Financially Independent or Retired Early?

There is a healthy and active FIRE community online.  FIRE, for those unfamiliar, stands for Financially Independent, Retired Early.  Most often, the retired early part implies retirement in your 40s, if not your 30s.  But the question becomes: do you really want to leave the workforce at a young age?  Instead, would you rather be… Continue reading Financially Independent or Retired Early?

All Money is Family Money

The debate over whether to merge finances or not after a couple commits to a long-term relationship continues to rage.  Seemingly every week, another article in a financial publication pops up discussing the merits of “to merge or not to merge.”  For me and my family, the question was never open for debate.  All money… Continue reading All Money is Family Money

Mental Accounting: Use Buckets to Your Advantage

The idea behind mental accounting is that people naturally separate money that has different intents from each other.  For some reason, economists consider this a bad idea.  From the website Investopedia (emphasis mine): “According to the theory, individuals assign different functions to each asset group, which has an often irrational and detrimental effect on their… Continue reading Mental Accounting: Use Buckets to Your Advantage

How to Build Optionality into Your Life

Optionality in investments refers to the right to do something, but not necessarily the obligation to do so.  The right combination of optionality and underlying portfolio assets more often than not leads to better outcomes than a traditional portfolio. Building optionality into your life, particularly early on, can lead to better life outcomes, too.