I often hear "you spend less" in retirement. For that, I agree. But that REALLY means you "consume less" in retirement. I think far too many people confuse it with "inflation is lower because my personal expenses don't go up by as much". That is a change/reduction in consumption; it is NOT a reduction in inflation. I suspect prices for the same basket an average RETIREE would buy go up MORE than the basket of goods for a non-retiree. So here is the mix-up and why I think retirees and those plann...

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Investing by trompettejoe

Index funds, Vanguard or Schwab?

Hi I’m new to FI and just started! Yeah! Question as the title. I do have Schwab account. Any input would be appreciated! Thank you!

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Lifestyle Design by CoastieFire

Post Work Paradox: Over Achiever vs. Professional Potato … help me find the middle ground!

Alright, hive mind. I’ll hit the escape hatch in 2029 and am officially spiraling over what to do with a terrifying, beautiful, wide-open commodity: **time**. Cue the intense, middle-school-guidance-counselor ‘what do you want to be…’ flashback. I’m trying to engineer a post-work life that's actually fun and satisfying without accidentally building myself a brand new 60-hour-a-week job, OR degenerating into a human potato who stares at the wall. For context: spouse and I will retire at 45 with 2...

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Nomads and Expats by Oliver Collington

23 yr old U.S. Expat Requesting Investing Advice

Hi, my name is Oliver Collington. I’m 23 years old, I grew up in New Jersey and am a U.S. citizen but have moved to Iceland. My goal with this post is to figure out a simple, low cost, effective investing strategy that I can implement while living here in Iceland. Thus far, I haven’t invested into funds such as VTI nor VTSAX because I’m blocked by the European Union's **PRIIPs Regulation** **I have been able to invest into VUAA (through IBKR), which emulates the SMP 500 but is based in the UK, t...

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Spending Smarter by thinkpad12

I finally ditched YNAB

I was a loyal YNAB customer for years. My first subscription purchase was all the way back in 2018. I was a student at college and just got done using the free year for students. I was, and always have been, a manual user. I have never ever once linked my third party bank accounts for security reasons and I thought that manually entering transactions simulated using real cash. I could justify the price back when it was much cheaper, but now at $109 plus tax I just couldn't bring myself to do it...

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Real Estate by vagrant1

Paying a (Rocket) serviced Mortgage through a Bilt.com Credit Card?

I **heard about the possibility of paying a mortgage with a rewards earning credit card** on a (fairly) recent episode of ChooseFI (see link below)! **My home mortgage is serviced through Rocket Mortgage** and in talking to Rocket Mortgage (live agent) they said they "don't accept credit cards" for mortgage payments. HOWEVER, under the hood, it SEEMS like the way Bilt works is that they directly "pay" your mortgage but then your credit card payments (to Bilt) effectively pays them back (do I hav...

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Kids & Family Finance by Csalzman

Talking actual numbers with kids

My 11 year old asked me yesterday how much money we have and how much I make at my job. I ended up not telling her exact numbers, but assured her we had enough and that we were always planning for the future. I'm now second-guessing whether that was the right move. I want her to be financially literate, but I also don't want her to necessarily share those numbers with her friends without context. How have y'all handled these kinds of conversations at different ages?

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Earning More by fl_alpinist

How did you increase your income?

TLDR: How did you make more money over the course of your career, and is that something that can be streamlined? I would love to know what worked for everyone in terms of moving the needle on the income side of the equation. My wife and I’s expenses are low and we have a killer savings rate… for a few more months. We are welcoming our first child to the world, which is a massive blessing! It also means that we want to go down to one income. I crunched the numbers and if we lived on just my salar...

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Tax Strategies by COCPAGurl

Tax Aide Volunteer Opportunity

Calling all tax nerds! AARP is now accepting applications for next tax season to help seniors with their returns. Last tax season was my first year volunteering and it was so fun! They provide training in December. If you are interested, please check out the AARP volunteer website: [Volunteer With AARP Foundation Tax-Aide](https://www.aarp.org/aarp-foundation/get-involved/tax-aide/?cmp=FDN-TAXAIDE-PRINT-VOLUNTEER&utm_source=vanityurl&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=taxaidevolunteer)

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College by Brianmain

AOTC/529…help me find any errors/inefficiencies in my thinking…

Let’s assume a recent high school graduate has 2 years of schooling left to complete their night-school degree at a commuter college where tuition is $4000/year. The individual is set to make $40,000 in 2026 with a $2600 federal tax liability and a $1200 state tax liability. The individual resides in a state that gives a 20% tax credit for 529 contributions (up to $1,500) but saved nothing for college thus far. Does it make the most sense for the individual to take out a $4,000 loan this year to...

Not trusting the numbers

My husband and I have been working towards Coast FI as long as we've been married. Now that the calculators are all telling us we're there, I'm having a hard time believing it. We're not super young but we're not 'retirement age' either. We've always planned that we'd quit our stressful jobs and keep some sort of less stressful work, for one of us to have benefits, but now that that time sees to be getting closer it seems like there is no way it can be a possibility and I find myself looking for...

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Investing by etravels16

Balancing out brokerage account without taxable event

I'm trying to figure out how to rebalance our brokerage account without having a taxable event however we have no losses to offset. It's a Vanguard account and it's not giving me the option to choose where to have our dividends reinvented in to. Maybe if I call in it's an option? Does anyone know how else I can go about rebalancing without taking a tax hit? In this account we currently have just VTSAX and VBTLX.

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Lifestyle Design by adamk

FIRE and Single Life

A lot is said about pursuing FI while having a family, like in the recent episode #609 "How to Talk to Your Partner about FI". I am wondering how does pursuing the path to FI interacts with living a single life? Being a 40+ single myself, I have some thoughts about it. I am also curious how many of you are in the same situation - on the path to FI while having no spouse or children, whether single by choice, involuntarily celibate (incel) person, or divorced? First of all, I think it may be easi...

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Nomads and Expats by gwen-and-nolan

(FI)re in the Hills-Invite

That’s what Nolan and I are calling this gathering from June 4-7 at the Rushmore KOA in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. We already booked our cabin. They have hotel rooms, Rv hook ups, nice cabins, basic cabins and tent site, so there is something for every budget. This KOA has everything! Basketball, volleyball, bouncing pillow, horses, pools, playgrounds, trails, and bike rentals. Come alone or bring the whole family! The more the merrier! E-mail me if you’re interested or have ques...

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Spending Smarter by Christine4Freedom

Spender and Saver Budgets

How do you manage priorities when one person wants to spend more than the other from shared finances, especially on personal hobbies? For me and my hubby: we started saving into "goals" or as investing transfers for our priorities in Quicken. Numbers didnt have to be equal, just reflect what our agreed plans were. Our budget naturally tightened up a bit. Before: I would monitor spending with less accuracy in an excel sheet, and communicate where we were at vs income. I felt nervous about spendin...

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Kids & Family Finance by profmom

Early Retirement Planning and College

Does anyone have thoughts about your kids' college and retiring early? We were thinking of using our brokerage account to fund the gap between early retirement (like age 51 or so, in 4-6 years) and when we're allowed to take disbursements, but brokerage accounts are heavily looked at on the FAFSA - like it would eat a quarter of our funds and cut us out of the new programs for free state college for low/moderate income earners. We're already maxing out IRAs and 401Ks etc. Maybe it makes the most...

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Earning More by Kendall Kunelius

Considering Going for CFP

Hi All! I am considering a year-long process of doing the coursework and studying for my CFP (certified financial planner) status. Since I work for a university, there's hope that my tuition benefit might cover the cost as the CFP course is offered through our online learning school. The CFP content strongly relates to my role within the university but also gives me work flexibility in case of layoffs or life changes. I would not be leaving my current role to be a full-time CFP, my job is very m...

Is anyone doing FIRE without being optimal intentionally?

For some reason I always find myself seeking out the optimization discussions about the quickest or most efficient way to FIRE (I suppose the boring middle will do that do a person). It seems like there is a consensus among the smart people here that you max the tax advantaged accounts then put the rest in the brokerage, then you do the low or no tax 72(t) plus the low or no tax Roth Conversions, and you stay in the 0% LTCG area, and you manage income for ACA subsidies and all that good stuff. I...

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Retirement Withdrawal Strategies by dm7

Risk based guardrails w/o using Firecalc?

Is there a way to use Aubrey William's risk based guardrails calculator without using firecalc? The reason I ask is that the portfolio options in firecalc do not include anything beyond the most basic choice of stocks and bonds. No gold, REITs etc…. Has anybody figured a way to do the risk based guardrails math with another simulator like portfolio visualizer or test folio? OR has anybody figured a way to use Firecalc with a portfolio including alternative assets like gold, REITs and managed fut...

Is Projection Lab Premium Worth The $129?

Played on Projection Lab for a couple of hours this week. Seems pretty great. I mostly love the organization around it. I like I can make certain expenses go up or down faster than inflation ( I do that manually now). I like that I can modify future returns and inflation. The details around your net worth tracking with basis and purchase value vs. current value are all great. For people who like A LOT of detail in their planning, is the paid version of Projection Lab worth it? Why or why not? So...

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Find Your Local FI Tribe

In-person meetups, study groups, and accountability partners in your area.

Pennsylvania

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The easiest way to find local groups across Pennsylvania. This group aggregates 7 local communities and their events statewide — from Philadelphia and Pittsburgh to Harrisburg, Lancaster, and beyond. Most meetups and discussions happen at the local level, so check out the city groups below to find your closest community.

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The easiest way to find local groups across Oregon. This group aggregates 7 local communities and their events statewide — from Portland and Eugene to Bend, Salem, and beyond. Most meetups and discussions happen at the local level, so check out the city groups below to find your closest community.

Minnesota

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The easiest way to find local groups across Minnesota. This group aggregates 6 local communities and their events statewide — from the Twin Cities and Rochester to Duluth, Mankato, and beyond. Most meetups and discussions happen at the local level, so check out the city groups below to find your closest community.