The journey to and through financial freedom, in a new era of work and tooling.
Frameworks, tools, and field notes from the road to financial independence and beyond. Built on simple habits. Updated for how the world works now.
FIRE is how you protect what you love from having to pay the bills
Most FIRE content sells the dream of escape. The trap is what comes next: turning your passion into your livelihood and putting it right back under financial pressure. The real prize is the life where what you love never has to perform.
F-You Money: the confidence to choose good work
The Gambler put it at $2.5M. I put my number higher. The math is in the post. The number isn’t the point.
Coinbase: my HOLD app for crypto
The structurally separate, ~1% of net worth allocation that lets the FIRE money stay passive while crypto runs in the background.
Robinhood: my contained speculation account
Where the active-trading itch gets scratched without infecting the FIRE portfolio. The cage that lets the rest of the plan stay disciplined.
13 Simple Money Habits for Financial Freedom
The full framework that took me from zero to financial independence. Thirteen habits, ordered by leverage, each one a building block for the next. If you read one thing on this site, read this.
What’s actually worth your time
The money tools I personally use, plus interactive tutorials for the exercises every serious financial plan starts with.
Rocket Money
The keystone app for tracking every expense, every account, and your real net worth in one place. The data the rest of your plan depends on.
Read the reviewAcorns
Where my Perpetual Emergency Portfolio lives. Roundups and recurring deposits, growing the emergency fund quietly in the background.
Read the reviewSoFi Credit Score
Free credit monitoring and fraud alerts. Saved me hundreds of thousands during the major-financing years. Now an identity-theft early warning system.
Read the reviewFundrise
The alternative-asset sleeve. Private real estate and private innovation exposure without public-market correlation. The smoother-ride diversifier.
Read the reviewCoinbase
The structurally separate, ~1% of net worth crypto allocation. Buy, hold, stake, repeat. Designed to never contaminate the FIRE money.
Read the reviewRobinhood
The contained speculation account where the active-trading itch gets scratched without infecting the FIRE portfolio. Separation as strategy.
Read the reviewSSA lifetime earnings
The exact dollar amount you’ve earned in your entire working life. The first exercise from Your Money or Your Life. Free, foundational, ten minutes.
Run the exerciseYour Wealth Ratio
Net worth divided by lifetime earnings. The Stanley/Danko measure that captures the full story of how you’ve handled the money that’s passed through your hands.
Run the exerciseEssential reading
Cornerstone essays covering the major branches of the journey, from FIRE flavors to wealth building to the psychology that keeps the whole thing on the rails.
Darwin FIRE: early retirement for the perpetually curious
What early retirement actually looks like for high achievers who can’t sit still. Three short blocks of deep work, modeled on how Darwin spent his days.
Coast FIRE: the balanced path to early retirement
How to reach financial independence without extreme frugality. Let your investments compound while you live a normal life.
Barista FIRE: independence with flexibility
Partial financial independence covered by part-time work. The practical bridge between full-time grind and full retirement.
Lifestyle creep: public enemy number one
The single biggest reason high earners never reach financial freedom. Every dollar of permanent monthly creep adds 25 to 33 dollars to your FIRE target.
How to make one million dollars
A step-by-step roadmap to your first million. Practical strategies, realistic timelines, and the math that makes it possible.
Income producing assets
Build wealth that works for you. The income-generating investments that create real passive cash flow over time.
How to invest $30,000 in today’s market
Two real allocations, deployed deliberately. A Rainy Day Fund outside the S&P 500 tech trade and a Coinbase HODL fund for asymmetric upside.
VOO vs VTI: which ETF is better?
A deep comparison of two of the most popular index funds. Differences that matter, differences that don’t, and how to choose.
The 15 best personal finance books
Fifteen books, ordered by where you are in the journey. Most lists are longer because longer looks impressive. Shorter is more useful.
Browse by area
Six branches of the journey, each with its own collection of essays, frameworks, and tools.
FIRE Movement
Lean, Fat, Coast, and Barista. The flavors of early retirement and how to choose.
Investing
ETFs, portfolio construction, and the long-game decisions that compound.
Income
Career, side income, and the income side of the savings rate equation.
Reviews
The money tools and platforms I actually use, evaluated from real usage.
Salary Conversions
What salaries translate to in hourly, monthly, and lifetime terms.
Money is a Funny Thing
The psychology of money, lifestyle creep, and the human side of wealth building.
Simple Money Habits is about the journey to and through financial freedom. The thirteen simple habits that built the path are the foundation. The new era of work, tools, and time leverage is the frontier we’re exploring together.
The original FIRE playbook was written for a different decade. Index funds, 25x expenses, a brokerage account, and a glide path measured in years. That math still works. The world it was written for has shifted. Careers compress and decompress in ways they didn’t a decade ago. Tools that used to require a team can now be built in an afternoon. The path to freedom is changing shape, even if the destination hasn’t.
What you’ll find here: the frameworks that still hold up, new ones written for what’s actually happening now, reviews of the products and tools that are worth your time, and the ongoing record of a journey that’s still being walked.
Marcus, author
The road is long. Walking it well is the whole point.