After following Dave Ramsey’s baby steps to a T, I found myself wanting more.  Dave says to invest 15% of your income into your 401k up to any match given and then the rest into a personal Roth IRA.  Anything left over after that, try to pay your mortgage off early and invest in your children’s education funds.  Not too shabby advice!  However, I kept looking at my personal capital account and net worth balance (I would advise not doing this).  My mortgage balance was going down, slowly, and investments going up, slowly.  While all the investment books I have read and even Dave Ramsey state you get rich slowly, I was wanting more…  Dave Ramsey uses the Tortoise and the Hare as his analogy for getting rich slowly… but what if I want to be the Hare?!?!

Yes, I bought my daughters their first investing book!

Enter the FI/RE community.

There is this guy in Colorado that goes by “Mr. Money Mustache.”  He retired at the ripe OLD age of 30!  I had been watching videos on him and reading some of his blog for a year or two.  It was entertaining and he has lots of advice on how to retire early just like he did!  Watch this Youtube video to learn more about him and go to his blog www.mrmoneymustache.com.  In a nutshell live below your means and invest the difference.  The absolute best article that puts everything into perspective is “The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement” blog post.  Check his stuff out!

Obviously not all of us are in the position that he is/was, but that’s the beauty of it!  Not all of us want to retire early but almost 100% of us want to be financially independent!  From reading and listening to Mr. Money Mustache I found a podcast that I found extremely entertaining while very informative on how to reach Financial Independence.  Choose FI was started by two guys in Richmond, VA.  These guys interview fellow FI/RE individuals and mentors that have reached FI/RE or are well on there way.  ChooseFI does an unbelievable job of giving advice on how to optimize your life and strategy for reaching FI.    If this interests you at all check out their essentials listening guide to get started!  After listening to all podcasts and making my wife (to her dismay) a plan was born.  More on our plan to follow in future posts.  When it came to investing advice on Choose FI and Mr. Money Mustache guess what they recommend… you guessed it Passive Investing i.e. Index Funds!

Please don’t misunderstand me on the retiring early part!  I LOVE my job!  I believe I have the best career this state has to offer.  However, I am a realist.  Law Enforcement is a young man’s game.  Don’t believe me?  Current legislation does not let any Law Enforcement Officer in my state serve past their 65th birthday.  Why?  BECAUSE IT’S A YOUNG MAN’S GAME!  As far off as it may seem right now there will come a time when there will no longer be a patrol car in my driveway or uniform to put on.  Why not be Financially Independent when that happens…

Till the next post… check out this video on FI/RE people.  Besides the moderator throwing out everything negative someone on the outside could come up with, it’s a pretty informative snapshot.