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For the first time in a few years I started to research and read personal finance blogs again. I came across a group of blogs writing about the goal of “financial independence” and retiring early (affectionately called FIRE).

All of them point back to a blog by J. L. (Jim) Collins and his “Stock Series.”

I have been a big proponent of index fund investing for many years. I read a couple of books by John Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, five or six years ago. Collins’s series of blog posts abou...