Independence Day
Kristine Hayes | Mar 22, 2018
WHEN I FIRST encountered the acronym FIRE on Bogleheads.org, I had no idea what it stood for. It didn’t take me long to decipher the wordplay. More problematic: figuring out what FIRE—financial independence/retire early—is all about. Studies show over two-thirds of Americans have left behind fulltime work by the time they’re age 66. But many retirees continue to work part-time because they don’t have the financial resources to avoid working altogether. A 2015 GAO study found that 52% of households age 65 to 74 had no retirement savings—and, for the other 48%, the median amount was just $148,000. So who exactly are these folks claiming to be financially independent early retirees? From the information I’ve seen, FIRE devotees generally live frugally. They invested a high percentage of their salary during their working years. Many seem to put in at least two decades of fulltime work, often in high-paying technology jobs, before accumulating an investment portfolio large enough to sustain them for the rest of their lives. There’s even an “early retirement extreme” group who aim to quit work after as few as five years of fulltime employment. There are numerous books dedicated to the concept of FIRE. Your Money or Your Life is frequently referenced in the financial independence movement. It’s a comprehensive guide on the subject, encouraging readers to be more mindful about all aspects of their lives. While significant portions of the book are devoted to financial topics, it’s also filled with exercises designed to get readers to think about how to make their personal lives more fulfilling. The age and net worth at which folks reach financial independence varies widely. Many FIRE devotees suggest accumulating wealth equal to 25 times annual expenses. MrMoneyMustache.com, one of the most widely read websites devoted to financial independence, suggests a broader rule…
Read more » Dream Inflation
Kristine Hayes | Sep 25, 2021
AS PART OF OUR retirement strategy, my husband and I plan on using the money we make from the sale of our home in Oregon to help cover part of our retirement expenses. We already own a second home in Arizona, which we’ll move into once I leave my job. We’ve played around with different ideas for how best to use the money, including making a large, onetime payment against our Arizona home’s mortgage. More likely, however, we’ll use the cash to help cover our living expenses until I’m eligible to receive Social Security. Even though I can access most of my retirement account money when I turn age 55, I’m hoping to hold off tapping my nest egg until I’m at least 65. Once I leave my job, we’ll still be eligible to receive health-care coverage through my employer. We will, however, have to pay premiums of about $7,000 a year for the two of us. The money from our Portland home would help cover that expense. When we started making our plans, we assumed we’d get back little more than our down payment—$80,000—when we sold our Oregon house. But over the past year, the equity in our modest home has increased sharply. Our ideas for how best to use the money have also grown by leaps and bounds. I started making a list of items we might want for our Arizona house, including new kitchen appliances and new flooring. A few new electronic gadgets also made the cut. Every day, as I checked the latest estimate for the value of our home on Zillow, the list grew longer and more diverse. Our latest idea: Using some of the money to start a small business—which might eventually create a stream of income for us during our retirement years.
Read more » A Well-Placed Bet
Kristine Hayes | Aug 5, 2021
THREE YEARS AGO, I bought a home a few weeks before getting married. The purchase wasn’t so much an investment as a necessity: My new husband and I owned four dogs between us, and we knew we’d have a difficult time finding a rental that would allow that many pets. I’d lived in the Portland, Oregon, metro area for nearly 30 years and had owned two other homes. I knew which neighborhoods to avoid, as well as which ones were coveted. I ultimately settled on a small, slightly outdated home located in a desirable suburb. My husband and I knew we’d only be living in the house for a few years before selling and moving to Arizona, so I was reluctant to spend too much on a transitional property. At the time, mortgage rates were rising at a moderate pace and property values seemed to have stagnated. My plan: Do a few cosmetic updates to the house and hope housing prices would increase enough so that, when we sold, I’d recoup my down payment and closing costs. Instead, housing prices have soared to heights I never would have predicted. In our neighborhood, homes of similar size and quality are regularly selling for $100,000 more than what I paid in 2018. Bidding wars frequently break out and many houses sell for tens of thousands of dollars over asking price. And although we’re still a ways off from listing the house for sale, I’ve even more reason to be pleased with my (unintentionally good) market timing: Trader Joe’s recently announced it’ll be opening a new store just a few blocks from where we live. That, I’m guessing, will drive up prices even more.
Read more » Getting Sued
Kristine Hayes | Sep 4, 2017
LIKE MOST PEOPLE, I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my car insurance. And like most people, the only time I do think about insurance is when I need to use it. Four years ago, I was involved in a collision. My car was totaled and my insurance company processed my claim quickly. Because I was deemed to be not at fault by my insurance company, I didn’t have to pay my deductible or any other expense related to the collision. I purchased a used car with the funds from my claim and thought nothing more about it. Until a year ago. Sitting at home one day last summer, I heard a knock on my front door. I opened it and saw a young man standing there with a large envelope in his hand. After verifying who I was, he proceeded to hand me a summons. I was being sued by the other person involved in the collision. I had no idea how to deal with being sued. Fortunately, through a series of friendships developed in the competitive shooting community I’m part of, I was able to talk to someone knowledgeable about auto insurance litigation. I found out my insurer would provide a lawyer to represent me. I also learned several other valuable lessons related to my insurance coverage: Keep comprehensive notes about any accident you’re involved in. Get copies of any police reports that were filed. Take photos of any damage that occurred. Spend time writing down the details—weather, road conditions, specific location of the accident—as soon as you can. Don’t be in a hurry to throw away any documents you collect. I almost discarded all the records related to my collision just a couple of months before I received the summons. I assumed that since the…
Read more » Aiming High
Kristine Hayes | Dec 28, 2017
BACK IN 2013, I WAS recently divorced, living on my own for the first time and utterly naïve about investing. I was in my late 40s, I’d lost half of my small state pension in the divorce and I was afraid I’d be working well into my 70s if I didn’t get my financial life on track. I set the ambitious goal of having a net worth of $500,000 by 2022, when I’ll turn 55. Now, every December, I sit down and assess my progress toward that goal. Employer-funded retirement account: Up. Back in 2013, all the money I had in my primary retirement account was invested very conservatively. I learned I wasn’t atypical. Women tend to have a much lower tolerance for risk than men. By 2014, I felt sufficiently confident in my investing knowledge to move a large portion of the account into more aggressive mutual funds. That decision paid off handsomely in 2017. The value of my employer-funded account, into which my employer currently contributes $567 per month, jumped more than $37,000 over the past 12 months. Income: Up. After almost 20 years in my job, my salary is still far from six figures. I did, however, receive a 3.5% raise this year, bringing my gross annual salary to just over $68,000. In addition, various freelance writing gigs added $3,000 to my income. 403(b) contributions: Up. In 2017, I contributed $17,400—roughly 26% of my salary—to my 403(b) plan. Though I’m still not close to meeting my maximum allowable contribution of $24,000, I’m pleased I was able to invest more than I did in 2016, when I channeled $16,200 into the account. Roth IRA earnings: Up. Until recently, my Roth IRA was invested in a fairly aggressive growth fund. I’ve never had the money earmarked for any particular use, so…
Read more » Lean Times Ahead?
Kristine Hayes | Jul 30, 2021
THE HEADLINE GRABBED my attention—because it seemed to speak to my situation: “Planning for Retirement: Women in Two-Income Households at Highest Risk.” The article suggested that women in their 50s in two-income households are at greater risk of being unable to maintain their preretirement standard of living when compared to single women and women in one-income households. A big factor: Dual-income households tend to save a smaller percentage of their income compared with single-income households. The article also cited less-generous Social Security benefits for dual-income couples than for those with only one wage earner. In addition, the research found that two-income households tend to spend more on fixed expenses such as mortgages and car payments. I don’t dispute the findings. As someone who in the past decade has been both single and married, I know I managed to save a larger percentage of my salary when I was single. That was because I chose to lower my standard of living, opting for an apartment and a used car, rather than owning a house and buying newer vehicles. Where the study is flawed: It assumes I wouldn’t be willing to lower my standard of living again. When I leave working life behind, I’ll be willing to forgo certain luxuries. In planning for retirement, my husband and I don’t expect to maintain a dual-income lifestyle. Our goal is simply to have more time together doing activities we both enjoy.
Read more »
For 30 years, Dan Smith was a driver-salesman and local union representative, before building a successful income-tax practice in Toledo, Ohio. He retired in 2022. Dan has two beautiful daughters, two loving sons-in-law and seven grandchildren. He and Chris, the love of his life, have been together for two great decades and counting. Check out Dan's earlier articles.
For Richer, For Poorer: 37 Years of Compounding
Mark Crothers | Apr 28, 2026
Happy 50th!
Rick Connor | Apr 27, 2026
The Vision, the Babe , Einstein and the Q
mflack | Apr 25, 2026
Note to HD Writers and Contributors
Elaine M. Clements | Apr 3, 2026
The IRA Decision That Affects Your Kids
David Lancaster | Apr 17, 2026
Is saving really that hard? Nope, not for the great majority of Americans.
R Quinn | Apr 28, 2026
Around the Obstacles
ArticleDan Smith | Apr 25, 2026
- My continued employment as a delivery driver would likely have left me on Social Security Disability (SSDI) by age 55.
- I was very interested in personal finance, and knew many people in that field who would help me get my foot in the door.
- I had acquired bookkeeping, payroll, and tax prep skills through my involvement with my local union, though I never pictured myself as the type to sit behind a desk, in a dimly lit office, crunching numbers beneath the glow of one of those green shade banker’s lamps.
- As a last resort, I could fall back on my truck driving skills, using my commercial drivers license to get a job hauling ‘no-touch’ freight of some sort.
- Last but not least, I needed a place to live. “Hello, mom and dad, I need my room back”. Sleeping on the twin mattress I gave up 25 years earlier, was not part of my plan.
- I was determined not to let my occupation as a beer truck driver dictate my future job prospects.
Where did I want to be?- Where to live? Living with the folks was never meant to be a long term thing. After three months of that, I signed my first ever apartment lease as a lessee, as opposed to a lessor. That lasted two years, until a very large increase in the rent caused me to buy a duplex, and become a lessor again.
- Where to work? I continued my work as a delivery driver for three more years. My position as the local union president, and my five paid weeks of vacation actually kept me off of the truck much of the time. That enabled me to tolerate the maladies that would eventually force me out of that job. Having absolutely no desire to spend the balance of my life languishing on SSDI and a minimal IRA balance, I set off on the path to becoming a financial services guy. That did not work out, and if you want more information on that, here’s a link.
- To make ends meet, I turned to my last resort; driving a truck. Piloting an 18-wheeler was not how I envisioned my remaining working days. And although the freight was ‘no touch’, driving 600 miles every day in a Kenworth tractor is still pretty hard on your vertebrae. But sometimes you have to do what you have to do to survive and to keep your eye on your finish line. My heart goes out to full time drivers, that job is no walk in the park.
- And what about love? My preference was to be in a relationship, but not any relationship. I wanted a good partner, I wanted to be a good partner as well. What qualities would I look for in a new partner? Independent, established, confident, and nice. Was I asking too much?
Making it All Work Finally, preparation collided with opportunity. In other words, I got lucky. Remember when I told you I didn’t picture myself as ever being a bean-counter? Two established financial services guys set me up with free office space and began funneling tax prep clients to me. What began with me preparing taxes for about three dozen of my union brothers, instantly turned into over 100 clients. There I was, a bean counter of sorts. I kept that truck driving job for several more years. And remember that duplex I bought after the rent spiked at my apartment? Well, there was this girl living next door. Enter Chrissy. We became best friends. She is no longer my neighbor. She is now my spouse. Of course, at the time we met, aside from being a nice guy, I wasn’t much of a catch. Man, she took a chance on me. As my client count went up, my days driving the big-rig went down. When the client count got to about 400, I retired forever from driving. No more trips to Chicago, Des Moines, Snow Shoe PA, or Jersey City. Chrissy and I began pounding 40% of our gross pay into savings. It would take until I was 70, but working together, we got to a place each of us only dreamed we would be. By living within our means, and keeping lifestyle creep to a minimum, we surpassed our goals. Chris retired at 64 and helped me during my final three years as a tax preparer. Lucky for me, Federal Wage and Hour never found out that I violated the minimum wage laws by never paying her in the first place. I sold the practice at age 70. I prepared 650 tax returns in my final year. It’s important to note that during our journey, we did not starve ourselves of food nor fun. We counted 27 trips during our first ten years together. Chris was great at finding great deals to various destinations in the Caribbean, and we turned several of her business trips into mini vacations as well. It’s important to prepare for the future, but have some fun along the way as well. I hope this piece inspires someone who is still on the road, dealing with similar obstacles, and wondering if there was a way around them.Investing Fundamentals: A Simple Guide for Beginners
W.D. Housley | Apr 24, 2026
The great COLA debate-maybe not the expected solution.
R Quinn | Apr 26, 2026
A Life You Build
Jeff Peck | Apr 19, 2026
How much to provide a college student monthly?
Chris | Apr 25, 2026
Live a little
greg_j_tomamichel | Apr 25, 2026