Category: Financial Independence

Every now and then, I come across an article or forum post describing debt as a tool. There is a certain amount of risk to debt in the first place, but there are circumstances in which going into debt can be leveraged for gain. However, I would say that debt can be a tool, but […]

I’ve done a lot of work on my car this past year. From a functional perspective, much of this hasn’t been necessary, but from a maintenance perspective, it has been great. I’ve learned a lot this year and have actually had quite a bit of fun, and wanted to share some of my stories. Hub […]

Life is full of predictions about the future. In fact, whole industries exist to make these predictions and sell them to people. Being able to predict things accurately carries with it a tremendous amount of prestige and influence, so it’s no wonder so many people pursue this. But predicting the future largely isn’t possible: nobody […]

At opposite ends of the spending spectrum, you have those who spend all of their money today without really any thought toward tomorrow, and you have those who are mortified to spend money today, with every thought toward tomorrow. Both are folly, but both are worth discussing. As usual, I don’t wish to employ the […]

Several years ago, I started a software development job at a MegaCorp. I was very fortunate in that the branch I worked at felt more like a small company, and our product was one small niche out of the much larger pie of software the company produced. This saved me from dealing with most of […]

If you can stay away from loose money and loose women, your chances of success in life are pretty high. Investment property tends to fall in the former category, but tends to attract the latter. That’s a double-whammy of ‘bad decision’. Cheekiness aside, I am absolutely not a fan of investment property. Now, investment property […]

For the past few days, I’ve been taking walks around the neighborhood during what would have been my morning commute before my company switched to working from home. This has been very relaxing, and has also given me food for thought. These walks are one of the big reasons I hope to retire very early. […]

Risk Surface is a way of thinking about all the things that could go wrong. It’s a strategy for reducing present and future expenses, both perceived and theoretical. You can kind of put a dollar amount on it, but it’s also more involved than that. Risk Surface, in so far as it can be calculated, […]

For most of the working years of my life, I believe I have made reasonably good decisions with money. But this was all put to the test four years ago when I found myself out of a job for 3 months. I thought my emergency fund was fairly large, but it was scary just how […]