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Early Retirement, Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Financial Planning, Lifestyle, Marriage and Money, Money Habits, Money Psychology, On Investing, Retirement Planning

Annual Recap: Year 2017 Non-W2 Incomes

Happy 2018, readers. I hope you’re having a beautiful start to the new year.

This time of the year is magical for me. I enjoyed sharing extra special moments with families and friends, combined with delicious, comfort food (for weeks in a row). I also loved the holiday decors both at home and while being out and about. These moments can really be savored all year long. Sleeping until 9 a.m. has been typical for my family and I this past week as our bodies recovered from all the festivities.

Finishing the Old and Starting the New

As of yesterday, we’ve taken care most of our financial matters for year 2017, with the exception of paying property taxes and filing for tax return. We made purchases in my i401k account, rebalanced our investment portfolio, updated our financial accounts and made a projected budget for this year. So far, the two biggest, one-time expenses we’re looking at are money going toward paying for two international trips. Other than the usual recurring basic expenses, we also have several home renovation projects we want to accomplish.

December 2017 Non-W2 Incomes Report

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Early Retirement, Financial Planning, Lifestyle, Purchase Decisions

Early Retirement and Health Care Coverage and Premium

Back in September, 2017, when I shared on the blog that my husband was going to join me in early retirement, many of you asked about our health care insurance situation once he leaves his W2 employment. In this post, I’m sharing the process my family and I went through to get health care coverage for year 2018.

The Perceived Obstacle to Our Early Retirement

The thought of having to pay the high cost of health insurance premium out-of-pocket (we were thinking about $1,000/month) was one of the biggest reasons my husband and I hesitated about retiring early. Early retirement conversations first came up between us around year 2012. Back then, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was a mystery to us, and we were too lazy/busy to do more research.

I’m typically pretty resourceful and I’d search above and beyond to get the information I want. However, the following years continued to be big transition times for my family and I, and learning more about ACA was not on the priority list. So, as a couple, we reasoned (and made a compromise) that we’d have to work more years to save up for full, out-of-pocket health insurance premiums and retire when we reach our late 40s or early 50s.

New Information Helped Made Early Retirement Possible for Us

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Early Retirement, Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Financial Journey, Lifestyle

A Year in Review: Reflections, Early Retirement and New Directions

REFLECTIONS

I published the first post on this blog about a year ago (on September 18^th, 2016). Since then, my family and I have gone through lots of changes. Back then, I wrote in this article that my husband and I would be looking at early retirement in year 2018, while in our mid- and early-30s, respectively. Our estimated annual expenses would be $50,000. In a later post, where I shared about the 4% Withdrawal Rule and its relevance for my family, I mentioned that my family’s financial goal (a.k.a the amount in our net worth) was to reach 30X to 33X of our annual expenses.

As I’m writing this article, I’m happy to report that our total net worth has reached over the 33X number. The image below was captured on 9/11/2017 from our Personal Capital account, prior to the stock market opened. We use Personal Capital, a free financial tool, to track our net worth, view our investment performance, analyze our asset allocations and project and reevaluate our retirement goals. I wrote a comprehensive review of Personal Capital on another post. I encourage you to check it out. According to Google Analytics, that post is a readers favorites. I plan to do an update on this financial tool and share more recent images on the blog soon.

ms financial literacy Personal Capital score board

Now that this part of my family’s financial goal is reached, my husband and I have both arrived at the conclusion that it was time for him to join me in early retirement, too. September 8th, 2017, marked his last day of W-2 employment. This is a great financial milestone for my family. We became an early retiree family before our daughter turns three.

Note: In a more recent post, I shared that we created a “fun fund”, where we gave ourselves the permission to spend up to $60,000 per year. Of that $60,000, about 30% would go to travel and large disposable item purchases (you can see a list of our monthly expenses here). At this point, we are flexible pacing our annual expenses anywhere in between $40,000 to $60,000.

EARLY RETIREMENT

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Financial Planning, Investment, Personal Finance, Retirement Planning

Personal Capital Review – My Choice of Financial Software for Tracking and Financial Planning

I convinced my husband to use Personal Capital! In the past five months, I have both subtly and verbally tried to get my husband onboard. This past weekend, he finally gave me the ‘go’ signal. What’s even better? We have been hooked by this financial software the last several days (okay, maybe a bit obsessed). Personal Capital is amazing, beautiful and provides me everything I need (when it comes to understanding my financial life).

personal capital My Choice of Financial Software for Tracking and Financial Planning

I first learned about Personal Capital when I started reading personal finance blogs early this year. Most of my daily reads have written a review about this. Many of them used Personal Capital to track their financial numbers. My eyes were drawn to the colorful and beautiful charts and graphs these bloggers were sharing on their sites. Several of my money savvy friends also started telling me about Personal Capital. I was ready to give it a try.

When I approached my husband with this idea, he blatantly rejected it. He was concerned about the software’s security. He already doesn’t like the fact that we have to login to so many financial accounts to track and manage our finances. He didn’t want another to gain access to our financial data. What if someone would to get hold of our logins and mess with our investment holdings and transactions? What if that were to happen while we’re traveling outside of the country and might not have access to secure Internet? His concerns sounded totally legit to me. After that conversation, I was ready to move on. I accepted the fact that Personal Capital and I weren’t meant to be.

My Obsession

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Financial Journey, Financial Planning, Investment, Money Psychology, Retirement Planning

Rule of 72: How My Husband Convinced Me to Save for Retirement

My husband and I have been saving 50 to 70% of our net income. I wrote about our story in a previous post. This radical approach on savings was not something we always saw eye to eye. I resisted. He kept giving me high-fives. Despite my resistance, we managed to achieve those high percentages. I was mad that his logic to spend less was always so convincing. I thought I was frugal. He took frugality to an extreme. Much of the frictions through the first half of our marriage revolved around this difference. Then my husband introduced me to the Rule of 72. He converted me to become a radical saver just like that!

rule of 72 save for retirement

When I Was in College

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