Adventures In Deep (Crypto) Space

Investing in digital - or crypto - currency is somewhat of a taboo in the FIRE community. Say Bitcoin and you are frowned upon. You want to be one of us?  Denounce your deeds of darkness! Repent your evil ways! Follow us on the true path to FIRE. I exaggerate. But we do pride ourselves on making …

Time-Weighted Return

I've been struggling a bit with keeping track of the performance of my portfolio and specific assets and asset classes that I own. I am not an accountant. My initial approach to measuring performance was to take the difference between current portfolio or holding value (V), subtract the amount I invested (I) and divide the …

Thought Experiment: Oh hi, Marc

SavingNinja published another interesting thought experiment. I always wonder how he does it: Ask inherently thought provoking questions that I simply have to respond to. I enjoy these thought experiments a lot, but I have to admit: This new one is not easy. "A different opinion is somewhat frowned upon in our clique based society, but …

Investing: Embracing The Uncertainty

The other day I read 'the best investors are those with the patience and the perspective to do the opposite of what the masses are doing'. I've invested nearly all my invest-able money in one particular stock (my company's). The masses would never do that. The masses diversify. Now, it didn't only say 'those who …

Returns, Dividend Or Interest?

I found that many people appear to gravitate towards 'safe income' producing assets, like dividend-paying stocks. A dividend strategy can generate a "permanent" (more or less) form of income which can either be reinvested to boost wealth or be consumed without really impacting already accumulated wealth. Opting for a dividend strategy as opposed to relying on …

FIRE! The Ultimate Charts

What do you do if you aspire financial independence and early retirement and have a little time to spare? Do you go out to catch some rays? Or meet friends in town for a beer or two? Or will you just sit back and relax and feel fabulous because you know you're on your way …

Mintos Auto Invest Explained

In this post I will take a deep dive into the world of auto-investing on the Mintos crowdlending platform. It's a feature that allows you to let the platform invest your funds for you while you sit back and relax and  watch  your money grow. For those of you who are new to the concept …

Why Invest In Index Funds?

Investing isn't my second nature and I am scrambling up a steep learning curve to master the fundamentals. I sometimes feel like an inexperienced mountain climber who just realized he is afraid of heights while hanging off a cliff. The good news? While a mountaineer has little tolerance for mistakes, I can afford them. More …

Early Retirement: Could A Bad Sequence Of Returns Annihilate Your Portfolio?

You had done all the right calculations. At least that's what you thought. And according to the math the accumulated invested capital was exactly what you needed to bridge the years from your early retirement until full pension age. Even the average return was very close to what you had used in your formula's. But …

Crowdlending: The Mintos Way

Crowdlending (also referred to as peer-to-peer or P2P lending) is the concept where individuals (lenders) pool funds together to lend money to other individuals (borrowers), typically brokered by an online platform. This form of lending is bypassing banks or other financial institutions. One such crowdlending platform is European based Mintos.com, which is the first platform I …

The October Effect

The month of October is nearing its end and my company stock has been in some pretty rough weather. One day it was down, the next day it was up. But mostly down. I really feel like an inexperienced sailor on a tiny sailing boat, trying to cross the Atlantic. How should I interpret this? …

Diversifying My Portfolio: Yea or Nay?

Don't have all your eggs in the same basket. That's the saying. Don't base your hopes for a financially independent future on one particular asset. It's a sure-fire (!) way to lose everything you have ever saved. It will crush your dreams and hopes for early retirement. Not good! A diversified portfolio makes you less vulnerable …

How to invest in the ‘digital currency space’?

Update: This is a old post I wrote some time ago about investing in cryptocurrency. I am publishing it here because it is related to 'early retirement planning'. I am not actively investing in digital currency, but do operate a home made mining rig. Let's say you want to jump on to the cryptocurrency train …