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Welcome to this session of grand rounds, a collection of posts I have discovered in the blogosphere and have found of interest and hope you do too.

This offering of Grand Rounds looks at articles from around the web that deal with financial independence.

 

 

The 4% rule.   25x your annual spending rate.

Hitting those milestones in savings makes you automatically financially independent, yes?

Unfortunately no.

A lot of folks take those numbers and the Trinity Study they came from as gospel.

But life has a way of throwing curveballs at you.

What works in your current situation may not work in the future as life is truly unpredictable.

Bad health, children, divorce are just a few of the things that can undermine your plans.

Doc G of DiverseFi discusses this financial vulnerability in, “The Final Stage Of Financial Independence.”

 

 

 

Fighting debt can be likened to a battle.

With the enemy trying to deplete your resources by siphoning of funds in the form of interest charges, it can often times seem like a skirmish you will lose.

That is why Physician Philosopher said you really need to go to WAR and knock it out once and for good.

Find out his suggestion in, “Saving Money, How Much Is Enough?  The 30% Rule.”

 

 

 

Financial Independence is different for different people.

This makes a concrete “target number” that universally works impossible.

The biggest determining factor is your individual household “burn rate.”

When you find out what you are spending each year, you have a good guide post in terms of what size portfolio can support it.

Of course that number may seem out of reach in the beginning and it is therefore important to break it down into manageable segments.

ESI does just that in, “The Nine Stages of Financial Independence.”

 

 

One of my favorite shows was Mythbusters, a show where the two co-hosts would tackle popular myths and do real world testing to see if they were true or not.

A lot of common held beliefs were debunked by their scientific methods while others were validated.

In the world of finance there is a lot of advice floating around that has taken on mythical status but may or may not be valid.

Financial Residency takes on the mythbusting concept and polls other financial advisors about  common misconceptions about money in, “Most Common Money Myths People See.”

 

 

I was over 40 years old before I heard of the FIRE movement.

My financial education up until that point was quite appalling, to put it mildly.

Back in the day, you could go through high school, college, medical school, and residency, without 1 single hour of education in the realm of finance.

So it brings great joy, and a huge smile to my face, when I see examples of how younger generations are not following a similar path and actually have developed some financial acumen at quite an early age.

One such, incredibly impressive, story is a resident who demonstrates it is never too early to start the FIRE journey in the Physician On Fire post, “A Resident Physician On FIRE: How One Doctor Grows His Net Worth In Residency.”

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the reading material.

Have a great rest of the week.

 

 

Note:

If you are in search of financial help, please consider enlisting the service of any of the sponsors of this blog who I feel are part of the “good guys and gals of finance.”

Even a steadfast DIY’er can sometimes gain benefit from the occasional professional input.