In the pursuit of financial independence, tracking your numbers is one of the most important habits you can get into. Great numbers to keep track of include income, spending, debt, net worth, and more. Each item helps you stay on track towards your goals, see progress in real time, and project into the future what […]
Category: The Metagame
Starting the Next Chapter
After quitting our jobs to take a Gap Year at the beginning of 2018, Becky and I spent a full year traveling around the country. It was an absolutely amazing experience where we visited over 100 cities, met up with numerous friends and family, and added over 24,000 miles to our little hatchback’s odometer. We […]
How to Shop Efficiently on Amazon via Crowdsourcing
Shopping on Amazon can be overwhelming at times. A search for a simple product can sometimes yield hundreds or even thousands of potential choices! I’ll break down how to filter through these choices efficiently. Within minutes, it’s possible to locate the product with the best price to quality ratio, as chosen by millions of other shoppers […]
Job Spotter App Review: Hidden Money in Everyday Life
Do you pick up coins off the ground? Maybe only nickles and above? Job Spotter, a smartphone app, lets you find money hidden in plain sight in the form of “Now Hiring” signs! Snapping a picture of a hiring sign is worth between 5 cents and $1.50, paid out via Amazon gift cards. Job Spotter is […]
Financial Advice to a Young Software Developer
First of all, Congratulations! Welcome to the fast-paced, engaging, and constantly shifting world of software development. Of course, every company and position in the field varies, but the good news is that a skilled developer always has options. Always. If you’ve already made it through the interview process and have been given a job offer […]
Separating Decisions From Results When Investing
In personal finance (as well as life in general), there are going to be many decisions to make and the choice won’t always be an easy one. So when it comes to investing, it’s important to have an over-arching strategy that will help guide those month to month decisions of what to do with your […]
Choosing the Perfect Early Retirement “Income”
Let’s imagine you find yourself in the fortunate position of no longer having to work for money (a.k.a. financial independence). If you managed to achieve FI early enough in life, you might have walked away from work well before supplemental income such as social security or a pension kicks in. Depending on how you choose to […]
Gap Year Spending Month 2 – $3,555.27
We currently find ourselves 2 months into our Gap Year Adventure! The month of March started out in Arizona and ended up in western Texas, so we saw plenty of desert in-between the bigger cities. One of the biggest things we’ve noticed so far is how much time has appeared to slow down (which I […]
The Ultimate Movie Theater Discount Hacking Guide
Updated on 04/12/2018 There are a lot of different ways to save money in life, but it usually boils down to one of three different ways to reduce costs. The first two involve either cutting out the expense completely or replacing it with an alternative. These can be extremely effective, but come with the sometimes […]
The $1,000,000 Road Trip
While we are diligently tracking spending during our Gap Year Adventure, there is one significant item we haven’t touched on yet: Opportunity Cost. If you haven’t heard, my wife and I recently quit our jobs to road trip around the country full time. The amount of money left on the table by this new lifestyle […]