financial Independence part. Details on the Early Retirement part seems to be lacking, or heavily based on traditional retirement. The idea of half-FIRE, being financially independent and not retired, is also an interesting topic, and worth considering before an early or traditional retirement.I was aiming for PIRE (Passive Income to Retire Early), which I guess is a type of FIRE. I learnt about FIRE after retiring, and liked the interest surrounding it. Around the same time I fou ..read more

In my working life I spent years refining my professional skill set, which reinforced my confidence,  and helped me get through difficult work projects. Starting new things outside my profession scared me, because I had a fear of failure. Maybe the thought of succeeding was even worse, because then I’d be expected to reproduce the results. Strangely, it took some mental tricks while snowboarding to move past my fears, and become confident enough to trying new things. I first tried snowboarding with work colleagues a decade ago in a short beginner lesson. It covered information on our gear, how ..read more

By my late twenties my spending was almost double my yearly salary. I had been married for a few years, had a young family, and a home partly owned by the bank. The postman was almost a family friend, because he constantly delivered online shopping packages to our house. My wonderful wife never complained, even as the purchases grew in price and size. When I saw our savings drop below our comfort point, roughly half my net salary, it was time to change. Our finances needed some DIY detective work, but I guessed I was murdering our bank balance. I loved playing with spreadsheets, so I created a ..read more

After the sale of our property, I started preparing for retirement when the money was safely in our bank account. It took about 6 months to get everything ready. There were several things I needed to do before actually quitting my job: Find a place to live.Start earning passive incomeSet up a businessTry retired life We planned to rent a place, because we hadn’t found another one to buy yet. The property market was overheated, so we thought the prices might fall in one or two years. I knew thought renting would be tough without a job, so we had to do this before I retired. Finding a decent p ..read more