Ideas on Personal Finance
After struggling to track our spending for a long time, we came up with a simple method. This helped us gain many insights into our spending and eventually helped us get to Financial Independence (FI) a lot sooner. Background: Tracking Our Spend Just like everyone else, we were skeptical about tracking our spending. It is … Read more
Traditional ways of reducing grocery spending (coupon clipping, price comparison, checking items on sale, etc.) were time-consuming and tedious. So we came up with simpler strategies. The average American household spends $6,000 a year on groceries. If you also include the spending on restaurants, the number goes above $10,000 a year. Not to mention more … Read more
Ignoring the traditional FIRE advice of renting a house (instead of buying), we bought our home during our FI journey. Although not a financially sound decision, we are happy with it! Renting a House instead of Buying In the ‘Renting vs. Buying a House’ debate, the die-hard FIRE community members prefer renting to buying a … Read more
Of all the ways to achieve Financial Freedom / Early Retirement (Earning, Saving, Investing), Saving is the most important. Pillars of Financial Independence / Early Retirement There are only three ways to achieve Financial Independence (FI): Earning: Earn more money Saving: Spend less money (Save more) Investing: Invest the savings wisely All three pillars are … Read more
Einstein said that compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe. Compounding takes time, but it can provide a big boost to your finances. Compounding: Simple, yet powerful You really don’t know something well until you experience it first hand. I knew how compounding worked in theory. But over the years, I have … Read more
Although this is an ancient proverb, it still rings true. Trying to make a quick buck is enticing and might work sometimes. If someone is a great investor and can consistently pick winning stocks, that is great. However, for most investors – building wealth takes persistence and a lot of patience. I have been investing … 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
A short but sweet quote that reminds us not to get into debt. Not all debt is bad, though. For example – I have a mortgage (home loan) with less than a 2% fixed interest rate. I am okay with that. It is better to invest the money to make more than 2% rather than … Read more
Small and recurring expenses can be a significant drag on savings. We used to pay many monthly bills without even thinking twice about them – for example, magazines, subscriptions, mobile plans, etc. Over time, we either eliminated or cut back on our monthly expenses. I also severely cut back on small impulse shopping that I … Read more
A classic quote that I have, sadly, seen play out many times. Spending money to impress others is nothing new. However, it has been supercharged now with the overabundance of credit and the proliferation of social media. The sad part of this is that there is no end to buying bigger / better things. No … Read more