Hey folks, I’d love to present a great, well researched, well written, and captivating post for you today. Unfortunately that’s not going to happen. Work has been unexpectedly busy recently for ::reasons:: and not only have I been working extra hours on normal days, I’ve also had to go in on some scheduled days off. What that means to all of you is that I don’t have anything new to share. I would’ve loved to knock a few hundred words out tonight but it’s almost 11pm and I am facing some ridiculous writer’s block. Seriously. It spent 2 hours staring at the screen and I only managed 44 words.
Whomp whomp whomp.
However, I don’t want to leave you totally high and dry, so instead, here are all the guest posts I’ve done for other sites. I’m also including a link to a podcast I was on last month. And for funsies, I’m including a feature I normally reserve for my weekly newsletter.
Oh, you don’t know about that? Well, each week I put out a newsletter with original content that you won’t find on the blog. You can sign up for it at the bottom of this page. I chat about what’s been going on with me or things I thought about that might be interesting to you. I also include a recap of a social media engagement I had that week. Since I spend a lot of time interacting with people in internet personal finance forums, I often find myself typing out long answers to questions. They can be helpful or otherwise interesting (I hope), but they aren’t always meaty enough to actually turn into blog posts. So I share them in my newsletter instead!
So I hope you enjoy this mishmash of content that was not produced this week. I’ll see you soon with new stuff!
Millennial Money Man
My first ever guest post was on Millennial Money Man, a personal finance blog focused on debt payoff for millennials. Bobby (the owner of the site) said he was interested in having guests talk about Financial Independence/Retire Early topics, so I wrote about how different military benefits can lead to FIRE.
The Paycheck Chronicles
Just last week, I submitted this post for the Paycheck Chronicles on Military dot com. As a new Airman over a decade ago, I sure wish people had explained military pay and benefits to me a little better! Maybe this will help some others in the future.
FIRE Drill Podcast
In one of the scarier things I’ve ever done in life, I was a guest on a podcast! Listen as J catches me off guard by asking me about posts I’d written months before, and Gwen and I reminisce about the wonders of a deployment morale drive.
Social Media Response Of The Week
This is an example of what I would include in my weekly newsletter, should you sign up for it.
Normally I just am responding to a single question, but in this case there was some prior conversation that is relevant so I’m providing it all here.
Person #1:
How much is enough to retire? I realize that “it depends” but just wondering. At 50 years old, how much do you think I need to retire with my husband?”
Person #2:
Fi is defined as 25 times Annual Expense….(later) LeanFi is 20 times Annual … FatFi (PHATFI) is 30 times Annual”
(Note: Fi = FI = Financial Independence)
Person #3:
I disagree with those definitions of LeanFI and FatFI. That’s more talking about how conservative you feel your portfolio needs to be. If you’re retiring age 30 to 50, 30x or more is not a bad choice (3.3%). But LeanFI is more about living lean/frugal/minimalistic and FatFI is more about living luxuriously. There is no set cut off but I would say if your target portfolio is <$1million you’re LeanFI (=$40k/year annual expenses at 4%). If you’re >$3million you’re probably FATFI (=$120k/year annual expenses at 4%)”
(Note: this was followed by a link to a blogger discussing LeanFI and FatFI that way)
Person #4:
Ya I thought lean fi was bare bones. And fat fi was all your expenses with some xtra padding. Not having anything to do with x times your expenses. But when it comes down to it I guess it can mean what ever you want.”
Me:
It’s no big deal to think of LeanFI and FatFI differently, but it does make it easier to communicate if we are all talking the same language. Plus, it’s a fallacy that LeanFI and FatFI are about whether or not you are a minimalist. LeanFI means you are FI but have to very closely watch your spending to make sure you don’t run out of money. FatFI means you have so much that, with a properly diversified portfolio, you will in theory never run out of money when staying at approximately your budgeted lifestyle. You have some extra padding around the middle to survive on during the winter of a downmarket, if you see what I mean. There are plenty of non-minimalist people living in LeanFI, and plenty of minimalists who are FatFI. In fact, if I had to guess I’d bet The Minimalists are FatFI.
If you aren’t familiar with why we are talking about 25x expenses, click here to learn more about it.
That’s it…that’s all I’ve got. Check out those guest posts and I’ll see you soon. Ciao!
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