BiggerPockets Money Blog
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How Health Insurance Works in Early Retirement and Self-Employment (2026)
Healthcare costs in early retirement or self-employment are a high-stakes game. You have to pay attention today, and the wide variability means you also need to plan conservatively over the next few…
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Concentration Risk from Success: What to Do When One Asset Dominates Your Net Worth
There’s a financial problem that nobody warns you about when you’re just getting started, because it only happens to people who are doing really well. It’s the kind of problem that sounds…
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Stop Optimizing for a Retirement You’re Too Scared to Take
Let’s get one thing out of the way: you are never going to get a guarantee. Not from the 4% Rule. Not from a 3.5% withdrawal rate. Not from working one more…
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Are You Over-Contributing to Your 401(k)?
You did everything right. You read the personal finance basics, nodded enthusiastically at the advice to contribute to your retirement accounts, and have been dutifully stuffing the maximum amount you can into…
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What Your Parents Got Wrong About Money (And What They Actually Got Right)
Your parents did their best. That’s the disclaimer we’re putting at the top, right here, before anything else, because this article is going to say some things about the financial lessons you…
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Want More Raises, Better Opportunities, and Actual Job Security? Do These Things.
Let’s get one thing out of the way immediately: becoming invaluable at work has nothing to do with being the person who eats lunch at their desk, answers emails at 11 PM,…
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The Investment You Missed Is Not the End of Your Story
Let me tell you about a company I fell in love with. Not in a weird way. In the way where you start reading one article, then another, then you’re three years…
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Dear 22-Year-Old Me: The Five Money Moves I Wish I Had Made When I Was You
It’s graduation season. Somewhere near you, a person in a polyester robe is accepting a diploma, taking approximately four hundred photos, and preparing to make every financial mistake available to them. They’re…
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What Does “Enough” Actually Mean? How to Define FI on Your Own Terms
The FIRE community is extraordinarily good at math. Ask anyone here what their FI number is and they’ll not only tell you the number, but they can also tell you their savings…
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The Hidden Cost of a High Savings Rate Nobody Talks About
There’s a chart that’s changed a lot of lives. If you’ve spent any time in the financial independence community, you’ve probably seen it. It lives on Mr. Money Mustache’s blog, in a…
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How to Talk to Your Partner About Money Without It Turning Into a Fight
If you’ve ever tried to explain the concept of financial independence to a spouse who didn’t ask to hear about it, you already know how this goes. You’re excited. You’ve just listened…
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Chapter Twelve: Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them (Or: The Mistakes That Will Derail Your Plan)
The path to FIRE is exciting, empowering, and full of potential. It’s also full of traps. Some of these traps are obvious. Don’t rack up credit card debt at 22% interest. Don’t…
Mindy Jensen has been fanatical about personal finance her entire life. She truly believes that financial freedom is attainable for anyone, no matter when or where you’re starting from. She’s been a real estate investor for decades, is slowly moving her personal portfolio from individual stocks to index funds, and is excited to learn more about investing of all types (except crypto!) She wrote First-Time Home Buyer with Scott Trench, and when you can get her to stop talking about money and investing, she can be found on her road bike in the summer, snowboarding down the Colorado slopes in the winter, and spending time with her family.
Scott Trench is a perpetual student of personal finance, real estate investing, self-improvement, health, and well-being. He is the former CEO of BiggerPockets, where he oversaw the company’s growth from 100,000 members, to 3.1M real estate investors. He is a real estate investor + broker, stock market investor and authored Set for Life and First-Time Home Buyer (co-authored with Mindy Jensen). When not discussing personal finance, he can be found picking up heavy things (or craft beers) and then putting them back down again, running, cycling, or otherwise enjoying beautiful Colorado.