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Welcome to this session of grand rounds, a collection of posts I have discovered in the blogosphere and have found of interest and hope you do too.

October has been an incredibly interesting month for me as I was asked to collaborate with Rockstar Finance on two separate projects.

For those unaware of this personal finance website behemoth, Rockstar Finance  is THE place to get the latest on what is happening in the personal finance blogosphere.

Rockstar Finance keeps track of nearly 2000 personal finance blogs out there and has developed a very large following.

For the first week of October I had the honor of being the “guest curator” for Rockstar Finance where it was my task to find 35 “Rockstar Worthy” articles/posts that would be distributed during the week to email subscribers.

I must have done something right because my site was then given the honor of hosting a “remote guest curation for Rockstar Finance.”

This post is a guest curation for Rockstar Finance, the leader in selecting and sharing the best personal finance content. To get the top money posts delivered straight to your inbox every weekday, subscribe to the Rockstar Finance newsletter.

 

 

With that said, let’s begin my Grand Rounds: Rockstar edition.

 

 

 

 

Suze Orman (the same individual who served as the inspiration for my Doctor’s Bill “Can I Afford It?” Series) made some serious waves among the FIRE community when she recently lambasted those FIRE-walkers contemplating early retirement.

Suze essentially said those on the FIRE path are a bit naive on what amount will actually be needed to support an early retirement (hint, she thinks 5 million is the MINIMUM to even contemplate retiring).

Check out the post by Paula Pant of Afford Anything,  “‘Two Million Dollars Is Nothing.  It’s Pennies,’ Says Suze Orman,” and form your own conclusion.

Personally I think Suze is giving way too many doomsday scenarios in order to justify her stance and thus she is being way more conservative than even the already conservative individuals on the FIRE path.

As a whole, people in the FIRE community have analyzed ad nauseum the potential risks an early retiree portfolio faces (sequence of return risk, safe withdrawal rate, etc).

Because of our conservative nature, I feel we are more at risk of dying as the richest person in the cemetery rather than as a retiree running out of money.

 

 

 

Anyone else see red after that last post highlighting Suze Orman’s view of the FIRE community?

Well you are not alone.

Halt Catch Fire does a wonderful response post that pretty much hits all the salient points that I myself would make in a counterargument to Suze’s stance on FIRE in, “Thanks For Your Concern Suze, But The FIRE Movement Is Fine.”

 

 

 

 

That’s not to say that everything in the world of FIRE is perfect.

As humans we are imperfect creatures and we often trade one vice for another.

Half Life Theory does a wonderful explanation of why we need to change our mindset about what our true worth is (it has nothing to do with what our bank account) in, “The FIRE Hamster Wheel: The Sad Truth About Pursuing Financial Independence.”

 

 

 

Still not swayed off the path to financial independence by all the doom and gloom/negativity?

Good, grasshopper.

It is time you learn the ways of becoming a true warrior and silence the critics for good.

Fortunately Sam, of Financial Samurai fame, has graciously revealed the ancient secrets in his post, “Way of The Financial Samurai: Core Principals For Achieving Financial Independence.”

If you can follow the outlined steps Sam provides, you can defend your financial kingdom against any attack from the naysayers.

 

Last, but most certainly not least,  I was given the opportunity to self-promote one of my own posts for this Rockstar remote guest curation with the hope that the countless Rockstar Finance aficionados that have descended on my humble website may see what I am about

Hopefully my writing will resonate with them and they will be more inclined to visit XRAYVSN again (fingers crossed).

Selecting just one post was a tough task for me, akin to answering the question of which child is your favorite.

In the end, however, I felt that the post that launched this blog would best represent the blogger behind XRAYVSN, “I Have Pretty Much Made Every Mistake In The Book.”

It is the first of a five part series that showcases all the mistakes I have made in my life.

It is my hope that this initial post will be intriguing enough for you to stick around and finish the remainder of the series (which includes a bitter divorce for the ages as well as a multi-million dollar civil lawsuit), culminating with an absolute eye-popping total hit to my net worth.

Of course feel free to peruse the entire website for other posts of interest because, as a token of my appreciation for my Rockstar visitors, I am running a special where all posts will be 100% free to read (as well as subscriptions to my blog) to celebrate this momentous occasion. 🙂

 

 

Hope you enjoyed the reading material.

Have a great rest of the week.

 

 

 

 

If you find yourself enjoying this blog, please add to Xrayvsn’s superpowers by subscribing (your email will be kept private and you will get up to date emails regarding the latest posts and bonus material like the net worth spreadsheet template I created).

As my email subscriber list grows it validates my decision to start this blog and to continue to try and provide worthy content for your eyes.

Thank you

 

 

-Xrayvsn