Welcome to penalties of success

Welcome to PENALTIES OF SUCCESS, a FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) platform designed to inspire middle-class Americans to join the FIRE movement.  As our government continues to move further and further towards socialism, campaigning on talking points such as Universal Basic Income, free Medicare for all, and 1.7 trillion in student loan forgiveness, its only logical that our tax rates will continue to increase, squeezing the remaining life out of the working class.  This blog aims to show you the way to financial independence, true happiness, and the ability to fight back by legally reducing your tax burden, while qualifying for more government programs you are currently excluded from simply for working hard and contributing to society.  This FIRE blog is different as I will teach you how to resolve the two biggest obstacles to FIRE, housing and healthcare.  In this blog, I will show you exactly how to pay down your mortgage early, allowing you to qualify for totally free healthcare for your entire family!

This blog is intended for the average working class American.  So, if you’re looking to be the next millionaire blogger or investor, YouTube star, or Fortune 500 CEO, you need not bother to read any further.   I am in no way a financial advisor, nor do I have any financial background other than what I have learned over the past years after discovering the FIRE movement, and from my decade of experience as an Occupational Therapist.  Unfortunately, in my experience in healthcare, I have witnessed many individuals lose their entire life savings due to medical bills, or for qualification for Medicaid for Long-term care. I’ve also seen too many hard-working individuals excluded from Medicaid, leaving them with crippling medical bills. My decade in healthcare taught me this: thanks primarily to the Affordable Care Act, it no longer makes sense to work hard and/or save for retirement.  There are 2 reasons for this: 1. Should you live long enough and have any major medical complications or require Long-term care, you will be required to “spend down” all of your assets to under $2,000.00 to qualify for Long-term Medicaid.  Second, by having a higher income now, you are excluded for Medicaid under the expansion program.  These two facts, combined with skyrocketing private health insurance costs, is a recipe for disaster, that can and will result in bankruptcy due to medical bills. 

  The ideas I will present here are what I have implemented in my life based on my research and experience.  I am sharing them so that you may implement these ideas in your own personal life, if you wish. Simply put, it does not make financial sense for most working-class citizens to continue to work in the traditional manner and retire in the traditional fashion.  Thanks to things I call “penalties of success,” or simply POS’s, it actually makes more financial sense to reduce the number of hours you work, in order to reduce the POS’s you have to quite literally pay. 

What sets this blog apart from many other FIRE blogs is the fact that this particular pathway aims to DECREASE your MAGI, Modified Adjusted Gross Income, thus my primary motivation isn’t to make money off of you the reader by either selling you my ideas, or capitalizing off of advertisements or other third party sources of income, instead my primary intent is to improve your quality of life. As I will discuss in a future article called “Beware the Fradulent Blogger, I do not think it is ethical to try to capitalize off of YOU, since we are all attempting to reduce our debt and live a better life. Although I expect this blog may generate some passive revenue, my ultimate goal is to significantly reduce my taxable income, for multiple reasons which will be discussed in further detail in the future. Simply put, I don’t want your money or even third party income as it could potentially push my income over the threshold to qualify for Medicaid, as you will see.

The three main goals of this blog are:

1.  Increase the quality of life for all working-class Americans, thus reducing the epidemic of depression in the United States, through financial independence

2.  Educate working-class Americans on the importance of understanding interest, compounding interest, our current tax system, and the effect of POS’s on your income and ability to save money.

3.  Assist families in estate planning by educating them on the basics of Long-Term Care, its cost, and Medicaid coverage to pay for Long Term Care, and assist you in understanding exactly how to qualify for totally free healthcare via Medicaid, eliminating one of the major hurdles to true FIRE, healthcare insurance. 

The three main takeaways from this blog are:

1.  Enjoy life now, because you only have one life to live; time is your most valuable asset for many reasons and is a nonrenewable resource.

2.  Reduce your MAGI to become eligible for Medicaid coverage under Medicaid expansion, lower your income tax rate, and qualify for other income base programs you are currently excluded from due to working hard and contributing to society.

3.  Give away all your assets to your children/relatives now, before the government takes them from you later through taxation, medical bills, or qualification for Long term care Medicaid. 

The Mission Statement of this blog is:  “ To increase the quality of life for all working-class Americans through education on basic financial concepts, taxes, and healthcare benefits, allowing them to exit the rat race decades before traditional retirement and live a more fulfilling debt free life.”  

So if you’re tired of working your life away, “living for the weekend,” or just want to know how to better prepare your estate, or assist your family in planning for their financial future, then please continue on to the blog.  Since I do work full time, I will try to update the blog monthly, with pertinent information for your financial independence, so please check back at the beginning of every month for an update!