Forging Finance was created to share my experiences, lessons learned, and goals with the financial independence community. I’ve been in the environmental consulting industry for just over 20 years, starting out as a field geologist in 1998, and progressing up through various management positions eventually landing a regional management role.
Even before my career in this field, I’ve always have a passion for all things finance, probably stoked by my parents encouraging me to save allowance and paper route money as a kid, and eventually invest in stocks using dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs). Of all the hobbies, jobs and interests I’ve had over the years, finance has always been of major interest.
I started managing environmental cleanup projects in my professional career around 2004, which gave me an education into project financials. Overtime, I managed more complex and larger budget projects, up to $20M in size. As of 2019, I currently manage one large project and a portfolio of several other projects, each with their own project manager. I’ve found that there is a good amount of carryover from project financials to personal finance.
My Take on FIRE
When it comes to financial independence retire early (FIRE), my aim is more on the financial independence (FI) side, not as much on retire early (RE). I admire the people that retire early and travel the globe, but I am fortunate enough to do that either through my job or on my own anyway. I also enjoy the work I do, and even if I leave my current job, there’s a good chance I would not stay retired long, but would instead gravitate toward a different job or career path. If anything, at my age (44), I don’t ever see retiring, but rather being retired from one thing and into something else.
My wife and I are on what I would consider the FI bubble. We have the 25x annual expenses saved and zero debt, but personally I would prefer to have more before I can feel comfortable retiring indefinitely. That being said, I feel as though we are in a good place on the FI spectrum, and being in this position has actually helped us enjoy our work more than ever before.
Being where we are has allowed us to take on more risks and challenges, which in turn has led to more fulfillment and downright fun. However, I can see a day when the corporate environment finally gets to be too much and I move on to something else.
I sleep real well at night knowing that money won’t hold me back from that something else.
Forging Finance
I started Forging Finance as a hobby and this blog is an extension of the journaling I was already doing. That being the case, I have no shame in admitting I’ve been heavily inspired by other FI bloggers before me.
My goal is to share my experiences and observations with the FI community in hopes of both inspiring others and learning, and of course growing and improving!
BW