Some FIRE proponents interpret the “Retire Early” part of FIRE to mean retiring in your 30’s or even 20’s. Maybe it’s because I’m in my 40’s, but I still believe retiring in your 40’s or 50’s is retiring early. I certainly believe that the pursuit of FIRE becomes more important in your 40’s, 50’s and beyond, even if FIRE is just about the “Financial Independence” half. You may love your [...]
I think of achieving FIRE in stages based on the lifestyle we’d like to live. At a minimum, we have achieved FIRE if we decamp to Costa Rica full-time – that’s why I think of Costa Rica as our FIRE escape plan B. However, we are still working on our ideal FIRE escape, which would include part-time living in a variety of places, including Costa Rica, Jacksonville, and New York [...]
As we build our FIRE escape plan, health insurance continues to bedevil us. Our health insurance premiums went up several percentage points for 2019, and that was enough to put us over the $3,000 mark for coverage PER MONTH. Health insurance is our single highest line item. It is higher than our monthly housing and car payments combined! If we’re going to feel secure in our FIRE escape plan, we’ll [...]
In a recent post, Mr. Free @ 33 blogged that FIRE is a paradox, pointing out that the people most well-positioned to achieve are the people least likely to need it – Warren Buffett is the example cited. In the post, Mr. Free @ 33 was inspired by Retire By 40, another blogger who had posted that FIRE is a fad due to its anti-establishment appeal which by definition then [...]
I juggle a lot of different projects – writing, teaching, consulting, speaking -- but the one thing they all have in common is being advice-related. Earlier this year, I did a talk on work/life balance in Philadelphia, and an attendee asked for advice on what to do about perfectionism. I also get questions on what to invest in (is Costa Rica a good market for real estate?), what industries are [...]
When we started blogging on CostaRicaFIRE, with the FIRE piece standing for Financial Independence, Retire Early, my earliest readers (predominately family and friends, of course) thought I was so clever to come up with that acronym. I wish I had been that clever! FIRE is already a popular movement of its own with multiple blogs, Reddit groups, Meetups and other communities being built around it. It makes sense that my [...]
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