Blog

From my early teens, my mother lectured me on finances, investing, and saving principles. She talked about the power of compound interest, the importance of investing early, and the impact of debt and taxes. I didn’t grasp a lot of what she taught me at first, but over a 20+ year career in IT and continually learning and refining the plan, my wife and I are getting close to achieving (an early) retirement. It’s satisfying to see some of the concepts come to fruition, but I’ve also discovered things I wish I had done sooner or differently. This blog will share articles about different aspects of financial planning and achieving financial independence.

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~$Retirement Nerd🤓

All Articles

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  Just-In-Time Lessons on Financial Aid for College (FAFSA)
  Took a break from posting for the rest of the summer and the start ofContinue reading
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  Providing our Children with a Retirement Head Start
  I have referenced my mother’s influence on my Personal Finance journey many times. Our ownContinue reading
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  Worrying about Call Risk with Preferred Stocks
  We are relatively new to buying preferred stocks, and wrote an article about them awhileContinue reading
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  Reflections during a Beach Vacation
  It’s Father’s Day 2021, the first morning of our family beach vacation on Cape Cod.Continue reading
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  How do we learn about Personal Finance?
  I was fortunate that my mother ingrained many lessons about Personal Finance into my headContinue reading
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  (Early) Retirement Progress Health Check
  It is helpful to track our progress as we continue to execute and adjust ourContinue reading
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  Pursuing Passions to fill our “Free” Time
  This article could go in the Ebike Nerd blog, but wanted a change of pace.Continue reading
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  2020 Cares Act Withdrawal Revisited
  In a previous article we talked about our Cares Act withdrawals from our 401ks forContinue reading
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  Does “Partial” Retirement make more sense?
  We have been putting our Emergency Fund through a “Stress Test” recently. We have hadContinue reading
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  What are Baby Bonds?
  Another equity type that we only recently started buying are “Baby Bonds” or “Exchange TradedContinue reading
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  Emergency Fund in Action
  One critical component of a Financial Plan is to have an “Emergency Fund“. This shouldContinue reading
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  Financial Planning Checkup
  There are many resources online with guidelines to gauge how we’re doing in terms ofContinue reading
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  How do Preferred Stocks work?
  My first retirement account was a Schwab IRA that my mother helped me open withContinue reading
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  Building a Roth Conversion Ladder
  In a previous article we talked about using IRS code 72(t), section 2 to accessContinue reading
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  72(t) for (an early) Retirement
  In a previous article we talked about using the Rule of 55 to access ourContinue reading
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  Rule of 55 – Accessing Tax-Sheltered Accounts to fund (an early) Retirement
  I can’t drive 55 SAMMY HAGAR Driving 55 has nothing to do with retirement planning,Continue reading
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  Retirement “Dry Run” during the Pandemic
  As part of a holistic approach to Retirement Planning, we should consider how to fillContinue reading
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  Our House and Mortgage Debt
  We bought our house in March of 2002, just after we got married. We haveContinue reading
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  2020 Cares Act withdrawal (and recontribution plan)
  As part of the 2020 Cares Act, my wife and I both took maximum withdrawalsContinue reading
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  Passive Income to fund (an early) Retirement
  You’ve saved and built your nest egg over many years. A lot of it isContinue reading
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  Roth IRA “Back Door” contributions
  My wife (girlfriend at the time) and I were early adopters of the Roth IRA,Continue reading
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  Aggressive Saving for (an early) Retirement
  My wife and I are not great at aggressively limiting expenses, and we indulge inContinue reading
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  Am I “Rich” if I become a millionaire?
  It’s part of the American Dream to be rich, but what does this mean?
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  Dividends – don’t get hung up on YOC
  An investment in knowledge pays the best interest. Benjamin Franklin After a several month hiatusContinue reading