Legal Money Laundering

Cash flow is kind of important, in (early) retirement as in life. No cash flow, no nuthin’ – can’t pay the bills, can’t buy the things, can’t do the stuff.

A couple common cash flow challenges in early retirement involve:

  • wanting to spend retirement account income before age 59.5 (you have the funds, it’s just locked in tax-deferred accounts)
  • contributing to tax-deferred accounts when you have little to no cash on hand (but have earned income)

I like to get around these challenges with a little legal money laundering.

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Our California Dreamin’ Budget

We are coming up on a year of living in California and are now largely accustomed to this new lifestyle. We have our routines and most things are on autopilot, including our spending.

With our big move I had framed out a rough budget and recently reviewed our expenses to make sure it was at least in the right ballpark.

Below I answer some frequently asked questions:

  • how much do we spend?
  • where does the money go?
  • where does the money come from?

Let’s go.

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