Added 7/12/2018: Nominations for the 2018 Plutus Awards are now open. If you like what you read here, please consider nominating tenfactorialrocks.com in all the relevant categories! Please submit your nominations here! Only one submission per IP address, please! Thanks a lot for your support! Financial Independence / Retire Early (FIRE) is a cherished goal among the readers of […]
Added 7/12/2018: Nominations for the 2018 Plutus Awards are now open. If you like what you read here, please consider nominating tenfactorialrocks.com in all the relevant categories! Please submit your nominations here! Only one submission per IP address, please! Thanks a lot for your support! Howdy, folks! My last article on ‘safest’ withdrawal rate generated quite a few positive comments […]
Few things occupy the minds of our financial independence/early retirement (FIRE) community as much as safe withdrawal rate (SWR). Much digital ink and sizable amount of print ink has been spilled on this subject over the past few decades, and theories are refined with various adjustments. The consensus view – if I can call it that […]
After last week’s article explored why many multi-millionaires are worried about money, today we focus on another angle. Not exactly millionaires, but affluent retirees are also worried about running out of money. So, they chronically under-spend, leaving big portfolios and delighted heirs behind. Bloomberg’s article on this subject shared some interesting facts. I will […]
Recovered from my big reveal last week yet? 🙂 Today’s post is an interesting segue while revealing yet another tidbit about me. I read an article recently in The Globe & Mail, a Canadian newspaper. Yes, I do read magazines from outside the U.S. Of course, I stick with English newspapers published around […]
Loss aversion defines much of human behavior. We are so worried about the prospect of loss, that many studies show that finding $100 doesn’t give the same joy to offset the pain of losing $100. Some say, it takes as much as gaining $200 to offset the loss of $100. In other words, a loss feels twice as painful than a gain […]
How mainstream finance sees you
The problem with traditional retirement planning and even personal finance oriented websites (including this one) is that they all focus a lot on the number, that is, our retirement stash that we aspire to get to. For those having a set target, this laser-like focus on ‘hitting’ that number can turn into an obsession. For those with say, a $1 million target, reaching a precise figure of say, $933,240, may still feel like they fell short. That is far from the truth. The number doesn’t define who you are or isn’t even a gauge of what you have accomplished in life.
Raman Venkatesh is the founder of Ten Factorial Rocks. Raman is a ‘Gen X’ corporate executive in his mid 40’s. In addition to having a Ph.D. in engineering, he has worked in almost all continents of the world. Ten Factorial Rocks (TFR) was created to chronicle his journey towards retirement while sharing his views on the absurdities and pitfalls along the way. The name was taken from the mathematical function 10! (ten factorial) which is equal to 10 x 9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 3,628,800.
We spend a lot of effort chasing our number or desired passive income to reach our financially independent or retired early (FIRE) dream. In all the search for ‘how much’, we also need to consider ‘how long’. With some retiring in early 30’s, the impact of this extreme early retirement should be carefully considered. If you are like me in 40’s or even in 50’s, there is at least one advantage we have over our 30’s retired brethren – our retirement planning is not as long. Don’t let that depress you. It’s the life you add to the years, not the years you add to life that matters! As Yoda would say: matter it doesn’t!
Raman Venkatesh is the founder of Ten Factorial Rocks. Raman is a ‘Gen X’ corporate executive in his mid 40’s. In addition to having a Ph.D. in engineering, he has worked in almost all continents of the world. Ten Factorial Rocks (TFR) was created to chronicle his journey towards retirement while sharing his views on the absurdities and pitfalls along the way. The name was taken from the mathematical function 10! (ten factorial) which is equal to 10 x 9 x 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 3,628,800.