Latest Posts

[a temporary “Where is Justin?” post.] Hello from Fethiye, Türkiye. Launa and I just completed hiking 100 miles (per her Fitbit) last week from Bologna to Florence along the Via Degli Dei. We love inn-to-inn hikes, so we flew to Türkiye to embark on a 220-mile adventure hiking the Lycian way (roughly from Fethiye to … Continue reading Hiking the Lycian Way

My wife and I bought a $600 high-quality photo scanner and spent the time to cull, organize, and scan our 10,000 or so pre-digital hard copy photos. We are so glad we did! Now, they are a seamless part of our digital photo collection. Our pictures are always with us and we can easily search … Continue reading The Case For Scanning Your Old Photos Yourself

My wife and I are celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary this year (and 38 years of being a couple). While on a public ferry in Luxor, Egypt we quizzed each other on the many other ferry boats we had ridden together. We each remembered examples the other hadn’t. It was a fun walk down memory … Continue reading Cashing In On Memory Dividends

Having an emergency fund is foundational to healthy finances and our pursuit of financial independence. From an unexpected car repair to the loss of a job, the primary job of an emergency fund is to help you weather unexpected financial challenges that could derail your financial progress. Depending on your situation, you may have anywhere … Continue reading Self-Insurance: The Second Important Job For My Emergency Fund

My wife Launa has a new guest blog series at Reading Rockets about how children from different countries are taught to read. As we travel around the world, she and I are having a great time visiting local schools and talking to teachers about how children in their country learn to read. To be clear, … Continue reading Our Adventures Visiting Schools Around The World

Minimalism has had a profoundly positive impact on my life. I’m healthier and calmer, I have more time and flexibility with money, and I’m more content overall. In an effort to share why I have chosen a minimalist life and why it is so rewarding to me, here are my eight benefits of being a … Continue reading The More of Minimalism

I used to be a cyclist, gardener, canner, aspiring musician, soccer coach, coin collector, stamp collector, home owner, DIY handyman, and Department of Defense hospitality expert.   I am no longer those things. I found that by selling, giving away, or otherwise disposing of my guitars, soccer gear, biking gear, coin and stamp collections, work files, … Continue reading Minimalism Changed Who I Am.

[This was first published on the minimalism and lifestyle blog No Sidebar.] My wife and I sold or gave away 98 percent of our belongings which enabled us to achieve our goal to become full-time nomadic travelers in July 2023. In my pursuit of a simpler life with fewer things, I had to ask myself … Continue reading Ask Yourself Tough Questions And Let The Answers Change You

Before I embraced minimalism, I loved to go camping. In the woods I noticed how quiet my mind was. It wasn’t just bathing in the trees that was calming. I enjoyed not being reminded by my multitude of belongings of the many chores I needed to get done at home. Similarly, when I was in … Continue reading Decluttering My Mind: Eliminating conversations with my stuff

Minimalism changed my life for the better. Minimalism at its core is focusing on what we truly value and eliminating the rest. There is not a definitive number of things a person should own to be a minimalist, and making minimalism a comparison game defeats one of its key purposes.  While the concept has grown … Continue reading Five Things Minimalism Is Not

My wife and I sold or gave away 98 percent of our belongings. Our dream to be full-time nomadic travelers took flight in July 2023––a goal we never thought possible until we fully embraced minimalism.  In her popular book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing Marie Kondo is … Continue reading The Metamorphosis to Becoming a Minimalist

I frequently hear on Financial Independence and Retire Early (FIRE) podcasts and read in FIRE blogs that the RE (Retire Early) part of the FIRE acronym should be dropped. They can’t imagine not working, they say, and besides, they enjoy working. I know what they mean. I had my dream job, and I worked it … Continue reading Why You Should Quit Your Dream Job

(Originally published Feb 1, 2023. Revised—substantial edits in italics) The FIRE community talks a lot about the rent vs. buy discussion. Which is the optimal financial decision for your personal housing and how to calculate that? While there is great information out there to help you decide, I see two important considerations often left out … Continue reading Rent vs. Buy: the Power of Inflation (and a fairer calculation)

What? $2,800 per hour? This must be a crazy MLM scheme or some sort of bait and switch scam, right?  Not at all. On average I work one hour a month managing my two real estate properties. Each month I clear an average of $2,816 (including my principal and net of expenses and taxes). So … Continue reading Real Estate is Passive or I Make $2,800 Per Hour

I’m featured in this article by Noah Sheidlower, Business Insider, Sep 1, 2024 “Not all millionaires have big houses, boats, or fancy cars. In fact, six of them told BI their strategies to grow wealth — and keep it — are the exact opposite. ‘We aren’t flashy with our wealth because money isn’t our ultimate goal,’ … Continue reading Business Insider: Meet the millionaires next door who grew their wealth without a superstar job or get-rich-quick tricks

I was recently interviewed on the EverydayFI podcast where I shared my FI story, how I fully embraced minimalism, became a full-time nomad, and some philosophy on the FI movement and choosing contentment over happiness. Cheers! Link to episode: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/everydayfi/id1747124575 To learn more about my story check out my About page and my Taking the … Continue reading My FI Story and Why FI Needs the RE

“I want to be happy” was how I replied when asked as a youth what I wanted to be in life. Likely inspired by our country’s Declaration of Independence, I bought into the enticing desire of achieving full happiness. It doesn’t work that way. In the pursuit of a life of bliss, I read several books … Continue reading The Pursuit of Contentment

The (ability to) retire early part is the primary thing that makes the Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) community different from all the other personal finance approaches. We CAN retire early, and we as a community should own it. The following chart illustrates how FIRE principles compare to that of other, non-FIRE personal finance voices: … Continue reading FI Needs the RE!

And as a corollary, frugality does not mean deprivation, suffering, or unhappiness. Spending more does not equal more happiness just as spending less does not equal less happiness. While frugality is core to how we achieve FIRE, it does not have to mean a life of deprivation. The FIRE community is too creative for that. Setting … Continue reading Frugality Increases Happiness

The convergence of the widespread use of 401k and similar retirement accounts coupled with the rise in index fund investing has created a Ponzi scheme-like dynamic with the stock market over the past 30+ years.. What is a Ponzi scheme?  From Wikipedia, a Ponzi scheme “is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays … Continue reading Is The Stock Market Becoming a Ponzi Scheme?

Accounting helps businesses track and organize financial information so business leaders can make informed decisions. Similarly in personal finance we all implement some level of accounting to help manage our finances to track, budget, spend, save, invest and file taxes. In a past life I managed multi-million dollar businesses with complex financial statements and taught … Continue reading My Top 10 Accounting Principles for Everyday Life

In a recent episode of ChooseFI podcast (a favorite of mine), a visiting host (Katie, from MoneyWithKatie.com) talked about buying “a very nice car [a pre-owned Porsche Macan with 8,000 miles].” She was quick to acknowledge that this decision was “breaking the cardinal sin of FI/RE” but the main ChooseFI host, Brad, quickly said that … Continue reading Has the FIRE movement lost its way?

Since 2013, we have exchanged our Arlington, VA home 8* times (with several more planned exchanges foiled by the pandemic). We exchanged with families in Paris, Barcelona, Montreal, and Iceland, to name a few. With the world opening back up, this is a good time to share what is great about a home exchange experience. … Continue reading Home Exchanging: A Great Way to See the World

Net worth is a key measure of building wealth. I have been calculating my net worth since 2011 so I can see my progress over time, and it’s a really useful tool. Many people are familiar with calculating their net worth: you add up the value of all of your assets (e.g., stocks, bonds, real … Continue reading Calculating Functional Net Worth

When host Regis Philbin asked his game show contestants and audience “who wants to be a millionaire?,” he tapped into a belief many of us learned as children, that a million dollars was the pinnacle of financial success.  I grew up on the rural eastern side of Washington State, and many people I knew were … Continue reading The Meaning of “Millionaire”

On August 28, 2020 at 5:47 pm, at age 52, I declared my financial independence (FI), packed up my personal belongings and left my GS-15 job at the Department of Defense after 9 years of civil service and 20 years of active duty. How was I feeling? As you can see from the below video, … Continue reading Taking the Leap — Living The FIgh Life

I often hear (and read) discussions about choosing either the military Survivor Benefit Plan (SBP) or term life insurance to help the surviving spouse remain financially secure. This is comparing the wrong two things. While both term life insurance and the SBP are insurance products, they are designed for different purposes. When deciding whether to … Continue reading “SBP v. Term Insurance?” Is the Wrong Question

I thought my wife and I were doing everything right to achieve a rich, free life. Avoid debt – check! Spend less than we earn – check! Invest the surplus – check! So, after almost two decades of investing, why weren’t we rich or at least well on our way? When I calculated our net … Continue reading After Almost Two Decades of Investing, Why Weren’t We Rich or at Least Well on Our Way?