It has been a tumultuous few weeks, with the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak officially declared a pandemic, global stocks in bear market territory, and companies and schools changing to remote processes. Three of my work projects so far are affected: I was supposed to coach at a pan-Asian media conference in Singapore this week – that […]
“I am learning a lot about myself. It’s exhilarating and horrible at exactly the same time.” Tricia, aspiring career changer I am a career coach, and one of my clients emailed me that sentiment to describe the mental gymnastics of trying to change careers after 10+ years in an area that no longer excited her. She […]
We posted before about how we are targeting FIRE in stages of increasing spending levels: Our stage 1 is relocating full-time to Costa Rica and a level of spending that can easily be covered by our current income streams. This first stage is also purely hypothetical — a Plan B option we set up just […]
The end of a year is already an introspective time, and now that Scott and I are officially empty-nesters, we are taking advantage of our slower, freed up schedule to dig even deeper. We are organizing our mementos, decluttering our stored items, updating our estate plan — various tasks which prompt us to get even […]
I recently posted a guest blog on Sisters For Financial Independence. This is personally exciting for me because the site is helmed by Filipina sisters like me (one of whom coincidentally has the same name as my sister!). It’s also professionally exciting to collaborate with fellow FIRE-fighters and see my writing published elsewhere. Finally, the […]
CNN Health reported on a new study out of Heidelberg University in Germany, which found that parents are happier than non-parents in old age, but ONLY if their kids have moved out. We are a sample size of one: we dropped off our youngest to college in late August and were on a plane to Costa […]
Continuing our posts on your FIRE questions, such as when you are late to saving, when you and your spouse disagree or when you don’t want to pinch pennies, we come to another savings obstacle – the high cost of elder care. How do you insure for long-term care? How do you budget for the […]
Thanks to the feedback we received on your FIRE questions, we have tackled how to make FIRE possible when you and your spouse disagree or when you don’t want to pinch pennies. Now, we’re tackling another question, this time about retirement in general, not just early retirement: How do you make FI possible when you’re […]
If you saw the press around how Jay-Z is hip hop’s first billionaire, you might have glossed over it for the entertainment value but missed how important it is to your FIRE plans. Sure, Jay-Z and other celebrities have outsized paychecks that bear little resemblance to the money you and I have to work with. […]
Recently I wrote about making FIRE possible when your life partner isn’t as committed to FIRE as you are. This was inspired by several questions that came up from a survey of participants of our course, Making FIRE Possible. Another common concern was how to reach FIRE when you don’t want to pinch pennies or […]
