Where are we?  Where are we headed?  Are we there yet?

In the space I hang, many money-wise people are planning a great future—and hopefully living a great today while knowing they’re on track for an AMAZING future.

It seems that the foundation—or dogmatic guiding—principle of FI is the 4% RULE.  If you lightened up a little, it may be considered the 4% rule of thumb.  To me, a 4% withdrawal rate is just a guide to get closer to the starting point.  But then, I’m pretty risk-averse.

Compass

Maybe 4% is a great guide to give someone a general direction that they’re heading, similar to a compass heading—north is north.  Realistically, you could be anywhere on the planet but heading in the correct 4% direction.  There are so many paths to take once you are FI.  The route/destination ahead of you may not be clearly defined, so a general direction may be lacking a highly successful ending point.

GPS Navigation

After nearly a decade beyond my career, while living a LifeInFIRE, I wonder if a retirement GPS+map-route with step-by-step directions will show a clearer ending location.  A GPS will show exactly where I’m at (I love being a blue dot on “the blue planet”) and if combined with some computer programming, I can see a detailed route—or multiple routes—to attempt to reach the destination I choose.

Which to use?

Do you need a general direction guide or a detailed step-by-step guide?  This decision is probably based on either your stage of gathering assets or your personality and desire to dig deep into the details.

The risk of your FIRE going off the rails with a long 40-50+ year post-career life could be drastically increased with a set-it-and-forget-it rule of thumb based on historical data.  It is also possible that your end or plan would prove you left TONS of money on the table (in your accounts) that you could have used to make life/lives better.  Of course, it’s too hard to tell in year one.  It’s important to monitor everything (you can think of) along the way.

When possible, make a U-Turn

If you design a plan of spending for your future and the target for your end-of-plan balances, then you should check in along the way.  When traveling to new places, it’s often my GPS lady tells me “When possible, make a U-turn.” 

It’s important to monitor how your cash flow, account balances, and assets are holding up.  I believe the goal is to fund your lifestyle and desires.  Spending, Sharing, Giving, etc.

Choices

If you have a destination in mind, using today’s tools, would you just use a compass, or would you use a turn-by-turn GPS…or are you a paper map person?  

Side note: I used to call the GPS a “marriage-saver” when we were on vacation in a new city.  So many heated discussions over the paper map from the car rental counter…  I don’t want to have those stressful discussions about retirement funding.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

I was reading about wealth in a retirement book and it mentioned FIRE.  It mentioned FIRE, I believe, in the sense of saving all your money early and young, then leaving work in your 30s.  This is the media story portrayal of FIRE.

I’ve said many times that Early Retirement to me is someone who can retire before they hit their 60s.  Of course, there are different levels of “early.”  I was told the other day that I “retired as a child.”  I didn’t take offense to that because I’m 3h, but I did think about the statement.  Yeah, I was really, really young at 43.  I thought I was at least a full decade into my wisdom level at that point…boy, there was—and still is—a lot to learn

I do think the focus of FIRE being on the Financial Independence portion of the acronym makes total sense.  FI allows FREEDOM.  FI gives you options.  FI makes life easier.  FI really does lead to FU money and the power of someone setting their own direction in life.

My question for this post asks, simply, Does FI equal Wealthy?

Having enough financial resources to be independent of producing more income for spending/savings is probably the true meaning of FI.  But, is that same FI household—wealthy?

It depends…  What does someone define wealthy as? 

Wealth: – plentiful supplies of a particular resource.    “Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.”

In terms of money, maybe that household has enough wealth to provide for their—and others—lives.  Is their money level wealthy compared to the top-ranking Forbes richest?  Nope.  Is this household’s financial wealth equivalent to the richest neighborhoods in town?  That’s an interesting question.  Maybe they are compared to some of those households but not others.  A FI household in the US is most certainly wealthier than over half of the world’s population, but a dollar isn’t the same as a rupee or rupiah.

In terms of time and opportunity, I would say absolutely yes, FI is wealthy.  The most important units on earth seem to be health and time.  Some books that talk all about health span and lifespan.

Since my priorities start with Health, Happiness, and Helping, it’s invaluable to have all my time to allocate as I choose.

Stealth Wealth

Most of society lives with the visibility of showing what they “own.”  Or, probably more accurately stated—what they owe on.  People follow the spending/showing activities of those around them or in modern times—the spending patterns of those on social media.  There is no regard to income determining spending ability.  The Joneses are now virtual.

The mentality seems to be “look what I have…the same as others.”  To me, the very most ironic symbol of this status is nike shoes.  Showing your success through leather and rubber for your feet makes no sense to me at all.

I believe the #1 value of wealth is time ownership.  Hopefully closely tied to that is health.  How do you show time wealth?  Is it being able to run errands Monday – Friday from 9am – 3pm?  Why are there so many other people out at that same time?  How can that be?  Shouldn’t those other people be working?

I get the sense that all of this avoidance/anger/boycotting of back-to-the-office ties directly to the sense of wonderful that being at home and not in the office entails.

Stealth Wealth is a wonderful topic so well detailed in The Millionaire Next Door book series.

Independence

Maybe the true goal of this post is tied to the concept of Independence?  Don’t we all want to feel independent and empowered?

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

I think I’ve fine-tuned a previous thought. 

I hear non-stop all these people saying FIRE is bad and “retiring” should not be the goal and it probably isn’t good for you, blah, blah, blah.

Let me tell you what’s not the best for someone; going to work every day and giving away the majority of your life’s time and energy just to earn capital that you can give to someone else for goods/services—many of which most of us may not need.

I’m not talking about  Jacob Lund Fisker-Early Retirement Extreme level of repairing one’s shoelaces or whatever level he employs/employed to live off of $7000 per year.  I’m just talking about working/grinding to be a cog in the machine of capitalism.  I think Jacob is living the way he wants.  That’s perfect.  I do believe he’s changed his living/spending structure over time as well—that makes sense as your change.

So much talk from all these people about “purpose” and “goals.”  What if someone has goals that aren’t related to saving our 25,000 mile circumference planet?  Like any effort I put into that will make a grain of sand difference.  (though I do my own little things to help just in case)

Whoa, that all sounds so negative.  It’s not me being negative, it’s people pushing their grandeur purpose towards others. 

It comes as no surprise to me that my priorities are all three very internally focused.  I’m an only child.  I grew up in Alaska where you were most often required to take care of yourself.  People tend to be somewhat self-sufficient.  Just leaving the house for a majority of the year could result in death if you didn’t plan well.  I have the feeling freezing to death, or animal attacks would be horrible.

When I think about my priorities—not purpose—I seem to stick with three overarching areas of focus: Health, Happiness, and Helping.

Health Thinking

I understand our time on this planet is limited.  I understand that our ability to use this time in the manner we chose is also limited.  My thoughts are to keep my body fit and hopefully healthy so I can enjoy doing the activities I chose.

Happiness Thinking

I believe an optimal state of being should entail a high enough level of happiness.  While I believe a sickly person can be happy, I feel it is easier for me to maintain more happiness while I feel healthy and fit.

Helping Thinking

I believe in using my knowledge, skills, and abilities to help others as I can.  This always depends on my schetchle but I do take time to help make other’s lives better when I can.  This helping focus definitely starts with my family and friends, but often extends to others I know, or who contact me for help.

I find it’s easier to help people when I’m in a happy mode.  It is also easier to help people when I am in a healthy mode. 

If I were a graphics person, I think this could be a pyramid (of effort and/or time).  A base of Health, a middle of Happy, and a top of Helping.  Come to think of it, that is how I structure my time allocation and focus.

Are “priorities” the same as “purpose?”  Does it matter?  Does it matter what someone chooses to do with their time and energy, and money?  It certainly does to them.  I don’t think someone else’s desire for everyone to have purpose or passions (or any other OPINIONS) should be pressed onto others, especially onto me.

$lackers rule!

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

What is money for? 

Why do we save our money?  Is the deference of spending vital to any part of our life?

I made it a point to search out answers to these questions…no, I didn’t!  I just wonder sometimes, what do I want/want to do?

I’ve come up with thrEEE answers: 

Easier, Enjoyment, Energy

I do maintain a Do Not Forget List.  It’s not a ToDo List.  Interestingly, I find the act of keeping track of “things” is almost as good as the purchase, yet the list does not help with the “doing” activities.  I need to get my ass in motion a little more, not exercising motion, but explorative motion.

Lately, I’ve given much more thought to how my money (the “army of dollar bills that march off to work each day”) should serve (I accidentally typed “service”—perfectly applicable) me. 

I’m a thinker.  Not some change-the-world-with-my-brilliance thinker, but I wonder a lot.  I wanted to set a direction for my money.  Give our money a Mission Statement, or at least a motto.  At the moment, it now has thrEEE goals to achieve.

Easier

Why not use your money to make things in your life easier?  For instance, correct tools/technology to help with different tasks.  Here’s an example we don’t think about until it breaks.  The use of my microwave for food prep comes to mind—even though some would same it uses bad “energy,” I find the microwave oven to service two important functions—make my life easier and I eat sooner/saving time.  To heat canned soup I don’t need a pot or a hot stove that warms the kitchen and causes my AC to run more—saves money too.  

Here’s a strange one, using a smart programmable remote control.  I no longer have to search for the exact device clicker.  I can also program macros to turn on/off everything at once.  Want to talk about easier, I don’t have to get off the couch to change channels or power the device like in the old days.

Here is a similar idea using your money for things you don’t like doing.  Some people hate house cleaning or yard cleaning. 

Some people don’t want to go to the grocery store.  I’d rather pay $8/month and have Walmart pick my groceries and bring them to my house.  That saves me 30 min of driving, 30 minutes of shopping in a crowd, and possibly avoiding some crap I would have purchased and eaten.  Seriously, eight dollars for approximately 2 hours per month of basic food stocking time savings!  Plus, that $8 also has additional services and features. 

We also share the Walmart service with my mom so there are closer to six deliveries per month and it allows me to keep my mom stocked with food even if I’m out of town.  TOTALLY makes my life easier.

Mark Trautman and I are working on our FUnbUCKET spending—pushing each other to spend some of our savings for good.  Mark also pushed me to make the monthly bill-paying process EASIER and allow automation so I didn’t use (waste) 60-90 minutes on the 1^st of the month to push my bill payments.  He was 100% correct on removing that task from my list (technically what would definitely be a do not forget item).

I can give examples of Amazon Prime, streaming video services, retirement/financial planning, Rock Retirement Club, auto bill pay, security cameras with cloud storage, etc.  Re-reading this, I see how my examples are really small….much like my little life.

Enjoyment

The thought of using deferred spending to bring enjoyment, excitement, and fun into your life is a fantastic goal. 

I’ve written about my surprise enjoyment of Kathy’s Peloton bike.  I’ve found enjoyment in the upgraded Peloton membership required for the bike, even with the increase from $13 to $44 for all the additional content.

I recently spent a huge $500 for a much nicer guitar than I’m used to and then realized that it sounds and plays so much better than the $200-300 guitars.  Bashing away sounds so much more metal with my goth explorer.

I purchased my first new vehicle because I wanted current safety features and protection.  I honestly get enjoyment when I drive my wife’s Venza because I know I spent wisely (in many ways) and it’s almost like driving a spaceship (sounds like it) compared to my 2000 truck and 2001 suv which I still drive most of the time.  It also falls in the “easier” category for lane-keeping, adaptive cruise control, and iphone controls, etc.

Here’s a random item, I bought new exercise socks that have thicker soles.  These are so nice when I spin since I stand so much doing Kathy’s drop saddle spinning style.  Less pounding on my old(er) feet…same when I run with them.  These were a wonderful $6 for 6 pairs purchase that I didn’t really need.  Yeah, my life is strange.

Energy

Deeper than the enjoyment from above, I want to use the money for things that bring me—or increase—my energy.

At your very core, you have things that give you the purest of enjoyment and light you up.  You have things that if denied are not enriching your soul, your basis of energy. 

Do you have a way to use your money to energize your soul?

I bring this “E” back around to using your money to fund or enable some of your Top 10 Favorite Things.  I don’t need to say much more, but if you have the 10 things that make your soul happy, shouldn’t that be a great place to put some of your resources…both time and money.

Action

Go gEEEt it !!!

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

I’ve written about the good things in FIRE, the good things in life, and many positive thoughts.

Today I was thinking about my wife’s Peloton bike we purchased in Nov 2022.

Quickly; my wife has been spinning 3 times per week since 2007ish.  Ten years ago they were getting new bikes so she purchased one of their old and ridden very hard bikes for $200 just so we had a bike at home for “extra” rides.  We took this Rusty bike to our mountain home for a few years which was perfect for when she was away from her spinning studio.  That bike came back to Phoenix in the mid-20teens.

When covid hit her spinning studio closed down.  It closed down within a couple of weeks.  That made sense because fewer people (ladies) were riding there each year.  See, it was a dark, hard-ass, drop-saddle riding style and very basic environment.  Just hardcore spinning.  I think many of the ladies either found it too hard or moved on to the new glitzy studios.

Peloton was awesome by giving free access for 90 DAYS to their online app for people locked down (or just wanting to exercise more/differently).  Kathy used Rusty for a few months and then we bought a commercial-grade (hotel gym) level bike for $600+.  That was a great improvement.  It came in a few weeks because people were buying cheap bikes or waiting for months for Peloton bikes close to $2000+$40/mo subscription.

I noticed in the fall of 2022 that Kathy seemed to have no intention of going back to a spinning studio.  We were on a trip and she rode a Peloton at the hotel using her ipad on the handlebars and really liked “the ride.” 

I asked her about getting a Peloton bike and she said she’d love one but she’d want the $45 membership.  I said that was fine because her studio was $100/mo + gas, + driving time 40 min round trip at best.  She showed me the specials Peloton had in emails $1400 or so with shoes, weights, mat, etc.

We looked on craigslist and facebook marketplace now that it was 2 ½ years into the pandemic and there were dozens of bikes for sale.  We messaged a few people and went to look at a version 3 bike that had 37 rides on its software.  The lady waited for it during covid and then went back to her (glitzy) spin studio when it re-opened.  (AZ reopened quickly).  $800 cash, popped it into my truck, and drove 20 miles home.

First, Kathy loves her Peloton.  She loves the classes more now that she has the display with the tension and leaderboard.  Great Purchase.

Here’s the amazing part for me.  I found that *I* LOVE the bike system.

I used to ride the commercial bike when the weather outside was crappy.  I ride 25 miles each week, 80 minutes or so around the Phoenix neighborhood (or in Encinitas, along the ocean on the Coast Highway).  I’d ride the $600 bike and read books or listen to podcasts.  It was a nice workout and I pushed myself somewhat.  Actually, more than the road bike allowed because of lights and traffic.

With the Peloton, I get a display system that is dangerous for a data geek like myself.  I get time to track intervals, I get a detailed resistance to know when I’m pushing med, med+, hard, or hardddd.  If I do a recorded class (never done a live class), or a scenic ride, I get the leaderboard with anyone else doing the ride in real-time as well as the all-time rider stats. 

The leaderboard is amazing technology.  It knows exactly what minute you are in the ride duration and your output level expended in the ride so far.  It then compares you to everyone else’s effort at that same moment from their ride.  It allows you to compete with hundreds or thousands of people every second of your ride.  FREAKING DANGEROUS.

For some reason, I have the desire to always push for the top 3% of all-time riders I consider that podium level, 3rd place.  Once, I hit that lever during the ride, I push for the top 2, then 1.5% (double my 3% goal).  Sometimes I get into the 1% all time, but that always burns my quads.  Love it!

In addition to those metrics, I did the power zone test ride to get my personalized power zones so I can tell which of the 7 zones I am riding in at any given moment.  I also synced my polar HRM so it shows my HR and the 5 HR zones.

It’s like I’m riding in an exercise cockpit with data everywhere.

Oh, and to make the rides even more huge, I put a 43” TV on the wall in front of the bike and Peloton will cast to the TV and mirror the bike’s 22” display on the wall.  That’s great if I want to have a book or magazine resting on the 22” monitor.  And, the TV is connected to a large soundbar helping give the music some extra oomph/thump.  Imagine me riding to a German heavy metal ride.  “Und Metallica…”

Beyond the bike, Kathy also does more class types and “challenges:” strength training, yoga, stretch, meditation, etc.  She can cast the strength classes to the TV which is easier than using an ipad or roku/fireTV app.  When traveling we’ve been able to download classes to our devices for the times we may not have internet.  However, this hasn’t been working right lately and I need to look into that.  Some days you need a meditation class on your phone to keep your streak alive.  Yes, I did get sucked into that streak/challenge stuff.

I also use the iphone app for “outdoor running,” “strength,” and “cardio” for other workout time/logging.  “Cardio” is for hockey.

I truly think this may be one of the best purchases we have made.  It is definitely, without question, the most surprisingly wonderful purchase I’ve ever made.  So many great features for something I/we’ve done for decades.  I am even more excited by the fact that this purchase should enhance our health (we both have to force ourselves not to peg our HR in zone 5 which would be a crazy effort).

Oh, one last thing.  I love when my 50’s profile crushes riders in their 30’s and 20’s.  I don’t know their story and good for them riding, but I’m coming up on you and I’m going to pass you!

I don’t have to win.  I just don’t want to lose.

P.s.  I don’t own any peloton apparel or gear, but my wife has MANY spinning outfits.  I look like a mess on the bike, she looks AMAZING! What an ecosystem they’ve created.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.