Our current plan is to reside in the US until Mini RB40 starts college, then we will live part time overseas. I would like to live in Thailand and then South America for a few years each. RB40 Jr. will start college in about 16 years and we will be 56. We won’t qualify for Medicare until 65, so I want to take advantage of the lower cost of healthcare overseas w
[…] Read more:  Education options for the kid if we move overseas

First of all, I must confess that I’m still searching for the ultimate stock investing strategy. When I first started investing in the stock market, I put 100% of my money in growth stocks. This went well for a few years because I started in 1997. Then the dot com bubble burst and I lost a bunch of money. After that, I invested a bit more conservatively, but I
[…] Read more:  Evolving My Investment Strategy

First, what is Financial Independence? It’s that euphoric state where you don’t have to worry about money (much) anymore. Your passive income is higher than your expenses and you don’t have to work if you don’t want to. I have been sharing my views on Retire By 40 for 3 years now and many of our readers are actively pursuing financial independence (FI hen
[…] Read more:  You don’t need to be Financially Independent to Retire Early

It’s Halloween season! RB40 Jr. loves to read these two Halloween books and enjoys all the cute monster illustrations. They are his favorite books and he know all the “scary” alphabets. A is for apple, Z is for zombie! If you have a kid, check these books out. Anyway, we went out the pumpkin patch last week and it was a lot of fun. Actually, I have
[…] Read more:  The Pumpkin Patch Report

The US government has been on a partial shutdown for a week now with no end in sight. The bozos running the country are still bickering AND they are getting paid while 800,000+ people deal with having no income. Hopefully, Congress will get their act together soon and pass a budget before the US debt default date on October 17th. The economy will grind to a halt
[…] Read more:  How To Survive A Furlough Or An Unpaid Leave

We all know that figuring out our Asset Allocation is essential for long term investing. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, then you need to read last week’s article (linked above.) Unfortunately, the work is not done even when you have the ideal asset allocation for your age, risk tolerance, and goals. In a volatile stock and bond markets, your asse
[…] Read more:  Early Retirement Investing 101: Rebalance Your Portfolio

September Highlights and Lowlights Summer is officially over. We had two huge storm systems rolling by this weekend and we didn’t even leave our building on Sunday. It’s time to hunker down and catch up on our shows (via the library, of course.) New Year’s Resolutions – I gave an update earlier this week. I just need to take care of a few important th
[…] Read more:  September 2013 Goals and Financial Update

2013 is flying by and now it’s down to the wire! How are your New Year’s Resolutions doing? Summer was so busy for everyone and now it’s time to buckle down and finish up those resolutions before the holidays arrive. I had way too many goals this year. Next year I’ll concentrate on just a few big goals. Having too many goals aren’t good because I can’
[…] Read more:  2013 New Year’s Resolutions – Fall Update

Last week, I gave a midyear update on our dividend stock portfolio. It’s lagging behind the S&P500 index a bit, but it’s on par with Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG.) Our dividend yield so far in 2013 is 2.47%. This should go up by the end of the year because many stocks are scheduled to pay dividends in Q4. Anyway, many of the comments I received
[…] Read more:  How To Effortlessly Increase Your Dividend Yield

Asset allocation:  An investment strategy that aims to balance risk and reward by apportioning a portfolio’s assets according to an individual’s goals, risk tolerance and investment horizon. -via Investopedia. Whew, that was a little slice of Snoozeville. I will try my best to make the rest of this article a little more interesting… Asset alloc
[…] Read more:  Early Retirement Investing 101: Figure Out Your Asset Allocation