I am still a newbie at the FI movement. One glaring thing I noticed as I dove into this world was that it is dominated by younger folks. The “celebrities” of this universe include people who retired in their thirties and if you search the podcast- or blog-o-sphere using the term “millennial” you will get dizzy trying to select among them. It forced me to think that perhaps I was just too old to get started. I gave it all a shot regardless and I am glad that I have. I quickly realized that even though I was late to the game, I was still early compared to the traditional retirement planner. That is why I have tagged myself “Late But Early.”
I have spent my whole life thinking I was great with money. I started contributing to a 401K the first opportunity I had and have always paid all my bills, etc. I have dabbled in Real Estate investing and stock-picking and a handful of other money making opportunities and when comparing myself to those around me I just felt like I was doing all the right things. However, I never felt like I could get ahead. There was never any extra at the end of the month. Then one day, while on vacation with my family, I received a call from a tenant about an appliance that needed replaced. Once I started pricing things out, I quickly realized that I couldn’t afford the new appliance. My two credit cards were maxed, my home equity line of credit was maxed and I had nothing in savings. I had a mini-panic attack. That night I sat alone on the porch with a stiff drink and just couldn’t understand how I had gotten to that place. This feeling led me to decide to make some changes. It was at this point that I discovered podcasts. I did a little searching and happened upon The Mad Fientist. This led me to several other podcasts and books, etc.
This path quickly showed me that my belief that I had made solid financial decisions was completely off-base. I had purchased a large house and fully furnished it on credit, I consistently carried extreme credit card debt, I bought several cars on credit and many other poor choices. My first reaction was to get depressed about all of my bad decisions. I quickly realized that this was an opportunity. I dove into all material I could find on the topic of financial independence and quickly made some actual good decisions and the results have been remarkable.
My goal with this blog is to tell my story, keep myself accountable and share some of the better ideas, resources, life hacks and tools that I come across in my journey. Hopefully I can impact someone else who is on a similar path and I can help them to jumpstart their own journey they can be just a little bit less LATE and a little bit more EARLY.