Writing & workSince 2003
Opening notes
Financial independence affects decisions long before retirement. Being able to handle a setback, reduce your working hours, or change careers each requires different preparation.
I’m Harlan Landes, and I write about how to assess those choices and what changes when paid work becomes optional.
Harlan Landes FI / 01
One foundation. Five stages.
A framework for a life with choices.
The liner notes Foundation — Stage 5
Being able to pay the bills, manage a job loss, and afford a career change are different kinds of progress.
Foundation
Ordinary expenses are not yet covered sustainably. The immediate task is to make everyday financial life work.
Stage 1
Ordinary expenses are sustainably covered, and resources can consistently go toward future progress.
Stage 2
The household can withstand a meaningful financial disruption without losing the ability to meet essential obligations or recover.
Stage 3
Financial capacity supports meaningful voluntary changes in work and life without unacceptable destabilization.
Stage 4
Sustainable resources independent of required work can support the household’s reality-tested Core Lifestyle.
Stage 5
Sustainable work-independent resources can support the full Chosen Lifestyle, making paid work financially optional.
The Stages of Financial Independence describe what changes at each point, including the changes that happen before you can afford to stop working.
The framework describes what your finances can support. This essay explores how to choose among those possibilities when deciding how much time to give work and family.
Financial independence gives me more choice about work. Family has changed how much of it fits, even when I enjoy the people and the purpose.
Decisions & Tradeoffs
Annuities can bring high fees, confusing terms, inflation risk, and lost investment growth. Here is when they fail and when lifetime income may help.
Resilience & Agency
Build an emergency plan around what your savings need to cover, how you can access them, and the choices they can support on the way to financial independence.
Resilience & Agency
Financial agency creates room to change jobs, work less, care for family, or try something new. How to recognize the choices your finances can support.
My personal newsletter
New articles, brief notes from the work behind them, and occasional videos about money, agency, community, and what I’m building.
More about the newsletterCommunity
Founder · In development
A community I’m developing to help people understand their financial position, choose their next steps, and work on them with others.
Explore the communityDecision tools
Founder · Active
Tools for examining financial decisions using your own circumstances, comparing assumptions, and understanding the tradeoffs.
Explore the FI ToolkitFinancial wellness
Co-founder · In development
A financial wellness platform we’re developing to help people put financial plans into practice through ongoing habits and decisions.
Nonprofit
Founder & Executive Director · Active
The professional home for people who teach others about money. We connect and support financial educators, coaches, advisers, and creators, and help their work reach more people.
Meet the foundationWhere this began
In 2003, I began writing publicly about my own finances. It grew into an independent financial publication. Building it, and eventually selling it, changed my own financial circumstances.
Explore the earlier workStudio notes / Harlan Landes
Writing · Teaching · Building
A little about me
I’m a financial independence educator, entrepreneur, and community builder. I founded Consumerism Commentary and the Plutus Foundation, and I’m currently building MOMENTUM and its Financial Independence Toolkit.
My interests include music education, drum corps, photography, and how people use language and make decisions. Those interests influence what I notice and how I explain it.
Read my story