The 4% rule Retiring is easy, all you have to do is save 300 times your monthly expenses. This is until you do the math and see that this isn’t walking around money. The 300-times-your-monthly-salary rule and the 4% rule is one and the same thing. Whip out those calculators if you must. The 4% …
The cellphone cost cycle Every second year, like clockwork, we renew our phone contracts. We go in with a preconceived idea of which phone we want and just renew the contract. Never do we compare phones, we simply buy the latest phone of the brand we love. Two minutes later, we have our brand-new cell …
The future cost impact I want to retire early to travel the world. Yes, I know, you can’t go anywhere without someone telling you they plan to retire early. I’m not giving myself an age that I want to retire. I’m still enjoying my job and will continue working as long as I do. Eventually …
How we save Remember when you were young and really wanted that radio-controlled car? Your parents wanted to teach you the value of saving. They offered to pay for half, if you saved the rest. So diligently you put away your monthly pocket money until three months later, you saved enough to contribute your half. …
This is a follow-up article on the article titled why I’m selling my properties, In this article we saw that you will accumulate about 20% more money by building an income property portfolio. Here are some of the issues with retiring with property. 1) It is a lot of work The first issue that I touched on in …
While at university Today I want to tell you a hypothetical story about the true cost of debt. You went to school for 12 years, only to go to university for another 4 years. Your whole life you have never had your own money. Even at university all of your money came from your parents. …
Alternative investments Often it can feel like everyone giving you investment advice is only promoting share portfolios, dropping the microphone and walking off stage. This remains brilliant advice but does not mean we should ignore the merits of alternative investments. The big hype around the campfire these days are alternative investments in bees, blueberries and …
The case for buying real estate As a kid I read rich dad poor dad written by Robert Kijosaki. It was a good read, but the whole book (and probably a lot of the subsequent books as well) can be summarized in one concept. You need to spend the extra money you have every month, on …
There is a lot of hype around retirement annuities (RA’s) and the ridiculous tax advantage you get when using your discretionary allowance. By now everyone should be aware of the 27.5% tax free allowance you get when you contribute to an RA. This means that you can subtract your retirement contributions from your taxable income. …