JL COLLINS

Collins had a long career in various business roles before turning seriously to writing about investing. He worked in publishing, radio, and various entrepreneurial ventures over several decades.

He was never a professional investor or a Wall Street figure. He built his wealth the slow way — working, saving aggressively, and investing consistently in low-cost index funds over 30+ years.

He started the jlcollinsnh.com blog in 2011, initially writing posts directed at his daughter to teach her about money. The writing was clear, direct, and different from the financial advice industry''s typically hedged, jargon-filled approach.

The blog built an audience. In 2016 he published "The Simple Path to Wealth" and it became the canonical text of the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement.

He had no publisher, no PR, no marketing budget — word of mouth from the financial independence community made it one of the best-selling personal finance books of the decade.

Collins does not run a business in the conventional sense. He writes, speaks at FIRE community events (Camp Mustache, EconoMe, etc.), and manages his own portfolio.

He has collaborated with Vanguard on investor education. The blog remains free and is maintained actively.

His revenue comes from book sales, speaking fees, and an occasional product endorsement. He is the rare personal finance voice whose net worth does not match the scale of his influence.

Collins'' strategy is the simplest on this entire site: buy VTSAX (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund), hold it indefinitely, and add money consistently regardless of market conditions. For people not yet in a position to invest, he recommends VBTLX (Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund) as a stabilizer.

That is genuinely the whole strategy. During accumulation phase: stocks only.

During wealth preservation: add some bonds. Never sell unless you have no other choice.

"The Simple Path to Wealth" (2016) is the win. Written without a publisher, launched into a community of financial independence enthusiasts, it sold hundreds of thousands of copies through word of mouth and became required reading in the FIRE movement.

It has been translated into multiple languages. The book''s success validated something unusual: that the simplest possible investment advice — buy one fund, hold it — when explained clearly and without condescension, is more useful than virtually anything the financial services industry produces.

Collins has spoken about a period in the 1980s where he panic-sold during a market downturn, crystallizing a loss and then missing the recovery — exactly the mistake he now dedicates his writing to helping others avoid. He has also discussed buying individual stocks early in his investing career before recognizing that he could not consistently beat the market.

These failures, he says, are what led him to the simplicity of the index fund approach.

Collins believes the investment industry exists primarily to take money from investors through fees and complexity. His antidote is radical simplicity: one fund, low cost, long horizon.

He is a devoted Boglehead — a follower of Jack Bogle''s philosophy — and frames financial freedom not as a destination but as a state that removes the power that money problems have over your decisions and your life. He thinks financial independence is more about behavior than income level.

Collins is married and has one daughter — the original audience for his blog posts that became the book. He lives in New Hampshire.

He and his wife have traveled extensively in retirement, including a famous year living abroad that he documented on the blog. He is engaged with the FIRE community and describes it as one of the most genuinely supportive communities he has encountered.

University of Illinois at Chicago, BA. He does not emphasize his educational credentials and rarely discusses them.

He has suggested that the most important financial education he received was from reading Jack Bogle, John Bogle''s books, and the jlcollinsnh blog''s own community of readers who pushed back and improved his thinking.

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