Resources on FI?

[krystee]

I had always thought FIRE was so out of reach that I wouldn’t bother wasting much time on it, but I recently came across some stuff on Coast FI and Barista FI and got intrigued.

What resources have you found most useful for learning about FI? I am finding a lot of them kind of bro-y, and I would prefer to avoid that. Also, what calculator do you prefer?

I have found that a lot of estimates seem to calculate your FI number based on current expenses (minus debts that will be paid off), and not accounting for having to get private insurance if you are insured through an employer seems like a big missed expense.

[winemaker06]

Honestly, if you can cut through the BS, Reddit’s financialindependence sub has a TON of great information. You could just start on their info page and keep busy for a long while.

Calculators… are interesting. Most good ones do Not assume expenses, but require a lot more upfront work for data input. That would involve figuring out a future “FIRE budget” complete with things like private health insurance.
Once you do that, CFireSim is my go-to, but has some bugs (they all do).
This one has wonderful graphics, so I like it for an overview. But again, you get out what you put in and have to figure out all your saving/spending/future budget numbers first.
engaging-data.com/early-retirement-calculators-and-tools/

ETA - I don’t know of CoastFI specific calculators off the top of my head, but ChooseFI has a website and associated podcast with a lot of episodes and links on the topic.

[raangoli]

MH reads a lot of the reddit subs that winemaker06 recommended. He tells me tidbits of what he reads on there and likely skims over the "bro" parts for sure as well.

[Cappy]

My absolute favorite FI person is Paula Pant w/ the Afford Anything Podcast. She's amazing.

[Pom]

Again, it takes some wading through and stepping over the idiots, but there are some useful posts and decent posters on MMM forum. I do not like Mr. Money Mustache himself, but the forums there contain some interesting reading to me.

[ssmjlm]

I just sent you an invite to a women's FI group on FB. I'm not sure how helpful it is, a lot of them use rentals for FI, which is not something I am interested in.

I also am in a job that if I make it to 57, I'll get my retirement and a pension. I think 57 is still pretty young for retirement, so I mostly follow for tips on just making our money work harder for us.

[turkletsmom]

I sometimes find the Bogleheads forum useful. It seems to be male-dominated unfortunately but I've learned a lot about things like IRMAA, RMDs, ACA, etc. It's also a little less extreme than Mr. Money Mustache which I also check out occasionally. There is some good stuff on there too but like I don't want to only eat raisins and rice in order to be FI. I'd rather work LOL.

[ellipses84]

I follow some IG “influencers”. I put that in quotes because some of them don’t have a massive amount of followers, but they have good advice or motivation and there’s a big financial community on IG that aren’t all your typical bros. I think I started with searching #debtfreecommunity, but a lot of the ones who started accounts to document a debt free journey have no debt now and address FI too or are a link to recs for others. I’m sure there’s #FI specific hashtags too. I usually follow a hashtag, look at their past posts and decide if I like what they have to say before following them. You do have to wade through the religious slant and follow me/take my course to make lots of money people though.