Two Paths to Financial Independence – What We Invest In
Similar to the popular mantra “personal finance is personal”, there is no one “right way” to achieve Financial Independence. In fact, there are an almost…
Summer Break Through the Lens of Financial Independence
As the school year starts to draw towards a close with only a few weeks left, I’m getting excited. My wife and kids are about…
Recap of Camp Mustache 2025
Exhausted, Inspired, and Grateful. I literally just got back home a couple hours ago and wanted to document my three current emotions before they start…
Expectations for Camp Mustache 2025
TLDR I think I know what to expect. On the other hand, I have no idea what to expect. Where Are You Going? For those…
Family Series Part 6 – Travel & Other Fun Activities
While Parts 1-5 of this Family Series have focused on finances and other meaningful topics such as career paths & learning, we aren’t 100% serious…
Family Series Part 5 – Thoughts on Life After High School
The first 18 years of most children’s lives are fairly well mapped out and uniform, at least here in the United States, from the progression…
Family Series Part 4 – Allowance
Allowance is another one of those highly debated topics when it comes to kids & money, with a wide array of thoughts & opinions amongst…
Family Series Part 3 – Teaching Kids About Money
Much the same way that different teachers can use different methods to educate their students, parents can use a variety of methods to educate their…
Family Series Part 2 – Joint or Separate Finances
Probably the number one most asked question in personal finance is whether or not to pay off a mortgage early vs. investing the money instead. …
Family Series Part 1 – Our Partners’ Thoughts About Personal Finance & Financial Independence
Both of us are married and in each of our households we are the ones that are most interested in personal finance & Financial Independence. …
My Current Status on 8 Habits for a Happy Retirement (found on Kiplinger)
I know I’m several years away from Financial Independence. I can calculate my investments, and will eventually get to a point where work will be…
Recap of EconoMe 2025
Chaos. Absolute chaos. But in the best way. That’s how I would describe this past weekend at the EconoMe Conference. I guess that’s what’s to…
Expectations for EconoMe 2025
TLDR I’m both nervous and excited. Where Are You Going? For those who are unfamiliar with the EconoMe Conference, it is a gathering of ~500…
Celebrating One Year of Epic Financial Journey
“3… 2… 1… And we’re live!” Those words were uttered one year ago on the morning of 3/14/24 from a hotel room in Cincinnati, Ohio. …
What Typical Retirees Are Being Told About Early Retirement
I recently attended a presentation on planning for retirement at my work. These financial talks are presented at lunch time a few times a year,…
To Buy Or Not To Buy (A New Furnace)
An Unpleasant Surprise… My alarm clock went off and I hopped out of bed. For some reason it felt cold… VERY COLD. Yes, it was…
Our Thoughts About 18 “Poor Hacks” (found on Yahoo)
By now all of our readers should know us well enough to recognize that we’re big on frugality. In fact, sometimes we’re even ridiculously over-the-top…
What Draws Me To Financial Independence
The ability to support myself without relying on a paycheck has become a goal of mine for more than 5 years now… But why? Do…
Keeping The Topic of “Work” Out of Conversations
I don’t care what your job is. I don’t care what your job title is. I really don’t care to know much about your day-to-day…
The Financial Mistakes We’ve Made
Nobody is perfect, especially not us. We’ve all made mistakes in every aspect of our lives and that’s okay. While many people may feel shame,…
What Might Life Be Like At Sixty Five?
I’m not a great planner, but I do find it helpful to think about my future self. This kind of helps me take a snapshot…
Fighting Through Fear And Anxiety To Take Action
As you know, I’m a HUGE fan of taking action, especially in situations where there is potential for a tremendous positive impact. The Culprits Holding…
Goals And Plans For 2025
Per tradition (at least in American culture), here is a list of goals and/or plans that each of us have made for the upcoming year. …
Top Things We Learned in 2024
Each year that passes is full of numerous experiences that we can learn from and 2024 is no exception. Sometimes these lessons are obvious, but…
Planning For A Joyful Journey To FI
As fun as it sounds to be financially independent, I’ve got a ways to go. I like my job, and like where I live, and…
Ode to My Car
As I was driving home recently I looked down at my car’s odometer and noticed a very cool milestone (perhaps some would merely call it…
Buying Into The Gaming World
“No, we’re not going to get you video games” was a comment that my wife and I have repeated hundreds of times over the last…
Selling Stocks is Super Scary, Seriously
Simple Path To Wealth? The high-level FIRE roadmap seems fairly straight-forward: Save & invest as much as possible until one’s portfolio grows large enough to…
What We’re Thankful For in 2024
Both of us have many things to be thankful for this year. While this blog is focused on personal finance & Financial Independence, it may…
A Decade Until Financial Independence
So I’m closing in on forty four years old and by the looks of it, I probably won’t hit Financial Independence for another decade or…
Musings on the First 1.25 Years of Early Retirement (Part 2)
CONTINUATION OF MUSINGS FROM PART 1… As I mentioned in my first set of musings, there was no huge transition for me into retirement. Because…
Musings on the First 1.25 Years of Early Retirement (Part 1)
With all the summer travel, finally starting up this website, and my current podcasting & parental commitments, I’ve been pretty busy and haven’t had a…
Spending Series Part 4: Spending Extravagantly On Things We Love
While frugality is an enduring pillar of Financial Independence, recently there have been some changing attitudes in the community towards spending money. Frivolous or unintentional …
Spending Series Part 3: Purposeful Spending on Non-Essential Items
With frugality so ingrained in most of us here in the FI community, it’s sometimes hard to even think about spending money, let alone actually…
Spending Series Part 2: Ridiculously Over-the-Top Frugal Habits
While most of us in the FI community treat frugality as a badge of honor, sometimes we can take it TOO far. Of course, deciding…
Spending Series Part 1: Our Frugal Habits
Frugality is a cornerstone of Financial Independence. While most of the world may view frugality as foolish, restrictive, or even a fruitless waste of time,…
Learning To Listen to Others: The Squire’s Influence
Although this website is only a few months old, I already feel its impact and how it’s leading to positive change in my life. Case-in-point:…
Celebrating 25 Years of Friendship
Band. Marching band tryouts to be exact. That’s where we first met in the fall of 1999 at our local public university. This admittedly sounds…
How I Currently Explain Investing To Others
Trying to explain the idea of Financial Independence to others has been an interesting endeavor. As I learn more in the world of personal finance…
How I Spent My Summer: The Influence of “Die With Zero”
Spoiler Alert: It was spent with friends & family. Busy, Busy, Busy As a family we traveled to 10 different states, attended 9 concerts (4…
The (Real) Downsides of Financial Independence
Financial Independence is all rainbows and unicorns, right? Isn’t that what we always hear from the media or from everyone in the FI community? Don’t…
The Downsides of Financial Independence
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Being Open To Change
I’ve found that talking with others about topics like music, food, sports, and kids, can really provide a fun opportunity to share and connect with…
Be Yourself; It’s Highly Encouraged
You Want to be Like Who? I’ve always considered myself to be an average person. In all honesty, I would even classify myself as fairly…
Why FI: What Financial Independence Means To Us
The term “Financial Independence” or “FI” is confounding – it’s one of those nebulous phrases that has a technical definition, yet there is additional nuance…
The Squire’s Core Belief #3 – Let’s Help Each Other Out
I find people both interesting and exhausting to talk with. I would consider myself an introvert, and I have a hard time spending large amounts…
Scout’s Core Belief #3 – Community
A Long, Lonely Road As most people already know (and I bet most have experienced first-hand), money is treated as a taboo topic that nobody…
The Squire’s Core Belief #2 – Incremental Changes Add Up
Saving was something I did when I knew what it was going to be spent on. College, a car, a house, music, and so on….
Scout’s Core Belief #2 – Flexibility
Desire for Certainty As a former engineer with an optimizer/maximizer personality, there is nothing in this world I desire more than absolute certainty. For most…
The Squire’s Core Belief #1 – Happiness Matters
When we read the United States Declaration Of Independence in school, I found it so interesting that it mentions the right to pursue happiness. In…
Scout’s Core Belief #1 – Take Action
How does anything get done? This may sound like a simple & obvious answer, but things get done by taking action. Will the lawn mow…
My Origin Story & Financial Journey – The Squire
I grew up in a loving family. As a kid, I enjoyed life and took school seriously. I played sports and stayed busy, and as…
My Origin Story & Financial Journey – Scout (Part 2)
RESUMING THE JOURNEY FROM PART 1… Fortuitous & Life-Altering Financial Moment #3 – Discovering FIRE One of the magazines I started reading long ago, Kiplinger…
My Origin Story & Financial Journey – Scout (Part 1)
TLDR I’ve never experienced any traumatic events in my life, money or otherwise, so I have no heroic stories of courage to share (and for…
This Is It, Don’t Get Scared Now
Hello and welcome to Epic Financial Journey; we are your friendly neighborhood personal finance blog. As you can probably see we are the new kids…