The bleak economic situation that stems from the housing crisis, soaring food prices, shortages of supplies of everything, stagnated wages, and interest rates going through the roof (at least in the UK) got me wondering how one could start on the path to financial freedom in 2023. Taking into consideration the political, economic, social and environmental upheavals we have been going through since the pandemic …
All posts filed under personal finance
Practical Tips to Keep Your Spending in Check Before the Christmas Gift Craziness Begins
The Christmas Holiday period is already upon us. I noticed that many shops opted out of Halloween this year and focused their energy and efforts on Christmas sales instead. For many years the consumer trend was to splash on Christmas gifts and Christmas Holidays get aways. The corporate messaging, we have been exposed to for generations always implied that the bigger the gift, the more …
10-Year Plan to Financial Independence According to JL Collins
JL Collins is a financial blogger and an author, who was the most influential force behind my desire to seek financial independence. Do check out his blog to learn more about his exceptional and life-changing work. In his book “The Simple Path to Wealth”, he says that if individuals follow the below-listed tips in the next ten years, they will be on their way to financial independence. …
The Treasures I Found in My Mum’s House
In the past year, I’ve visited my parents’ house three times. Each visit included cleaning one of the bedrooms, which gradually had become storage for all the unwanted stuff we all have gathered over the years. Last year I found so many items of clothing that it made me cry just to think how hard I had to work to buy those things, only to …
Decreasing the Amount of Money, You Need to Be Happy
I believe that one of the biggest offenders on the journey to FI is an inflated lifestyle, which doesn’t give long-term happiness, adding instead to the number of financial obligations we have. Decreasing the amount of money we need to be happy, is a long-term lifestyle choice, not a quick fix that can make people feel better for an hour or two. In my 20’s I …
What Does the 4% Withdrawal Rule Mean?
Wikipedia says “The 4% refers to the portion of the portfolio withdrawn during the first year (of retirement); it is assumed that the portion withdrawn in subsequent years will increase with the consumer price index (CPI) to keep pace with the cost of living.” Your investments will pay dividends and appreciate in price over time on average at 7% per year before inflation. The inflation rate …
Life Is About Learning to Adapt
On the way to financial freedom, many of us will have to learn how to adapt our mindset, spending, our goals, adjust to new lifestyle choices, adapt to new priorities, and to a financially independent lifestyle (when financial independence finally happens). Throughout the history of humanity, to be able to survive we all had to learn how to adapt. Unfortunately, the more comfortable people become, …
Establishing Good Financial Habits in Kids
Over the years, I’ve asked many people I considered good with money or who worked in the financial sector how to teach kids about investments. The best I got was “Open a savings account and add some money each month to show your son how the money compounds.” WHAT?!?! Well… that sounds really boring even for an adult, not to mention a child. First of …
Improve Your Life Through Mastering Personal Finance
Since I started my journey towards financial mastering, I discovered that mastering personal finance has a lot to do with finding your true self. Learning about investments and financial independence set me on the road to sort out and face all my unresolved issues around finances I’ve had for years. Thinking about and recording my spending allowed me to see how much money I spent …
Would I Buy This Item If It Weren’t on Sale?
Recently I’ve been wondering about buying stuff that isn’t on sale. Well, in reality I almost never buy anything for myself that has a full price tag attached; with kids is a different story and we buy what they need. However, I started questioning this habit of mine and begun asking myself if I need to buy something/anything at all, regardless if it’s on sale …