How to Retire Early – Let’s Run the Numbers + MORE

Greg writes in:
I don’t see how a person making minimum wage can ever become financially independent. It’s basically impossible.
It’s far from impossible. It’s just a matter of priorities.
Let’s say you’re single and live in Washington state, where minimum wage is $9…

I don’t normally talk about tax issues because other than at this time of year I don’t think much about them. However, in the spirit of the just passed tax season I want to spend a little bit of time examining how much taxes REALLY hit your finances. April 15th is famous as tax day and most people focus on their federal income taxes, but if you look deeper you will quickly see that your federal tax burden is the least of your tax worries…

It happened after September 11, Katrina, Sandy, the Boston Marathon, and other disasters, man-made and natural, around the world. After serious tragedies, when a compassionate public is at its most vulnerable, unscrupulous individuals find taking advantage the world’s generosity comes easy. Within hours — even minutes — of the news, new operations spring up, offering to collect donations in support of victims…

According to Ambrose Bierce the definition of debt is as follows:
“Debt n. – An ingenious substitute for the chain and whip of the slavedriver.”

Debt is an enslaver. All who are under debt experience the chains of stress as due dates approach and the lashes of pressure to pay them off. There are compassionate loan agencies, such as Platinum Direct, who are eager to help with debts, but at the end of the day, the only person who can solve the problem of debt is you…

I’m always surprised when I see otherwise confident, capable, and brilliant people cower at the prospect of a little friendly negotiating. When it comes time to buy a car, hire a service, or pick up a second-hand coffee table, we shy away from haggling…

This post is from staff writer Holly Johnson. On April 1st, I got an unpleasant surprise, and it wasn’t an April Fools joke or gag. I found out that one of our renters didn’t have enough money to pay all of his rent. Since nothing like this has ever happened before, I was definitely caught off guard…

 
 
Back in my college days I had several friends that seemed to have access to all the money in the world as they went to school. One friend in particular spent all kinds of money on off roading vehicles and modifications, and that was just one of his expensive hobbies. I was a bit jealous to see him and all the amazing things he purchased and did…

Over the past few weeks, several personal finance blogs have gotten clickbombed – including mine. Clickbombing is when a spammer clicks on your ads over and over again, which makes Google think that you are illegally clicking on your own ads, something that is against their policy.
All of our sites seem to have gotten attacked on or around the same day at the beginning of this month…

You know the old saying, “You don’t know where you’re going, unless you know where you’ve been”? I’ve concluded whoever came up with that phrase must have been drunk, or high, or drunk and high. If you look at my career progression, I don’t think anyone would have guessed I’d be where I am today…

Not too long ago, investing was seen as something expensive . . . something that only the rich could do. Now, though, that’s changed. Investing is something almost anyone can do.
However, investing can still get expensive. If you pay relatively high investing costs, usually due to fees, commissions, expense ratios, and taxes, you could see lower overall returns…

(Guest post by Dalene Heck of HeckticTravels.com)
Picture this:

6 weeks in Manhattan in a luxurious 2-storey brownstone.
3 weeks in London in a multi-million dollar home in the heart of Kentish Town.
6 months on the tropical island of Roatan, Honduras in a new 3-bedroom house with amazing views of the Caribbean Sea…

As new technologies often do, this sounds like something out of a sci-fi blockbuster: fabric that can soak up energy like a sponge, creating electricity just by being worn or left in the sun.But that’s what nanotechnologist David Carroll is working on at Wake Forest University and already testing out at home, Business Insider says…

I was talking with my coworker, rejoicing that pay day was well on it’s way. I told her that I loved to log on to my online banking to plan how to allocate my money.
My coworker shuddered. “I don’t “do” online banking. It’s not safe! I don’t want my banking information out there for everyone to see”…

Managing your finances well means paying attention to where every single dollar goes.
So, it’s time to ask yourself: how much money are you losing to hidden fees?
Cell Phone Service
Purchasing a new cell phone these days is a very complex process, especially if you care about what you’re being charged for every month…

Our friends over at Rather-Be-Shopping (who we mentioned in our post Websites That Help You Save Money put together an awesome infographic about ways to save money when shopping online. There are a number of strategies you can use when shopping online to save money, and I almost guarantee you there is something in the below infographic you haven’t tried before…

What does it take to retire early?While I have not retired early (yet), I do believe that I understand the basic concept of how to retire early and so I’m going to share my beliefs with you. I welcome your thoughts in the comments below.
Whether you want to retire at 35, 45, 55, 65, or 75, when you break it down to the basic components, retiring (no longer working for an income) is pretty simple: to retire, you need to save enough money or own enough income-producing assets so that you can live off of the resulting income and withdrawals…

One of the benefits of RRSPs is the flexibility you have to withdraw some of the money before retirement. However, even though you can withdraw money from your RRSP prior to retirement, it doesn’t mean that you should. The action comes with a cost. That cost is a withholding tax.
Withholding tax is the amount that the bank is required to submit to the CRA on your behalf…

MSN Money lists seven retirement savings busters as follows:

Extended long-term care could be needed.
Your parents may require assistance.
Children may still need help.
You may have unexpected travel plans.
Inflation will sap your purchasing power for decades after retirement.
Moving costs could be a big expense in retirement…

Debt can send out finances into a downward spiral fast. But besides being detrimental to our finances, there is also a strong emotional aspect to debt.
Denial
Often with overwhelming debt, people choose not to even deal with it. They let bills pile up and may not even realize how much they owe and try to ignore it…