Un Año Más
2025 was supposed to be the year we quit work. So my math kinda worked out as far as what I’d projected. The year isn’t over and we are 10% away from our FI number.
A Post From The Boring Middle of FIRE
We just got back from a week of camping in Humboldt County. 3.5 hours north of San Francisco lies some of the most incredible Redwood forests I’ve ever visited. Cell service is sparse. The rivers are cool. And some of the trees are 1,200 years old. Walking through the shady forest floor amid ferns and clovers, I get the same feeling as when I walk through an old Roman ruin in Europe or Mexica pyramid in Latin America; except this…
Fulfilling Dreams: The Path to Retiring in my Forties and Embracing Financial Independence
Outside of the house’s front window my green Chinese Vespa knockoff leaned over on its kick stand gleaming under the San Diego sun. The dining room table where I sat fingering the label to my beer was full of paperwork. I’d orchestrated a complex and huge logistical masterplan for my months long trip through Europe and Asia. Trains picked. Hotels booked. Flights purchased. Little did I know at the time that this would lead to me to retiring in my…
The Two Truths of FIRE
It started with the lawn mower this summer. It wouldn’t start. I changed the spark plug and filter and it still wouldn’t start. So then I tore apart the carburetor and cleaned the injectors. The mower started, albeit reluctantly. Over the holiday weekend the lawn mower died again. After dozens of pulls on the starter, I gave up and rolled the old red workhorse into the garage. I sat there for a while, staring at the machine. Debating internally whether…
A Lottery of Sorts
The two minute walk from my job site office to my construction site is along a leafy well known downtown street in the East Bay. Restaurants and bookstores line the road on each side. A popular university is nearby. My walk is like crossing through another dimension where in the span of moments I encounter the entire social economic spectrum of our country. Street people. Drug addicts. High school students. Graduate students. Immigrants. Blue collar workers. Foreign students. Millionaires. Babies….
My Pincer Movement to FI
In the year 216 BC, Hannibal pulled off one of the greatest military maneuvers in recorded history at Cannae: the Pincer Movement. This occurred during the Second Punic War in a heated match between superpowers for control of the known world. At Cannae, the Carthaginian general Hannibal was able to encircle the Romans and annihilate them in battle using unit placement strategy and tactical maneuvering. Prior to this battle his army, including elephants, had crossed the Pyrenees and Alps via…