Blog

I left my job 6 months ago. Since then I’ve been exploring Utah and attempting to balance ambition with physical and ...

Written by Adam on June 17, 2019. 9 comments.

There are many paths to retirement – from being born into wealth to never retiring. Where do you fall on the spectrum?

Written by Adam on June 10, 2019. 6 comments.

May was a fantastic month with a focus on spending time outdoors, camping and hiking.

Written by Adam on June 3, 2019. 2 comments.

Use these calculators to solve for exponential growth. There’s 4 different calculators, allowing you to provide any v...

Written by Adam on May 27, 2019.

Follow this guide to perform a security audit and protect your accounts from the latest ways thieves are using to gai...

Written by Adam on May 23, 2019. 3 comments.

My mom passed away when I was 23, yet through an odd series of events she gave me birthday present 9 months after her...

Written by Adam on May 20, 2019. 4 comments.

Mint and YNAB are two of the best options for budgeting, yet they are completely different in the focus and usage. Wh...

Written by Adam on May 16, 2019. 12 comments.

After 6 months of creating my own schedule, I look back at how it compares with my expected year laid out a year ago.

Written by Adam on May 13, 2019. 8 comments.

I spent the first full month of spring running outside, hiking, revamping Minafi and developing a morning schedule.

Written by Adam on May 6, 2019. 6 comments.

The new version of Minafi includes free courses on investing, a community directory, a growing glossary of terms, the...

Written by Adam on April 29, 2019. 2 comments.

Cal Newport’s latest book, Digital Minimalism, focuses on how to live a healthy life and coexist with modern day dist...

Written by Adam on April 22, 2019. 9 comments.

For March, we spent a long weekend in Las Vegas, started a marathon training program, spent a little over $7k and saw...

Written by Adam on April 8, 2019. 7 comments.

Finally, it’s time to reveal the real reason I moved across the country and left my job. It’s a big day, and I’m exci...

Written by Adam on April 1, 2019. 1 comment.

How much should you challenge yourself – and does the answer to that question change after retirement? Here’s a look ...

Written by Adam on March 25, 2019.

The first few months of early retirement have been amazing – but not exactly what I expected. In this post I take a l...

Written by Adam on March 18, 2019. 6 comments.

This is the fourth post in Minafi’s The Focused Investor series. This series is a chance to hear investing opinions a...

Written by Adam on March 11, 2019. 1 comment.

Help maintain an identity after retirement by defining yourself by more than just your job. An identity bridge helps ...

Written by Adam on February 25, 2019. 6 comments.

If you’re thinking about retiring early, Work Optional is a great roadmap for questions you should ask yourself prior...

Written by Adam on February 12, 2019. 1 comment.

I’ve been using Mint Mobile for a year now – in multiple locations in the US and traveling abroad to more than a doze...

Written by Adam on February 11, 2019. 4 comments.

This book covers the math, mindset and career-hacking needed to reach financial freedom as quickly as possible. It ma...

Written by Adam on February 4, 2019.

On December 14, 2018 I left my job to retire. Now that I’ve been out of work for a month, let’s look back and see wha...

Written by Adam on January 28, 2019. 16 comments.

This is the third post in Minafi’s The Focused Investor series. This series is a chance to hear investing opinions an...

Written by Adam on January 25, 2019. 2 comments.

2018 was a crazy financial year for us. After moving across the country in 2018, this was the quarter we finally got ...

Written by Adam on January 21, 2019. 1 comment.

Othalafehu believes in a well rounded family of assets as a bulwark against downturns in the economy, for me, this de...

Written by Adam on January 17, 2019. 1 comment.

The idea of “luck” when it comes to financials is a complicated topic. I do believe it has a role, but it’s important...

Written by Adam on January 14, 2019. 1 comment.

This is the first post in Minafi’s The Focused Investor series. This series is a chance to hear investing opinions an...

Written by Adam on January 10, 2019. 2 comments.

I read 100 books in 2018. Here’s a look at my overall favorites that you should check out along with a few tips on ho...

Written by Adam on January 7, 2019. 8 comments.

A thorough look back at the my past year with a focus on where my time was spent. Including major themes, travel, foo...

Written by Adam on December 31, 2018. 12 comments.

The tax brackets for 2019 have changed since 2018. Because of that, you’ll likely end up paying slightly less in tax....

Written by Adam on December 17, 2018. 6 comments.

Try this exercise to help you decide what you should put your focus on. I’ve used this activity a bunch before – both...

Written by Adam on December 10, 2018. 8 comments.

December 14, 2018 was my last day working at my job of 8 years. Here’s a look at why I left and what I’m planning do ...

Written by Adam on December 3, 2018. 50 comments.

The “Call to Adventure” to pursue FIRE matches the first step on the classic “hero’s journey”. The following steps ma...

Written by Adam on November 26, 2018. 4 comments.

A minimalism mindset embraces less, sometimes with the knowledge that you may lose your one and only tool for a job.

Written by Adam on November 21, 2018.

Tax loss harvesting is a strategy for reducing taxes today by selling funds at a loss. While this seems counterintuit...

Written by Adam on November 19, 2018. 6 comments.

Training yourself to make good financial decisions happens one thought at a time. I consider this as “building the de...

Written by Adam on November 14, 2018. 2 comments.

The Rule of 72 is a formula for estimating how many years it will take for an investment to double in value with a gi...

Written by Adam on November 12, 2018. 1 comment.

How do you know if you’re spending too much time thinking about money? A certain amount of financial literacy is impo...

Written by Adam on November 7, 2018. 13 comments.

The hardest part of investing is learning how to get started. In this post, I go over exactly what I’d recommend to s...

Written by Adam on November 5, 2018. 6 comments.

When I was 26 I left my first job. It had a 401k that I had been contributing to since I started. Being the responsib...

Written by Adam on October 29, 2018. 8 comments.

The last decade has seen a spike in attention towards living simply. As our lives are more and more complicated with ...

Written by Adam on October 22, 2018. 8 comments.

A rundown on my investments, spending and finances over the last quarter. My investments were down 0.91% while my net...

Written by Adam on October 15, 2018. 13 comments.

I’ve never considered myself a “morning person”. I’ll go to sleep after midnight and wake up after snoozing until the...

Written by Adam on October 8, 2018. 2 comments.

FinCon 2018 was held September 26-29 in Orlando, Florida – and was a lot of fun! This post details why should and sho...

Written by Adam on October 1, 2018. 26 comments.

Unlike regular paychecks, bonuses are taxed at a different rate. If you understand how they’re taxed you can take adv...

Written by Adam on September 24, 2018. 4 comments.

We bought a new car for $6,000! Well, that was the price after trading in our existing cars. Here’s a look at how we ...

Written by Adam on September 17, 2018. 10 comments.

It takes a while to understand where someone is coming from – usually years of reading someone’s blog. In this post I...

Written by Adam on September 10, 2018. 17 comments.

I’m always interested to hear how other people are minimizing their tax liability after retirement. Here is my person...

Written by Adam on September 3, 2018. 22 comments.

In my 20s I job-hopped quite a bit – always seeking out more interesting projects, more engaged teams, and higher pay...

Written by Adam on August 27, 2018.

A recent trip to Laos changed my view of consumption and what I need to be happy. With only a few interactions – with...

Written by Adam on August 20, 2018. 4 comments.

Dividends may seem like a free money, but if you’re not prepared for it you’ll be caught with an unexpected tax-burde...

Written by Adam on August 13, 2018. 15 comments.