Goals

Navigating the Road to Financial Independence

Your Ideal Route to Financial Independence May Be Off the Beaten Path

Chart Talk, Goals, Theory

Financial independence – the concept of establishing a sustainable system where your investments can cover your expenses, making work optional – is an issue of particular interest to me, and from the popularity of the Withdrawal Rates calculator I gather that it is for many others as well.  Of all the things money can buy, I have a difficult time imagining something more valuable than the freedom to live on your own terms free of financial worry.  While I’ve previously discussed the effect of asset allocation on the retirement half of the FI equation, the natural next question is:

 

What’s the fastest path to early retirement?

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PortfolioCharts Mother

Risk in the Real World

Goals, Theory

Talk about portfolio growth rates for long enough and people start to glaze over.  Numbers get compartmentalized, and the concept of risk gets hazy.  After all, if you’re a long term investor you can afford to have have a high risk tolerance, right?  Common advice is that if you hold onto your investments long enough, you’re virtually guaranteed a good return.

Like most things in popular finance, I believe that’s a gross over-simplification.  So let’s look at a savings and investing example in real-life terms — saving for a college fund.  Let’s assume that a proud new parent named Sarah wants to put away enough money each year to save $100k in today’s dollars in 20 years (the absolute amount will be much higher than that due to inflation).  How much should she save, and how should she invest the money?

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