Welcome to 2019 & Welcome to the FIRE Dept.

Happy New Year, friends. I wish you all well.
Welcome to 2019: I hope this site helps you get a solid grasp on your $ this year.
I will attempt to keep this site simple & transparent.

I encourage you to check out the following pages displayed above that are already live on the site. You should be able to get through them in no more than 15 minutes.

$ Prioritization - how to prioritize the cash you earn.

Your Personal Balance Sheet - a way to track your financial situation every time Dec 31 rolls around.

FIRE Template - this google doc will continue to grow and have templates for everything I do on this site.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I created this small blog site to begin sharing the things I know about managing one's personal finances. If you're looking to get rich quick, please look elsewhere. If you like the sound of the idea of gaining financial independence & retiring early, this site might be for you.

FIRE - coined by a role model, Mr. Money Mustache. Check his stuff out if you wish.

Financial Independence: Having enough monetary resources to not be tied to anything.

Personally, my goal is not to retire on a beach at age 34. I believe that my brain needs stimulation in consistent learning, and while watching waves & testing my genetic predisposition to melanoma sounds relaxing, I don't think the beach will provide me much happiness.

BUT having enough money to feel stable enough to say "screw this job, I'm gonna go to tech square and jump into a startup that interests me." is something I am very interested in.

"I'm going to take 8 months and see every state in America"

"I'm going to start my own business using an idea that's been in my mind for years"

You get it. Fuck you money is a better term for this. It doesn't suggest the lazy-bliss image of "Retirement", but simply means that if your situation in life is not making you happy, you have the freedom to change it without significant risk of not being able to feed & shelter a family / lose sleep.

Retire early: similar to the above... through a different lens. Eventually you may want to stop working & take hunting expeditions through the tundra, explore Europe, or head on over to a local high school in pursuit of some feel-goods by providing students with a teacher; one with 5x the IQ of the rest of the public school brain squadron.
Point: There will come a time when you're done wanting to work for a salary.

Interesting stats to support FIRE:
1935: FDR signs Social Security Act - a system that pays retirees at age 65
1935 USA Life expectancy: 62 years.
2019 USA Life expectancy: 79 years.       UK: 80        Canada: 82
I probably don't have to convince you that, sadly, you aren't going to see $1 of your social security payments. It was meant for the lucky long-livers of the 1930s and 40s. I'd be cool with seeing 2100.

Perhaps more meaningful is that the Brits and Canadians live a few years longer than 'Muricanz. Despite living in colder & more precipitous climates & sometimes developing Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) ((wow.. sad)), they presumably work a bit less and don't get sucked into the consumer culture of America... less stress. more happiness. I'm guessing.

If nothing else, using the FIRE lens for your personal financial life might help you live longer and hopefully add some happiness to those years.

Welcome to the Fire Department, I look forward to our conversations.