Insider Resources

The companion to I’m Not Leaving Yet, and Here’s Why You Might Not Want to Either. A well-timed exit takes more than a big enough number. It takes cash to weather a bad first year, a clear picture of what you’re walking toward, a tested plan and a clean departure. This one-page checklist doubles as a quick self-scoring quiz. Check every box that’s already true for you, then add up your checks to see where you stand. It’s useful whether your exit is years away or already behind you.

The companion to 7 Questions to Ask in Building Your Downshift or Retirement Budget. On a river in Belize, the best guides watched for snakes the rest of us never saw. This guide does the same job for your budget. Seven topics cover health insurance, your final-year money, burn rate, the tax window that closes at 63 and more, with room to write your answers. Bring a pen and your spouse.

What if a little meaningful work could change your entire retirement timeline? Enter your numbers and this calculator runs a full Monte Carlo analysis to stress-test your plan against hundreds of market scenarios, then shows how much Next Endeavor income it takes to make it work. Private by design: everything runs on your own computer.

Your graduate is about to get a first real paycheck, and they probably don’t know how much of it they’ll keep. The Bag runs their first-year budget at four salary levels, with taxes, rent, a car and the phone bill they may still split with you. Each scenario ends with a verdict: eating or cooked. It’s written in their language on purpose, so they’ll engage with it, while the math underneath stays serious. Sit down together, fill in the yellow cells, and have the money talk they’ll want to have. Our own Gen Z-er, 21-year-old Desert FI Jr., reviewed and approved it.