In Today’s Podcast we cover:
Today’s guest: Brandon from MadFientist.com and the origin story of the Mad Fientist
How did the Mad Fientist website come about? He first stumbled on the Early Retirement Extreme website
He thought there’d be investing strategies to get him to financial independence more quickly, but he realized index funds were the best way to go about it
Then he stumbled upon tax optimization and tax avoidance strategies
Finding Get Rich Slowly and other personal finance blogs got him interested, but he looked at it through the eyes of an early retiree and realized the standard advice didn’t necessarily apply
“Early retirees are such a different breed” and optimizations can be had when looking at the problems differently for FIRE
He took a core tax strategy and pivoted it to the best way to optimize for early retirees
He uses his audience feedback to help come up with ideas for new posts or as ways to update and augment posts
The Roth IRA conversion ladder changed the entire game for him and made him max out as many pre-tax accounts as possible
How to get retirement money out earlier than the traditional 59.5 age without a penalty?
Building a 5-year conversion ladder with traditional savings to cut your effective tax rate down to almost 0% on your traditional IRA and 401k
Brandon’s college choice and how it impacted his financial life with minimal student loan debt
Brandon took a software developer’s position at an Ivy League University and worked towards a free Ivy League master’s degree
Did Brandon max out his 401k his very first year?
What’s the most expensive car Brandon every bought? He leased a Toyota RAV4 but other than that every car he has ever owned is at least 10 years old
What financial mistakes has Brandon made or where does he not follow his own advice? Timing the market and sitting with too much cash
Take your brain out of your investing decisions once your plan is set
What type of investing does Brandon do? All index funds from Vanguard and cash
How has Brandon evolved psychologically as he has approached Financial Independence?
Reaching your FI number doesn’t by definition make you happier. You have to find your passion in life
They actually loosened up their spending for a year to enjoy life as much as possible. Total tally: $35,000 of yearly spending. As compared to their normal $30,000 - $33,000 spending. An insignificant increase in money spent for such a large increase in satisfaction
What is the most surprisingly positive aspect of post-FI life?
What does his life look like 5 years from now/what does he want to do with his life?
Hot Seat Questions
Favorite life hack: Find out what makes you happy
Advice to your younger self: Just get started today
Links from the show:
Mad Fientist
Early Retirement Extreme
Get Rich Slowly
Mad Fientist tax optimization strategies
Roth IRA conversion ladder
Stock Series by JLCollinsNH.com
Front Loading on the Mad Fientist
Free Ivy League Degree on the Mad Fientist
Lending Club
Alexi’s post about Lending Club on MilesDividendMD.com
Brad and Alexi from Travel Miles 101 on Mad Fientist podcast
Café Du Monde
Happiness Through Subtraction on the Mad Fientist
Favorite blogs: Get Rich Slowly, Early Retirement Extreme, Mr. Money Mustache, MoneyLab.co and Wait But Why
Favorite Article of All Time: Book Review of Early Retirement Extreme from Get Rich Slowly
Best Purchase from Amazon last year: Macbook Pro 13” with no touchbar
Books Mentioned in the Show:
Early Retirement Extreme
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