Category Archives: Retirement

Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Retirement, Self-Made Millionaires, Wealth

Coasting to FI: Compounding my way to Coast FIRE and $1 Million

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“One minute of patience, ten years of peace.”  – Greek Proverb

“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” —John Quincy

It was a hot summer day. Same as any other. I was busy working as usual.

I have been working so hard since I was like 5 years old. That was the age that I decided I was going to be rich.

I used to go outside and play on the playground every day. Those were some of the most important days of my life. I learned so much on the playground. The virtue in helping others, sharing, caring, making friends, solving conflicts and exercise.

Nothing came easy. You had to earn every inch when playing sports with other kids whether it was jumping rope or running. You played to win.

I was always pretty good at academics so I put a lot of my energy into that. I figured that could be my path to riches. It turns out I was right.

I was working 8-hour days and studying up to 8 hours a day in college. At one point, just a couple years ago I was reading 25-50 books a year.

I had a hunger for knowledge; especially, personal finance.

Once I learned what compound interest was, I knew I found my road to wealth. I would save and invest money consistently until interest would do the rest for me on my journey to $1 million dollars.

I had been grinding it out so long that sometimes the days blurred and I feel asleep at night from pure exhaustion. Then one day I looked up and realized I had made it to Coast FIRE.

Coast FI refers to saving enough to “coast” to financial independence. This allows participants in this version of FIRE (financial independence, retire early) to take jobs with less stress or pay due to reaching a certain amount of money needed to retire earlier than age 65.

Coast FIRE is a sub-genre of this early retirement movement. This version calls for having enough invested or saved so that without adding another penny of contributions to your retirement portfolio it will still grow to fully support retiring at a traditional retirement age. Your nest egg, simply put, has reached a tipping point so that it will “coast” to the target amount needed for retirement.

People who have successfully achieved their Coast FIRE (like me) still need to work, but they only work to cover current living expenses – not to build up their savings or investments for a future retirement.

The thing about Coasting to FI is that you must first do this before you can get to any of the other versions of complete financial independence; never having to work again – such as Fat FIRE, Lean FIRE, or Barista FIRE. Where compounding does the heavy lifting for you.

FIRE requires you to save up at least 25 times your anticipated annual spending and you have got a 97% or better chance of that money lasting at least thirty years. 

Fat FIRE typically means a budget of $100,000 a year, which requires a retirement savings of $2.5 million.

Lean FIRE typically involves being frugal and living in a lower-cost area, or even other countries with a lower cost of living with a budget of $30,000-$50,000 a year, which can require a retirement savings of a minimum $500,000 to $750,000.  

Barista FIRE is a hybrid between Fat FIRE And Lean FIRE. Barista FIRE is being able to retire before the conventional age of 60+, but taking on a part-time job for supplemental income and potentially health insurance. You will need to have at least $1 million in retirement accounts.

Coast FIRE requires you to save a certain dollar amount that will allow you to coast to FI such as saving $200,00, which will allow you to coast to $1 million in 15 years with a 10% rate of return.

 Coast FIRE formula for determining how large the participant’s nest egg must grow would begin with a regular FIRE number (estimated in the example below at 25 times annual spending of $50,000). In the formula below, note that “Years to grow” is an exponent.

25 x $50,000 / (1 + annual growth rate)Years to grow = Coast FIRE number

Suppose someone estimates they need 30 years to reach their Coast FIRE number and an average annual growth rate over those 30 years of 7%. The calculation would then be:

$1,250,000 / (1 + 0.07)30 years = $164,209

In this example, the Coast FIRE number would be $164,209, which would grow over 30 years (given the above-stated estimates) to the target figure (or regular FIRE number) of $1,250,000.

I like to use the $1,000,000 target for my estimate. The calculation would then be:

$1,000,000 / (1 + 0.07)30 years = $131,367

If you want to retire sooner, then just see what a different target number will do or by shortening the number of years.

For example, $1,000,000 / (1 + 0.07)20 years = $258,419. That means your Coast FIRE number would be $258,419.

Once you reach this dollar amount, you could stop investing in your retirement accounts and reach $1 million in 20 years. The higher the compound interest rate, the quicker you are able to get out of the rat race.

Once I hit $300,000 in cash and investments, I knew that with a 10% rate of return that it could turn into $1 million in 12.5 years.

$1,000,000 / (1 + 0.10)12.5 years = $303,802.

Paying off debt faster and more aggressively plus investing those funds and more could allow folks like me to get to $1 million in less than a decade.

I can now put on my eye mask, kick back and coast to $1 million. If I can do it, then anyone can.

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I started with $0 in retirement savings. I started stashing money into my 401(k) and then opened a Roth IRA to start saving even more.

If you want to coast to FI, then let compound interest do the heavy lifting for you, save $100k because the first $100k is the hardest, and allow it to coast you to $1M in 30 years.

Happy wealth coasting!

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Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Investing, Retirement, Wealth

Flip of a Coin: How I Decided to Own A $250K 401(K) Vs A $250k Mortgage

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This is not a post for the faint of heart. So some of you out there may need to do what you did when the nurse swabbed your arm with alcohol right before she gave you the Covid-19 shot, turn your head away and close your eyes!

It was years ago, but I had to make a call. I had to make an executive decision. Would I like to buy a $250,000 home or become a 401(k) Quarter of a Millionaire.

It was almost like flipping a coin. Do you choose heads or tails?

Heads and be a $250k homeowner.

By the way, home values over 30 years have risen about 4% on average but stocks have been able to return 10% over that same time period.

Now back to the coin toss.

Tails and have $250k, that’s right a quarter of a million bucks, in your 401(k).

I chose not to go with the path of least resistance, which is the American dream of being a homeowner, and to put my money in stocks. Best decision I ever made.

After watching the housing crash or 2008-09, it dawned on me to put some money into businesses that pay you dividends instead of a mortgage that you have to pay. Missing even a single payment on a mortgage and never being able to catch up could put you on the short list to foreclosure. Nobody wants that.

Fast forward 10 years later and Covid-19 is not only derailing retirement savings but also increasing the likelihood that many renters will be evicted.

According to CNBC, 20% of renters in America are behind on rent and owe an astounding $57.3 billion. The average amount owed by each renter is $6,000 and they are a minimum of three months behind.

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Once you get that far in arrears, rental companies and landlords are quick to start the eviction process.

Especially, mom and pop landlords that cannot afford the losses. They depend on this income to pay their own bills and fund their retirements. I knew after watching millions of Americans lose their homes to foreclosure in 2009 that I did not want to be in that predicament.

Therefore, I made the conscious decision to keep fixed low housing costs and to put my money into stocks. I put my money into index funds because they consist of thousands of stocks. All those businesses are not going to go bankrupt at the same time so it gives your money some security as opposed to putting all your money in one stock and then you lose everything.

The S&P 500 and other indexes will remove any stock that is not meeting its standards. Therefore, you do not have to do this on your own with stock picking. This also insures that your money stays invested in firms with a good balance sheet as the ones that are not pulling their weight are dropped from the index. Thus, you do not lose all your money as you would being invested with only one stock or placing your bets in speculative investments like cryptocurrency and bitcoin.

I actually know someone who says they invested all their money in bitcoin and lost all of their money! What were they thinking? If you are going to invest in bitcoin, then it with money, you can afford to lose and only invest more than 5% of your savings. That is all the risk that is adequate with bitcoin, in my opinion.

Not enough to money to become a bitcoin millionaire, but also not enough to lose your life savings, your home and all your possession in case you bet the farm on a losing investment.

Let us learn from the recently deceased creator of McAfee software founder who invested $25 million in Lehman Brothers bonds and lost every penny after they collapsed and went bankrupt in 2008.

You can read more about the demise of Lehman Brothers in my post called Don’t Trust the Commission-Based Advisor in Wall St Cubicle 23

I decided to just put my money into the VTSAX because it includes the total stock market. Want some Tesla stock? Drop some money in the VTSAX. It will only cost you $107.

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Instead of buying stocks one by one, you can just get them all for one price. That way you do not have to pay $685 for one share of Tesla.

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Don’t even get me started on the S&P 500. One share in this stock will set you back $4,267.

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If you have that kind of money just burning a hole in your pocket, then be my guest and buy some. However, if you want a piece of the whole market then just start buying the VTSAX.

I sleep like a baby knowing that my money just can’t fall to zero because the every stock in the fund will not blow up overnight. Even if businesses tank, the fund will correct this by replacing them with a better stock, and I still keep making my money.

I think of it like this, a home you have to feed but your 401(k) feeds you.

As a homeowner, you cannot realize gains until you sell. Therefore, you must feed the beast until you do!

take my money gif - Flywheel Coworking

Considering that most American homeowners only stay in their homes for an average of 9 years, all the money spent on maintenance and repairs is burnt if you are foreclosed on. However, according to Fidelity, many 401(k) millionaires keep their accounts for open for 20-30 years to amass that type of fortune. That means people are holding on to stocks longer than homes!

Therefore, on my path to millionaire status, I decided to go for stocks over real estate. Don’t get me wrong, you can make a fortune in real estate, but you have to maintain the property until you sell. I can make my fortune in index funds simply by breathing and automatic investing.

Seeing and listening to the stress of homeownership versus the ease of index investing I think I made a good choice going with stocks. My low housing costs allow me to invest more. This also allows you to pay off debt faster and travel more. However, it is always your call. This is just my 2 cents.

I mean who wouldn’t want to be a Quarter of a Millionaire. I’ll take that any day of the week over being broke!

And just so you know, if you let that money sit and ride it out in the market, you would have $1,000,000 in 14.5 years with a 10% return. That is without adding another cent.

How many homes that were bought for $250k do you think will be worth one million in the same amount of time? None.

I have no problem at all with being a 401(k) millionaire. None whatsoever!

Budgeting, Retirement

How I Paid Off $85,000 of Debt

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It was a dark and stormy night in the bayou. No wait…I’m just joshing you. Ha ha! This story doesn’t start off like a ghost story you tell beside the campfire or even in a bayou. I mean who do I look like, Bayou Billy?

For those who don’t know who that is, Bayou Billy is a fictional character in an NES game from 1988.

Adventures of Bayou Billy ROM Download for NES

As a 90’s kid, I liked playing all types of Nintendo games. What I loved about video games is that not only are they entertaining and fun to play, but they teach you critical thinking and problem solving skills as well. Nevertheless, I digress. Now back to how I paid off this $85k of debt.

Paying down massive amounts of debt involves sacrifice, effort, planning, hard work and fortitude. It doesn’t really happen by accident or luck It is consistent effort over time to keep paying your debt obligation while at the same time not continuing to borrow more of it. This is what I had to do to make it happen.

The number one thing I had to figure out was how much I owed. Opening up bank and credit card statements showed me this. I had to get this debt off by back: a $20,000 personal loan, $30,000 car loan, various credit card, and other debt of $35,000.

Those credit card statements showing me how much to pay over three years before it is paid in full really motivated me. Therefore, I would just put my head down and work. I worked on paying off one debt at a time.

Then I would go to the next one and concentrate all my time and energy on that one until it was gone. It took more than eight years to pay off all that debt.

I had to pay $448.65 monthly on my car note, $333 monthly on my personal loan, and additional over $500 on the other debt. Paying all that money out every month motivated me to do two things: 1) Not to get any more personal loans; and 2) Not to get anymore car loans.

I paid off my car in 2009. I am happy to report that as of 2021, I have not had another car note since. I kept my old car for 17 years total and then the next car I bought, I paid cash for it.

Instead of siphoning off my money to service debt, I began to invest that money in myself. I went back to school and starting dumping my money in my retirement accounts. Got an extra $5. Put in in the Roth IRA. Got a raise or bonus. Put more money in my 401(k).

All these years later and I am still contributing to my retirement accounts.

I have read more than enough articles on the retirement crisis and the shortage in Americans retirement accounts to know I had better take this seriously. I didn’t want to wake up one day and be 50 with no money saved for my golden years.

I know that those years feel like they’re in a galaxy far, far away, but trust me, no one stays young forever.

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I want you to protect your 401(k) as Luke Skywalker protected Princess Leia in Star Wars.

Debt are the storm troopers. Your ability to avoid debt is your use of your strong will over your spending. Your checkbook is your light saber.

Your control over how you wield these funds is your Jedi mind trick over all those who try to part you from your money.

I hope that this post helps awaken the sleeping giant within that lets you choose financial freedom over spending.

May the fiscal force be with you.

Credit Cards, Retirement

Credit Cards the silent wealth sucker

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The world is in love with credit cards. – Warren Buffet

I’ve heard it so many times before.

Your favorite sports team is coming to town. You have wanted to go see them play live for years, but you don’t want the nosebleed seats. You want to be close to where the action is.

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So close that you can almost touch your favorite player and shake their hands or pat them on the back while their names are announced as they come out of the tunnel.

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This year you have decided to treat yourself and will go see your team play.

However, tickets aren’t cheap.

After reviewing information on ESPN.com, you will see that watching James Harden dunk on LeBron James comes at a hefty price.

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The average ticket in the NBA now costs $51.02, according to the Team Marketing Report, which monitors the business of sports leagues. Add charges for food, drinks and parking, and that cost rises to $72.53 per person.

And if you want to sit front row, the range for a courtside seat in the NBA is generally anywhere from $300-$20,000 just from a quick price check on Ticketmaster.

See my post How buying Super Bowl tickets could cost you $2 million dollars

Since almost everything in America costs more than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 that millions of low-wage workers are earning; Americans are turning to plastic to fund clothing, doctor fees, college, medical bills, furniture, cars, excursions, and jewelry. You name it, then folks are dropping down their American Express to make a purchase faster than The Rock can put out another film!

The problem with that is pretty obvious. You don’t have the money to go to the game so you put it on plastic instead. This can have serious consequences down the line. If you are unable to pay off the balance, now you have to pay interest on this purchase.

With the average credit card interest rate hovering around 18 percent, you could end up paying double or triple the cost of this little excursion to go see the LA Lakers play at Staples Center over the next several years!

In the book American Plastic, the author stated she saw consumers going into debt to pay for cosmetic surgery, which could cost you $7,000 for one procedure. Putting many Americans further behind in their wealth building.

The book Credit Card Nation by economist Robert D. Manning, published in 2000, provides a comprehensive overview of a social and economic crisis going on in America-escalating dependence on credit. The deregulation of financial services in 1980 paved the wave for Americans to become dependent on credit cards.

According to CNBC and USA Today, the average credit card debt in Americans held is approximately $6,200. And Alaska topped the 50 United States with the most credit card debt at $8,026. This is also the state that gives all its residents annual checks from its rich oil supply. Just something to chew on right there.

Meanwhile, the average credit card debt is now becoming a major wealth killer. Those households with it and more likely to have lower 401(k) balances, less in savings and investments, and less home equity.

Billionaire investor Warren Buffet says you should avoid using credit cards like a piggybank; it doesn’t work because a piggybank is filled with cash and credit cards are not cash. Credit cards funnel all your cash that should be used for wealth building into the banks coffers. Banks are now making a billion dollars a month thanks to easy credit access!

The credit card love affair usually ends in trail of past due bills.

Game, Game Over, End, Hand

Once the minimum payment (usually a paltry one percent of the balance) becomes unmanageable, you can get into serious trouble. Instead of making minimum payments are paying interest, you should be earning it instead in Mr. Market.

The one percent you are paying could be going to your retirement accounts or toward the down-payment of a home. How important is once percent really? It is enough that if you subtract that amount from the expense ratio of a mutual fund, then that one percent difference can be enough to fund 10 years of retirement. Very important in my book.

Forget credit card debt. Go max out that 401(k) at $19,500 annually and/or a Roth IRA at $6,000 per year and $7,000 if you are 50 and over.

This will of course take discipline, but so what. If you are willing to fork over $10,000 for season tickets to see the San Francisco 49’s play, why can’t you put away $100 a month for your future?

Maxing out a 401(k) over 20 years with a 9 percent return would net you 1,087,408.34. Don’t let credit card debt take this away.

Just my 2 cents.

Retirement, Saving, Wealth

Forget being broke, go for the money

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I’m going to star this blog post with some words of wisdom that my dad text my sister.

The text my sister sent me went down like this: Dad said f*** poor go for the money lol 😂.

That ladies and gentleman was my father in a nutshell.

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Growing up my father was always telling it like it was and giving it to people straight. He didn’t really play around with or mince words. He was just raised that way.

My father grew up in the Washington DC area. He was born and raised there. Worked there all his life and retired at the age of 55.

Many of my money habits, I got from my dad. I watched him as a kid be very careful with his money and spending. He always made sure the rent or mortgage was paid first before spending on anything else. He would pay cash for everything.

One of the reasons he was able to retire was because he had a pension.

My father would brown bag it to work for lunch and believed in cooking and eating at home. I always loved watching him make breakfast in the morning. He always seemed so content when he was making breakfast and just doing the simplest of things.

That’s when I also learned the simple things seemed to make people the happiest. Therefore, I made sure to always lead a simple life. However, I also knew that I didn’t want to be broke.

I saw the difference it made to have some money in your pocket. People treat you better, they like you more, and you get better service.

I once read a book called You’re broke because you want to be and it described some sad tales of broke people.

One of the ones that really hit home for me was when a bus driver looked at a person crazy for saying the couldn’t afford the $1 bus fare.

Bus, Transportation, People, Aisle

It reminded me of the time I accidently let slip while I was in a cab “oh crap, where’s my wallet!” When the cab driver heard that he hit the brakes so hard, I almost hit the seat in front of me.

Fortunately, I did have my wallet. So the cab driver stopped looking at me like I was crazy and gave me a ride home.

Traffic, Manhattan, New York

That little episode taught me to keep some money on me at all times including a credit card for emergencies. You don’t want to be stuck in the middle of no where with no cash and no credit because everywhere you go, the first sign you read on any business we accept cash or credit.

I also learned not only from my father, but from Warren Buffet to pay attention to the bottom line.

Buffet knew from a young age that he should focus and surround his life on the flow of money. Therefore, he learned about investing and building businesses. If you want to have money, you need to know how to earn it and how to make it grow. So that’s what I decided to do too.

Now one thing I will tell you is that my preferred method of building wealth is to own stocks. That’s just me. After, reading tons of books and blogs about building wealth, that was my conclusion.

At this point in my life, I want less time focused on working and more time focused on enjoying the fruits of my labor!

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I have been blogging for almost 5 years and it’s still one of the most fun things I do. I just combined my passions, talking finance and writing.

I remember when no one read my blog. Now I get hundreds of readers a week from all over the world from as far away as India!

However, everyone is not a fan. I actually had a reader that made a comment that I have a limited knowledge of money. Really? After reading hundreds of books on personal finance, business, and building wealth, I think I am pretty well versed in the subject.

Considering that I have been blogging about money for over four years; I think me and the topic of money are very intimately acquainted with one another.

That being said, everyone is entitled to their opinions. Maybe because I am not constantly quoting stock market gyrations or the yield curve, that individual was not impressed.

Image result for yield curve inversion

What is the yield curve? In finance, the yield curve is a curve showing several yields to maturity or interest rates across different contract lengths for a similar debt contract. The curve shows the relation between the interest rate and the time to maturity, known as the “term”, of the debt for a given borrower in a given currency.

The federal reserve has also dropped its interest rate to 0.00%. That means borrowing will become cheaper and why mortgage interest rates are so low. You know. Stuff like that.

Well guess what? That ain’t my style. And I gotta be me. This is my blog after all.

I am her to give it to you simple in terms you can understand without all the money jargon. If you’re eyes are glazing over when you read my blog, then I ain’t doing my job right.

I want to educate, but I also like to entertain because I know if I can keep you engaged, then you will come back for more and learn something along the way.

What I will say to that person is this, there are tons of blogs out there that do talk in more technical terms and this blog has named many of them here so you are always welcome to check them out too!

The reason I like to keep it so basic is that is how I like people to break things down to me. The reason I have chosen to build my wealth with stocks is because it is the simplest path to wealth.

Treasure Map, Navigation, Map

When I did some research, I found that investing in housing only returned ~4% over 30 years. Over that same period, stocks had returned ~10%. So would you rather earn 4% on your money or ~10%?

Also with real estate, there are lots of carrying costs such as repairs and maintenance of the property, insurance, taxes, and fees. I do not have to water the plants in front of my stocks, or do any repair work to it. There is no private mortgage insurance with stocks either as you only have to pay a small expense for owning it. Therefore, I chose stocks.

Take It Easy, Without Having To Worry

Every time you buy a stock, you become an owner in that company. You now have an ownership stake and that company wants to reward you with dividends.

When you put your money to work for you instead of you working for it, you end up making way more. There are only so many hours in the day for you to work physically, but money that is invested has no such limitations.

The money you invest does not call in sick, get tired, take breaks, or even take vacations. It is working for you every single day.

And the earlier you start investing, the more money you can make.

I started investing with $50. I continued to invest aggressively. Then one day I woke up and had $100,000 in my retirement account less than 9 years later.

Interest also compounds. Meaning your money earns money. That is how wealth is made.

I also didn’t want to own 100 stocks. Who wants to manage that? I found that I could own a piece of the entire market by investing in index funds.

You can do this by investing in any fund that says total stock market index like the VTSAX at Vanguard or a 500 index fund like the S&P 500.

You can start small like I did and work your way up. The point is just to start.

Why is investing so important? It’s simple: To beat inflation.

You do not want to keep all your money in the bank and over 30 years later find out your $1 is now only worth the equivalent of 50 cents! That is inflation my friends. It erodes the value of money over time.

You need your money to keep its purchasing power by always earning more of it.

It always puts money into perspective for me on why we need it, when I wake up seeing recent headlines that people’s electricity bills in Texas were skyrocketing to the cost of $10,000! That’s insane. Some families’ emergency fund were being wiped out overnight! That could take many folks years to save. One emergency can set you back years. That is why you plan, save, and invest.

And forget rich quick. Most people I saw try to build wealth on this path ended up broke and worse off than they started. I chose to get rich slow.

If my $100,000 earns ~10% annually, then I would become a millionaire in 30 years. If that’s too long for you, then you must invest more of what you currently make, earn more money or both. I did both! And so can you.

Regardless of your method, just get started. Do a little math. I use a retirement calculator to see how much I need to save to be a millionaire in 10 years. It would take time, perseverance, and sacrifice on my part, but it’s worth it! The money in my retirement account is a scorecard. It shows me all the progress I have made along the way.

That cab driver slamming down his brakes on me and looking to put me out on the street made me realize something. I needed money to live. I needed money for the privilege and convenience of taking a cab and not the bus. That is the reason I say forget broke. Go out there, get to work, and get this money.

Legally and safely, while being socially distanced and 6 feet apart of course.

Investing, Retirement, Wealth

Can anyone retire a millionaire?

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One word: Yes.

I know there are some skeptics out there, but I am here to assure you that it can happen to anyone. How so? Let me explain.

We just got to do some math.

Historically the stock market has returned at least ~10% over the last 30 years vs. real estate that has only returned about ~4%.

If you stick with the market over the course of that time, you can make it into millionaire status.

Compound interest is our friend. If you want to get to 1,000,000, then you just have to set aside some funds every year and then let compound interest do its thing.

If you invest $5,600 a year, over 30 years, you will have over a million saved ($1,013,283.18). Not too shabby.

If 30 years is too long for you, then just play with the numbers.

Investing $9,300 over 25 years, would net you ($1,006,090.42).

Investing $16,000 over 20 years, will net you ($1,008,039.99).

So you see, it is possible.

You just have to be willing and able to put the money aside.

Even after the dot-com bust of the 2000’s, the Great Recession, wars, 9/11, the search for capturing Bin Laden and 6 presidents the market has continued to rise.

After doing some research, the best place to park this money, water it and watch it grow seems to be the Vanguard index fund VTSAX. Why you ask? Basically, this index fund is not only low in cost at ~0.04%, but it includes the entire US equity market with over 3600 stocks!

It is your one stop shop for investing.

It’s the super Walmart of stocks. And like Walmart, it is open and working for you 24/7.

Why not the Vanguard 500 index fund VFIAX? Well this fund is limited in scope as it only includes the 500 largest companies in America. The VTSAX has them all.

In addition, the best part about an index fund is that if a company starts to slide due to bad management, scandal, hostile takeover or a combination of the three, then they are cut form the index and another company that has a stellar performance and track record takes its place.

Thereby, making sure your fund never goes to $0 and you continue to make money no matter whether or not a business goes bankrupt or sells to a competitor.

Meaning you will not ever lose all of your money.

Simply put, it is like if this fund plays in the mud with the other kids, gets dirty, then it will take itself to the car wash and start fresh playing with a new group of kids.

I think the reason most folks don’t get to this level is because they are too busy focusing on today instead of on tomorrow. I remember reading a quote that still has a profound effect on me today.

It went like this: The wealthy plan for three generations. The poor plan for Saturday night.

I get chills every time I think about it.

As humans, we are hard-wired to focus on what is right in front of us. It is difficult to see and plan for something that is years or even decades away.

However, we must. Our future selves are depending on us to do so.

Those years are going to go by anyway so why get so caught up in how long it will take you to save a million. Why not just do it.

I feel too many folks get caught up thinking that they need a high income to get rich.

Hate to break it to you, but tons of high earners go broke!

Folks are so busy worrying about what doctors, lawyers, sports stars or entertainers are making, that they forget what really matters isn’t what you make, it’s what you keep.

I’ve heard of couples making $250k a year saying they broke! What gives? That is more than ~96% of Americans. An income that size puts them in the top ~4% of income. But most folks do not eve have that amount in retirement savings, let alone making it as an annual income.

According to Business Insider, The average 401(k) balance is $92,148, according to a 2019 Vanguard analysis of over 5 million 401(k) plans issued by the company. But most people don’t have that amount of retirement savings. The median 401(k) balance is $22,217, a better indicator of what the majority of Americans have saved for retirement.

So a high income don’t mean squat if you squander it.

Don’t let this be you.

Change the conversation and get your spending under control so you can put that $6,000, $9,300 or $16,000 in your retirement account every year and earn your way to a fortune.