Fire to Wander

Follow along as I document my journey to early retirement and a nomadic lifestyle.

Category: Tips

  • Preparation for Tax Time

    We’re in the last quarter of the year and now is a good time to make sure you are on track for contributing what you wanted to contribute to your retirement accounts prior to 2025. You still have time to make changes to your withholding to ensure you end up where you want to be….

  • Wanna Be a Millionaire?

    It’s all about investing! Mostly, it’s about investing consistently over the long term. According to Investopedia, the S&P 500 has a yearly average return rate of 9.90% since 1928. Since adopting 500 stocks into the index in 1957, it’s actually 10.26%. The reason this matters is because I’ll be showing you the math with an…

  • Scary Story Time

    In honor of spooky season, I’ll be sharing a few scary financial stories I’ve gone through. All of them are real! Years ago, I bought my first house. I thought it was the “right” thing to do since I had a stable job and I was managing to save enough money on a monthly basis…

  • 457b Retirement Account

    Everyone has heard of 401k accounts. Many people have heard of 403b accounts, which are the 401k equivalent for those in public education or non-profit organizations. I want to teach you about the hardly known, 457b account. Who is Eligible for Them? These accounts are also retirement accounts that are available for state and local…

  • Traditional IRA vs. Roth IRA

    Do you hear the term Roth often and aren’t quite sure what it means? Do you already know what it means but aren’t sure what is better for your situation? I’ll explain the difference between a Traditional IRA compared to a Roth IRA and why you should consider each depending on your situation. Comparison First,…

  • Investment Accounts

    There are many different types of accounts where you can invest from. The account itself isn’t the investment. The account is merely the basket that holds the investments. The type of account is what determines what benefits you get from investing within that account. There are two basic account breakdowns: 1. employer sponsored, which you…

  • My Account Setup

    I feel like I have a simple system. It includes a lot of accounts, but it makes it easy for me to see how much I have for each purpose and thus keeps my financial life organized. Money Flow On payday: my money goes into my main checking account. (This is after taxes and retirement…

  • 3 Simple Steps to Achieve F.I.R.E.

    It might sound too good to be true, but honestly this is exactly what you need to do, as simple as it sounds. There are plenty of ways you can optimize savings, taxes, investments, account types, yada yada yada. None of that means anything until you have these three things down. If you are just…

  • Calculate Your F.I.R.E. Number

    I use FIRE and FI interchangeably because I can’t imagine wanting to continue working after I’m financially independent, so the day I become FI will be the day I RE. I have a short list of things I must have in order so that I can quit. Here’s the simple way to figure out what…

  • No Spend Tip: Libraries

    I remember spending most of my time outside of school at the library down the street. I loved being able to read to my little heart’s content! My goal in life was to eventually have a library in my home. 
Fast forward to today: I am now a minimalist and I no longer desire to…