PF Chat: Financial Independence & Early Retirement

Good morning, good readers. This month we have another edition of our personal finance chat, and we again got very lucky with our guests.

Today we are hosting a conversation on Financial Independence and Early Retirement with JL Collins, Liz from the Frugalwoods, Brandon from Mad Fientist, Tanja from Our Next Life, as well as Kristy and Bryce from Millennial Revolution.

Let's get right to it.

Would We Already be Financially Independent Abroad?

An interesting possibility has presented itself in the Done by Forty household. We could potentially be financially independent immediately, if we changed our plan a bit, and sold our home.

If we sold our house, and maybe our one remaining rental property while we were at it, we could blatantly steal the plan that Kristy and Bryce at Millennial Revolution and Jeremy and Winnie at Go Curry Cracker have used to enjoy a financially independent, and somewhat location-independent, life.

Assuming we could similarly find affordable housing to rent abroad, and that we could leverage traveler's health insurance, we might be able to rock an inflation-adjusting $40,000 annual budget...indefinitely.

Haters Gonna Say It's Fake

Sometimes I wonder how the Financial Independence, Retire Early movement (what the cool kids call FIRE) has spread as far as it has. The details for reaching financial independence sound so ridiculous, that typing them out makes me feel like a scam artist.

People saving fifty, sixty, or seventy percent of their incomes? Retiring in their mid-thirties or late twenties? Living on twenty or thirty grand, total, a year, without having to eat plain rice for dinner each night?

That sounds like a hustle, friend.

Budget Porn, a Look at 2017, and a Free, Simple Path to Wealth

We're told never to bury the lede, so here it is. We are giving away two audio copies of Jim Collins' excellent book, The Simple Path to Wealth. This is my favorite personal finance book, by far, and you can read why here. 

But if you haven't read Jim's book, let me tell you, friend: you are tempting fate. I know people who haven't read The Simple Path to Wealth, and they are universally unhappy people: unlucky in board games and in love, terrible dressers with ill-fitting clothes hanging off their slumped shoulders, and while I do not have any firm proof, I'm fairly certain that they are all underwhelming in the sack.

But with a little luck, by next week they could be listening to Jim's book, fixing both their finances and their bedroom shortcomings in one fell swoop.

Plus, you don't have to follow me on Twitter or Facebook to win a copy, either. All you have to do is make me laugh.