Bill Gurley spent years on Wall Street, built his career as a partner at Benchmark, worked through Uber’s hypergrowth era, and now serves on the board of the Santa Fe Institute, where he studies complexity and systems thinking. Public Release: June 9. Members have access now.Join us. Coming Soon: YouTube | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Transcript In this episode, Bill shares the mental models he returns to most, including systems thinking, second and third-order […]

Today we’re going to continue sharing thoughts from the book How to Retire by Christine Benz. It’s a great book which I highly recommend. And as with the last article, I’ll be giving away a copy of the book at the end of this post. We’ve already posted on this book as follows: How to Retire Planning for Retirement Strong Relationships Make a Successful Retirement Activities, Meaning, and Mental Health in Retirement Thoughts on Social […]

Whether you’re a fan of rom-coms, dramas, or thrilling suspense, you’re sure to have come across the versatile Anne Heche on screen. With an acting career spanning over three decades, Heche has left an indelible mark in Hollywood.  Wondering how many of this talented actress’s films you’ve seen? Here’s a list of Anne Heche movies, which will help you see if you’re a casual viewer or a true fan. 1. Donnie Brasco (1997) “Donnie Brasco” […]

Are lower expectations the key to a successful retirement?   We demand a lot out of retirement. What if the key to a successful retirement is lower expectations? We spend a third or more of our life retired. After all […]

A reader asks, “Sir, what return should I use while planning for retirement? I wish to retire by age 55. I am currently 35”. Many people make two mistakes while planning their finances. The first common mistake is presuming that equity mutual funds provide a 12%  (or more!) return and utilising that figure to calculate… The post What return should I use while planning for retirement 20 year away? appeared first on freefincal.

Hand soap: Photo from Pixabay/Petra Recently, I was walking with a friend who described how recent inflation has hit her family hard. She said that during the last week of the month, she and her husband are essentially out of spending money and have to be very intentional not to spend a penny. They contribute to savings and retirement accounts, and she mentioned she could reduce the amount they’re saving, but she doesn’t want to. So instead, she’s become extra frugal, especially toward the end of the month! This is something I’m super familiar with. There have been lots of times when I’ve had spending freezes (both by choice AND by necessity), so I get it! Dave Ramsey used to have a term for this: having more month than money. It’s so relatable! I guess I’ve been traveling down memory lane lately, because my last post was about unexpected medical expenses and the relief of being able to pay them (that hasn’t always been the case for me!). This conversation with my friend about needing to scrimp and save and how to get by during the last week of the month brought back all the feels. Memory triggered For some reason, this conversation triggered a memory from nearly 20 years ago, when I was about 25 years old. I was in grad school, broke as a joke, and doing my best to scrape by. I distinctly remember a trip to visit my paternal grandmother, who lived out of state and whom I didn’t see very often – maybe once every couple of years. At her house, I noticed that she had Bath & Body Works soaps in every bathroom, from her kitchen to her utility room! Yes, even the utility room had fancy B&BW soap! I remember the feeling as I washed my hands in the bathroom one day. It wasn’t envy, per se. It was more of a deep sense of sadness and self-pity. I remember thinking I could never afford such a “luxury.” At the time, my budget limited me to strictly to the cheapest hand soap, about 69 cents at the time if I recall correctly. And even then, I would buy the big refill bottle because it was cheaper per ounce and refill the dispensers instead of buying new ones when they ran out. As dramatic as this probably sounds, I remember tearing up and feeling financially hopeless. I was living on rice and beans (and spoiler alert… I’d be living on rice and beans for a looooong time to come) and felt sorry for myself that I couldn’t afford even the simple luxury of nice hand soap. Not to mention anything bigger! Comparison is the thief of joy Most of my peers were buying their first homes by that time, while I’d have to wait nearly a decade to buy mine. Friends had graduated college, been in their jobs for a couple of years, and were starting to get their first raises and promotions. I

The average American spends nearly $1,300 – $1,400 per year on their cellphone plan. If you look at your own plan, chances are it’s a noticeable portion of your monthly bills. Your cellphone charges are probably higher or at least… Source