Most taxpayers realize that the sooner they file their tax return, the quicker they will receive a refund. Beyond that simple common sense truth, however, there are a number of compelling reasons to file your tax return as early as possible. And, as someone who has often historically waited until the last few weeks before […]

I love beautifully-designed software.   I love powerful/flexible financial software. It’s been a while since I’ve found an application that’s both, but that’s exactly what I have for you today… ProjectionLab is the most beautiful financial planning tool I’ve ever seen.   And, it was created specifically for people pursuing FIRE, so it’s also the most-useful planning […]

  Are Index Funds a Bubble? Lanju Photografie, Unsplash Recently a friend reached out asking for my take on concerns raised in this article: What Goes Up I hate these kind of requests, probably because every time this sort of hand wringing article appears, people want me to talk them down off the ledge.  Ordinarily, […]

– The other day, an MMM reader stopped by and left the following comment on one of my older posts about the principles of FIRE: “While I still find some of MMM’s advice relevant, it seems like every FI blogger out there worked in tech 20 years ago, pulled down a 6 figure salary and […]

[Updated on January 30, 2025 with updated screenshots from FreeTaxUSA for the 2024 tax year.] The best way to do a backdoor Roth is to do it “clean” by contributing *for* and converting in the same year — contribute for 2024 in 2024 and convert in 2024, and contribute for 2025 in 2025 and convert in 2025. […]

It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find truly free checking accounts. But they’re still out there if you know where to look. Indeed, many online banks and a few choice brick-and-mortar stores still offer legitimately free, FDIC-insured accounts with few restrictions and plenty of sweeteners. Some even pay interest, though not enough to keep up with […]

Costco.com is once again offering discounted Uber gift cards (e-gift cards, specifically) to Costco members on their site. Members can purchase 2 $50 Uber e-gift cards for $79.99 – effectively a 20% discount. These gift cards can be used on both the Uber and Uber Eats apps. Costco members have a limit of 1 transaction, […]

This post is a collaboration with Nick Maggiulli from Of Dollars and Data. I read Nick’s book, Just Keep Buying, and the thing I loved most was how he backed up all his arguments with data. I was chatting to him on Twitter about why I enjoyed his book, and he said, “If you ever […]

September. Labor Day. Already.  Ah well, it has been a great summer here at Kibanda. This was the year we conclusively decided not to tear it down and build new. If you’ve read the saga you know it was in pretty desperate shape when we bought it back in 2017 and the fallback was always […]

– Almost  nineteen years into early retirement now, I’ve come to realize that the complete freedom of this lifestyle can be a double-edged sword. You’ve already heard me raving plenty about the upside: having the freedom to raise a son from the day he was born to beyond his eighteenth birthday with no compromises. And […]