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BiggerPockets Money Podcast Archive
Every episode of the BiggerPockets Money Podcast, from the beginning of time. Thank you for listening, and for coming to our website!
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Everything You Need to Know About Roth Conversions
A Roth conversion is one of the few levers available to materially reduce lifetime taxes after high-earning years are behind you. Used thoughtfully, it is not just a tax tactic but a multi-year income engineering strategy. Used carelessly, it can trigger avoidable taxes, Medicare surcharges, and lost subsidies. For many households approaching financial independence, Roth…
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Chapter Four: Expense Reduction Strategies (Or: Where the Big Wins Actually Live)
If FIRE had a fast-forward button, it would be reducing expenses. Not because cutting expenses is glamorous. (It’s not.) Not because it’s fun to track every dollar. (Also not.) But because expense reduction works immediately, it’s available to almost everyone, and – as we covered in Chapter Three – it pulls double duty in a…
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Chapter Three: The Four Principles That Actually Matter
If FIRE had a secret formula, this would be it. No hacks. No shortcuts. No “weird tricks that financial advisors don’t want you to know about.” Just four principles that work together whether you like them or not. Achieving Financial Independence rests on lowering expenses, increasing income, investing wisely, and optimizing taxes. You don’t need…
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How Much Cash Should You Hold Before Early Retirement?
If you spend enough time in the Financial Independence community, you will notice that we love optimization. We optimize our tax strategies, our investment allocations, our travel rewards cards, and occasionally our grocery store routes. We are not casual about money. We are intentional. And yet, there is one area where even the most spreadsheet…
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This Week in Money: What the Headlines Mean for Your FI Journey
Every week, the financial news cycle churns out a fresh batch of stories designed to make you feel like you need to do something. Buy this. Sell that. The economy is great! The economy is terrible! AI is going to save us all! AI is going to destroy everything! Most of it is noise. But…
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Chapter Two: How Long Is This Going to Take?!?
This is the question everyone asks approximately five minutes after learning what FI is. How long is this going to take? The frustrating and honest answer is: it depends. The encouraging answer is: it depends far less on your income than most people think. (And way more on something you can actually control.) The single…
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Chapter One: The Basic Math of Financial Independence
Before we get philosophical, motivational, or dangerously excited about quitting our jobs, we need to talk about math. Don’t worry. This is friendly math. No calculus. No surprise quizzes. Just enough numbers to explain how this whole Financial Independence thing actually works. The Core Concept (Which Is Shockingly Simple) At its core, Financial Independence is…
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The Ultimate Guide to FI – Introduction
Scott and I have been talking about Financial Independence for going on 8 years now. We wanted to create a definitive guide to FI, and this is it. Not this post, but this series, which we are calling The Ultimate Guide to Financial Independence. We’re not reinventing the wheel here, we’re just gathering up this…
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Why FIRE Math Fails When Your Spending Isn’t Stable
The New Critique of FIRE Math I’ve started seeing more articles questioning whether traditional FIRE math actually works. While I don’t agree with all of the conclusions – some critiques toss aside decades of solid research a little too quickly – there’s one argument that deserves serious attention. Unstable or unexpected spending is a major…
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The FIRE Basics You Can’t Skip (Even If You’re Already Wealthy)
If you make a high income or already have a sizable net worth, it’s tempting to believe you’ve “graduated” from the basics of FIRE. You max your accounts.You invest consistently.You’ve read the books.You know the math. And yet, this is exactly the stage where many FIRE plans quietly break. Not because the basics stopped mattering…