One could ask, why the obsession with financial independence? What’s so important about early retirement? Is work that bad? Is there some other project that needs to be attended to? This is a complicated question. But one worth thinking about. Personally, for me, the point of early retirement or financial independence is not simply freedom […]
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On Buying Low and Selling High
Let’s say you are starting a business. An unexpected opportunity is granted to you on day one, and you are given the ability, prior to investing a cent, to choose one of two business strategies. You may either: A: Buy high, sell low Or B: Buy low, sell high. Which would you choose? The answer […]
Free Lunch
In the post entitled risky business, we discussed the concept of “Beta.” This term defines the risk, or volatility of the market Itself. And with any individual investment, it’s generally true that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Put another way “No risk: no reward.” An equally important, and less obvious point […]
I Was Told There Would Be No Math
The concept of early retirement is a bit of an abstraction. In a world where it is just assumed that everyone works until at least age 65, there are very few role models around you. So it takes a bit of imagination. And how do you move from the abstract to the palpable? What was […]
Risky Business
If you want to retire at a younger age than average, or if you want to live off your money by allowing your money to make money, then there are really two things that you must do as soon as possible. The first (and most important) is to kick up your savings percentage. And the […]
Passive Aggression
When it comes to investing, you’ve got to decide what camp you are in. Are you a market timer? Are you someone who believes in fundamental analysis? Do you believe in hiring experts who can do a better job than you? Do you believe in active investing? Or are you a passive indexer satisfied to […]
Gambling with your retirement
I’m not much of a gambler. I never play the lottery. I’ve never met a bookie. And I can’t stand Las Vegas. The truth is I just don’t like losing money. But I can see the the allure of gambling. As an example, as a college student I went to the Del Mar racetrack in […]
WARNING: This Post May Change Your Life….
How much money do you need to retire? Whenever I’ve wondered this before I’ve ended up staring blankly at complicated retirement algorithms which asked me to estimate my cost-of-living in the future, future expenses, health care and education liabilities…. At some point I figured, “Aaahhh, this stuff is unknowable I’ll just max out my 401(k) […]
Dammit Jim, I’m only a doctor, not a….
I’m not a life coach. I’m not a financial planner. I’m not a travel agent. So why write a blog about, of all things, early retirement and traveling for free? I suppose that the answer is, because these subjects are interesting. And one of my personality traits is that when I get interested in something, […]
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