About Bank on FI and Chris Linteris
Hi, I’m Chris. I’m a commercial banker by day and a rental property investor on the side. This is where I translate what I’ve learned on both sides of the desk into plain English for people building toward financial independence.
My story
I’ve spent my career in banking, starting as a part-time teller and working my way into commercial lending, the part of the bank that lends to businesses. Most days I’m reading financial statements, building cash-flow models and asking the question every lender asks: what happens if this doesn’t go to plan? I’ve also spent time on the other side of the table, running the finances of a private company, which taught me how those same numbers feel from the borrower’s chair.
Along the way I started buying residential rentals on the side. I didn’t have a windfall. I’d simply watched plenty of business owners build lasting wealth by owning assets that pay them, and I wanted a second engine besides my paycheck. I’ve built the portfolio one property at a time, financing, managing and occasionally fixing things myself, and I’ve learned plenty the hard way.
What surprised me most was how much the lender’s toolkit helped. Coverage ratios, reserves and stress tests aren’t secrets, but very few people outside a credit department use them on their own finances. That’s the “banker’s secret” in the name: not an insider trick, just a disciplined way of looking at risk that anyone can learn.
What you’ll find here
- Think Like a Lender: How underwriters size up risk (DSCR, loan-to-value, global cash flow, liquidity) translated for your own money.
- Rental Real Estate, Real Numbers: Buying, financing, managing and stress-testing small residential rentals, with real-world lessons and honest math.
- The FI Math: Savings rate, your FI number, the 4% rule and its critics, net-worth tracking and sequence risk, minus the jargon.
- Business & Side Income: What makes a small business bankable, cash flow versus profit, entity basics and side income that can scale.
- Tax & Structure Literacy: Depreciation, 1031 basics, HSAs and Roth accounts explained in plain English, so you ask your CPA better questions.
- Early-Retirement Life Design: Bridging to 59½, health insurance before Medicare, and the psychology of stepping back from a paycheck.
New posts go up about twice a month, and the newsletter goes out every other week.
What this site is not
Bank on FI is a personal, educational blog. It is not a bank, lender or financial institution, and I’m not your advisor. I don’t review individual deals, take on clients or arrange loans, so please don’t send me your financial statements. I keep my day job and this blog completely separate: I don’t write about my employer, its customers or its products, and nothing here is reviewed or endorsed by any employer.
All examples on this site use hypothetical or rounded numbers, and details of my own properties are kept general on purpose.
Disclaimer
Educational purposes only. Bank on FI shares general educational content about personal finance, real estate investing, business, and financial independence based on the author’s personal experience and opinions. Nothing here is financial, investment, tax, legal, or lending advice, and nothing here is an offer or solicitation to buy or sell any security, property, or financial product. The author is not acting as your financial advisor, CPA, attorney, or lender, and no advisor-client relationship is created by reading this site or newsletter or by contacting the author. Examples and numbers are illustrative or hypothetical and may not reflect actual results; investing, including real estate, involves risk, including loss of principal. Consult a qualified professional about your own situation before making decisions. Views expressed are solely the author’s own and do not represent the views of any current or former employer or any affiliated organization.
See the full disclaimer and privacy notice.