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I used to think hitting financial independence would flip some internal switch. That I'd wake up one day and suddenly operate differently—more sophisticated, more intentional, more free. I had a clear picture in my head of what post-FIRE life would look like. Turns out, the reality is messier than the spreadsheet ever predicted.

6 years ago, when I started this blog I had a goal of retiring and spending part of my free time building tools and community for the FIRE audience. Many things have changed, goals have been met, even exceeded, but my desire to continue to give back to the FIRE community is still there. I achieved FI by earning a decent salary as a high earning 9-5 employee, being financially active, not overspending, and repeating that for 15 years. Nothing special.

I’ve been a manager for 9 years, a Director for the last 3, running ~45 people across two orgs. By all external measures, I had “made it.” Titles, scope, social recognition, the kind of comp that makes FIRE possible years ahead of schedule. And yet, lately, I’ve been asking myself: what if I went back to being an IC? Not because I stalled out. Not because I couldn’t “climb higher.” But because somewhere between chasing FIRE and hitting it—I rediscovered something about myself: I actually love building things. Let’s break this down through the lenses that always mattered to me: FIRE, money, stress, fulfillment, and recognition. Are you ready? Standby.

Happy New Year! 2024 was another fantastic year for investors. Even though I barely moved any money around, I had my 2nd highest return ever. 2024 was also a year where I felt comfortable enough to move decent chunks of money into non-traditional investments. In this post, I will review some of my year's highlights. Are you ready? Standby.

These days I hardly ever think about money. It is quite the contrast from before when I’d check in on the stock market every day, do back-of-the-napkin math on investment opportunities, and follow the Federal Reserve for macroeconomic movements like a hawk. But after some reflection, I must admit that I am a little stuck in my progression towards FIRE. In this blog post, I want to share the 3 challenges all FIRE people go through and how one of them currently has me in a pickle. Are you ready? Standby. (FIRE update at the end)

2023 was a fantastic year for people who held on to their stocks–up ~25% for the year. Despite interest rates, the cost of housing, and the cost of cars still being high, it was an overall good year for investors. As long as you were in crypto, bonds, or stocks it was pretty hard to have lost money. In this post, I will go over some of the highlights of my year. Are you ready? Standby.

Over the last 8 years as a manager of engineers and having been in hundreds of conversations about promotion candidates, I have learned that there is a huge disconnect between employee expectations and reality. Specifically, there is a gap in understanding of the employee’s role in the promotion process vs their manager, of the employee’s impact vs how hard they work, and of the employee’s behaviors vs how they are perceived by others. If you are frustrated about your lack of promotion or just want to learn how the sausage is made, this post is for you. Are you ready? Standby.

4 years ago when I started MyRoadToFire I got a good amount of readers because the FIRE community was defining fatFIRE as having a net worth of $2,500,000 but I, and many of you, believed that to be too low. In 2019, I strongly believed that having $4 million would comfortably allow a family to FIRE. Fast forward to the end of 2023, I strongly believe that having only $4 million would be extremely risky for that same family to FIRE. So was I wrong? As one of my most annoying managers used to say “yes and no.”

It’s been 6 months since my last post and a lot of positive things have happened at the macro level. Inflation went from 6.0% in Feb 2023 to 3% in June 2023. The S&P 500 index rose 14%, FB up 121%, TSLA up 60%, MSFT up 39%, AAPL up 37%, GOOG up 36%, and AMZN up 31%. These are all significant gains and it makes me wonder if I should continue my long breaks in blogging to keep this streak going. But I cannot not blog about my personal update tonight because I’ve reached another personal milestone. Are you ready? Standby.

For many, 2022 was a disaster year. Especially for me. I was set back by $1.84 million–yikes! Many people believe we still haven’t hit bottom yet and even fewer people believe that we will recover to 2021 levels in 2023. My prediction is that SP 500 will continue to hover around 3800-4200, mortgage rates will continue to hover around 6%, residential real estate prices will drop, but tech stocks will boom. Based on those predictions there are 3 areas I want to put my money to earn a positive return in 2023. Are you ready? Standby.

8 years ago when I put pen to paper, I had marked the Winter of 2022 as my target date to retire. Like most multi-year estimations, I was wrong. 8 years ago I did not have a wife. I did not have 3 kids. I did not own a house. And I understood very little about personal finance. In this post, I will talk about how far off I think my estimation was and the lessons that I’ve learned as a result. Are you ready? Standby.

I started this blog almost 3 years ago with the goal of sharing my personal finance story with the world. I took the dive not knowing if people will care, or worse, feel resentment towards my success. But through this blog, I’ve reunited with some old friends and I’ve been introduced to new ones. We all share the same optimism around our own personal financial success. Additionally, I’ve had the pleasure to sit down with some people to listen to their stories and understand how they have achieved the American Dream. It’s very humbling to learn about their unique challenges and how they’ve overcome them. These are the exact stories that are missing from today’s mainstream media but are silently happening every day.

Today is my last day of paternity leave. I can’t believe it’s only been 4.5 months–surprisingly it feels much longer. In the last 4 months, we invited the 5th member into our house, moved our family down to Texas, went to urgent care multiple times, changed sleep configurations 10+ times, and saw my net worth increase by at least half a million only to see it dissipate in the last week. In this post, I will talk about my FIRE update, my experience moving to Texas, and share a little bit about the cost of living in North Dallas. Are you ready? Standby.

Several months ago I was delivering what may be my last downward feedback to the engineers on my team. At my company, we go through a lengthy process of 360 feedback and several rounds of calibrating with other managers to ensure fairness. And as I reflect back on my 6 years of being a people manager, there are qualities of employees that are more highly rewarded than others. Unfortunately, the hierarchy of importance of those qualities aren’t known to most people. In this article, I will talk about 4 of the top 10 ways I believe will make you a successful employee at a big company, especially if you’re still young in your career. Are you ready? Standby. In case you missed it, you can find the other 6 ways in Part I and Part II.

Just 2 months ago I was delivering what may be my last downward feedback to the engineers on my team. At my company, we go through a lengthy process of 360 feedback and several rounds of calibrating with other managers to ensure fairness. And as I reflect back on my 6 years of being a people manager, there are qualities of employees that are more highly rewarded than others. In this 3-part blog series, I will break down the behaviors that are needed at different stages of your career in a big company. This is part II of a III part series. In Part II, I will cover 3 more behaviors and skills needed to excel after showing some success at your job. You can find Part I here. Are you ready? Standby.

Just 2 months ago I was delivering what may be my last downward feedback to the engineers on my team. At my company, we go through a lengthy process of 360 feedback and several rounds of calibrating with other managers to ensure fairness. And as I reflect back on my 6 years of being a people manager, there are qualities of employees that are more highly rewarded than others. Unfortunately, the hierarchy of importance of those qualities aren’t known to most people. In this article, I will talk about 3 of the top 10 ways I believe will make you a successful employee at a big company, especially if you’re still young in your career. Are you ready? Standby.

It’s been a while since I last posted and a lot has happened since. On the macro level, the stock market almost went into a bear market (defined as -20%) since the start of the year, Russia-Ukraine war started, home mortgage rates went from 3% to 5%, and baby formula cannot be found in some cities. On a personal level, my family finally caught COVID, my new home construction has been delayed by 4 months, I went through a re-org at work, I sold a ton of stock, I lost over $1,000,000 in portfolio value, I paid my $85K tax bill (not a typo), and I am now a father of 3 boys. In this blog, I’ll expand on my $1,000,000 loss, why I’m not concerned for myself, why I’m concerned for the bottom 90%, and what my plan is for the next 12 months.

I thought that when I hit my $4,000,000 FI number, I would immediately hand in my resignation letter and pack my bags the next day. After all, I’ll be financially independent. I’ll have enough f-you money to do whatever I want. Why would I care what my employer has to say? Well, I reached my FIRE number in the middle of 2021 and I’m still working 9 months later. Over the last year, as I quickly approached my FIRE number I learned a great deal on what it takes to retire early. I’ve been overly focused on achieving FI and it came so fast, that I was left ill-prepared to RE. In this post, I’ll outline 5 of the difficulties that I’m currently going through and why I haven’t been able to throw in that resignation letter…yet. Are you ready? Standby.

Do you and your spouse make more than $150K a year? If so, I am offering free financial coaching to you! I know that personal finance is hard but there’s no reason why you need to do it alone. Your traditional Financial Advisors will not know how aggressive you need to be in order to achieve FIRE or have the proper experience to coach you through difficult financial decisions while still prioritizing FIRE.

8 years ago when I officially started my road to FIRE, I didn’t know what to expect. I can’t say that I truly believed it was achievable before 50 years old. And by “it” I mean amassing $5 million in net worth. If memory serves me, the original plan was $5 million by 45 years old. I remember telling my mom about this ridiculous plan to retire early. She didn’t give me much of a reaction. Kind of like when you told your parents you were going to the NBA in middle school or that you were going to be the President of the United States. It’s how parents react when they don’t want to bust their kid’s unrealistic dreams.

Have you ever wondered what it takes to become a self-made multi-millionaire? Or does it feel too distant that it’s just a dream? Is the American Dream dead for millennials and Gen Zers? Unquestionably, the world is rapidly changing, and our generation is left to navigate it with very little guidance. The jobs that our parents’ generations did to become rich most likely won’t make our generation rich. With that said, I strongly believe that the American Dream is still alive and that the recipe for success is a set of behaviors, not a set of instructions. My family came to America in the late 1980s as refugees, and in one generation have been able to go from the bottom 5% to the top 1%. In this article, I will distill it down to the 5 behaviors, with examples, that I believe is the foundation for financial and career success.

In this series, which I’ll call “Road to $1,000,000”, I will be constructing a portfolio that is more aggressive but still mainly grounded in dividend aristocrats. At the beginning of last year, I set out to run a $77,000 experiment where I only invested in dividend aristocrat stocks. After some consideration, I will be reusing that same account in order to build up a $1,000,000 portfolio alongside the rest of you! To help me get there quicker, I have also decided to double my weekly contributions from $1,000 to $2,000. The rest of this post will be focusing on what is in my new portfolio, how long I think it’ll take until this portfolio grows to be $1,000,000, and some exciting news on where I’m at on my road to FIRE. I promise there is no April Fools joke in here. Are you ready? Standby.

On my road to FIRE, I’ve had to make a handful of big decisions that have had a material impact on my net worth. As I reflect, there are a set of decisions that were pure luck and others that were calculated. Regardless of intentional or not, they have significantly contributed or enabled my net worth to be where it is today. As I list out the big money decisions, I’ll try my best to be specific about the numbers. Are you ready? Standby.

It’s that time of the year! I’m in the middle of writing annual performance reviews for my day job. And like all of the other managers, I needed a break from politicking. So I decided to spend a couple of hours reviewing my 2020 spending! Since I had a ton of fun doing it last year I thought I’d do it again. What a year! Standby.

Happy new year! A year ago, I started a new M1Finance portfolio where I picked several dividend stocks to invest in. The goal was to achieve similar returns to the SP 500 index but beat it in terms of dividends. As of the writing of this article, I’ve contributed $77,000 of my own money into this portfolio ($25,000 initially and $1k contribution per week). In this article, I’ll share the end-of-the-year results, how I’m doing against the market and my thoughts on the dividend aristocrat experiment. Finally, I will be sharing an update on what I plan to do during 2021--stay tuned!

I have spent a decent amount of time reflecting on my biggest money mistakes. 13 years ago I started on a journey to build wealth. I can’t say that I always did the right things. In fact, I made a lot of mistakes. And now looking back, those mistakes have amounted to $3+ million dollars in either lost opportunity or lost money. In this article, I’ll be talking about specific mistakes and try my best to quantify how much money was lost.

At the beginning of 2020, I started a new M1Finance portfolio where I picked several dividend stocks to invest in. The goal is to achieve similar returns to the SP 500 index but beat it in terms of dividends. As of the writing of this article, I’ve contributed $73,000 of my own money into this portfolio. By the end of this year, I will have contributed $77,000 ($25,000 initially and $1k contribution per week). In this article, I’ll share my M1Finance portfolio, how I’m doing against the market, my thoughts on the current stock market, and how I am doing against my FIRE schedule.

For those who have been following my story, you know that I plan to retire at 35 years old with a $4 million net worth. It has been over a year since I’ve started blogging and as I approach my FIRE number, I think I owe it to you guys on “what’s next.” Recently, someone asked if I planned to keep an aggressive, mostly-stocks portfolio or if I was going to rotate into bonds or an all-weather portfolio during retirement. The short answer is no. The nuanced answer is, maybe some real estate. In this post, I will talk about how my setup will allow me to retire comfortably, while still growing my net worth to $10 million by the time I’m 50 years old. I will break down my Road to $10 million into 4 major components, explain how each one of them will play out over the next 15 years, and then bring it all together at the end.

At the beginning of 2020, I started a new M1Finance portfolio where I picked several dividend stocks to invest in. The goal is to achieve similar returns to the SP 500 index but beat it in terms of dividends. As of the writing of this article, I’ve contributed $66,000 of my own money into this portfolio. By the end of this year, I will have contributed $77,000 ($25,000 initially and $1k contribution per week). In this article, I’ll share my M1Finance portfolio, how I’m doing against the market, my thoughts on the current stock market, and how I am doing against my FIRE schedule.

At the beginning of 2020, I started a new M1Finance portfolio where I picked several dividend stocks to invest in. The goal is to achieve similar returns to the SP 500 index but beat it in terms of dividends. As of the writing of this article, I’ve contributed $62,000 of my own money into this portfolio. By the end of this year, I will have contributed $77,000 ($25,000 initially and $1k contribution per week). In this article, I’ll share my M1Finance portfolio, how I’m doing against the market, my thoughts on the current stock market, and how I am doing against my FIRE schedule.

At the beginning of 2020, I started a new M1Finance portfolio where I picked several dividend stocks to invest in. The goal is to achieve similar returns to the SP 500 index but beat it in terms of dividends. As of the writing of this article, I’ve contributed $48,000 of my own money into this portfolio. By the end of this year, I will have contributed $77,000 ($25,000 initially and $1k contribution per week). In this article, I’ll share my M1Finance portfolio, how I’m doing against the market, my thoughts on the current stock market, and how I am doing against my FIRE schedule.

The cost of higher education has gotten expensive over the years. This means that being financially prepared for those 4+ years of college is more important than ever. As a parent of 1.5 kids (yes, one is in the oven), 529 plans have been top of mind for me especially during a market pullback such as now. In the following article I’ll share with you the reasons and best ways to utilize your 529 accounts. But first, what is a 529 plan? A 529 plan is essentially a brokerage account that is used specifically for education expenses. Anyone can deposit money into that account, and you can then purchase mutual funds that the plan offers. The gains that are made in that account can be spent tax-free. It is similar to 401k plans, used for retirement, or HSA accounts, used for medical care.

It is sad to see a lot of talented, former colleagues of mine get impacted as a part of the broad layoffs at companies like Lyft, Uber, and Airbnb. There will be at least dozens of thousands of highly skilled tech professionals out of work when it’s all said and done. And those who are fortunate to not be laid off, have already seen pay cuts (e.g. Lyft cutting 10% of base pay) or will see decreased future compensation (e.g. no yearly bonuses, suspension of promotions). On the bright side, there are still tech companies out there who are still hiring. As of the writing of this article, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Apple are hiring. So if you’re looking for a new job, you still have the opportunity to earn the big $$. The following are 5 tips I would give to anyone looking for a software engineering job today.

The main concepts of the FIRE movement started from a book called “Your Money or Your Life” in 1992. And in 2011 Mr. Money Mustache amplified those concepts by giving the average worker hope. That as long as they can increase their savings rate through frugality, they can one day live off of a “safe” withdrawal rate of 4%. It has since become popular amongst millennials and has branched into different flavors (e.g. lean FIRE, barista FIRE, fat FIRE). But for the first time in its short history, the FIRE movement is being challenged. Since 2011, the real estate market has been booming, exceeding its 2007 levels and the stock market has averaged a yearly return of 13.6% from 2011-2019. In other words, it has not been truly tested--until now.

COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact on the global economy. Public health issues aside, it has changed how millions of Americans live every day. And in an economy where 70% of our GDP is based on consumption, if that consumption pattern is disrupted, we are bound to experience some turbulence in the stock market. In this post, I'll be talking about how I am navigating the COVID-19 stock market crash and some thoughts of how bad I think it really is.

At the beginning of 2020, I started a new M1Finance portfolio where I picked 7 dividend stocks to compare against VTI. The goal was to have a similar appreciation, but better dividends. On Feb 24th, news about COVID-19 sent the US stock market into a frenzy. We have since seen 9 (as of 3/13/20) 1000+ point swings in the DJIA. In this article, I’ll share my M1Finance portfolio, how I’m doing against the total stock market, and share my thoughts.

This is the blog post series where the rubber meets the road, where the pen meets the paper, and where my $77,000 meets its Dividend Aristocrat friends. In one of my previous posts, I had written about why I think Dividend Aristocrats is a great alternative to real estate, and in general, provides a great way of increasing one’s monthly cash flow.

Now that 2019 has come to an end, I took some time to review my finances. The week between Christmas and New Year is my favorite week of the year. Other than the obvious reasons of getting to spend time with family/friends and getting a breather from work, I get to spend time reflecting and reviewing the previous 51 weeks. And I often learn something that significantly impacts how I operate in the following year.

Did you know that the average net worth for people between the ages of 30 and 34 is $95,235.53? And that the median for the same age group is $29,125? That is, half of the people from ages 30 to 34 have more than $29,125 and the other half has less. In this article, we will explore net worth by age through a fat FIRE lens.

Lately, I’ve started to run ads on my Road to FIRE blog. It is to ensure that can achieve and maintain a cashflow neutral blog. And in the name of transparency, I plan to come out with a report every month or quarter (TBD). In it, I will highlight the costs associated with running this blog and how much I’ve made from the ads. And if you’re curious about what I plan to do with any excess profits, don’t worry I will report on every cent made and spent.

When thinking about FIRE, people often ask me what should I do to fat FIRE? While an important question, an equally important question is what should I not do if I want to fat FIRE? I’ve had many money-conversations with people living in poverty, high-income individuals, low-income individuals, and HENRYs (a HENRY is someone who is a “High Earner, Not Rich Yet.”). The mistakes that I’ve deduced from my experience applies to all of these groups, but especially the HENRYs.

As I prepare to go into early retirement, I am slowly changing my asset allocation to produce a higher cash flow. There are multiple good ways to do this. The most popular method is to own rental properties. But my preferred method is to own Dividend Aristocrats.

Have you ever been given the advice to contribute 15% of your income into retirement? Or that you should max out your 401K? Or that you should at least contribute up to your employer match? Don’t worry, those are not going to be my tips to maximizing your 401K. In this article, I’ll share the most common mistakes you should avoid to not only maximize the returns but also protect your 401K account.

One of Silicon Valley’s prominent venture capitalists, Marc Andreessen, once said, “software is eating the world.” Profit margins for software are high, and at the same time, distributing software is becoming cheaper and easier. As a result, engineers are handsomely compensated in today's labor market. This is especially true in tech hubs such as Silicon Valley, Seattle, and New York City. In this article, I'll step through a hypothetical, but realistic scenario of a software engineer starting their career in Silicon Valley in 2019 at a big tech company. We will see how long it takes to reach $4,000,000.

Choosing a college is a big decision, especially for a 17-year-old. I remember feeling excited, grown-up, eager, and free. But I also remember feeling nervous, scared, uncertain, and bounded by my family's financial situation. It was not only a 4-year decision but also a $50k to $150k decision for me. In this article, I'll step through the thought process of my 17-year-old self. I'll then follow up at the end with my retrospective of the decision, after 15 years.

Go to school, get a job, get married, and buy a house. This is what my parents have always told me to do. And I’m not alone. Owning a home is one of the major milestones in achieving the American dream. But what about owning a home in the Bay Area where a decent townhome can cost $1.4M and a decent single-family home will cost $1.8M? In this article, I'll break down how I ran the numbers and decided that it was not financially worth it to buy a house in the Bay Area, in 2019.

This is Part II of the 2-part series. If you haven’t already, check out Part I, which talks about how I would set up the proper defense to protect against financial downturns. The rest of this article will focus on offense.

Recently there was an article that Financial Samurai published which outlines why a $350k household income is barely middle class in big cities like San Francisco. This was a pretty controversial article that raised a lot of eyebrows. Both from big-city dwellers as well as middle America. I previously shared my budget for a family of three and it is nowhere near the budget that Financial Samurai laid out for a family of four. In this post, I'll convey my personal take on each line item in his budget.

I had a great time in my 20s. I had built great friendships, found my own identity, found love, and got off to a strong start in my career. I had it all—except for a good financial education. Had I been more aware about personal finance, I’d be in a much better position than I am today. But I really can’t complain. I will share with you the 8 key lessons that I wish I knew straight out of college. I will split them into a 2-part blog series between “defense” and “offense”.

A lot of people in the FIRE community put a heavy emphasis on having an aggressive savings rate of 50% or more. And one of the best ways to ensure that you are saving enough is through a budgeting program that holds you accountable. In this blog post, I will share how I budget, my actual budget, and the thought process behind those numbers.

Retirement investment accounts are complex. Some are pre-tax, some are post-tax. Some have penalties if you withdraw early, some allow you to withdraw up to a certain amount without penalty. Some require you to withdraw a minimum amount after the age of 70.5, some don't. And many others. In short, there's a lot of choices—and a lot of tradeoffs.

Did you know that 40% of Americans cannot afford a $400 emergency? And that 60% of Americans cannot afford a $1000 emergency? We live in a society where people carry thousand dollar iPhones, drive brand new cars, are proud Netflix and cable TV subscribers, yet they are living paycheck to paycheck.

In the past several years, there's been a movement that's especially popular among millennials called FIRE. It stands for Financial Independence Retire Early. But other than agreeing on what the acronym stands for, there is very little that the FIRE community can completely agree on. And perhaps the most popular debate is what is a good FIRE number?

Have you ever wondered if you’d be a millionaire? I certainly didn’t. But it happened—and much faster than I could have imagined. No, I didn’t strike it rich over night with the lottery, exit from a startup, inheritance, or bitcoin. I attribute it to several things: high savings rate, consistently investing, high income, luck, but mostly a shift in mindset—from linear savings to compounding returns, from only working for money to also making my money work for me.