Author: Mr. Elephant Eater

August Update// Mixing The Math and Emotion Of Retirement Planning

Continuing Upward Our chart took another small tick upward this month. Investment values rose .91%. Expenses were very consistent as we spent $30 less than we did last August. Add it up and our assets as a multiple of annual spending improved from 20.2X to 20.6X. As projected earlier in the year, our month to […]

Guest Post at “Can I Retire Yet?”//Using Your Home to Retire Earlier

About three years ago, in the third post ever published on this site, I thanked six bloggers who forever changed my life by shifting my mindset and providing financial education that set me on the path to financial independence and early retirement. Today, I am excited to share a guest post I wrote for one […]

July Update//Achieving Our Goals and Managing Our Fears

After a few months of flirting with it, we finally crossed the line of having investments exceed 20X our current annual spending. This was our original goal. We achieved it three months after our original target financial independence day. Our initial reaction was excitement and joy. Then we started thinking a bit about what these […]

Do You Need Help To Achieve Financial Independence?

When we started down our path to financial independence and early retirement (FIRE), we made many massive investing mistakes which I have documented extensively. My primary purpose in starting this blog was to become a consumer advocate to help educate others to avoid our mistakes. I also wanted to share our story to challenge long […]

There Is No “Risk-Free” Option

I recently swapped guest posts with Jared Casazza at “Fifth Wheel Physical Therapist”. Jared in turn got a response to my guest post written by Joe Reinke, CFA. Joe’s post critiqued how I manage risk and offered an alternative strategy. I disagree with the premise and conclusions strongly. However, I am happy to share opposing […]

June Update//We Spent 6-Figures On Our Vacation!

Well it was a crazy month for us. We’re going to skip the usual introduction to the update with graphs because nothing much changed. We spent a little bit more than usual which was balanced out by continued investment contributions and gains taking our investment values as a multiple of annual spending from 19.67 down […]

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