Money FI Blog
Musings on financial independence, investing, FIRE and life.
by Brendon @ Money FICategory: Personal Finance
Insurance is a grudge purchase which we tend to set and forget. We push it to the back of our mind, diligently pay our premiums and hope that we didn't miss any fine print if we ever need to claim one day.
As our lifestyle changes, it's important to review our insurance so that we aren't under or over insured. As much as we all hate paying those premiums, it's a harder pill to swallow finding out when we claim that we're not as well covered as we thought.
Lifestyle creep is what keeps high income earners living pay check to pay check, unable to step out of the rat race and always feeling like they never have enough money.
Instead of buying freedom, impressive salaries often increase a feeling of being trapped and always wanting more.
A few months ago thrifty-wife and I finished paying off our mortgage and as a result found ourselves with some extra money every month.
This triggered some research into whether we wanted to increase our existing monthly ETF investments, purchase a 2nd property to rent out or begin investing in a REIT.
By purchasing under our means and analyzing our financial situation, we paid off our home in 4 years so we could be debt free.
Our focus is now on making our money grow and work for us rather than paying off multi-decade debt.
How do you decide if something is cheap or expensive? When does something become a worthwhile purchase even if the upfront cost is high? How do we compare alternatives?
In this post I look at the concept of cost per use which can help us make more informed purchases and save money over the long term.
How much does that daily cup of coffee or those weekly meals out cost over time? What if you cut out or reduce a few small recurring expenses and invested that money instead?
In this post I investigate the true cost of seemingly small recurring expenses and habits over time and the effect they have on our future net worth.
My wife and I have just had our first child and among the million things going through my mind is our journey towards financial independence.
In this post I write about the arrival of our son and my plan to ensure he learns good money habits from an early age.
