EconoWiser EconoWiser

 Audio recording of the second FIRE meet-up Amsterdam with JL Collins https://www.jlcollinsnh.com interviewed by Mrs EconoWiser https://econowiser.wordpress.com  JL Collins is the author of The Simple Path to Wealth and his blog https://www.jlcollinsnh.com JL has changed thousands of lives with his advice to spend less than you earn, invest the surplus and avoid debt. I had the honor of interviewing him on 27th July 2019. I blog at https://econowiser.wordpress.com and you can find me on Twitter @Econowiser.  


My questions were the same as last week, plus one funny (at least, I like to think so) extra question in the end. Even if you already listened to the first recording of the FIRE meet-up Amsterdam, I think you'll still find some nuggets in the second one even though the questions are the same.  

Hello FIRE-friends!

On 20th of July 2019 there was a FIRE meet-up in Amsterdam with no one other than JL Collins, author of The Simple Path to Wealth and his blog of which the stock series are the Crown Jewels. Jim is the Godfather of FIRE (Kristy Shen conjured up that title, I hope it’s okay that I borrow it)  and has been FI since 1989. Yep, you want to read his book and his blog.

I had the honour of asking the first couple of questions through an interview which were mostly crowdsourced among the Dutch FIRE community. It was an amazing experience. Again, thank you Jim & Jane. You are amazing people.

Here’s the recording for you to enjoy.

Thanks to Zoku Amsterdam for hosting us.

The questions that I asked Jim:

Which personal decision you made has had the biggest impact on your path to FIRE?

Which questions should somebody aspiring FIRE ask themselves at the start of and throughout their journey?

You advised  your daughter to keep putting her money in the Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund VTSAX. This is the fund she already owns and she should just keep adding to it. In which cases or trends would you advise her differently or change course? What signals should she look out for and what would you advise her to be a cross over point to something else? I know we can’t prepare for Black Swan events and flexibility is key.

Recently Vanguard has indicated that they expect returns for the stock market over the next decade to be lower compared to the past couple of decades, about 5 percent annualized return instead of 8. What is your view on this statement and would you adjust your investment strategy if the stock market returns would drop considerably?

The Dutch have to deal with a different kind of income and wealth tax system compared to Americans. What course of action would you advise the Dutch on their way to FIRE while dealing with things like capital gains tax?

What lessons about money did your parents teach you?

After discovering index investing, how did you manage to stick to the path since there weren’t a lot of role model index investors back then.

How do you and Jane talk about money and investing? And what kind of money and investment talk strategy would you advise couples who have just discovered the FIRE movement?

Do you expect global trends like climate change to affect the stock market? Should an investor anticipate on these trends and if yes, how?

Which topics are a waste of time to think about when pursuing FIRE?

From the audience (summarized by me):

How did you handle college tuition for your daughter?

What shouldn’t parents teach their children about money?

How do you create a mindset in which you can ride out the storms during bear markets?

What is your opinion on value cost averaging?

What is your opinion on investing in index funds which also contain companies that one might find unethical?

You tried to teach your daughter about money throughout her childhood. Is she on board now that she is an adult?

You don’t have to work for money anymore. What motivates you to work on your current projects?