Tag Archives: financial freedom

4 Blogs That Jumpstarted My FIRE Journey

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Note: I am not an affiliate with any of these blogs…I’m just a huge fan and want to share with you all how much I love their blogs!

When I was working full time in an outpatient ortho clinic in 2020-2021, I would read blog posts during my breaks and my lunch hour. I was never much of a blog reader, but my husband would send me these articles that he found interesting. I would then go down a rabbit hole of all the great information that these bloggers were writing about, which led me to subscribing to their blog, and the rest is history.

I want to share four of my favorite blogs that I started reading when I was at the beginning of my FIRE journey. These bloggers inspired and helped me to spend less, earn more, and invest the rest.

*note: I am not an affiliate with any of these blogs…I’m just a huge fan and want to share with you all how much I love their blogs!*

Mr. Money Mustache

The man, the myth, the legend. The OG FIRE movement blogger. Mr. Money Mustache’s moto “Financial Freedom Through Badassity” already caught my eye when I first got to his home page. He writes about how we can “live a frugal yet Badass life of leisure,” and he was able to achieve FIRE through living a frugal lifestyle that was ~50% less expensive than his peers, invested what he saved in Vanguard index funds, and a couple rental properties. When I found Mr. Money Mustache, we were all about investing in Vanguard index funds, but we were still struggling with saving more. Now that we’re able to prove to ourselves we can achieve >50% savings rate, and we invest primarily in Vanguard index funds, we are starting to learn more about rental property investing. Mr. Money Mustache’s blog posts are a great place to start for those who want to learn more about how to change their lifestyle to achieve financial independence.

I will warn, his writing is not for the easily offended. His matter-of-factual style of writing conveys his opinions very clearly, and his take on living frugally can be quite shocking for the average consumer.

Here are my personal favorite posts from Mr. Money Mustache to help you get started:

Making Sense of Cents

Once I started learning about the FIRE movement, I needed to learn more about HOW to achieve it. This is how I found Making Sense of Cents. Michelle has a TON of posts that talk about how to earn money from various side hustles, rewards credit cards, how to pay off debt, and many more great tips on how to enhance your personal finance life. Her post, What Is A Blog, How Do Blogs Make Money, & More, is what helped me to get started on my own blog. I also started getting into doing online surveys for some extra cash during the pandemic when I read her post, 13 Paid Survey Sites To Make $50+ Per Month.

It may seem intimidating at first when you go to Making Sense of Cents, because she has so many posts on so many different topics. I would recommend subscribing to her email list, as she will email you her latest posts, along with a list of posts she recommends that go along with the current topic. I found this strategy to be most effective for me when sifting through her amazing content.

Here are my personal favorite posts from Making Sense of Cents to help you get started:

Millenial Revolution

If you’re a Millennial like my husband and I, you will find this blog very relatable and helpful. FIRECracker & Wanderer are a FIRE couple who retired at 31 to travel the world. They went against the norm and instead of buying a home, decided to invest instead, and because of that they built a 7 figure portfolio that has given them the freedom to retire from their full time jobs and travel.

I like their writing style because it sounds like they’re sitting right across from me, having a normal discussion as friends. Their posts are easy to read and make seemingly complicated things less intimidating and easier to understand. I also love that they do Reader Cases, where they interview and look at a specific person’s situation and go through what they’re doing to reach FIRE, which makes it more relatable.

Here are my personal favorite posts from Millennial Revolution to help you get started:

Trip Of A Lifestyle

Another FIRE couple, Lauren and Steven, were able to retire from their full time jobs before the age of 30 through some lifestyle tweaks, growing their savings and investments, and focusing more on long-term traveling

What I like about Lauren and Steven is that they are very candid with the fact that it isn’t a one size fits all lifestyle. Like I always say as well, everyone’s situation and personality is different, so find what works best for your. Trip Of A Lifestyle does a great job of challenging their readers to think differently, which was definitely eye opening for me when I started my FIRE journey.

Here are my personal favorite posts from Trip Of A Lifestyle to help you get started:

I hope you find these blogs as awesome and helpful as I have. Happy reading!

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Note: I am not a certified financial advisor/planner or a certified financial analyst or a CPA or an accountant or a lawyer. Remember, I am an allied health professional, just like you! This website/blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Please consult with your financial advisor(s) regarding your personal finance, investment, and tax matters. 

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What is F.I.R.E.?

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updated October 16, 2022
An acronym, or something to make s’mores on?

There’s a buzz about the FIRE movement in the personal finance world. As an allied health professional, you probably have no idea what this is. And I wouldn’t expect you to know!

So, what is the FIRE movement, anyways? 

The F.I.R.E. Community

The FIRE community is not known as a group of pyromaniacs (although the acronym can be incredibly misleading). FIRE is an acronym that stands for “Financial Independence, Retire Early.” It’s a lifestyle movement that my husband and I have been a part of together since 2020.

According to good ol’ Wikipedia, people in the FIRE community: 

  1. Maximize their savings rate by either increasing income and/or decreasing expenses.
  2. Accumulate assets of at least 25x one’s estimated annual living expenses, with the thought being that the resulting passive income provides enough money for living expenses throughout one’s retirement years
  3. Once retired, using the 4% rule as a rough withdrawal guideline to live their lives.

These three basic steps means that paid work now becomes optional. This allows for retirement from traditional work much earlier than the standard retirement age. The end result sounded awesome, but I had some serious doubts about the steps to reach FI (financial independence).

How Did I Hear About the FIRE Community?

It started with reading blogs! I started reading the blogs of people living the FI life to the fullest: Mr. Money Mustache, Mad Fientist, to name a few.

From these blogs, it lead me to some of my favorite podcasts: ChooseFI, Afford Anything, and the list goes on. 

And these people made me realize – it’s not just to retire to sit on my ass all day doing nothing. Retirement is in the eyes of the beholder. The time you can gain by quitting your full time job can open doors to other opportunities! There are other intermediate steps in between that it’ll take to get to there. But the journey can be just as fun, if not more, than the destination.

Retire Early? That’s a thing?!

When I started telling my friends and family about this, I got a little more backlash than expected.

“You can’t retire when you’re that young!” – from an aunt who worked for the government for 30+ years

“What are you going to do for the rest of your life then?” – from a family friend who just retired at 70 years old and is attempting to cram all the travels he wished he’d done in the past into his 70’s

“Sounds like extremely frugality to me.” – from my dear friend who spends her paycheck on excessive amounts of clothes, skin care, and dining out

“So no fun now, but fun later on?” – from a Weekend Warrior who is 6 figures in student debt and yet makes sure to “live life to the fullest” on his days off

And I hear ya. My mantra used to be the complete opposite of FIRE… it was more like ICE – “Independence Can’t Exist” after initially learning about the FIRE movement (pun intended). If you just read the first two paragraphs of the blog post, it’s easy to have doubts. But I challenge you to think about this concept of “retiring” from a different perspective.

Thoughts on “Retirement”

No longer being forced to work until you’re in your 60’s or 70’s. Not sitting at a stagnant job because of the employer 401(k) match or for the pension. No longer using the excuse “I don’t have time” to work on a passion project that hasn’t gotten any farther than the dream board you created months ago that’s hanging behind your bedroom door. Not missing your children’s soccer games or saying “No” to going out for drinks with a friend after work on Friday because you’re “too tired from work.” No longer stressing about your financial situation and if you’re even able to make your next mortgage payment if an emergency arises. No more feeling like you have no control over your current life situation.

By accumulating enough wealth and streams of passive income to get you to retire early, you can quit that job you hated in the first place. As Paula Pant from Afford Anything puts it, FIRE is “freedom to work on Purpose-Driven projects, instead of relying on a paycheck for groceries and gas.”

I hope I have convinced you to at least open your eyes to this concept of FIRE and see what it’s about. Listen to those podcasts. Read those blogs. Get more information. And get excited for what’s to come!

Note: I am not a certified financial advisor/planner or a certified financial analyst or a CPA or an accountant or a lawyer. Remember, I am an allied health professional, just like you! This website/blog is for entertainment and educational purposes only. Please consult with your financial advisor(s) regarding your personal finance, investment, and tax matters. 

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