I remember the first time I thought of myself as an adult. My mum and I were talking and I disagreed with what she was saying. That definitely wasn't the first time; I was a teenager once and I naturally contradicted my mother as a deranged rite of passage quite often. But this time, I honestly didn't think that she was correct, without any malice or spitefulness, and the thought occurred to me; my mum might just be wrong, and I may be right.
This moment came with a wave of realization as that thought blossomed into an idea; just because one of my parents say something, that does not make it necessarily correct. Suddenly, the frame at which I look at people of my parents' generation shifted from rather omniscient guidance counselors to just people, like me. I realized that I didn't have to defer decisions to them just based on their elder status, and that I could confidently make my way in the world without permission.
I was in my mid-twenties when this happened. It was a pretty humbling revelation for me, and one that many of my peers had probably already had. But it is crystallized in my mind as the day I finally though of myself as an adult, not just a kid playing pretend.
Now I'm 28-years-old and I believe I am really getting my stride in this whole "adult" thing. I am now aiming my gaze at finances, and the terror that strikes into the hearts of many, particularly Millennials.
Just a few weeks ago, I was watching a TED Talk by Lacey Filipich about financial independence. She mentioned this acronym F.I.R.E; Financial Independence, Retire Early. I've begun to feel that I really should know more about money aside from make it, spend it, and hopefully save it. So I looked up FIRE at my local library and found a book called Playing with FIRE by Scott Rieckens. I picked it up and spent the whole next week possessed by this book.
If you don't know what FIRE is and we're discovering it together, here is the extremely simple equation to get you to financial independence:
Calculate your yearly expenses. Save, save, save, and invest preferably in index funds. Once you have invested twenty-five times your annual expenses, you can comfortably live off of withdrawing 4% of the interest on your investments, and not have to go to work. Ta. Da.
See? Sounds simple. There is a lot more to it, but that is the bare bones. Now, most people following FIRE succeed because while they do the above, they are also using tools and techniques to lower their expenses and increase their savings to shorten the years it takes to become financially independent.
And that's where I am. As of a few days ago, I wiped out the last bit of my debt, and I feel as though I can tackle this possible free future! I'm starting from square one. I have no particular knowledge of investing in any form, I have not managed to ever make a solid budget and stick to it, and I have also never made a blog... Yikes.
My intention is to keep track of how I'm going about FIRE, what I'm learning, what I'm saving, what I fail at, and what I manage to not mess up. My goal is to reach my financial freedom by the date I set myself, or bust. Though, it wont really be bust because even if I fail at that, I'll have managed to save more money than I ever had before. There's really no losing here. There is only onwards and upwards!
This moment came with a wave of realization as that thought blossomed into an idea; just because one of my parents say something, that does not make it necessarily correct. Suddenly, the frame at which I look at people of my parents' generation shifted from rather omniscient guidance counselors to just people, like me. I realized that I didn't have to defer decisions to them just based on their elder status, and that I could confidently make my way in the world without permission.
I was in my mid-twenties when this happened. It was a pretty humbling revelation for me, and one that many of my peers had probably already had. But it is crystallized in my mind as the day I finally though of myself as an adult, not just a kid playing pretend.
Now I'm 28-years-old and I believe I am really getting my stride in this whole "adult" thing. I am now aiming my gaze at finances, and the terror that strikes into the hearts of many, particularly Millennials.
Just a few weeks ago, I was watching a TED Talk by Lacey Filipich about financial independence. She mentioned this acronym F.I.R.E; Financial Independence, Retire Early. I've begun to feel that I really should know more about money aside from make it, spend it, and hopefully save it. So I looked up FIRE at my local library and found a book called Playing with FIRE by Scott Rieckens. I picked it up and spent the whole next week possessed by this book.
If you don't know what FIRE is and we're discovering it together, here is the extremely simple equation to get you to financial independence:
Calculate your yearly expenses. Save, save, save, and invest preferably in index funds. Once you have invested twenty-five times your annual expenses, you can comfortably live off of withdrawing 4% of the interest on your investments, and not have to go to work. Ta. Da.
See? Sounds simple. There is a lot more to it, but that is the bare bones. Now, most people following FIRE succeed because while they do the above, they are also using tools and techniques to lower their expenses and increase their savings to shorten the years it takes to become financially independent.
And that's where I am. As of a few days ago, I wiped out the last bit of my debt, and I feel as though I can tackle this possible free future! I'm starting from square one. I have no particular knowledge of investing in any form, I have not managed to ever make a solid budget and stick to it, and I have also never made a blog... Yikes.
My intention is to keep track of how I'm going about FIRE, what I'm learning, what I'm saving, what I fail at, and what I manage to not mess up. My goal is to reach my financial freedom by the date I set myself, or bust. Though, it wont really be bust because even if I fail at that, I'll have managed to save more money than I ever had before. There's really no losing here. There is only onwards and upwards!
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