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…
Job. Career. Calling. Which Do You Choose?
After nearly twenty-one years of being an official adult, I’ve lost sight and forgotten many times the feeling one has when finally deciding upon (or settling on) a profession, be it a job, career, or calling. I didn’t go to college, so I never had the sort of free-range buffer of growing into adulthood that many who attend four-year universities experience, but I did join the Navy, which parallels the teen to adult buffer college affords. Joining the military bought…
Happily Disengaged’s 2021 Expenses
It’s January, so now’s a good time to look back over the year 2021 and post about our total expenditures. There was a time when I did monthly expense blogs, but alas I’ve fallen off these types of posts as my blog bandwidth has narrowed and my blog posts have slowed down. Pursuing FIRE isn’t the easiest in an ultra high cost of living area like San Francisco, but it’s not impossible. This is the land of the $8 dollar…
The Case For Anti-Optimization
The phone rang and it was the front desk. In broken English, the woman on the other line told me that someone was downstairs waiting for me. I told her I’d be right down. I’d been waiting months for this day. I let my wife know who it was and that I would be right back and then stepped out into the hallway. The hotel was a time capsule. The hallways and rooms have never known anything other than early…
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…
Saving More In A High Cost of Living Area
I live 42 miles from downtown San Francisco where I’ve worked for the vast majority of my career. My commute on average is 3 hours a day. 1 hour in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. This equates to 32.5 days of commuting a year. I believe I’m being as efficient as possible with my money by choosing to live in a “cheaper” suburb, but is commuting to work really the most optimal way to live in a high…
How We Achieved a 50% Savings Rate In Just 2 Months
In two months we were able to increase our savings rate from 25% of our net income to 50%. Since we gave ourselves a 7 year deadline to call it quits from the rat race, the importance of jacking up our savings rate in a timely manner was number one on our FI course correction list. Achieving a 50% savings rate in such a short amount of time is not impossible, as long as you don’t have a lot of…