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Want to retire early? Looking to be financial independence? Join us on our journey to F.I.R.E. We post tips and tricks for those we want to attain early retirement.

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May 2020 is a turbulent month in the US. COVID-19 is spreading because of state reopening. People are taking advantage of the troubling time to start looting businesses. Even with all these issues, we are still working toward our FI. New article post Our Financial Reflection – May 2020 appeared first on We on Fire - Our FIRE...

Originally we thought that things cannot be worse after COVID-19 hit America. We are proven wrong. At the end of May 2020, George Floyd died during a police arrest which sparked Black Lives Matter protest all around the US and the world. A lot of people took advantage of the uncertainty of this time and started to riot and straight-up looting. Not only are local businesses hurt enough by COVID-19, but now they are caught in the middle of a race war with their shop and business damage. 

Our apologies for the late update of the May financial reflection. Work has been really busy and we haven’t had any time to continue writing much in this turbulence time. Even though we haven’t been posting any articles, we still want to continue posting our monthly updates.

Things That Went Well

We still have a job! As unemployment is at an all-time high. We are counting our blessing that we can work to continue our work from home. 

In our 2 years plan, we will be moving to a cheaper city like Austin, TX. Mr.WoF asked his boss about the relocation and got approved. Of course, we will not be moving during COVID but now we know the possibility is possible. 

Our second avocado plant is growing quite well with the weather heating up for the Summer. Our first avocado plant is now growing again in the pot. We read online that in order to increase the chances of getting fruits then it best to have it growing next to another avocado tree. 

Things That Went South

Our A-star commercial property is getting hit hard by COVID-19 requested to lower the rent. This monthly we are getting 25% less rent than usual. The lease renewal deadline is next year. There are a lot of businesses closing stores or filled chapter 11. We hope that our commercial tenants will survive the COVID-19 and release their lease agreement. 

Financial Reflection

Mr.WoF’s fragile heart cannot deal with the market extreme fluctuation. Therefore, he decided to invest in the total market rather than picking an individual stock. Instead of waiting for the market to go down, he will now become an automatic investor, each week buy a share of the total market. 

The market bounces back a lot since the recent low. Even though the overall market bounces back, Boeing (BA) is still down a lot. This is why Mr.WoF is going to buy total market ETF from now on instead. If he had bought ETF instead of Boeing then he would have gained back almost all of his losses due to COVID-19 already. Sadly, I also own some BA stock as well. 

Expense In May 2020

This summer we have ZERO plan to go anywhere so our expense is minimal. Most of the expenses went to paying rent, food, and occasionally DoorDash. One good thing from COVID-19 is it’s forcing us to save a lot more than usual. 

Looking Foward

Since we are writing this in the middle of June, I know that my company won’t request for us to be back in the office this month. I continue to look forward to not being stuck in traffic. 

Our beta app development is going slowly. I hope we will be able to launch our beta this year. Our friends and family are very interested in using the app when it is out in the market. I hope this inner circle excitement will translate into a viral app. 

Overall of May 2020

The stock market quickly went up in May leaving us with jaw-dropping gain (maybe we should have bought more during April). The market is almost back to the February 2020 high. People are optimistic about reopening. We are cautious about the reopening because there is still no vaccine and cases in California increased by the thousands each day. 

New article post Our Financial Reflection – May 2020 appeared first on We on Fire - Our FIRE Journey.

Did you recently leave your job? Here are 3 financial mistakes that common 9-5 employees make with their money after leaving a job. New article post 3 Financial Mistakes Every Employee Need To Avoid After Leaving A Job! appeared first on We on Fire - Our FIRE...

Are you planning to leave your job? Did you switch to a new job? After turning in your work badge, there are financial arrangements you need to review. A lot of people fail to realize they need to take action on retirement accounts after leaving their old job. And failing to do these are lead to devastating results down the road. Here are 3 financial mistakes that you need to avoid after leaving your job.

#1 Didn’t Roll Over Your 401k To IRA

Unless you reached 59 ½, you shouldn’t cash out your 401k after leaving your company. Tax and penalty will eat away a large part of your 401k if you choose the cash option. So there are only three options left: do nothing, transfers into the new 401k account at your new company, or roll over into individual retirement account (IRA). The best option is to rollover your 401k to an IRA account. Doing nothing or transferring it into a new 401k account is not recommended and here is why:

More Investment Options

My 401k options included only 20 different investment options. These options are mutual funds, equity funds, and bonds. In an IRA account, you can choose individual stock, ETF, bonds, and many other types of investments.

Lower Fees

Management fee, administration fee, and expense ratio can eat away your nest egg. Rolling over to an IRA account can help reduce these fees. If you are paying more than a 1% annual fee, you need to look at other investment options for your 401k. According to NerdWallet, a 1% fee can cost millennials more than $590,000 over 40 years of saving. 

Broker Cash Bonus

To sweeten the deal, some brokers offer a cash bonus to open an account with them when you decide to roll over 401k to IRA. For example, eTrade offers a tier-based cash bonus for opening a new account with them.

#2 Didn’t Check/Exercise Your Stock Option

You get 90 days to exercise your stock options or you’ll lose your vested stock. The number of stock you receive will depend on your company. To exercise the stock option outside an open window, call your company brokerage account to help with you the transaction.

There are situations where you don’t want to exercise your stock options. For example, if the stock price granted to you is much higher than the current price then there is no point. You don’t want to exercise your stock option unless you know you will benefit from the transaction.

#3 Didn’t Review Your HSA Account

Depending on your company HSA bank, you might inquire monthly fee after you left the company. There are three choices for your HSA account: transfer the balance to your next company account, transfer to a new HSA account, or cash it out with a penalty. We DO NOT recommend you to cash out your HSA account. If your workplace does not offer an HSA program, you can create an HSA account with Lively It’s free and lets you use your HSA account to invest.

New article post 3 Financial Mistakes Every Employee Need To Avoid After Leaving A Job! appeared first on We on Fire - Our FIRE Journey.

It is difficult to keep track and invest our money when we are busy with work and family. Here are a list of finance tools that we recommend to help automate tracking and investing. New article post Finance Tools We Recommend appeared first on We on Fire - Our FIRE...

In our digital age, there are a lot of tools that can help us track, invest, and improve your finance. Without these tools, I would go crazy keeping track of using paper and pen or even an excel sheet (which I used to do before). Now with these tools widely available for free, everything can be automated to help attain our FIRE and other financial goals much easier.

These finance tools help us have a better picture of our financials including the goods and the bads to assist us in making decisions (some of these tools are part of affiliate program links). Here are the tools we use on a regular basis and we highly recommend you consider having under your tool belt.

HSA Investment

Lively

While working toward your FI goals, you can use Livelyme to make the most out of your healthcare saving. See how Health Saving Account is one of the most tax advantage account out there.

What we love about Lively: 

• 100% free for individuals and families.
• Easy and secure way to contribute or transfer money from your existing HSA plan.
• Fast support team to help resolve any questions you might have.
• Ability to invest your HSA money through TD Ameritrade brokerage.

Wealth Management Tool

Mint

Do you have a lot of accounts that need to keep track of? Well, I do! Mint simplified everything into one single page. It also alerts you when there is unusual spending or charge on your account.

What we love about Mint:

• One place to look at all your financial accounts. 
• It’s simple to link your bank and investment. 
• Help you create a budget. 

Personal Capital

If you want a personal financial advisor and an awesome dashboard to keep track of your fiance and retirement plan, Personal Capital is your tool. The 360-degree view financial dashboard is free to use without signing up for their financial advisor service. I use personal capital a lot to monitor my monthly cash flow since I have all my credit cards and checking accounts linked.

What we love about Personal Capital: 

• In-depth financial tools that include net worth tracking, budgeting, and cash flow. 
• Free financial retirement planner. 
• An analyzer for how the fee would impact your retirement plan. 

Stock Brokers

Robinhood

Want to exchange stock for free? Robinhood is one of the forerunner’s commission-free stock brokerage before everyone else. A pioneer of commission-free investing gives you more ways to make your money work harder.

What we love about Robinhood: 

You can buy different stock portfolios without paying any fees.  

Buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and other cryptocurrencies commission-free.

Commission-free options trading. (wow so many free ways to invest!)

Charles Schwab 

Charles Schwab is now also commission-free trading and it comes with all the stock analysis tools that Robinhood doesn’t have. Schwab offers a wide range of investment advice, products & services, including brokerage & retirement accounts, ETFs, online trading & more.

What we love about Charles Schwab: 

• You can buy different stock portfolios without paying any fee.  
• Buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and other cryptocurrencies commission-free.
• Commission-free options trading. (wow so many free ways to invest!)

Credit Score Monitor Tool

Credit Karma

Having a high credit score is important when you want to borrow money. A great credit score will help getting a lower interest on your loan which will help you save money. 

What we love about Credit Karma: 

• Monitor and check your score anytime for free.
• File your tax for free!
• Tips on how to increase your credit score.

Automatic Investing Tool

Acorns

Do you need help investing automatically? Acorns can round up your morning latte bill and use the spare change to invest. Acorns allow you to invest your spare change automatically.

What we love about Acorns:

• Start using the service for $1 a month. 
• No commission fee. You only pay $1 to start using the service.
• Micro-investing and Robo-investing

What are the finance tools you are using? Leave us a comment below.

New article post Finance Tools We Recommend appeared first on We on Fire - Our FIRE Journey.

This article is an instruction on how to use the velocity banking calculator. For the actual calculator go to https://weonfire.com/calculator/velocitybanking/ New article post How To Use The Velocity Banking Calculator appeared first on We on Fire - Our FIRE...

We recently just launched our new Velocity Banking (VB) calculator. It was a long time coming since our first Velocity Banking article on this site more than a year ago. We have the idea for a VB calculator for quite some time now but never got around. We finally published it this week! This article is an instruction on how to use the velocity banking calculator. To go to the calculator click here. 

#1 Enter Information For The Calculation

Loan Info

• Loan Amount : what’s the amount of your loan right now. 
• Annual Interest Rate: Enter a number from 0.01 to 20. This is your annual percentage rate (APR) of your loan.
• Loan Period: Enter a number from 1 to 360. This is the duration of your loan in terms of the month. 

Extra Payment

• Extra Payment Amount: Enter a number from 1 to 10,000. 
• Frequency: The only option is “Monthly”.

Velocity Banking

• Total Monthly Income After Tax : This is the amount of money that land in your bank account when you get paid.
• Total Monthly Expense (including mortgage) : Any bill that you have to pay each month. If the money is coming out of your bank account, then it’s an expense and needed to be accounted for.
• Number of Chunking: how many times do you want to use velocity banking. In simpler terms, how many times are you planning to use a loan to pay for another loan? Enter a number from 1 to 100.
• HELOC/LOC Interest Rate : Enter a number from 0.01 to 30. This is the APR for the second loan that you are using to pay off the first loan. 
• Chunk Amount (HELO/LOC Amount): Enter a number from 5000 to 500,000. This is the amount that you will use to pay off the first loan.

#2 Click “Next” to Complete

#3 The Summary Table

In the summary table, you will see a table showing traditional mortgage vs extra payments vs velocity banking. 

• The total interest is how much money you will pay toward interest during your loan duration. 
• Loan duration (months) is the amount of time it takes for you to pay off the loan according to the 3 different scenarios. 
• Number of Chunking: this only applies to velocity banking. This is the number of times you use velocity banking to pay your loan.
• Best solution for you indicated with a green checkbox is the lowest interest rate out of the 3 scenarios. 

#4 Click “Click To See Calculation Table”

Scroll down to the bottom of the web page and you will see 4 different tables: amortized mortgage table, an amortized mortgage with extra payment, amortized mortgage with velocity banking, and line of credit table. 

To expand the table, click on the table you want to see the detailed calculations. 

New article post How To Use The Velocity Banking Calculator appeared first on We on Fire - Our FIRE Journey.

For an introvert April is a lovely month! I get to stay at home all day long and chat with my friends online whenever I like it. The COVID-19 brought the stock and small business to the downturn. Unfortunately, our finances took a big step back as well. New article post Our Financial Reflection – April 2020 appeared first on We on Fire - Our FIRE...

For an introvert April is a lovely month! I get to stay at home all day long and chat with my friends online whenever I like it. The COVID-19 brought the stock and small business to the downturn. Unfortunately, our finances took a big step back as well. It doesn’t look like we will go back to “normal” anytime soon. California is still on lockdown until the end of May, but even then I don’t see how we can go back normal.

Things That Went Well In April

If you followed us from last month, we decided to move to a new house in the middle of the pandemic. Our decision turned out to be great! During the shelter at home, we stayed home 99% of the time. The other 1% is for grocery shopping and buying essential products. Our new place has a lot more room for us to roam around compare to the previous housing situation. Before, our limit was a converted garage room. Now, we have a living room and kitchen. The extra rooms help with both of us working from home and having meetings at the same time.

Things That Went South In April

I have another toothache. It was difficult to find a dentist that would do a root canal now because most dentists are close until June. I email all the dentists in my network to see if they are open. I was surprised to get an appointment the next day. Compare to last year, I had to wait 3 weeks to get an appointment with the endodontist. I’m happy this time the endodontist did make me pay the co-pay or else it will be another $300 out of pocket.
Working from home (WFH) have never been tougher for Mr.WoF. He used to WFH a lot and it was very relaxing for him. Yet, during the sheltering in place, Mr.WoF is working all day non-stop on three different projects. Working from home means working all the time for him and he can’t take that many breaks. He is currently the most stressed out ever since he started at his current company. So even though we are working from home, he now has less time working on side projects than before.

Financial Reflection

We both lost money playing stock options. At first, we gained $600 each and we thought we would be able to gain more. So, we bought more options and we lost money. The lesson here is we don’t know how to play stock options and should not gamble our money. We thought we could take advantage of the volatile market to makes some quick buck.
The second lesson for this month is to invest in the total stock market. Mr.WoF likes to pick individual stocks and he picked Boeing. I also own some Boeing stock as well. Much of our gain is wiped out with Boeing dropping by as much as 60% :(. We can only pray that the stock will rebound while we keep holding it.
Commercial Real Estate is much like a stock. It depends on which tenant is renting. Our first tenant is paying rent as normal during the pandemic. But, our second tenant does even want to pay enough to cover the mortgage. They want to have zero rent until the rest of the year. We hope that the government loan will be able to help us cover the mortgage while we are looking for an alternative.
To take advantage of the low stock market, we increased our monthly investment to our 401k.

Expense

Our money went to pay for essential items, food, and rent in April. We did spend more money on getting take out to deliver through Uber Eats and DoorDash. Most of the credit card expense this month is from grocery shopping and buying essential household items for our new place.
We do not have any fun expenses since nothing is open! We don’t usually have high expenses for extra-curricula activities anyways. Yup, we are hermit crabs.

Looking Foward

Bay Area extended shelter in place until the end of May. I’m looking forward to continuing to work from home and having zero traffic in May.
Mr.WoF is working hard to develop our app (planning to beta launch in September). Hopefully, he will have more free time after his projects are done. I hope the COVID-19 curve will decrease by June so life can go back a little normalcy.

Overall

To our surprise, our retirement accounts are up this month! Thinking about it now, I guess the market did bounce back a bit from the horrible month in March. We would be up even more if we did not buy Boeing :(. I think this time we really learn our lesson and just buy a total market instead.

New article post Our Financial Reflection – April 2020 appeared first on We on Fire - Our FIRE Journey.

Wondering how to spending your $1,200 check from the Cares Act? Click here to read how our FI community is planning to spend their stimulus check. New article post Saturday Night Read – Stimulus Check appeared first on We on Fire - Our FIRE...

The federal government passed $2.2 trillion to help people who affected by the Covid 19 pandemic. This is calls the CARES Act program. The act includes an increase in unemployment benefits, student loans forbearance, stimulus checks send to everyone who is eligible, and many more provision for self-employed, small business et al. 

This stimulus check aimed to help people who lost their job because of a temporary business closer. Stop slow the spread of Covid 19, the non-essential business has to remain close. Giving people free money will take a lot of discipline not to spend it all. Here are some suggestions from around the FI community on how to spend your stimulus check.

The Smartest Ways to Spend Your Stimulus Check by Dough Roller

So how should you spend your stimulus check? Obviously, boosting your emergency savings, paying off debt, or investing for your retirement are always great choices. But, beyond the TP and canned foods, what are some smart items to purchase if the coronavirus quarantine could stretch into August (or later)?

Coronavirus Stimulus Check by Frugal Rules

One reason Americans are receiving a coronavirus stimulus check this spring is to pay for essential bills. Many families live paycheck-to-paycheck, and this check can be a big help.

You may buy these essential items:

• Groceries
• Food staples
• Medicine
• Utilities
• Rent

It’s best to assess your situation to see what essential items are necessary.

What should you do with your stimulus check? By Money Saved Money Earned

So, what should you do with your stimulus check?

The answer will depend on you, but we’ve put together a list of things you could choose to do with your stimulus check depending on your circumstances. Each of these options is designed to give you the most bang for your buck and to benefit you and others that need the most help during these times.

Looking for more information about the stimulus checks? Click here for more

New article post Saturday Night Read – Stimulus Check appeared first on We on Fire - Our FIRE Journey.

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