F.I. Nomad

Every FI/FIRE investor, every real estate investor, and all digital nomads have their money, accounts and financial future sitting online literally behind basic passwords and maybe a single two-factor text message. Meanwhile, hackers have databases of account breaches and most every persons password(s) are somewhere in plaintext online paired with their email. That fact alone should be enough to cause concern and get you to consider upgrading your security. This article aims to be a full introduction into securing your online presence and utilizing a mix of 2FA, Biometric and U2F security. I’ll walk you through the tools, websites and practices step by step so you will be sleeping better at night knowing your finacial future is not being looted.

Incorporation is scary for anyone who has not done it before. It is not something that you just do in more normal circumstances when you are working the W2 9-5 life. However, the tax and personal finance benefits greatly outweigh these fears and is a vital piece in the finance toolbox which could shave years off your path to financial independence.

This article is base on several posts on the ChooseFI facebook group in which there was a lot of confusion and uncertainty about incorporation and how incorporation works. This post intends to clarify those specifically for the USA audience.

If, like me, you have read through all the real estate investing books, you are all excited to start and want to get busy with the parts where you are evaluating properties to see if they will cash flow. You have probably ran into the issue that most do, all the calculators that are limited and behind pay-walls and the “real estate guru’s” who sell Excel spreadsheets and so on. It’s kind of irritating.

I noticed this also and want a spreadsheet that will do all the basics well, but also print nicely. Being a software engineer, I decided to create my own and I am happy to share it with you here.

Rewards and other cards with points systems and long lists of benefits can vastly enhance a FI/FIRE plan with the savings and purchase protections that come built in. These cards can also be a ‘nice perks’ part of your financial independence and early retirement plan if used correctly.

Higher-end rewards cards offer an array of nice savings, reimbursements, insurance and other financial protections that someone on a ‘cash’ only budget would not have access to. However, care needs to be taken with any kind of credit and in order to properly use these cards you will need a plan so you don’t get lost in the weeds and end up not getting the sign-up bonus points.

But first, lets clarify what it is we are going to be doing.

You need proper categories for your budget and you need to stop using “misc”, “cash” or “no category” for your line items. As I experienced in my own budget the ‘misc’ category will grow as you just toss excess spending into it and you defeat the purpose of categorizing your spending.

So, you need a definitive list of categories in order to not have to use ‘misc’ and I have come up with that list for you.

Alternative housing can help speed you to financial independence. I am fascinated by alternative housing and the various movements around them. To work towards financial independence you need to save money, a lot of money and the best place to save money is your housing costs because for nearly everyone, those are the highest per month costs. So, I like to explore alternatives to the ‘normal’ mode of living in a normal house and enjoy looking at some of things people are doing to escape the high costs of rent and mortgages. The big issue about alternative housing seems to be “getting out of your comfort zone”.

This blog will be an attempt by me, FINomad, to be clear and open about my finances and challenges and to try to explore and dive deep into topics which touch on at least one of, but preferably two or even all three topics: Financial Independence (FI), Financial independence with the goal to retire early (FIRE), Real estate investment (REI) and Digital nomad-ism/Geo-arbitrage (DN). Topics will range from everything from frugality to leveraged ETF’s, AirBNB from both perspectives and so on. I have lot to learn, a lot to talk about and I will try to be as transparent as possible. So, lets start with what I am doing…