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Interest Rate Arbitrage – Pay Down Debt or Invest?

One of the most fascinating topics that I've come across this year in regard to personal finance is the amount of controversy regarding interest rate arbitrage. Now, arbitrage might not be a word that we use very often so I'll quickly define it here. The simultaneous purchase and sale of equivalent assets or of the same asset in multiple markets in order to exploit a temporary discrepancy in prices. Still kind of confusing, right? What I'm getting at here is the common discussion around whether to eliminate low interest rate consumer debt (think 2.5% car loans or 4% home loans) or invest in the stock market…

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February 2, 2022
Spending Review

December 2021 Spending Review

Woah, what a crazy year. As I've mentioned in my post on my financial mindset heading into 2022, we feel like we freaking crushed it in 2021. It was the first year our good habits and preparedness met the opportunity of a new higher paying job in a new lower cost of living city. 2021 was big. But unfortunately, we didn't exactly end on the brightest note spending wise. Now, enough pleasantries, let's get into our December 2021 spending review and show the world our dirty little secrets. December Expenses December was not terrible, but definitely not great. We spent $4,674 which was not our highest…

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January 28, 2022
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My 2022 Financial Mindset

I spent most of my life knowing what I should be doing with my money. My parents were smart with their money and set a great example. I went through a Dave Ramsey course in my Bible class in high school. I mean, I majored in Finance in college for goodness sake. I had all the knowledge and resources to crush it at personal finance during my 20's. But the reality is that I spent my entire 20's should-ing all over myself only to get married at 28 with not much over $10,000 to my name. When I got married, the game changed. My life was…

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January 26, 2022
Spending Review

November 2021 Spending Review

My wife and I figured out pretty quickly into our FI journey that if we were going to have any success, it would have to be a team effort. While I was excited about our ability to continue growing our income, I started to realize that was only half the picture. And my wife had the most ability to influence the defensive side of the equation since she did most of the shopping. And if you're already deep into the FI community, you already know that the scoreboard is not your income. The scoreboard is our income minus our expenses. It's our savings rate. Hence the…

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December 5, 2021
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The Scoreboard Is Not Our Income

Diving head first into the Financial Independence community has taught me a lot about money. And most people will say, "Yeah, I'm not really interested in any of that Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) stuff so those principles don't apply to me." I'm sorry, you're not interested in becoming financially independent? You're not interested in ceasing having to answer to creditors, lenders, and employers? Alright, whatever. But the fact that as a culture we are so fixated on income as the be-all end-all score to keep track of is sad. It's sad because income is just half the picture. It's only half the calculation for our…

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December 4, 2021
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Why Frugality Matters

Most people that I talk to about Financial Independence are cautiously interested. I've started to leave out the "Retire Early" portion because that's really not my intention and I think it gets the conversation off on the wrong foot. But what I've noticed is, as soon as the conversation starts to point towards any kind of frugal living, that's when I tend to lose people. You see, most people get the whole "Investing for the future" thing, but not everyone wants to get on board with the frugality side of FI. Personally, I think frugality, especially at the start of your FI journey, is the real…

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December 3, 2021
How Much Do You Keep?
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How Much Do You Keep?

Somehow we have completely lost our way when it comes to our finances. We are so fixated on what comes in, that we have no attention left to spend on what goes out. Yes, I'm talking about income. I'm taking about the endless conversations around "How much do you make?" Or "How much did you make last year?" All the while, the real question that we should be asking ourselves and one another is, "How much do you keep?" Wrong: How much do you make? I'm not going to waste time trying to explain that the amount of income you produce has nothing to do with…

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July 7, 2021
The 5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me
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The 5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me

I loved this book. It's one of the few books that I've read in a single day. It's easy to get through and challenges your perspective on plenty of things. Before I returned this book, I wanted to document some of my favorite takeaways in the hopes that I can solidify the things I learned and obviously share them with others! Here are my favorite takeaways from the 5 Lessons a Millionaire Taught Me by Richard Paul Evans. Lesson 1: Decide to Be Wealthy This was my least favorite chapter. It talks mostly about how the wrong attitude towards money will keep us from ever accumulating…

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July 5, 2021
The 3 Biggest Wealth Destroyers
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The 3 Biggest Wealth Destroyers

Our spending will track our income unless we consciously say and do otherwise. That's why changing our relationship to and behavior with money matters. You can dig through this site and find tons of ideas on how to save money and free yourself from it's bondage. But I want to address the 3 biggest wealth destroyers that are worth tackling immediately. The 3 Biggest Wealth Destroyers 1. Eating Out Without fail, this is the hardest category to control for my wife and I. All it takes is one month of weddings and travel for us to spend literally over 14% of our take home pay on…

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July 3, 2021
What’s a Roth IRA?
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What’s a Roth IRA?

Roth IRAs are a great starting place to get your feet wet in the investing world. But what is a Roth IRA and why would you want to invest in one? These are great questions and in this article I will address both in a digestible level of detail. Let's begin! What's an IRA? Let's start with defining an IRA. An IRA is an acronym for "Individual Retirement Account". Which is, obviously a retirement account for an individual. This is just a bank account that you can put money into. But unlike your checking account which is used to buy beer and hamburgers, this account is…

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July 3, 2021