Hitting a Moving Target

It is weird to think that this blog is over six years old now. Back when I was starting out in 2012, I was only 32, had only recently started getting interested in financial independence and early retirement, and with the fervor of the newly converted, thought I should be able to knock out that goal in eight years.

Mrs. Done by Forty and I were newly married and still didn't know whether we wanted kids in the near future, or at all. We were living in our first house, a true fixer that was originally a two bedroom, one bath with odd additions for the third bedroom and second bath. We were renting out a room to help pay the tiny, $104,000 mortgage. Looking back at our old budgets, we were frugal. Our annual spending barely tipped over $30k, after we had the mortgage paid off.

I figured retiring by forty would be pretty achievable.

But a lot's changed over the past six years. 

Work Optional: Rebranding FIRE

Inspiring, thoughtful, and detailed to the point of wondering if a book can be too well researched, Tanja Hester's Work Optional examines financial independence and early retirement with a scope that sets the book apart. This easy read can surely introduce "FIRE" to a newcomer, while forcing long-time enthusiasts to question how well they've really thought their early retirement plans through.

Engaging and thought-provoking throughout (no small feat considering most people will get up and walk out of a room to avoid a discussion about money), Work Optional deserves a spot beside A Simple Path to Wealth: the two books you should share with a friend or coworker asking what this whole financial independence thing is about.

Hester manages to balance the small-but-necessary details (for example, have you, thirty-something early retirement enthusiast, budgeted for the fact that Medicare will only cover 60% of your medical expenses thirty years from now?) with the motivating, why-are-we-doing-this big picture items. (What kind of life do you want to live? What does your ideal day actually look like?)

The Wage Gap, & Sharing Salary with Women

Source

"We are labor. They are management," Ang, my coworker friend from the other side of our cubicle wall, reminded me.

"I know. But I'm new."

Without me realizing it, as a 21 year old employee who knew nothing about anything, Ang was mentoring me, as well as advocating for me to be reclassified. I was technically doing the work of a buyer, while being paid as an administrative assistant. 

If she was right, I'd be reclassified into a new role with a higher salary. But submitting formally for a reclassification was tricky: we had to involve the union, human resources, my own boss. And it might not work, which could be a career limiting move. Would my boss view it as a slap in the face?