Today on the FI Garage The Economist and The Accountant have a beer and get to speak with Bob Lai, who writes at Tawcan.com.

Introduction [0:40]

Financial Epiphany (1:07)A family full of early retirees (1:40)Blog topics (2:50)

Questions for Bob

Bob had 3 weddings that inspired 2 cookbooks (3:35)Why cookbooks? (5:08)Bob’s first blog was a recipe blog: Three More Bites (5:30)Was money openly discussed in your family? (6:10)Did your family provide you with information about the net worth numbers needed for financial independence (7:15)Focusing on Dividend income and not drawing down portfolioAre you focusing on dividend investing as a hedge against sequence of return risk? (8:35)Riding out the financial crisisPassing down dividend portfolio to kids – building a legacyUsing logic to avoid a panic sale (11:40)Father provided financial guidance during the economic downturnYou said didn’t have an allowance growing up, are you going to give your kids an allowance? (12:53)In Bob’s Financial Freedom interview he talked about separating the “RE” from FIRE. Do people focus too much on the early retirement aspect of FIRE? (14:35)Quitting your 9-5 to do something you enjoyRetirement is not going to make you happyFI is not a finish lineBob’s struggle with mental health (19:03)Bob talks about consistently improving yourself and building relationships (20:40)Have you always pursued self-improvement or did FIRE push you towards self-improvement? (21:45)Moving away from personal finance books towards other books. Here is Bob’s Q2 booklist including Educated: A MemoirThe personal finance community is very supportive (24:45)FinCon (26:10)Do you think people in the FIRE community are too conservative in quitting a job they don’t like (27:35)Different terms to replace Financial Independence / Retire Early Tanya Hester’s Work OptionalBob’s Retirement OptionalThe Accountant’s Financial Independence / Refocus EnergySlowly Sipping Coffee’s Fully-Funded Lifestyle ChangMost recent Dividend update Garden pictures (30:25)Including dividend history in your updates (32:25)Bob’s final thoughts (33:55)Thoughts on writing a blogBob was featured on MoneySence magazineThe banks are not helping anyone on the path to FIRE

How to Contact Bob

tawcan.com@Tawcan on twitter