Ideas on Personal Finance
This is one of my favorite quotes on Planning (the other being – ‘In preparing for battle, I have found that plans are useless, but planning indispensable.’ by Eisenhower). Long before I had a plan for Financial Independence (FI) / Early Retirement, I had a wish to retire early. I spend many years doing nothing … Read more
Compounding worked wonders for my Financial Independence (FI) journey. However, the key attribute to make compounding work is patience. And in this world of instant gratification, it is difficult to have patience. When I started my FI journey, the initial investments were relatively small. Watching them grow was like watching paint dry. At that time, … Read more
We make hundreds of choices every day, from small choices like what to eat for breakfast to big ones like where to invest our money. Easy choices are fun. Like spending money shopping. Or buying the latest gadget. Hard choices are not fun. Like saving money. Or eating healthy food. Or going to the gym. … Read more
I used this quote a lot on my FI journey. At the start of my FI journey, I tried everything under the sun to make sure I got to FI sooner. I pulled all the levers I could find to reduce spending and improve investment returns. And I spend a lot of time trying to … Read more
This is a line from the Avengers movie. Although this is a finance blog, it is important to remember that money is not an end in itself. Money is very powerful, no doubt. But we should make money just for the sake of making money. Money should be used to enable our life. We only … Read more
This is a funny quote on Financial Independence (FI). It basically says, once you get to FI, you can do what you want and don’t need to work based on other people’s schedules / agendas. However, I have found that people who get to FI do not like sitting around and doing nothing. Typically if … Read more
Although this is a funny quote, it highlights the importance of money. Different people value different things, and some people may not agree with this quote. However, all things being equal, I would rather have more money than less. As they say – money is not the key to happiness, but if you have enough … Read more
This is a quote that I found useful, especially towards the end of my FI journey. When I was heads-down in my pursuit of FI, I was focused on reaching FI as soon as possible. I was trying to save a lot of money and invest it wisely. All my decisions were driven by the … Read more
This article is part of the My FI Journey series – click here to access the full journey. Looking for Answers to the Big Two Two issues haunt me from the lost decade of my professional life: Busy Becomes Normal and No Financial Plan. To become less busy, I focus on becoming more efficient at work. I become obsessed with … Read more
Over the years, I have been pleasantly surprised at the benefits of Financial Independence / Early Retirement (FIRE). I have also been amazed at how hard it is to convince my friends and relatives to try FIRE (much less adopt it)! FIRE Reactions from Friends and Relatives Financial Independence (FI) has worked wonders for me. … Read more