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Haha! I think I read the blog post of the year this week on Rockstar Finance. It was written by Crispy Doc, and it expertly explained how anyone can freeze his or her credit. Here’s Crispy’s exquisite how-to in its entirety:
“Links below to freeze your credit report, can be done completely online:”
Freakin’ beautiful. Crispy’s exquisite how-to took twelve words. If you include the links and the cost and time estimates, the whole post came to fifty-two words.
My Stab at a Crispy Doc How-To
In honor of Crispy, I’d like to take a stab at a how-to that combines brevity with wisdom. Here, then, is my guide to being a kick-ass cubicle jockey in thirty words or less.
Get to work before everyone else. Learn VBA so you can automate as much of your job as possible. Be nice to everyone, especially those below your pay grade.
Tanja Reveals Herself
The dynamic duo behind the blog, Our Next Life, finally disclosed their true identities. That’s right. After three years of blogging, Tanja (pronounced Tonya) and her husband Mark finally dropped the cloak of anonymity. And you can read all about their rollicking ribald reveal right here.
But Tanja’s reveal isn’t what inspired me this week. Mrs. Groovy and I are going to remain anonymous for the foreseeable future. No, what inspired me was something she said during her appearance on the podcast, Choose FI.
Tanja was great throughout the whole interview, of course, but what really piqued my interest was her answer to one of the Hot Seat questions. Brad and Jonathan asked her what her favorite blog post of all time was and she chose one of her own, a post called, Don’t Listen to Us // Blogs Don’t Tell the Full FI Story.
I implore you to read this post. It will make you a better consumer of information. For Tanja has hit upon an important insight. Here it is.
Big bloggers, because of their blogging income, are no longer leading a true FIRE lifestyle, and as such, their unwavering belief in the feasibility of early retirement needs to be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism.
In other words, big bloggers aren’t a true test of the 4% rule. Mr. Money Mustache, for instance, makes hundreds of thousands of dollars annually from his blog. His annual expenses aren’t pegged to 4% of the portfolio he amassed at the time of his retirement. This is not to say his annual expenses couldn’t be pegged to 4% of that pre-fame retirement portfolio, or that the financial habits and mindset he has cultivated and championed aren’t useful tools in the quest for financial independence. This is just to say that Mr. Money Mustache is no longer a case study in early retirement. Retiring at 30 may be feasible, but his outlier blogging income makes it impossible to determine that.
And just for the record, I’m not picking on Mr. Money Mustache. Yours truly isn’t exactly a case study in early retirement either. Mrs. Groovy and I retired with a portfolio that was over thirty times our annual living expenses. I also have a mini-government pension that covers a little more than half our annual living expenses. And because of generous Obamacare subsidies, Mrs. Groovy and I can safely get by with a 1.5% withdrawal rate. So, yes, Mrs. Groovy and I are kicking ass in retirement. But would we be if we didn’t have a pension and Obamacare subsidies and we had to rely only on a 4% withdrawal rate?
So thank you, Tanja. You inspired me to be more forthcoming with my readers. I still think I have plenty to offer my readers as it relates to such topics as geoarbitrage, developing a prime financial culture, and appreciating the glories of passive investing. When it comes to the feasibility of retiring early and living off a 4% withdrawal rate, however, my readers will have to go elsewhere.
Quick aside: If you want to following someone who has retired early and is living solely off his portfolio—no pension, no Obamacare subsidies, no Social Security, no working spouse, and no blogging income—check out Maarten over at the Million In 10 blog. This guy’s talking the talk and walking the walk. And as such, he’s a much more reliable indicator of the feasibility of early retirement than Mr. Money Mustache and I will ever be. He’s also a terrific blogger.
Bloggers Who Vlog
A bunch of my favorite bloggers have also started to vlog. Steve and Courtney from Think, Save, Retire have a vlog called A Streamin’ Life. Katasha from Broke Girl Rehab has a vlog called—surprise, surprise—Broke Girl Rehab. Fritz from The Retirement Manifesto has an eponymous vlog called Fritz Gilbert. And Chris and Jaime from Keep Thrifty have a vlog called Our Thrifty Life.
They’re all great vlogs—very informative and fun. And to give you an idea of what I mean, here’s the latest from Chris and Jaime. They have a relaxed fireside chat style that is punctuated by copious slurps of coffee. Just try not to laugh.
Haha! Poor Chris. I had no idea what leggings were either.
Anyway, these six vloggers have inspired me because they put my vlog to shame. Whether we’re talking about production quality or FIRE-related content, my vlog looks like the proverbial redhead stepchild in comparison. And that has to change. It’s time to up my game.
But wait. There are two more bloggers who have gotten me all jazzed up about vlogging.
About two months ago, I discovered the blog Waffles on Wednesday. If you haven’t heard about this blog, it’s definitely worth a look-see. Mr. and Mrs. WoW are wonderful writers with a wonderful story. But more importantly, they never lose track of what’s really important on the road to financial independence: waffles and beer. After all, what’s the point of doggedly pursuing FI if you can’t enjoy the finer things in life along the way?
Surely, waffles and beer are truly inspiring. But what really inspired me about Mr. and Mrs. WoW is this: they reached out to me and pitched the idea of doing a remote episode of Talking Trash. We’re still working out the details, but hopefully in the near future you’ll see a video of Mr. and Mrs. WoW picking up trash while I inject my witty take on their efforts. I have no doubt it will be a blast.
So there you have it, groovy freedomist. My blogger friends have put me on a mission to elevate the quality of Talking Trash. Will I succeed? Will I fail miserably? Time will tell, of course. But here’s my first installment of the new and improved Talking Trash. Have a great weekend. Peace.
Great list, sir! I’ll have to check these out.
I’d have to argue in Pete’s defense, that he does publish his annual expenses down to the penny, and despite his extra blog income, he keeps it real. Sure doesn’t hurt to have a safety margin like his…. At any rate, every reader should take every blog with a grain of salt. Get inspired, do your homework, and figure out what’s best for your situation. The math don’t lie.
Hey, MNLIBTYNL. Fair point. I haven’t been to Pete’s site in a while. So it’s good to know that while he has a very nice backdrop, he’s still living a very FIRE lifestyle. That warms the cockles of my heart. There is hope for our seriously flawed species. Thanks for stopping by, my friend. I really appreciate it.
I love that Tanja’s article. She makes sense. Thanks for bring it to my attention.
Hey, we gotta make sure we inspire you next week 🙂 . Stay tuned.
99to1percent recently posted…Our 6 Financial Mistakes and 15 Lessons Learned
https://99to1percent.com/financial-mistakes-lessons-learned/
Tanja definitely nailed it. Very insightful. Thanks for stopping by, Ms99to1. And thanks for thinking about me. I look forward to be inspired again.
Thanks for the shout-out, Mr. Groovy! I love the idea of a remote recording of Talking Trash! Maybe Jaime and I could record one once she’s on her feet again!
I totally agree with Tanja’s point – it’s tough for us to get a true sample in the blogging works because most people who are FIRE and blogging are wisely monetizing to some degree.
I’m excited to check out Million in 10 to see a pure example!
My pleasure, Chris. I love what you and Jaime are doing. Great stuff.
WOW, (pun intended- you can thank Fritz for that) I love that we inspired you. To be honest, watching your Talking Trash videos actually made me more aware of all the trash that we see while out running or on the beach and actually inspired me that we need to do something about it. Can’t promise that our remote episode will be any good, but we will be doing something good for the environment and I reckon we will also have a lot of fun doing it too. Really looking forward to it!
Agreed, Mrs. WoW. Now that I’m picking up trash regularly, I more aware of how widespread it is. It seems every main thoroughfare I traverse these days is a suitable candidate for a Talking Trash episode. Sigh. Can’t wait for our remote Talking Trash. I’ll talk to you about it at the end of this week. Hope all is well in beautiful LA. Cheers.
Ooh I didn’t know about Maarten’s blog, thank you for the heads up. I never even considered Our Next Life’s thinking. Famous fire bloggers can probably fire all over again, easy.
I think your trash talk vlogs were very clever. Both format and length. I tap out at 30 minutes in terms of my MTV attention span. $149 for…what!!! Oh jeez, well I guess 1.5% withdrawal rate warrants it 🙂
Hey, Lily. Yes, $149 was steep. And to make matters worse, they kind of trick you into paying that amount. First, they allow you to download a trial version for 15 days. But they don’t tell you the trial version is the “Pipeline” version, their most robust piece of software. I played with the trial version for a couple of days and figured out how to make my avatar speak. Since I liked the result of my handiwork, I asked Mrs. G if we could buy the software. She agreed and we bought the least robust version, the “Standard” version, figuring that that version had to have all the features found in the trial version. Anyway, the Standard version cost $59, and it turned out that it didn’t have the talking animation feature. To get the talking animation feature, you had to upgrade to the “Pro” version. The Pro version costs $179. But because I was upgrading from the Standard version, it “only” cost an additional $90. Aaarrrggghhh! They got me. The only bright side to this story is that I have the right to download the Pro version software 5 times. Presumably, then, I could share the software with others. Thanks for stopping by, Lily. It’s always a pleasure hearing from you.
Great stuff here Mr. Groovy! Chris is the nicest guy, so glad I was able to hang with him a bit at FinCon.
Love the bathroom idea but I’ll stick to making my own food.
Looking forward to talking trash with the real Mr. Groovy someday soon, but Mr. MSD and I sure had some fun trying.
Absolutely! Mrs. Groovy got to speak to Chris one night during FinCon. He’s definitely the real deal. And so are you, by the way. Can’t wait to hand you the golden picker. Have a great weekend, Amy. Talk to you soon.
Hey, you make us sound so shallow, like all we care about is waffles and beer?!?!
I mean what about all the other things? Like football, stupid memes and shenanigans?
We’re super looking forward to making this work. Mrs Wow saw your video and made me watch it and we couldn’t stop. Maybe a little of a “train wreck” scenario, but we loved it none the less.
You might have just created a new tag line for us, “The road to FI, paved with waffles and beer.”
PS – You’re right… there’s really not much beyond waffles and beer.
Bacon… I forgot bacon
Yes, fruta del cerdo. How can we forget that?
Agreed. And you can make both at home!
“The road to FI, paved with waffles and beer.”
Best tagline I’ve seen a long time. And believe me, you and Mrs. WoW are far from shallow. Great minds are more apt to be delighted by life’s simple pleasures. Thanks for being an inspiration, my friend. We got to make the remote version of Talking Trash happen. I’ll shoot you an email this weekend with my phone number so we can talk next week. Cheers.
The WoW’s are really fun in real life, if you make it out to LA, make sure to give them a shout!
We may or may not have paid Erik to say that 😉
I know you didn’t pay. The WoWs’s are totally aboveboard.
Agreed. I have a nephew who lives in LA. As soon as we get out there to visit him, we’re looking up the WoWs.
Hey Groovy’s!! Thanks for introducing me to Maartens blog. I realize a ton of “retired” bloggers still make income so it is nice to see the other side. Of course, that isn’t to say that making money in retirement is a bad thing – I am ALL FOR IT – but when you aren’t yet FIRE’d it is nice to see what it may actually look like. Now, here’s to hoping all this writing turns into something I can count on in ReFIREment!! 🙂
PS – I love the WOW’s too!!
Exactly, Miss M. Maarten’s the real deal. And it’s nice to see the unvarnished view of early retirement that he provides.
Trust me, I’m not against making money in retirement either. It just hasn’t happened yet and the dire need is not there. Right now I’m following my passion with my hobbies but income from that barely breaks even the cost.
No, we love you more…
Same here Mr. Groovy. Yeah, I saved, and did well. But without my government pension, I’d be living in a van or eating oatmeal 3 times a day.
Thanks for the links to the blogs. You never know what others can teach us!
Frank
LOL! Yes, that government pension does come in handy. And I love your van allusion. I couldn’t help but think of Matt Foley. Made my day, Frank. Cheers.
Wow, Thank you for those kinds words. I’m both honored and flattered.
Still working hard on keeping the retirement alive (that is working without work associated income).
Instead of living large from affiliate income (trust me, I wouldn’t mind), I’m currently shuffling funds via the Roth IRA Conversion ladder to keep funds flowing for the next 12 years
My pleasure, Maarten. Mrs. G and I really admire you and your work. And your blog is pretty nifty as well. We love the Roth conversion updates, the 3-D printing stories, and the deep dives into our perilous healthcare system. Thanks for stopping by, my friend. And thanks for being an inspiration. Cheers.
My animator/cartoonist/gaming daughter will get SUCH a kick out of this! LOVE the new format, Mr. G! “As I get older…..my tolerance for germs is becoming thinner….”
Me too! What is that about??
Hey, Laurie. Yeah, years ago I could go into a diner and see some big hairy sweaty guy on the grill and not blink an eye. Now when I go into places and the cooking staff looks a little “edgy,” I leave. And I’m glad you brought up your daughter. I may have a need for her artistic talents in the near future. I’ll shoot you an email with my thoughts. Have a great weekend, Laurie. Always great hearing from you.
LOL, I always thought I was becoming a food snob because of my rising disdain for sweaty grill guys. Maybe I’m just becoming a germ snob. 🙂 Sounds great about Maddie. Mrs. G can tell you where to find me. 🙂
Hail germ snobs! I’m right there with you, Laurie. I’ll shoot you an email this weekend about Maddie. Cheers.
I definitely agree that Mr. Money Mustache is awesome but when he started raking in the dough it made it a little harder believing every word. Especially when he bought that huge new building for Mr. MMM activities.
Haha! I forgot all about his building. Yeah, Mr. MM has lost a lot of relevance. And that’s not a put down. His healthcare premiums could triple, and he’d still be cruising along. But for anyone trying to live by the 4% rule, such a jump in healthcare costs would be devastating. Thanks for stopping by, MSM. Have a great weekend.
I know it’s easy to think “now that MMM is rolling in dough he’s less believable”, but I don’t. If he was making $160k +/- a year pre-FIRE and only spending $30k, I don’t think much will change if he’s now making $400k. If extra money was going to “change him”, it would have changed him before he started the blog! Having said that, his ideas are still top notch and valid.
I actually know of a guy that picks up trash on the side of a the road like a bum – if he was suddenly “wealthy and retired” he’d still probably keep doing that. Crazy, I tell you!
Excellent point, Ron. Mr. Money Mustache is to be commended for not letting money corrupt him. He still lives a rather spartan life. In other words, he travels far more often by bicycle than by limousine. And I love the trash guy you discovered. Sometimes crazy is good. Thanks for stopping by, my friend.