Financial Independence Tools

Financial independence, at every stage of life.

Financial independence gives you room to choose your work, your pace, and what comes next. FITools covers the career, money, investing, and retirement decisions that build and use that freedom.

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Featured essays

Arguments and observations on work, money, investing, and the long arc of financial independence.

A teenager watches a gleaming sports car being filmed beneath ring lights.

Career & financial independence Jul 15, 2026

The Lambo and the minivan: what the internet gets wrong about honest work

The internet tells young men that jobs are for losers and sports cars are proof of success. Mike Rowe, a longtime advocate for skilled trades, and my crumb-filled minivan suggest otherwise.

An editorial illustration follows a young worker, a midlife parent, and a retiree along one continuous path through life.

Financial Independence Aug 1, 2026

Financial independence, at every stage of life

Money anxiety doesn’t vanish as the numbers grow. FITools offers free, plain-spoken guidance for the career, money, investing, and retirement decisions in front of you.

A silver-haired woman in her seventies reads a printed page at a kitchen table, a pencil in one hand and a mug of coffee beside her.

Retirement & drawdown Jul 16, 2026

Four ways retirees try to turn a portfolio into a paycheck

A dividend, Treasury payment, annuity check, and option premium may look alike after they land. The risk, obligation, or lost flexibility behind each payment determines whether it helped.

An editorial illustration contrasts a frantic gambler riding a roulette wheel with a calm older investor collecting a steady stream of coins beside a blue rowhouse, all balanced on one giant coin.

Options & retirement income Jul 22, 2026

The casino and the landlord

In 2021 a wave of retail traders learned options as lottery tickets. On the other side of those trades sat a quieter investor: the retiree selling covered calls and cash-secured puts, renting out patience for income.

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The FITools Handbook

Choose what you're working on.

Each path is free and complete without an email signup.

Career & earning power For choosing a career, changing direction, or making your current work more valuable. Money & financial independence For improving cash flow, raising your savings rate, and understanding what enough could look like. Investing For building a portfolio around patience, diversification, and decisions you can live with through a bad market. Retirement & drawdown For turning accumulated savings into spending, healthcare, tax, and estate decisions.

Browse every handbook topic

FITools options research

Look beyond the same five stocks without lowering your standards.

FITools starts with the company. Screen for valuation, profitability, growth, balance-sheet health, dividend measures, and sector before comparing covered calls on shares you own or cash-secured puts backed by cash you have set aside.

Every screened contract receives a transparent 0–100 score and A–F grade. The result includes named components, warning flags, and a written rationale you can inspect before deciding what deserves more research.

Your criteria set the field. The score shows its work.

Explore the options research tool Read the FITools methodology

Security Selection Use Screener

Strategy Focus Covered Calls only

MRDN Meridian Foods · $60.00

B Score78.4/100

Strike$63.00 ExpirationAug 14 (37d) Premium$0.61 Delta0.22

Why This Contract

The $63 strike sits 5.0% above the current price. Open interest clears the selected floor, but the bid-ask spread is wide enough to warrant extra caution.

Wide bid-ask spread Market Open · Data from 3:42 PM ET

Illustrative example · not live market data or a recommendation