While I am working toward my own goal of financial independence I am constantly trying to learn new things and stay motivated to accomplish my goals. Reading and following other FI blogs help with the process. There are so many things you can learn and tips you’ll pick up just by reading and implementing so many ideas. They don’t have to be exactly the same as you read them, but if you can even take one small piece of advice and work that into your plan you’ll simply get to your goals faster. The compounding of all the small little things add up over time. So here’s a list of blogs I’ve found really helpful (in no particular order) which are some of the ones that I would recommend that you follow:
Mr. Money Mustache
From the Blog:
Mr Money Mustache is a thirtysomething* retiree who now writes about how we can all live a frugal yet Badass life of leisure.
My (former) wife and I studied engineering and computer science in Canada, then worked in standard tech-industry cubicle jobs in various locations throughout the late ’90s and early 2000s.
Then we retired from real work way back in 2005 in order to start a family. This was achieved not through luck or amazing skill, but simply by living a lifestyle about 50% less expensive than most of our peers and investing the surplus in very boring conservative Vanguard index funds and a rental house or two.
1500 Days to Freedom
From the Blog:
I’m a family guy living in Colorado with my wife and two young children. I studied biology and chemistry in college, but somehow turned into a software developer. I’m
3941 and my goal is to retire in 1500 days at the age of 43.I hope to accomplish a couple things here at 1500days.com:
- Encourage and inspire others to abandon their consumer, spendaholic ways in favor of a more fulfilling existence. Our time on this blue-green, oblate spheroid is short. Let’s make the most of it.
- Learn. No matter how good you think you’re doing with an investment or saving money, someone is doing a better job. I look forward to interacting and learning from readers. If you have a good story or would like to guest post, I’m all ears.
JL Collins The Simple Path to Wealth
From the Blog:
Around here we discuss:
Money – Life – Travel – Business
Almost anything can fit if it captures my imagination and I think you might be interested.
The blog is best known for the Stock Series. If you are wondering whether to dive in, this independent review might help. I think it captures blog’s essence perfectly.
Fiery Millennials
From the Blog:
If you are a millennial who hates the rat race, this is the place to be!
I started this to document my journey to Financial Independence. My goal is to help guide my fellow millennials (that’s right, all you youngins out there. Yes, you.) along similar paths to financial freedom. Millennials are the group of people born anywhere from roughly the early eighties to the 2000’s. Basically, at the time of writing, anyone who can drive up to 30 some odd year olds.
Financial Samurai
From the blog:
In 2009, the world was falling apart, and my net worth was taking a beating. I thought it would be a good idea to start a personal finance site to help myself and others make sense of chaos.
After all, I had spent 10 years working at Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse, studied economics at William & Mary, got my MBA from UC Berkeley, saved aggressively, diversified my investments, and still got financially rocked!
Since the global financial crisis, more than 90 million visitors have stopped by Financial Samurai to learn, share, and grow.
Mad Fientist
From the blog:
By analyzing the tax code and looking at personal finance through the lens of early financial independence, I develop advanced strategies, spreadsheets, and software tools to help you retire even earlier.
Most personal-finance advice is geared towards people retiring in their 60s or later and doesn’t apply to those of us pursuing early retirement.
This site is focused specifically on providing advice and innovative tax-avoidance methods for people planning to break away from full-time employment very early in life.
Financially Alert
From the blog:
Why I Created This Site
I reached financial independence (F.I.) in my 30s and retired early (R.E.) from a traditional career when I was 36. This was made possible through a combination of aggressive saving & investing, entrepreneurship, and real estate.
However, none of this would have been possible without a positive mindset. I attribute this to great parents, mentors, coaches, and of course, some luck and grace from up above.
Now it’s my turn to help others to become financially alert. This means openly sharing the knowledge, strategies, and beliefs that can fuel financial freedom for life.
Cheif Mom Officer
From the blog:
I started Chief Mom Officer back in late 2016, when I was a 36 year old technology project manager tired of personal finance blogs being all about white men – and blogs for women being all about couponing and saving money. I’m a certified money nerd who has been reading and thinking about this stuff since I was a broke teenager and a young mom (pregnant my last semester of college, in fact).
At this site I write about personal finance, working motherhood, financial freedom, and other things that peak my interest in my spare time. The last few years “spare time” has been increasingly hard to come by, and apparently pandemics give me writers block, but I still want to share my story – and the story of others – here.
Our Next Life
From the blog:
Hiya! We’re Tanja Hester, the author of this blog and the book Work Optional, and Mark Bunge, the accomplice, and we retired at the end of 2017 at the ages of 38 and 41. Welcome to our home on the internet.
Where we can talk about the financial side of early retirement, but not only that. Our Next Life goes deep into the feelings and philosophy, too, encouraging our community together to think differently and go beyond even the early retirement community’s unconventional conventional wisdom.
Traveling Wallet
From the blog:
My name is Melissa, but here I’m known as the Roamer. Currently I am a 33
3231year old mother of 2 and wife of 1. I write here because I have a wild idea. I want to live a wildly unconventional life. My recent mini- retirement has shown me how much I’ve learned about making it possible and I want to share that information with the world. I want to help other families live and follow their wildly unique paths.To reach this turning point I have used the tools of minimalism and personal finance to create my own journey. To give not just my children, but my spouse and myself the opportunity for adventure through travel. To regain time to be a present parent through the very short years of our children’s lives at home.
Addition isn’t helping, so lets try subtraction
Tread Lightly, Retire Early
From the blog:
I’m a mama to one awesome five year old son and have been married since I was just twenty one. I work as a LEED AP for a company that builds green, affordable communities in urban areas. I have no plans to quit but am still very much focused on financial independence because it will give me the option to say “I want to be here,” not “I have to be.”
Join me on my journey to tread lightly and (maybe) retire early.
Rich and Regular
From the blog:
In 2012, we had our first conversation and argument about money. Luckily, we recovered from it and somehow gained the courage to tackle some really difficult conversations about money with our friends, family and each other. Over the next five years we paid off $200,000 in debt, dramatically boosted our net worth and learned a lifetime of lessons along the way.
Today, rich & REGULAR has grown into a community of like-minded people and because of them, our mission became clear; to inspire better conversations about money.
One Frugal Girl
From the blog:
Hi, I’m Jewels, otherwise known as One Frugal Girl. I am a forty-year-old wife, mother, blogger, personal finance enthusiast, optimist, former software developer, and achiever of financial independence. This blog is my story. Welcome to my little corner of the Internet.
The White Coat Investor
From the blog:
The White Coat Investor is the most widely-read, physician-specific personal finance and investing website in the world. It is the premier resource for high income professionals looking for unbiased information about all things financial or simply a referral to a trusted professional providing good advice at a fair price. What started as a simple blog has grown into a multi-media company that will provide you the financial information you need in whatever format you prefer. Whether you learn best from a blog, newsletter, book, podcast, videocast, online course, social media, forum, or live conference, the White Coat Investor is here for you.
Early Retirement Extreme
From the blog:
If you’re new here, this blog will give you the tools to become financially independent in 5 years. The wiki page gives a good summary of the principles of the strategy. The key to success is to run your personal finances much like a business, thinking about assets and inventory and focusing on efficiency and value for money. Not just any business but a business that’s flexible, agile, and adaptable. Conversely most consumers run their personal finances like an inflexible money-losing anti-business always in danger on losing their jobs to the next wave of downsizing.
Go Curry Cracker
From the blog:
Go to school. Get good grades. Get a good job. Buy a house. Work for 30+ years. Be a good consumer. Retire on a golf course.
For many, these are the ingredients for success. But life has more to offer those willing to change the recipe.
By living in a small apartment in an old building, walking and biking instead of owning a car, and preparing most of our meals in our own kitchen, we were able to save a large percentage of our income. Instead of buying things and services, we learned new skills that reduced our expenses even further. By learning to invest, we turned those savings into a respectable income stream. Now still in our 30’s, instead of 2 weeks of vacation a year, we have 52.
We are Jeremy and Winnie. Together we are Go Curry Cracker, a rallying cry we earned on our honeymoon hiking trip. This blog shares our journey.
Afford Anything
From the blog:
I’m Going to Make a Few Guesses About You
You want to take control of your money — not be controlled by your money.You don’t want to spend 40 years in a cubicle.
You’re smart.
You’re different, unconventional. Maybe even a little rebellious.
You own your sh*t – you take command of building a better life.
If this sounds like you, welcome home. You’ve found a great community in this little pocket of the internet.
Afford Anything is a movement rooted in one idea: You can afford anything, but not everything — and that’s true not only for your money, but also your time, focus, energy and attention.
Retire by 40
From the blog:
Is it really possible to quit your career and leave it all behind before you’re 40? That’s the question I had when I started blogging in 2010. I had been a computer engineer at Intel since 1996, but the job wasn’t the right fit for me anymore. They needed senior engineers who can spearhead projects and mentor people. That wasn’t me and the job became more and more stressful. My physical and mental health deteriorated and I knew I had to get out.
I started Retire By 40 to keep track of my early retirement journey. It was a place to share my aspiration for Financial Independence. This was where I planned my exit strategy from the corporate world and our readers kept me accountable. I had to make a detailed plan and follow through. Eventually, I gave my notice and left the corporate world forever in July 2012.
Root of Good
From the blog:
Ok, sir, but why should I listen to you since you’re just some dude on the internet?
Most folks blogging about money and financial freedom on the internet fall into two categories: (1) deep in debt and deftly paying it off, or (2) hard core savers that accumulated great wealth at a young age.
I would put myself in the latter group. Our household has grown moderately rich by being frugal, saving a large proportion of our earnings, and investing our assets wisely. No winning lottery ticket ever fell into our pockets (who wastes money on lottery tickets anyway right? ). No unknown rich great uncles that hate their immediate family have left us massive inheritances. Yet. Unfortunately we were born without a trust fund. Neither of us have ever worked at a dot com or start up that paid out huge stock options eventually worth millions when Google or Facebook bought the start up.
My wife and I had regular jobs working roughly 9 to 5 each day and we saved most of our paychecks. When we first started working after college, collectively we made well under $100,000 annually. In 2013 when I quit working, our household income topped out around $150,000 annually. While working, we consistently pumped our savings into 401k’s, IRA’s, HSA’s, 529’s, and regular brokerage accounts. These investments grew enormously over roughly ten years and made us financially independent today. Here’s the full story on how we went from zero to millionaire in ten years.
Physician on Fire
From the blog:
Physician on FIRE is a personal finance website created to inform and inspire both physicians and our patients with insightful writing from a physician who has attained financial independence and the ability to retire early. The site has a triple aim to leave visitors enlightened, educated, and entertained.
PhysicianOnFIRE.com is a web log a.k.a. blog site dedicated to the discussion of issues pertaining to personal finance, early retirement, medicine, and miscellany. I will post new material every week as long as I have something to say, and readers to read.
Early Retirement Now
From the blog:
In the large spectrum of existing Early Retirement blogs, where is my niche? I hope that people will enjoy my views on everything financial. Sometimes I read other blogs and we have something intelligent and new to say, but by posting in the comments section, not many people will get to see it. I like to create a permanent record, share our views with a hopefully larger audience, and get feedback and suggestions for our journey to Early Retirement. Some of the topics I write about:
Safe Withdrawal Rates for early retirees: See the multi-part series on the topic and the SSRN working paper!
Check out the Safe Withdrawal Rate Case Studies.
I don’t like Robo-advisors! You can easily replicate what they are doing for free.
I like alternative investments, especially option writing.
I think the Emergency Fund is overrated.
Steve Adcock
From the blog:
Both my wife and I worked information technology jobs for over a decade before completely changing our outlook on life and saving 70% of what we earned to retire to a life full of travel and adventure. Instead of spending eight to 10 hours a day in an office, we spend it out hiking trails, boating lakes and visiting breweries.
I am an entrepreneur and writer. A fitness buff and lover of Netflix originals. I have fun with whatever I do and don’t look back after blazing a new trail.
I write about healthy selfishness and the wisdom behind putting yourself first to build a solid foundation on which to help others, get involved and make a positive difference in our communities.
The Fioneers
From the blog:
We started the Fioneers as a way to track our journey to financial independence. If there’s anything we have learned so far, Financial independence has many definitions.
We choose to think of financial independence as:
the point at which our assets produce enough sustainable income to cover our living expenses.
This is not just about the money, but more importantly about the freedom that comes with it.
The name “The Fioneers” comes from a combination of: Financial Independence (FI) + Pioneers.
We think the name fits well with our deep-rooted love of adventure. It’s also a constant reminder to enjoy the journey.
ChooseFI
From the blog:
Led by Co-Founders and Co-Hosts Brad Barrett and Jonathan Mendonsa, ChooseFI has become home to the largest Financial Independence community in the world. Every podcast episode, video, and blog article is packed with relatable, real-life content crowdsourced from the FI community. Join the guys each week as they share the best life hacks, strategies, stories, tools, and resources to help you take control of your money and get 1% better each day on your journey to FI.
Whether you are new to the concept of financial independence or a seasoned veteran in the process of FIRE and are well on your way, there is always something more to learn. Looking for and connecting with those who are on the same FI path as you will help you on your way.
Have we missed your favorite financial independence blog? Let us know in the comments below! Thanks!