Millionaire Librarian

A Middle Class Path to Early Retirement

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  • Will We Go Back to the States?

    We have a visit to the states planned next December mainly for my nephew’s wedding. However, today my wife asked if with all the political turmoil if we still wanted to return and she asked what would have to happen to not return?

    I know that most of the political violence in the US is localized to a couple of cities. That would be the main thing that would have to change for us to not come back. Political violence would have to spread to more cities.

    Also I know that being able to go outside in the states and look around in your neighborhood does wonders. Ecuador currently is a dangerous place to live, but inside Cuenca and especially inside our neighborhood it is especially safe. See my post about Cuenca being one of the safest cities in the Americas. I know that the US is similar. Most places in the US are safe despite the political violence in a few select cities.

    Another aspect on visiting is that we would have to get insurance for the visit. This isn’t a huge deal but in Ecuador health insurance and care is affordable. It is just not in the states.

    This is all short term decision making. What about the long term? For the long term, I do not see us returning for a while. Life is sustainable here with my wife’s part-time job and our portfolio. Also the German private school Eleanor will attend is leagues ahead of anything that would be available to us in the states. That means we might be here for 15 more years.

  • Is Cuenca Safe? A 2026 Perspective

    When people ask us about our life in Ecuador, the most common question we get is: “Is Cuenca safe?”

    This question often stems from a lack of familiarity with South American geography and politics. It is easy for those outside the region to lump all these countries together, but safety varies significantly by location. While parts of Ecuador—particularly along the coast—struggle with safety issues due to drug smuggling routes, Cuenca remains a distinct and secure exception.

    Life on the Ground

    We walk almost everywhere and have never personally had a problem. Like any major city, pickpocketing occurs in high-traffic tourist areas, but these spots are regularly patrolled by police and private security. You will also notice a visible security presence at banks, malls, and high-end stores; rather than being a cause for alarm, most residents welcome this as a proactive deterrent.

    Community Justice and Vigilantism

    One unique aspect of the local culture is the concept of communal vigilantism or “community justice.” In areas where residents feel the law is too slow to act, they may take matters into their own hands. A local friend once told me that if someone were caught selling drugs near a school, the entire community might mobilize to physically punish the offender. While these “Citizen Brigades” are a part of the cultural fabric, the police frequently remind the public that such extralegal actions remain illegal.

    The Numbers: Cuenca vs. The U.S.

    Statistically, Cuenca is consistently rated as the safest city of its size in South and Central America. When compared to the United States, it is often safer than 95% of comparable cities.

    • Cuenca’s Homicide Rate: ~6 per 100,000 people.
    • Chicago: ~29 per 100,000 people.
    • Memphis: ~44 per 100,000 people.

    Despite these reassuring statistics, we still practice common-sense safety. We stay aware of our surroundings, research the neighborhoods we visit, and rarely venture far from home late at night. In 2026, Cuenca remains a beautiful, liveable city where the reality of safety far exceeds the negative stereotypes of the region.

  • Accessing Retirement Funds Early

    Imagine a path to financial independence, a road less traveled that lets you ditch the daily grind long before the “official” retirement age of 59½. It’s not magic, it’s knowing the rules and using them to your advantage. Think of your retirement accounts not as an untouchable fortress until some distant date, but as a resource you can strategically tap.

    One simple tool in your arsenal is the Roth IRA contribution withdrawal. Consider this your personal bridge money. The money you put in – your direct contributions – is always yours to take out, anytime, for any reason, without taxes or penalties. It’s like having a readily accessible emergency fund right there in your retirement account.

    Roth IRA Ladder

    Now, let’s talk about the bigger prize: the substantial savings you’ve built in a 401(k) or Traditional IRA. Accessing this pre-tax money early without penalty requires a strategy called the Roth Conversion Ladder.

    Picture this:

    • You take a portion of your pre-tax money, say from an old 401(k) rolled into a Traditional IRA.
    • You convert a specific amount of that Traditional IRA money into a Roth IRA. You’ll pay taxes on this conversion, but you choose the amount, controlling your tax bill.
    • That converted amount then needs to “season” in the Roth IRA for five full years.
    • After five years, that converted principal amount is free to withdraw, tax-free and penalty-free.

    It’s a step-by-step process that, over time, allows you to systematically access your retirement funds before 59½.

    Tax Optimization

    Another powerful concept to consider is optimizing your tax situation during these conversion years. By strategically managing your income and conversions, you can potentially utilize the standard deduction to significantly reduce or even eliminate the taxes owed on those conversions. It’s about being smart with the tax code, not avoiding it.

    Understanding these concepts is key to building your own path to financial independence. However, these strategies can be complex, and individual situations vary greatly. Some software I utilize is ProjectionLab.com. With ProjectionLab you can see the future money ramifications projected out into the future.

    Addendum 1: A video of Money with Katie explaining the strategy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlAGqQnly6I&t=168s

    Addendum 2: An article written by the Mad Fientist on the strategy: https://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/

  • Financial Expert Short Biography: Ramit Sethi

    Ramit has grown in popularity with his 2023 Netflix Series How to Get Rich and his book I will Teach You to Be Rich. His Netflix Series involves discovering the money patterns of couples that are preventing their prosperity. Ramit is very emotionally intelligent and leans on his education in Social Psychology for insights into his guests.

    One of Ramit’s key reoccurring ideas is his belief in selective frugality. He believes you should “Spend extravagantly on the things you love, and cut costs mercilessly on the things you don’t”.

    I agree with this idea but I would like to further categorize items into the extremely expensive categories like cars and houses. Items in this category you can really only afford to have one that is really nice. They just take too much money to maintain. For most people, having both a relatively expensive car and house will leave you in a situation where you will have payments forever. Ultimately, you want to pay off a car or house by possibly making extra payments so you can divert that cash into investments like index funds which have a high return.

    There are moderately expensive categories like clothes, vacations and hobbies where you can spend heavily on one or two without breaking the budget. Generally these don’t take much maintenance cost which means you aren’t obligated in paying them for years or decades. That is unless you buy them on credit which is another issue.

    The last category is things you should spend freely on like coffees, snacks, and some meals. Personally, I load myself up on these small indulgences whether that might be fresh fruit twice a week from the mercado or artisan breads. For Christmas, we got an artisan, smoked ham which would fall into this category. This doesn’t have to be food. It could be a convenience like our well-priced cleaning service.

    A category that stands alone from others is buying your financial independence and is what I buy with my money. This is the money used to buy investments so that you have the financial freedom to make bold moves. Financial independence isn’t an all or nothing thing. Having some financial independence may give you the bargaining leverage and aggressiveness to demand more money or take a few months when your new manager makes unreasonable demands.

    Which of Ramit’s ideas resonates with you? Comment or feel free to write me what you think.

  • 2026 New Year Updates

    We just passed the holidays and five months living in Cuenca, Ecuador. About a month ago we moved into a house near the Botanical Garden in a “tranquilo” part of the city called “La Isla.” The area is named “La Isla” because to the west two rivers almost meet but then create an almost island and then finally meet together where they built the botanical garden. It is almost an entirely residential part of the city with only a small restaurant for lunches or “almuerzos,” a gym, and a couple of “tiendas” or small shops.

    Having a larger living space has been a welcome change. Previously, we were living in a very popular area called “El Vergel” but in a very small apartment. The house we are now living in is two stories which means we are not on top of each other. It was an unfurnished house which in Ecuador means it does not come with a refrigerator or an oven range. Purchasing those were an experience as well as beds, a desk, a loveseat, and other household goods. I’m glad for the help we received from our friend Javier and that we had a few months of familiarizing ourself with the areas and stores before we made the purchases.

    Eleanor has just started her new preschool and she is adapting well to it. Like in Missouri they send pictures of her throughout the day. We also opted in for the package where she goes on field trips. The other day (before we started going) they took the kids horseback riding. I think this month they are working on English and gross motor skills. She should do well in English and has been doing well learning Spanish. She only speaks a few words but understands dozens. Either way the videos we see shows she loves playing with her Ecuadorian “friends” by dancing and singing.

    Lauren has missed working and starts a new part-time, remote university job next week. She beat out several other librarians over several interviews to be offered the job. The money will allow us expand some parts of our lifestyle including joining a gym, hiring a weekly cleaning service, and Eleanor attending a private, impressive, German school when the time comes.

    Financially, the market has climbed to new heights. Also with Lauren working we can change our portfolio to be more heavily invested in stocks as her income will cover the majority of our expenses and we will no longer need the stability and lower returns of bonds. This is an idea I borrowed from JL Collins where bonds act as a “ballast” when you are drawing from your portfolio and when you are earning an income you maximize investment potential. It is more aggressive than some strategies but over the long term will have the best returns if you can “stay on the path.”

  • The Market is Overpriced! What Should You Do?

    On almost every financial news outlet pundits are saying that the market is overpriced. Technology and AI companies have bid up stocks primarily on the speculation that AI will change the world. However, even if AI does change the world no one has quite figured out how to make it profitable. Also many critics argue that computer hardware for AI will need to be renewed and updated every 4 years making current investments void in short time.

    The overwhelming majority of my investments is in the S&P 500 which is overweighted in the Magnificent 7 (the largest technology stocks). Just a couple of days ago politician AOC was commenting how largely the US economy and stock market was dependent on AI’s success.

    Though I’m concerned with this development, I am going to stay invested and keep on the same path. There is an old theory that the market will adapt and adjust to known issues like the AI concentration. However, it is the unknown black swan events like the 2008 financial crisis or the Covid epidemic that are the real threats to the market.

    For anyone in retirement like myself, I would have a year or two of expenses in a bond index fund to help smooth the ride if the worst happens. If you are still accumulating shares, then view any downturn as an opportunity to buy the same shares cheaper than usual.

  • Being Content and Purchasing Your Time Back.

    One of my favorite thinkers and writers is Morgan Housel. He has some very powerful ideas and I was watching him a few days ago and he was talking about being content with your life being a financial super power.

    I’ve been reflecting on the word “content” since I listened to him and I’ve thought about how it allows you to live. When your content you can drive an old corolla. When your content you can live in the smaller house. These two things end up owning many Americans and tying them to payments for years and decades. If your clothes are older then you can live with them if you are content.

    Instead of caring about an aesthetic then you invest your money in items that provide an investment return and allow you to own your time one dollar at a time. As another author Rob Berger says, “the best thing money can buy is financial freedom.”

  • Burrowing into Cuenca.

    Over the last few weeks we have begun burrowing into our newfound lifestyle. We have found several businesses which will be beneficial in everday life and made friends with all sorts of people. Locals have helped us gather an exhaustive school list and move to our permanent residence. Tomorrow our daughter starts preschool and has already shown she can bridge language gaps with games like chase at the local park. Tomorrow is also our anniversary and we plan to have an extravagant lunch eating fried seafood.

    Overall things are going great with a few hardships of raising a young, growing person where everything is new.

  • Exploring Cuenca’s History, Food and Beauty

    This past week in Cuenca has been filled with exploring different areas and restaurants. The New Cathedral in El Centro pictured above was beautiful and it is only a short cab ride away. The blue domes from it can be seen from miles away as pictured below.

    Along with visiting historical sites we spent a lot of time visiting restaurants. We have ate Thai, American, Indian, and Venezuelan Style Pizza. Each of these meals cost around $20-$30 with drinks and were very high quality.

    Thai
    Venezuelan Style Pizza

    The local beauty of the area is easy to stop and take note. The 4 rushing rivers that run through the city means your always close to water. You can see where the rivers run from far away because they have allowed large trees to grow in the parks and trails accompanying them.

    Even our modest apartment has a wonderful view looking on the mountains.

  • We’ve Arrived in Ecuador.

    We’ve arrived in Ecuador and some of my first takeaways are things I expected but were interesting to see and experience first hand.

    First, the views while traveling over Andes from Guayaquil were breathtaking. The mountains rise up forever and dart down drastically. Clouds create a mist across the roads in places and my driver had to manually wipe the windshield a few times with a cloth because the windows were open.

    Once we arrived in Ecuador we discovered a mercado or market right next to our temporary housing. The mercado has extremely fresh fruits, meats, vegetables, and a dozen or so small restaurant shops with shared seating. We also found a local bakery and most breads are 20 cents each. Our first dinner was three chicken empanadas for three dollars total.

    Overall we are surprised by the low prices for most everything. Meals for us usually are no more than $3 each adult. A couple pounds of tomatoes or onions are $1. After a couple days we reworked our budget and believe we will come in come in a couple hundred dollars cheaper a month than we expected to spend. This means our plan has a 100% success rate when we run it through a Monte-Carlo simulator. Some things that are more relatively expensive are paper products like 4 bath tissue rolls being $5 and a roll of paper towels being $2.

    Another thing we found was long-term housing. We will be on the fourth floor of an apartment building which means we have an amazing view of the surrounding mountains which is a big luxury. The apartment is a simple 2 bed and 2 bath but is perfectly located in a sector of the city call El Virgil which has daycares, restaurants, cafes, and is a very desirable area especially by expats who want to walk the city. The apartment is $440/month and is furnished. The same apartment in even rural America would be multiples more expensive.

    An expected and realized negative of the city is the state of the driving culture. With every driver we have rode won our ride through the Andes at times the driver used and needed to use all the lanes of the road. They float from lane to lane finding the quickest way to get through an area. I’m more of a patient and orderly driver that tries to maximize being predictable and driving safely. It reminds me of Korean driving somewhat and it will be one of the reasons I probably don’t end up buying a car here for some time. Also cars are one of the items that are more expensive here in Ecuador because of the import taxes. In addition, most taxis cost only a couple dollars for a 15 minute ride.

    Overall we are ecstatic with our decision to move here. The low cost has to be experienced to really believe it. It opens up some amazing lifestyle decisions that would not be available if we had stayed in the states like private school, gyms, and cheap fresh food.