Favorite Things

Favorite Things

Here are some of my favorite things, mostly FIRE related.

Calculators

I’m bad at math. I truly am. I still count with my fingers at times.

These calculators make FIRE easy for me. Also lets me daydream a bit as I punch in different numbers. Good rule of thumb is to use multiple simulators/calculators when running your numbers. Each is a bit different, which is a good thing. I like these because they are free. There are a few other calculators and planners out there that are super cool, but require a subscription, this one has a free version but it erases all that tedious input after each use. I don’t advocate for paying for something that can be done for free.

Compound Investing Calculator – For forecasting potential returns and saving over years.

cFIREsim – For forecasting retirement portfolio lifespans

firecalc.com – Another good retirement calculator

Retirement Calculators– Swiss Army knife of calculators for more specific items in your portfolio

Financial Tracker*

Empower (used to be Personal Capital)

You have to know where every dollar goes, how every dollar is working for and against you. This app and website does it. I use this daily. At first, I will admit I was weary about plugging in all of my info into this thing, but the benefits of having all my money flows and net worth in one app is pretty spectacular. Also has easy asset allocation graphs. It’s because of this app that I stopped doing my monthly excel expense budgets.

Empower is hands down my number one FIRE tool.

Reading Material*

I’m not a big finance or investing book reader. Most of my knowledge comes from thousands of hours of consuming podcasts, reading blogs, and articles online and in the newspaper.

I’ve read one financial book in my entire life. I did so when I first had to chose a fund for my 401k and knew practically nothing about investing. I wanted something simple and easy to understand for a beginner:

A Beginners Guide to Investing by Alex H Frey. – It’s a thin book. Very approachable for a first timer. Full of nothing but good advice. No, it’s not very technical. No, it’s not a personal finance book. What it does is lay out what stocks and bonds are. How to use them. How to create a diversified portfolio using low fee vehicles.

For investing, here’s where I’ve learned the most online for free:

Fiction and History. Ah, my true loves. Sure investing and personal finance is cool and makes life easier, but fiction makes life. It’s magic. History makes sense of today. Like science fiction and fantasy, where the premise is to throw humans into fantastical situations and watch the outcomes, history does the same. When I read history, it’s the same as reading about some elaborate fantasy world or sci-fi thriller.

Here is a very short list of some of my favorite books in no particular order. As you can see, there’s not one genre I like more than another. I go through seasons, where I focus on one more than the other, but just like movies, I can never have a single favorite anything. If I’m forced to give one, I’ll change my mind tomorrow.

The Left Hand of Darkness – Ursula K Leguin

For Whom The Bell Tolls – Ernest Hemingway

The Name of the Wind (King Killer Chronicles) – Patrick Rothfuss

The Book of The New Sun – Gene Wolf

The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson

Stalingrad – Anthony Beevor

The Guns of August – Barbara Tuchman

All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy

The Museum of Innocence – Orhan Pamuk.

War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy

A Game of Thrones (Song of Ice and Fire)– George RR Martin

Birds of Prey – Wilbur Smith

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