The Path Less Traveled

Hi and welcome to my humble little blog. If you're here, then I can only assume that, like me, you're interested in financial independence.

There are a lot of financial blogs on the internet these days and mine is just one of many. However, with this blog, it is my intent to chronicle my own journey to financial independence and, eventually, a quasi-early retirement. I say "quasi-early" because I'm already in my forties and I've only been on this path for slightly more than a year.


In addition to posting financial milestones that I reach and periodic updates of my net worth, I want to discuss techniques, strategies, and, well, pretty much anything else related to this lifestyle. I know there are a lot of these blogs and websites already, but this one is mine. It's mainly for me, for posterity's sake. I want it to be a place I can come to vent and celebrate. A place I can return several years from now to look back on where I was and what I endured to reach (hopefully) where I am headed.

Let me give you a little bit of background about myself.

Like I said, I'm in my forties; forty-four to be exact. I celebrated a birthday yesterday. I, like many people on this path, work in IT as a computer programmer. Unlike many of them, however, I've been doing it for twenty years. I'm tired of trying to stay ahead of the ever-evolving technology and I'm ready to get off the treadmill. I currently earn 93k a year. It's taken me all these years to reach this salary. I live in the southeastern United States and have worked for many different companies during my tenure. I've worked in various sized companies; from a small six-man business up to large 1000+ person MegaCorps. I'm currently employed by an international corporation and hope to stay here until I can pull the plug on working, which should be in about 10 years. My idea of (early) retirement doesn't include starting my own business or getting into side hustles or anything remotely like that. For me, the idea of retirement is simply spending my time doing whatever the hell I want to do. Sleeping in is number one on that list. I can assure you, I'm not a morning person. Also, I'd like to do some traveling. A trip or two overseas and a few to different states, not necessary all crammed into a year or two, but spread out over time. Done leisurely. After all, the name of this blog is Lazy Guy's FI.

I wasn't always good with money. Quite the contrary, actually. I didn't get serious about saving and thinking about retirement until a couple of years ago. For me, it was a gradual process, which I'll describe in a future post.

Now that I've kind of introduced myself and, hopefully, given you an idea of the kind of person I am, let me give you a snapshot of my current finances. (That's what you're interested in, right?)

I've mentioned that I'm relatively new to the FI path, so don't get too excited because there are not a lot of zeroes. Not...yet. My net worth, as of April 1, 2015, was 48k ($48,161.90 according to my spreadsheet*). In a future post, I'll explain how I arrived at this number, both from a historical stand point as well as how I keep track of my numbers so you'll have a better picture of its accuracy.

I will try to provide updates on my net worth at the end of every month, in addition to a yearly net worth wrap up. Hopefully, you'll learn a thing or two from this blog. That's another reason for me to document this. I wouldn't be on this path if not for the others who've gone before and shared their journeys.

* The spreadsheet I use doesn't take into account any capital gains. This number is strictly taken from the current balance I've accumulated in my various accounts via deposits only. Later, I'll provide screen shots from Mint and Personal Capital to show my net worth. If anyone is interested in obtaining a copy of the spreadsheet I use to track my finances, just ask and I'll make a blank copy available.