financial independence through continual improvement
The beauty of the Financial Independence movement is that it represents a wide swath of people, with different experiences, different strategies, and different goals. What we share is the common pursuit of a financially independent existence, and the principles of FI allow us to achieve this goal. I really appreciate the many different approaches people … Read more
Brewing FIRE was born on April 1st, 2018 (no joke!). It was officially conceived around January 1st, when I bought the domain name and started building out the site. I thought about taking the plunge and starting a blog for a long time prior to actually doing it. In fact, I started two other blogs … Read more
Last October we made the decision to move to Virginia. As part of the plan, I would quit my job and we’d give Coast FI a try. Being a research chemist, I didn’t think there was much chance of scoring a remote role. But my company, apparently valuing my contributions over the past 15 years, … Read more
On December 6th, I closed on the sale of my house. Not the house we have been living in the last four years, but the property I bought thirteen years ago, when I was 23 and stupid. More than a decade after this hapless journey began, I can finally close the door on this chapter … Read more
Back in January, I created a list of 10 goals for 2019. I’m not normally a goal-setting type of person, but I thought it would be interesting to try out. I divided my goals into 3 categories: Financial, Business/Professional, and Personal. I tried to make them “SMART” goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound). This way … Read more
When I was a kid, there was a large hill between my house and the park that I would often frequent with my friends. We typically rode our bikes to the park, so we were constantly faced with the dilemma of biking over the hill. Some of my friends would ride slowly and gradually up … Read more
Short Pours is my short-format series of posts that will allow me to publish more frequently, and get a bit more creative with my content. Check out my introduction for more information on this series. In this edition of Short Pours, I’ll discuss our sudden focus on making geoarbitrage a part of our FI plan. I’ll … Read more
If you’ve spent any time in the Personal Finance blogosphere, you’ve no doubt seen many posts littered with discussions of savings rate. In it’s simplest form, savings rate is a way to measure what percentage of your earned income is staying in your pocket (or bank account, or brokerage). Ever since I set out on … Read more
First off, New Year’s Resolutions are stupid. Why do you have to wait until you tack up the new calendar before you start trying to improve your life? When exactly in 2018 did you stop caring about making a better you? How many cookies did you eat on December 30th because you had two more … Read more
Last week I read this excellent post from the Mad Fientist encouraging everyone to start their own business. Take a minute to read it, if you haven’t already. There is a lot of good advice on why we should start our own businesses and the various benefits of such ventures. Here at Brewing FIRE, I’ve … Read more