Over the summer we decided to take on our first woodworking project: building ourselves a bed frame. I love to try DIY projects, but I haven’t ever built my own furniture. We were vaguely planning an upgrade to a king size bed, and the cost when shopping bed frames was making my frugal brain twitch – so we decided to take the plunge and try to build one ourselves. Our…

I love mind mapping (nerd alert!). For whatever reason, the way I think syncs up perfectly with the spidery visualization that is a mind map. Creating one is the best way I’ve ever found to organize my thoughts on a subject, and the process of building one is a great first step before tackling more in-depth planning. They also help me defeat uncertainty, confusion, and procrastination. I’ve always loved the…

A few years ago when I started seriously planning my route to FIRE, I was fairly confident that I’d be content working the 8-12 years in my current industry until I had saved enough and earned the freedom to call it quits. Over the past few years, and more rapidly over the past 6 months, I’ve been considering the prospects of instead pursing a lifestyle of unjobbing and small-scale entrepreneurship a lot more seriously.

Sometimes I get caught up in the idea that I need to be productive all the time. I put pressure on myself to always be hustling, working to get more of an edge, and making progress toward reaching my goals. As you might expect, I often don’t live up to these lofty expectations of myself, and then I feel bad and my anxiety takes over. It’s a stupid cycle, and…

I believe that a satisfying life is built on living true to my values and I’ve known for a long time that I value simplicity, security, and freedom. These values are likely why I am so strongly drawn to the idea of financial independence. I’ve been consciously and deliberately saving toward my goal of financial independence and early retirement (FIRE) for more than 4 years now, and along the way…

Sometimes owning a house is a real hassle. Actually, let me clarify that and say, sometimes owning a house while holding a full-time job can be a real hassle. If you’re a homeowner you know that there’s an endless stream of maintenance issues always coming at you that will either cost you time or money. If you’re frugal and a little bit handy, you may also have the urge to DIY as many of those maintenance issues as you can, adding to the complexity…

My dad retired a few days ago on April 1st at the age of 65. I am extremely happy that my parents are in a secure enough position that he can choose to retire on social security at the “normal” retirement age, and I am hopeful that he will really be able to enjoy his retired life. His retirement is a milestone that causes me to reflect on all the…