100R | Know the Rules

100R | Brad and Jonathan explain how simply knowing the rules can save you thousands on taxes and college financing, Brad talks through the IRA Conversion Ladder and Capital Gains Harvesting, and a few updates from the community. The financial independence movement is growing, and seeing a lot more press coverage. Messaging matters: The Wall Street Journal published one article with two different headlines. Pursuing financial independence isn’t about buying brown bananas, despite what some media would suggest. Brad reached financial independence with intentionality about his priorities in his life. Brad and Jonathan don’t aim to tell people what decisions to make in their life, just give options and information. What did Brad’s family do to reach financial independence? Housing: chose to move to a less-expensive cost of living area Cars: Brad & his wife drive 15-year-old cars Food: don’t go to restaurants often Set up a life that doesn’t cost that much. Pursuing financial independence actually allows people to pursue jobs that they love. If life costs a lot and someone is in debt, it’s very hard to walk away without taking major risks. Knowing tax rules is a huge component of pursuing financial independence. Knowing the rules in regards to paying for college makes a huge difference in how much financial aid your student might be eligible to receive. A message from Matt about researching the actual requirements necessary for a job in nursing – the cost of nursing school can range from a few thousand dollars to more than $100k. Studying nursing in a less expensive area still gives you qualifications to practice anywhere in the U.S., with a potentially huge payoff. Roth Conversion Ladder & Capital Gains Harvesting – the goal is to pay little or no tax. Roth IRA Conversion Ladder: Starts with traditional IRA/401k. If you want to retire before 59.5, taking money out is taxable income. If you’re not collecting significant income, taking money from an IRA is unlikely to push you into a high tax bracket. Capital Gains Harvesting If you’re income is low, your tax bracket can be incredibly low. Email from Dan explaining how he and his wife paid off many of their debts, found a way for his wife to be a stay-at-home mom, and started a small side hustle. Brad shares a frugal win of the week at the optometrist. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/100R 

29 Mar 10:12

101 | Finding your Side Hustle Idea | Nick Loper

101 | Nick Loper, founder of Side Hustle Nation, talks about the benefits of developing a side hustle, and methods to actually develop a good side hustle idea.   You can only cut so much from your expenses; a side hustle helps you expand your earning potential. Nick thinks working just a 9-5 job is risky – what happens if you get fired? Nick advocates several methods for developing side hustle ideas. Method 1: Intersection Method Write out three columns with lists that include what you can do, what you like to do, and the people in your network. Nick used the Fiverr website to test out his first side hustle idea. How important is it to pivot, instead of being discouraged by failure? Some of the best ideas are developed once a business is already in motion. Method 2: What sucks? Find simple sticking points in life and solve the problems. Some people find things on Amazon that suck, and find a way to make them better. There are manufacturing companies in China and the U.S. that work with small orders and require minimal up-front investment. You don’t need a brand-new idea, you just need a different market. Recommended episodes from Side Hustle Nation: Episode 173: How to Turn Your Ideas Into Recurring Revenue, with Stephen Key Episode 263: The Top 3 Amazon FBA Private Label Product Research Strategies for 2018 and Beyond Method 3: Rip, Pivot and Jam Find a business model that’s working, pivot it to a new market, product, etc., and then do the work. Are there side hustles that Nick no longer recommends? Sometimes the opportunity cost for a side hustle may not be worth the cash. One of the best side hustle ideas Nick has heard: Flea Market Flipper. How difficult is it to develop a passive-income side-hustle? Think Maids: found a category of businesses on Yelp that had really poor reviews, and found a way to provide better customer service.   Links: Alibaba.com Smart Passive Income GoCurryCracker

29 Mar 10:12

101R | Side Hustle Coaching Series Part 4

101R | Brad and Jonathan talk about their experiences with W2 jobs and building side hustles, Jose shares his own side hustle tip, and Alan and Tallis wrap up the 4-part Side Hustle Coaching Series.   Brad and Jonathan are jumping into planned spontaneity. Do your actions align with your values? Brad recounts how the accounting firm he worked for right after college, one of the biggest in the U.S. at the time, folded and within 9 months no longer existed. W2 jobs aren’t all that risk-free after all. Having a side hustle is about diversification. Jonathan talks about how Dani is building an audiobook side hustle, using some of the techniques and strategies that Nick Loper talked about in Monday’s episode. Willingness to pivot your side hustle idea gives you a better chance at building a side hustle that actually works. Voicemail from Jose with a side hustle tip from Task Rabbit – sign up to help others with random tasks, and add a little extra cash to your pocket. Brad’s opting to rent a car through Turo, through which customers rent someone’s personal car, similar to AirBnB.   Side Hustle Coaching Call Episodes to review: Episode 30, Episode 56 (Part 1), Episode 77R (Part 2), Episode 85R (Part 3) Tallis reviews how her initial cold calls, starting from further away geographically and becoming increasingly local as she refined her sales pitch. Tallis has 4 dance classes she’ll be teaching soon! Tracking results and feedback from the start of your business is important. Measuring results, and using valid tools respected within the medical community will be important to Tallis’ business. Where does Tallis want her business to go in the next 2 years? Keep pressing forward – it’s impossible to know how the business might grow, but Tallis is building entrepreneurial skills and opening options for her future.   Links: 10 Big Chain Stores That Will Secretly Match Amazon's Low Prices

29 Mar 10:12

102 | From 90K of Debt to 6-figure Side Hustle | Timika

102 | Blogger and podcaster Tamika Downes reveals how she went from $94K of debt to owning a six-figure income-earning side hustle while continuing her job as a school nurse and raising three children. Timika’s early financial experiences came through immigrant parents, from Barbados, hustling and saving. Having a side hustle was common place in Timika’s family. Despite her family’s habit of saving, Timika finished her education with $94K of debt. After her undergraduate Timika had $24K in debt. Student loans for her master’s cost $35K A second, nursing degree, cost another $30K Choosing to pursue something that you’re not quite ready for can often lead someone to pay more than necessary. Nursing degrees don’t have to cost $30K; immediately after high school students can become qualified Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) working in hospitals or nursing homes while starting at a community college and finishing through a bridge program at a 4-year school. Nursing is a trade; find the most efficient way to get qualified. Many universities offer tuition assistant to the children of faculty/staff, often including tuition at other universities. What options did Timika consider in order to decrease her student loan debt? Timika’s mindset changed when she started to own her life circumstances; taking responsibility for her finances was a natural result. Instead of buying a $20K car, Timika bought a $20K business – a lice clinic. Timika spoke with out-of-state clinic owners and did her homework before deciding to invest in the set up for her clinic. Since opening the business, Timika has increased her talentstack to include: Securing a business lease Blogging Website management Business finance management Timika went to coding bootcamp, for 75% discount as a female minority. The lice clinic is now almost passive income: Timika only devotes three hours a week and has hired employees who manage the rest.   Links: House of FI Reluctant Frugalist Saving Sherpa The Road to Retirement: (Re)Learning to Love Work For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/102

29 Mar 10:12

102R | The Triple Tax Savings of Health Savings Account

102R | Brad and Jonathan explain the long-term tax benefits of using a Health Savings Account to pay for medical expenses, discuss the benefits of new index fund investing options, review Monday’s episode with Timika Downes.   Brad and Jonathan are getting back to traditional health insurance, and excited about the Health Savings Account (HSA). Most companies offer health insurance options, typically including: Low monthly premium + high deductible High(er) monthly premium + low(er) deductible. The IRS defines a high deductible plan as anything higher than $1,350 for an individual, or $2,700 for a family. Employees with high deductible plans have access to an HSA (eligible accounts). An FSA (Flex Savings Account) is a reloadable account, that is primarily use-it or lose-it Putting money in an HSA is tax free, and rolls over to future years, and drawing it out for medical purposes is tax free. 2018 HSA contribution limits: $3,450 for individuals $6,900 for families After 65, if you have unused money in your HSA, you can draw it out like a traditional IRA and just pay your normal tax. Brad intends to save his receipts and wait to be reimbursed until later, as HSAs will earn interest the same as any investment account. ChooseFI community members recommend Lively or Fidelity. Review of Monday’s episode with Timika – similar concepts and action points as the recommendations from Alan in the Side Hustle Coaching Series. You don’t need permission: just take action. Dan writes in to report that he’s reached FI! ChooseFI has listeners across the globe – although not all the tax and investment information are relevant to international listeners, the lifestyle conversations are. Brad and Jonathan highly recommend Vanguard because they have low fees, which means investors keep more of their returns. In last few months, Fidelity began offering zero-fee funds and Vanguard has lowered its minimum investment from $10k to $3k for several funds. Investments abroad can have very high fees. Zero fees are not the only thing to consider when picking accounts: tax efficiency is very important as well.   Links: Vanguard Ratchets Up Index-Fund Price Battle

29 Mar 10:12

103 | The Trades Path to FI – Captain DIY

103 | Tinian Crawford, blogger at DIY2FI and licensed electrician, talks about his path to licensure, the advantages of trade jobs and his transition to pursuing financial independence.     What jobs are represented in the FI community? Base salary for an electrician is $70 minimum. Many people go to trade school in high school or immediately after, so there’s very little financial education in the trade-work community. Tinian’s father built his childhood house, and Tinian was enlisted to help with construction projects on their property. Does Tinian find value in the graphic design education he received in community college? Tinian’s first job was building signs – many of which were lighted signs – which piqued his interest learning about electrical work.   What education do you need to start electrician licensure training? Tinian’s one-year program cost $25k. To be fully licensed, an electrician has to do a 5-year apprenticeship. Making $70 an hour comes when you work for yourself. Do most electricians jump right into owning their own business? Tinian’s recommendation: stick with a contractor you can learn from for your day job, and start taking jobs on the side. Additional trade jobs that would be great for FI: Garden landscaping and design Plumbing Tinian’s wife suggested that they save $20k by the time their first child was born. In order to avoid high childcare costs, Tinian and his wife split their schedules as much as possible. Tinian hopes to leave his day job at some point, but still needs to learn more about managing benefits and figuring out exactly how much he needs to support his family. In order to prepare for leaving a day job, it’s important to identify how much life will cost after the change. Beginning their investing with a local financial advisor and a socially conscious portfolio was a mistake for Tinian.     Links: DYI 2 FI DIYCaptain - Twitter Burrito Bowl Diaries “Eliminating the Excuse” – Saving Sherpa

29 Mar 10:12

103R | The Apprentice

103R | Captain DIY returns to recommend some accessible projects for the beginning DIYer, Jonathan highlights two recipe and meal organization apps, and several messages from the ChooseFI community. For more details, visit the extensive list at https://ChooseFI.com/103R 

29 Mar 10:12

104 | Ultimate Advice To my Younger Self | DiverseFI

104 | Doc G, writer at DiverseFI.com, shares his experience and mindset as he considers stepping away from his career as a doctor, and highlights the value of building purpose, identity and connection. For more details, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/104

29 Mar 10:12

104R | Travel Rewards | End of Year Planning

104R | An update from Marla Taner on 2018’s best travel reward options, a hack for keeping your bills low, a review of Monday’s episode with Doc G.   Jonathan tries out a new service to ensure that his bills are staying low. Billfixers.com is fixing a ‘pain point’ for Jonathan. How can someone balance simplicity, and a willingness to say yes to opportunities? Review of Monday’s episode: Purpose, Identity and Connection. Finding your identity – the story you tell yourself, about yourself – is crucial to finding your space in the world. Why was Brad was given singing lessons as a gift from a couple at Chautauqua? Marla Taner joins the show to update about travel rewards: She’s traveling to Hawaii for New Years with 9 friends. Flight reward deals are not as good during Christmas, but hotels are usually consistent. What is the Southwest Companion Pass and what is the strategy to get it? Earn the ability to bring someone with you for free on every Southwest flight for up to 2 years. Must earn 110,000 Southwest rewards points in one calendar year. Current strategy: Southwest’s Business card comes with 60k points. Southwest’s Personal card comes with 40k points. Southwest has good sales on right now. What does it take to apply for a business card? Barclay Arrival Plus – Marla’s recommendation for beginners. Capital One Venture card has added a transferrable-points feature. Don’t overspend, look for opportunities to front-load some of your normal expenses to hit minimum spends (i.e., utility bills, or internet, grocery gift cards). Marla is joining Tim and Amy Rutherford from ChooseFI Episode 79 in Tempe, AZ for a few days. Want to join? Best way to connect with Marla, Tim and Amy is via the Go With Less blog. Join them in Tempe .  

29 Mar 10:12

105 | You can Afford Anything but not Everything | Paula Pant

105 | Paula Pant, creator of Afford Anything podcast and blog, dives into her love for travel, her rejection of the traditional 9-5, and how she built an income to match her lifestyle. Paula moved to the U.S. as a baby, just after being born in Nepal. Her only travel growing up was between Ohio and Nepal. Travel has become a large part of Paula’s life, but her desire to travel only grew in her adult life. Rebellion is a form of seeking identity. Once Paula started traveling did she fall in love with travel immediately? What does Paula consider a legitimate visit to a foreign country? Two weeks of vacation in Paula’s first few years of work after college felt too limiting. Paula made a lifestyle change, and then figured out how to fund it. Learning about and trying out freelance work introduced Paula to the idea that someone could work outside of the traditional 9-5 work. Did Paula receive criticism when she quit her job to travel? When Paula traveled for her first few years, she budgeted about $1,000 a month for expenses and chose to visit countries where the dollar goes far. Paula’s tips for building connection while traveling: Stay at hostels – more economical, and more social. Meet the American, Australian, British, etc., ex pats, and meet their friends (build relationships, and travel slowly). How did Paula restart once she returned to the U.S. after her 27-month adventure? In pursuit of writing what she wanted to read, Paula became a personal finance writer. When did Paula begin to feel imposter syndrome? Default to saving, instead of default to spending. Why does spending money create anxiety for Paula, and how did the scarcity mindset actually push Paula toward financial independence? Passive income (real estate) was primarily meant to give Paula some financial cushion, instead of a means to financial independence. Humans crave autonomy, purpose and mastery. Reading about potential scientific advances motivates Paula to be healthier because she wants to be around to see it. Self-care is work care.   For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/105 

29 Mar 10:12

105R | Solar Panel Cost Analysis

105R | Brian Feroldi joins the show to talk about the costs and benefits of installing solar panels and answers questions about his investment strategies, and Brad and Jonathan recap Monday’s episode with Paula Pant before announcing a new ChooseFI project on the horizon. For more information, visit the show notes at http://ChooseFI.com/105R 

29 Mar 10:12

106 | From Addiction to Financial Independence | Ms Fiology

106 | Deanna, blogger at msfiology.com, shares her journey from drug and alcohol addiction to recovery, paying off six-figures of personal debt, and getting started on her path toward financial independence. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/106 

29 Mar 10:12

106R | Agency

106R | A series of suggestions and questions from the ChooseFI community, including HSA funds, capital gains distributions, and Traditional versus Roth IRAs, and follow up from Monday’s episode with Deanna. Jonathan raves about battery-powered chain saws, and a great bonding experience with his dad. Brad’s in-laws enjoy helping Brad’s family with landscaping and gardening. Pursuing financial independence gives Jonathan the opportunity to plan his family’s schedule first and work around that. The people pursuing FI aren’t just single, white software designers; FI gives everyone the opportunity to prioritize family. We get to pick our story. Our mindframe changes the trajectory of our lives. No matter how bad you’ve had it, there is someone with more obstacles than you had, who found a way through. ChooseFI isn’t about Brad and Jonathan, it’s about the community. Voicemail from Danny Kenny, a CFP, who recommends rolling HSA funds out of your employee account and into an external HSA custodian account that will have lower costs associated (allowed once a year) and explains how capital gains distributions can hurt long-term holders. Another voicemail, from Hillary, who enjoys hearing about the fundamentals of financial independence. Lee asks why someone would choose a Traditional IRA versus a Roth IRA, since neither are funded by truly “pre-tax” money? A 401k comes out of your W2 paycheck, before it’s taxed, while Traditional IRA contributions come from a personal decision to contribute post-paycheck money to a retirement account. When someone uses a Traditional IRA, contributions are deductible and lower your taxable income to decrease your tax liability. A Roth IRA does not come with a tax deduction. Taxable investments are just a different way to store your money aside from just keeping money in the bank – either an investment account, or investment properties. Ruth points out that it’s important to check our accounts and protect ourselves from recurring and unwanted charges. James shares a frugal win – offering graphic design services in exchange for a $500 discount to his favorite coffee shop, so he can work there and drink coffee for free.   For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/106R 

29 Mar 10:12

107 | Entrepreneur Case Study | Craig Attkinson | GreenSide Up Landscaping

107 | Craig Attkinson, owner and founder of Green Side Up, a landscaping company in Richmond, Va., explains how he started his business in his mid-20s, what it took to grow and optimize the business, and how he’s optimized other aspects of his life as well. Craig started out his career on a golf course, with a degree from Virginia Tech in turf grass and horticulture. Green Side Up started in one weekend when Craig bought a truck, a trailer and a mower all at once. Craig mowed lawns since he was 10 years old and saved it all until he bought his supplies. Jumping straight into landscaping required Craig to do everything himself, and learn on the go. When Craig brought on his first partner, he gave him 50% of the company, and guaranteed a salary, knowing that they would have to build up that amount of business. How did Craig get contracts in the mid 2000s? Craig has a marketing company now that helps now, but early marketing for Green Side Up involved phone books, purchasing ads and a lot of networking. Having a partner to build ideas, and watching to see how other similar businesses function is helpful to build efficiency. Finding a good system for managing the work processes and clarifying expectations for employees hugely increased the business’ efficiency. How can Craig build the company to a point that he can step away? As the business gets bigger, purchasing things in bulk, or at higher volumes, helps Craig get better prices. How did Craig find the FI community? Craig’s goal in life is to not have to ever worry about money. Craig’s saving rate is about 70-80% because he benefits from company vehicles, cell phone plan, etc., which makes his personal expenses much lower. Craig’s family farm houses the equipment for the business. How and why did Craig design his own tiny home, next to his sister’s house? Craig loves life optimization; what aspects of his tiny home are most optimized? Took advantage of a 4’ x 6’ nook for his office. Used leftover granite from someone else’s kitchen remodel for his own small kitchen. Built a bed with drawers underneath for his closet. Craig is technically FI, but is still loving his work, so he’s not retiring anytime soon. His next adventures are climbing in Patagonia and biking in Norway.   For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/107 

29 Mar 10:12

107R | The One Thing 2018 | End of Year Episode

107R | A year-end episode featuring voicemails and messages from the ChooseFI community sharing successes, progress, exciting discoveries, and hopes for next year of our journey toward financial independence. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/107R 

29 Mar 10:12

108 | Setting up a Special Needs Trust

108 | William McVey, ChooseFI’s Chief Technology Officer, walks through investment options available to meet the financial demands of special needs children, and the strategies he’s used to prepare for his children’s future.  For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/108 

29 Mar 10:12

108R | How to Calculate Your Savings Rate

108R | Brad and Jonathan talk through the various methods of calculating a yearly savings rate and the numbers necessary to do so, and review Monday’s episode about setting up special needs accounts.   Jonathan is back from 20 days with family in Zimbabwe, and Brad recaps his Christmas vacation. Brad and his family added 12 board games to their collection. William, from Monday’s episode, set out a road map for people who want or need to safe guard finances for special needs children or other dependents. Key: fund your trust as a part of executing your will to minimize tax liability. Start with a 529 Able, but as you reach $100k, begin to look at the next steps. Comment from Rebecca, that the 529 Able accounts in Nevada have higher fees than she preferred, so she’s funding a traditional 529 Plan and will eventually rotate it into a 529 Able. Every state currently has its own set of 529 Able options. Voicemail from Penny, who has a special needs trust and was on disability for 16 years, but has been back to work for the past 12 years and is now working to help her parents with their healthcare and financial needs. Financial independence is the ability to do the things that bring you joy, whether they bring in money or not. In 2019, ChooseFI is bringing in experts to answer specific, technical questions. William is helping to build the website, and a more user-friendly local group site. Brad is going to Camp FI in Florida soon. How to calculate your savings rate: Three different ways to calculate: Gross total compensation divided by how much you saved or invested. Take-home pay divided by how much you saved or invested. After-tax compensation divided by how much you saved or invested. Brad uses an excel sheet with three tabs: Profit & Loss (P&L), Net Worth, Accounts. In the Accounts tab, Brad records savings in each account at the beginning and end of the year, and totals up monthly expenses (cost of electric in Jan., Feb., Mar., etc.). Does Brad track every one of his credit card expenses? Net worth = add up all your assets and all your liabilities. For more information, including links mentioned in today's show, visit the show notes at http://ChooseFI.com/108R

29 Mar 10:12

109 | Exploring International Teaching Opportunities | Scott & Rob

109 | Scott, a math teacher in Santiago, Chile, and Rob, a blogger at Getting Canned, share their experiences teaching abroad, including the financial and lifestyle benefits, and the how-to for making it happen. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/109 

29 Mar 10:12

109R | “Bear” Perspective

109R | Big ERN from Early Retirement Now joins the show to talk about the current market climate: How is it impacting investors, who could benefit, and what markers he uses to evaluate its actual condition? We also share a voicemail from Abby, who provides a few more helpful hints for teaching abroad. Highlights from the show: Brad maxed out his HSA for 2019, and talks about how he’s prioritizing fitness. Easy choices, hard life. Hard choices, easy life. Preview of who will be at the coming CampFI that Brad plans to attend. Review of Monday’s episode about teaching abroad, and the wide variety of opportunities available. A voicemail from Abby H., who is currently teaching in China and has experience in several other countries as well. Abby tried teaching in Kuwait, but found that despite a high salary the cost of living was also extremely high. Suggestions from Abby: Don’t just look for jobs in the Middle East, or other “high salary” locations. Try negotiating your salary/benefits offer. Look for options that don’t require purchasing a car. How did Rob and Scott, from Monday’s episode, replace fear with flexibility in each of their lives? Big ERN joins the show to talk about the current market situation: What is “sequence of returns” risk, and why does it matter? Under the assumption that the great recession or the dot-com bust will not repeat, Big ERN thinks it’s too early to worry about the current market climate. The 4% rule isn’t as untouchable as people think. With a small market downturn, it’s possible that some people will need to draw as much as 5%. If someone’s portfolio decreased this year, should they work a few more years to rebuild it, or count on the market recovering? If someone is still many years away from retirement, they shouldn’t worry too much about the market, and might actually be benefit from low stock prices. If you have a 50% or higher savings rate, you are going succeed financially, regardless of this drop in the market. The U.S. economy is still strong, so the value of the market isn’t necessarily going down – the price is just down. If someone has a sum of money ready to invest, should they invest it all at once, or employ “dollar-cost averaging”? Who should be concerned about the market and what should they be looking for? Look at the fundamentals of the U.S. economy to evaluate the conditions of the market. Big ERN just retired. His family is just settling in to a new house in Washington. Links: ChooseFI Local Groups are helping to build on-the-ground community TeachAway Early Retirement Now

29 Mar 10:12

110 | A Millionaire Next Door Case Study | Rocky Lalvani

110 | Rocky Lalvani, blogger at Richer Soul, shares his story of growing up as an immigrant’s child, learning how to save money in his early years, and how he’s teaching his own children about finances now.   Rocky’s parents came to the U.S. in 1968, when Rocky was 2 years old. Among Rocky’s parents’ friends and their community, money was an open topic, and in pursuit of the “American Dream” his family consistently climbed the financial ladder. When Rocky was 7 his father became a single dad, and Rocky started learning how to be more independent, personally and financially.   Paying attention to what customers and supervisors actually wanted helped Rocky advance at work. How much was Rocky saving when he was working in his youth? Rocky worked through college by delivering pizza and working at the university, finishing without any student debt. When he got his first post-college job, his dad helped him set up all the available automated savings accounts – 401k, company stock, etc. After realizing he needed to get out of consumer debt, what was Rocky’s strategy? Rocky’s plan was always to be a millionaire – he had been calculating and trying strategies since early on. Seeing people lose their life savings in an economic downturn motivated Rocky to get himself into a steady financial position. What steps did Rocky take to get himself to FI? Started saving early. Always spent less than he made. Rocky paid off his mortgage as early as possible. How is Rocky teaching his children about money? At this point, Rocky’s children are young adults – they don’t need things to be confident. Rocky wishes that in addition to teaching how to save money, he had also taught his children to earn money. Rocky’s strategy to help his daughter do well on the SAT, and hopefully earn a good scholarship, was to download an app on her phone and answer one SAT question a day for three years, prior to taking the exam. Earning a scholarship to college is a sliding scale – a student might earn scholarship at a lower tier school, when they would not earn anything at a “better” school. Rocky and his son went a step further and did their best to figure out how to pay for college with the lowest price tag. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/110 

29 Mar 10:12

110R | Change the Input

110R | Voicemails from the ChooseFI community about saving on grocery bills, making life changes to optimize your circumstances, and a travel suggestion, as well as a review of Monday’s episode and updates from Brad and Jonathan about bills, travel, solar panels and more. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/110R 

29 Mar 10:12

111 | The Lost Decade | From Prison to FI | Wealth Well Done

111 | Billy B., a writer, entrepreneur and blogger at Wealth Well Done, shares his story of finding freedom in prison, starting over in his 30s and pursuing financial independence despite the setbacks. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/111 

29 Mar 10:12

111R | Make the Impossible Possible

111R | Jillian from Montana Money Adventures gives advice for laying out roadmap in your life, right after and Brad and Jonathan review Monday’s episode and highlight activities from several local groups around the globe.   Brad and Jonathan reflect on last week’s episode with Billy Banholzer. A video inspires Brad to learn swimming from his daughter. Your current behavior or mistake doesn’t have to define you for the rest of your life. One of the first steps to Billy’s success was setting goals. What are Brad’s suggestions for developing into a better writer? Billy found ChooseFI while he was looking for a community of people who were pursuing the same things he wanted to pursue. Getting started on the path to financial independence can be really hard at first, but it gets easier as you move further down the path. Brad shares excitement about a local meet up and changes people are making locally. Highlight reel of local group activities: Combined Southern California and San Diego groups have a sold-out meeting where Jillian from Montana Money Adventures will speak. The Nebraska local group is meeting every two months with specific topics. A new group in The Netherlands has more than 20 members. The local group in Portland, Ore., met every week in 2018. A Northern Ireland local group doubled its membership in the past month. Alex, an admin from the Baltimore group, is setting up mastermind groups.   Jillian, from Episode 84, talks about building a life roadmap: Focusing on your values is the first step to building a better life. How did Jillian and her husband create space to talk about their values and what they wanted their life to look like? Be. Have. Do. Jillian uses sticky notes to brainstorm her ideas and organize her thoughts. What is a Quit List? How does Jillian consider seasons of life? Each person’s superpower includes: What you’re passionate about. What you’re naturally good at. What activities you get caught up in and find really fun. Brad talks about listening to where there’s resistance in your life. Could. Should. Want. Writing down your thoughts helps clarify and anchor them. Tickets for Chautauqua 2019 will go on sale soon.   For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/111R 

29 Mar 10:12

112 | Zero Based Budgeting | How I paid off 1 million in Debt | with Naseema from Financially Intentional

112 | Naseema McElroy, a registered and practicing nurse and blogger at Financially Intentional, explains how to accumulate $1 million in debt, and how she earned her freedom through financial independence. How does someone accumulate $1 million of debt? Naseema is from West Oakland, Ca., where she was taught to either join the military or go to college. She attended the University of Southern California for both her undergraduate and graduate degree, then later completed an accelerated nursing certification program at the University of California in San Francisco. Floor nurses where Naseema works earn above $200,000. How could Naseema have been significantly more efficient with her college education? Many nurses have two jobs: Naseema works part time with benefits (three eight-hour shifts), and a per diem job (two 12-hour shifts) without benefits, at a higher pay rate. Even after finishing her education and working full time, Naseema accumulated more than $1 million in debt, and was living paycheck to paycheck. Most of her debt was student loans and Bay-Area mortgage costs. What inspired Naseema to move from a 5002ft apartment closer to the city into a 40002ft home in the suburbs? Even with the house and the car and the seemingly perfect set up, Naseema did not feel secure, and even owed her family money. Dave Ramsey set Naseema on the course to pay off her debt. What was her first step? Once Naseema began tracking her expenses, she was an early user of Dave Ramsey’s Every Dollar app. A zero-base budget is projecting how much you’ll earn and set aside how much is intended for paying off debt, then adjust the remaining numbers to reflect other obligations and other adjustable expenses. What inspired Naseema to begin blogging at Financially Intentional? Before Naseema sold her suburban house, she had already paid $300k of debt. Naseema chose to leave one of her jobs when it became an unhealthy environment, because living debt-free gave her the room in her budget to do so. Currently, Naseema has moved out of the Bay Area and commutes back into the city 6 days a month for work. Building wealth is a mindset. You have everything it takes to be successful.   Links: Clever Girl Finance The Stock Series For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/112 

29 Mar 10:12

112R | Planned Obsolescence

112R | An evaluation of the long-term savings that result from driving old cars, a review of how Naseema McElroy has optimized her finances and reversed lifestyle creep, and a series of voicemails and messages from the ChooseFI community. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/112R 

29 Mar 10:12

113 | Swing for the Fences | Grant Sabatier

113 | Grant Sabatier from Millennial Money and author of Financial Freedom, shares his story of unemployment and entrepreneurship, and his strategies for increasing your income and optimizing your finances. In 2010, with a college degree in philosophy Grant had been laid off twice and found himself living at home as 24-year-old. Grant sent out more than 200 resumes without a single callback before he found the information he needed to start learning Google Ad campaigns. The certification process took about 30 days and he received a job offer almost immediately. The first step to getting out of a rut is being honest enough to admit that you’re stuck. Most people are only 2 or 3 steps away from a life that they’d love. A million dollars could be 10 years away; just take the next step. When Grant looked at all his friends and his parents’ friends, they were stressed about money so he decided to learn how to do it differently. Grant learned how to build Wordpress websites and began selling his services to law firms, quickly securing large contracts at lower prices than large agencies. Grant’s first client became his most valuable client because he served as a credible reference for more than a year. How does Grant recommend getting your first client? What matters is helping your client look good to their boss. Selling is story telling – who you are as a person is more important that what you’re selling. The paradox of the gig economy is that many people are actually less flexible and more stressed about getting their next client than they would be working a 9-5. Whether you’re happy with your current job or not, optimizing your finances through your full-time job is where you need to start. Talking to recruiters in your particular industry will give insight into the direction the industry is moving, what parts of your resume might be lacking, and the market value of your work. How does Grant maintain relationships with recruiters? Face-to-face meetings Taking people out to lunch Form an actual relationship, don’t just try to get something from them. For Grant, forcing someone into a budget that cuts out small things like wine and coffee just reinforces a scarcity mindset. The only way to get from a 5% to a 30% savings rate is to decrease your housing, transportation and food costs. There is a limit to how much someone can cut back, but making money is unlimited. Grant invested 100% of his side hustle income. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/113 

29 Mar 10:12

113R | Making your Retirement Plan Bullet Proof | Tanja Hester

113R | Tanja Hester retired early 15 months ago and joins the show to share her experience of being work optional, Brad makes a decision about solar panels, and a review of Monday’s episode with Grant Sabatier.   Brad shares some updates with his car malfunctions and follows up about his solar panel cost analysis. Brad anticipates a 9.6% return on his solar panel investment, compared to Brian’s 12.5% return in Rhode Island. Solar panels are expected to last for about 25 years. Message from Dan, who realized while listening to Monday’s episode with Grant Sabatier, that he is charging too little for his side hustle work, and paying too much in taxes. Sales is story telling – Grant figured out how to tell his story right and understand potential client’s needs. A message from Ben, who feels like building relationships with recruiters is more likely to get you job options that is $10-15k, compared to the $60-80k Grant mentioned. You’re unlikely to get a big pay bump by staying with the same company; getting a significant jump usually requires moving jobs. Maybe you don’t need a budget, but you do need to know what your life costs. Tanja Hester, author of Work Optional, joins the show: How did Tanja change from wanting to stick with her career forever, to choosing early retirement? Took Tanja and her husband about 6 years to reach early retirement. It’s hard to know your “why of FI”, but moving into early retirement requires some life planning. After 15 months, is early retirement meeting Tanja’s expectations? Whether you’re retiring at 45 or 65, the transition is still very similar; we all have a desire to matter and contribute. What are Tanja and Mark pursuing now that allows them to contribute? What things should people be considering in order to make their retirement plan bullet proof? A variety of different retirement options, aside from full retirement. One-phase or two-phase retirement – should you plan differently for your expenses and savings before and after the traditional retirement age? Does 25x and/or 4% work for you? When and how to cut your spending? It’s always better to over save. Tanja’s FI calculations don’t include social security, as there’s a possible it could change. Most retirees spend about $300k on medical expenses, beyond Medicare. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/113R

29 Mar 10:12

114 | Demystify College Admission & Aid | Brian Eufinger | Edison Prep

114 | Brian Eufinger, co-founder of Edison Prep, dives deep into the college admissions process and explains how a student should approach grades and test scores to give themselves the best college options, and how to pay for college without collecting a huge student loan debt.   Most merit aid that students earn comes directly from the university. Brian attended Washington University in St. Louis, earning about 2/3 merit scholarship and pieced together other scholarships and on-campus jobs to pay for his education. Many states or schools give merit scholarships for students who earn high test scores and high grades. Brian is surprised by the vast differences in aid packages among schools with similar academic profiles. Many schools will offer a few high school classes in the 8th grade year. Brian’s advice for helping students get into the best college and find the best merit aid is to sign up for challenging classes, starting in middle school if you can, earn the highest GPA possible, and find a few extracurricular activities you are passionate about. A super high SAT score will not offset a bad GPA; you can repeat a test, but not a class from 9th grade. The Common Application has made it more difficult for universities to evaluate an overwhelming number of applications, which is why a students’ numbers are so important when admissions officers are making initial evaluations. Grade inflation makes it difficult to understand GPAs; your student just needs to stand out among their school peers. Earning a “C” in their junior years is one of the bigger mistakes a student can make. The No. 1 academic risk for high school students is over committing to extracurricular activities, including sports, when they should be focusing on academics. Division I schools are able to give out athletic scholarships, while Division 3 schools typically don’t offer athletic aid. However, there are still options for earning scholarships at Division 3 schools for student-athletes. Merit aid is based on evaluation of your grades, test scores, application, etc. Need-based financial aid is based on perceived financial need. Students don't need 1,000 hours to study for SAT/ACT tests; if they treated tests like a sport for one season, they would have all the hours they need. The perfect time to start studying is after sophomore year, before junior year is complete. Sophomores should make sure to take a full-length practice test, created by the actual test makers, to determine whether they’ll be more successful on the ACT or SAT. It’s better to focus on one test than to try to be good at two. Practice is crucial. The best calculator for these tests is the TI-84 Plus CE, followed by a TI-84 and

29 Mar 10:12

114R | Fine Tuning the College Equation

114R | Brian Eufinger returns to fill the gaps and address questions from the community about PSATs and National Merit Scholars, Brad and Jonathan discuss the benefits of creating a college-hacking strategy early, and the ChooseFI community responds to Monday’s episode. Financial independence is generally about knowing the rules and making decisions according to what you value in life. Many colleges use an equation to award merit aid --> a specific GPA + a specific test scores = a certain amount of merit aid. With a better strategy to studying for the SAT or ACT, even a small bump could save someone tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Is it better to get a summer job, or spend the summer studying for the SAT/ACT? With the Common Application, it’s beneficial to apply to a few extra schools because the merit aid packages available are hugely varied. Just being aware of the rules gives you the best opportunities to succeed, and to opens up as many options as possible. How has Brad’s mindset toward paying for college changed during the past two years of ChooseFI interviews? A message from Paul in the Facebook group, who appreciated that Brian presented college scholarships with a realistic perspective about the challenges. A comment from Rayanne, who shares the process her daughter is navigating as a graduating senior in California, looking for the best scholarship opportunities. Lynn is grateful for Brian’s realistic suggestion that students don’t start studying for the SAT until the end of their sophomore year; in New Jersey even sixth graders are being asked to consider future standardized tests. Julie messaged to remind parents that students should also study for the PSAT, as the PSAT is what determines a student’s National Merit standing. Brian Eufinger, from Monday’s episode, returns to talk about the PSAT and National Merit Scholars: CLEP credits and dual enrollment are good options for high school and current college students. Academic Common Market – in some states, students can pay in-state costs at an out-of-state school if they’re majoring in a subject unavailable in-state. Making a college-transfer strategy early will help students transfer from a community college to a four-year institution without any hiccups. “There’s no greater financial aid than finishing in four years.” Bringing AP credits into college gives a student more flexibility to change majors, study abroad, work internships or co-ops, or study for post-grad tests. In rural areas that don’t offer as many AP courses, many states offer online AP courses. The reward for being a National Merit Scholar varies widely between universities, but can be as much as a full ride, books, etc. P

29 Mar 10:12

115 | Poverty, Divorce and FI by 43 | Bonnie Truax

115 | Bonnie Truax, a blogger and early retiree, shares her story of growing up below the poverty line, scraping her way out of inherited debt, reaching financial independence without knowing what it was, and understanding how to talk about money with your spouse. Bonnie grew up with family income that was technically half of the poverty level, but always debt free. In a town of only 35 people, W2 jobs were hard to come by, so Bonnie worked any odd job that she could find – mowing lawns, decorating cakes, roofing. What did Bonnie do with the income from her side hustles? Bonnie got married shortly after college and inherited significant debt. The first step to getting out of that debt, was learning spreadsheets and prioritizing which debt she would tackle first. Bonnie was managing thousands of dollars of debt and got back to broke, even as her spouse was actively spending and maxing out credit cards. What is Bonnie’s financial advice for people before they get married? Financial literacy isn’t distributed evenly throughout the country – not everyone understands how to manage finances. Not everyone is comfortable talking about money, even with their spouse. If Bonnie could do it again, she would start by talking about fears associated with money. When Bonnie started over she was 30, earning about $25k. Bonnie learned IT with her free time at a reporting job, eventually becoming the manager of an IT team. Before she got remarried, Bonnie and Trin had become very close friends at work and had already talked about finances, so she was confident about their joint approach to money as a couple. Trouble doesn’t have to be a disaster. Getting out of debt on a low income is possible – you shouldn’t have to eat rice and beans your whole life, but if you’re getting out of debt, you might have to them for a while. Bonnie and her husband automated their finances and didn’t give much attention them; they found a comfortable way to live regardless of their increasing incomes. Bonnie didn’t plan to retire, but when work became toxic, their savings gave them the freedom to leave work. Instead of just leaving money in their savings account, Bonnie and her husband began purchasing foreclosed home and renting them out. Without a knowledge of the financial independence community, how did Bonnie determine that she and her husband were financially ready to leave their jobs to retire? Bonnie and Trin are traveling the world for a few years before they decide where to retire abroad. It’s never too late to make tomorrow better. Anything that comes into Bonnie’s blog goes to support a safehouse in Ecuador. Fear of missing out is just an excuse; you are always choosing what you miss out on.

29 Mar 10:12

115R | How to Get Out of Debt

115R | A how-to conversation about strategies for tackling consumer debt, a review of Monday’s episode with Bonnie Traux, and a few updates about the ChooseFI community.     Brad’s wife no longer working as a CPA – although she was technically laid off, she’s excited for the extra time in her schedule. Being at FI gave Laura the ability to be happy for her previous employer and move on with a smile. Bonnie Traux, from Monday’s episode, is an ultimate side hustler. If you’re stuck, you’ll have to do something different if you want a different result. Bonnie reached financial independence in about 13 years. Before starting to save, Bonnie spent years paying down consumer debt as her husband was continuing to build it. The journey towards financial independence doesn’t start at zero – it often starts with tackling debt. How to tackle debt Use account-tracking software - examples: Mint.com, YNAB (You Need A Budget), or even Excel or a pen and paper. Know what’s coming in, and what’s going out. List out all the debts you have, their payments and interest rates. Reasonable interest rates are somewhere near or below 6%. The Debt Snowball – take all your debts and organize them from smallest balance to largest. Continue making minimum payments for all debts, and commit any extra to paying off the smallest debt. When it’s paid off, roll that payment into paying off the next smallest. The Debt Snowball is a psychological win, but ignores interest rates. The Avalanche – the interest rate is the most important thing. Always pay toward the balance with the highest interest rate. The Hybrid Method – combine these two strategies to pay off a few smaller debts at first, then commit to paying toward the highest interest debt. You could earn more – start a side hustle, work a little extra A no-spend month Optimize regular monthly expenses A credit card balance transfer Consolidating debt Part 1: Know where to find your account information Part 2: Acknowledging that you can’t afford debt. Part 3: Debt Payoff Strategy Part 4: Creating the Margin     For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/115R 

29 Mar 10:11

116 | Adoption, FFLC & the House of FI | Wendy Mays

116 | Wendy Mays, from House of FI, tells the story of growing her family from 4 to 8 through adoption all while moving states and changing careers, and ultimately kickstarting her family’s pursuit of financial independence.   Wendy and her family first learned about financial independence about 4 years ago. Wendy was commuting from Phoenix, Az., to San Diego, Ca., as her husband was living in California in pursuit of a new teaching job. Wendy now has a family of six children, four of whom are adopted. During her husband’s job search Wendy’s law practice in Phoenix was the family’s primary income, so she made significant changes to balance keeping her job with the family’s logistical challenges, including a shift in the type of legal work she did. In the midst of this hectic commuting lifestyle, Wendy and her husband finalized the adoption of three of their children, including a 4-day-old baby. Once the adoptions finalized, Wendy finally moved fully to San Diego. In March 2017, Wendy started adjusting their financial lifestyle to begin pursuing financial independence. First step was understanding where their money was really going. Wendy dropped her average food/grocery expenses from about $3,500 to about $1,000. By eliminating a few unnecessary big-ticket items, and optimizing smaller expenses, Wendy cut about $6,000 from their monthly expenses. Beginning in 2018, Wendy’s husband maxed out his savings and retirements accounts, increasing their family savings rate to about 28%. In October 2018, Wendy transitioned from legal work in Phoenix to real estate in San Diego. Having a large family impacts Wendy’s financial commitments: Larger housing expenses Larger vehicles – a Suburban Bigger clothing expenses Financially reasonable family activities require creativity. Currently, Wendy’s family is on a 7-year path to financial independence. Making these changes has been really challenging for Wendy, but tracking progress and looking back is encouraging. There are several different types of adoption Domestic private adoption – using courts, lawyers, very expensive Private international adoption – using courts, lawyers, very expensive Adoption via foster care – usually low cost After adopting through foster care, there are ongoing financial assistance programs that help Wendy and her husband to offset the costs associated with raising adopted children. Wendy is hopeful she might pay off her student loan debt in 5 years.   For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/116 

29 Mar 10:11

116R | Escape

Karen Hoxmeier joins the show to share how and why she built a coupon-sharing website, Brad and Jonathan talk about optimizing food, taxes and home insurance, and a review of Monday’s episode with Wendy Mays.     Brad and Jonathan are excited about a chicken shawarma recipe they hope Laura will add to the ChooseFI Vault soon. Wendy, from Monday’s episode, tackled her family’s grocery bill when she started pursuing financial independence. Food shouldn’t just be cheap; it should also be good. What is Brad’s strategy for decreasing his phone usage and dependence? For taxes, what matters the most is your tax liability, not your tax withholding. While tax refunds are currently decreasing in the U.S., that’s actually because the withholding tables have changed and people are sending less extra money to the government throughout the year. Estimating your taxes throughout the year so that your tax return is about $100 is pretty extreme tax optimization, but a minimal tax return means you’ve had access to all your money for saving and investing throughout the year, instead of loaning it to the government. Brad signed a contract to install solar panels on his house and paid half the cost, then realized that he hadn’t contacted his home insurance company. Wendy tackled one thing at a time, optimizing a little bit at a time, until she was saving her family $6,000 a month, without a significant decrease in lifestyle. Spend money on what brings your life value, then cut everything else ruthlessly. ChooseFI community member Karen Hoxmeier joins the show: Karen worked in a wide variety of jobs in her youth and early adulthood, until becoming a stay-at-home mom in 1994. In 1999 Karen started sharing coupon deals with friends, via email, until that became too taxing, and she decided to build a website. How did Karen learn html code to build her website? Karen realized she could start making money from her website when she discovered Amazon’s affiliate program. Karen’s advice for someone who wants to make money blogging: Make content that is valuable Set up an email list Treat your customers like they’re your friends If you’re interested in an affiliate relationship, Karen recommends starting a conversation with a representative from the company. Companies are often willing to pay a higher commission to advertise or link with blogs or websites that will provide high-quality leads.   For more information, visit the show notes at  https://ChooseFI.com/116R 

29 Mar 10:11

117 | Making the Case for Part Time | Bradley Rice

Bradley Rice has successfully reclaimed the hours in his day by transitioning to part-time work. He made this unconventional choice to take back his time when his daughter was born to spend more time with her. Bradley works 20 hours a week, while still earning a high salary. Bradley openly talks about the path that allowed him to reclaim his time and how you can recreate a similar journey. We All Have Choices Along The Way Each of us makes different choices throughout our lives. We do so hoping to march closer to our long-term goals. Everyone has to make choices that align with their values, so each person’s journey will be different. Having a high paying job certainly helps you reach your FI goals, but if it's taking away time from your life, you may question its true value. In Bradley’s opinion, time is our most valuable resource because it truly is finite. Many of us would prefer to use that time to enjoy the important things in life, like our family. The pressure becomes especially noticeable if you have young kids because the time you have to spend with them while they are young is limited. Even if you agree that that time is your most valuable resource, you may feel trapped in the mindset that there is no way to earn your current income while transitioning to part-time work. Caught between the fact that you have to work to provide for your family and the need to spend more time with them, the dilemma continues to grow more real every day. Our guest, Bradley Rice, was faced with the same dilemma when he had his daughter. He knew that he didn't want to continue working full-time while his daughter was growing up. He needed to find a way to spend more time with her during her childhood. Bradley was able to make the switch to part-time and maintain a high salary in the process. It was an unconventional choice, but it worked out exceptionally well for his family. Let’s dive into his inspiring story! For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/117 

29 Mar 10:11

117R | Build a Portfolio

Brad and Jonathan discuss "the Kleenex" of low-cost mutual funds, Bradley Rice's story about choosing to move towards part-time work, and make an announcement about a new voice on the podcast. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/117R 

29 Mar 10:11

118 | From Financial Infidelity to His & Her Money

118 | Talaat McNeely from His and Her Money talks about how his money mistakes led to financial infidelity. Most importantly, he shares how he was able to rebuild trust with his wife Tai and successfully work towards common financial goals together. Through Talaat and Tai’s story, you will learn practical ways to build the financial trust that many couples hope to achieve. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/118 

29 Mar 10:11

118R | What is Socially Responsible Investing?

Talent stacking, becoming a renaissance man, and financial infidelity: We recap Monday's show and highlight some listener comments. For more information, visit the show notes at  https://ChooseFI.com/118R 

29 Mar 10:11

119 | Everything is Negotiable | Mr. Refined by Fire

Mr. Refined from Refined by Fire has overcome a staggering amount of debt that accumulated from student loans and medical bills. After finding the FI community, he was able to triple his net worth! Mr. Refined talks openly about his debt, how he negotiated his way out of debt, and why he is pursuing FI. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/119

29 Mar 10:11

119R | Position of Strength

Jonathan and Brad discuss their favorite books from 2018, negotiating from a position of power, career hacking, and what they would do differently if they were recording episode 1 today. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/119R 

29 Mar 10:11

120 | Your Money and Your Relationships | Jean Chatzky

Jean Chatzky is a well-respected figure in the personal finance community. The financial editor of the NBC Today Show and author of several books is recognized for a specialized understanding of the relationship between women and their money.  However, both men and women can learn something for Chatzky's insights. On today's episode, Brad and Johnathan will delve into the relationships that each of us has with money. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/120 

29 Mar 10:11

120R | Find the Range

Jonathan and Brad discuss wielding the flexibility of money, how to move to the upper end of your salary range, and hunting with eagles in Mongolia. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/120R 

29 Mar 10:11

121 | Tread Lightly on the Path to FI

Angela from Tread Lightly Retire Early has been an active member of the ChooseFI community for around two years. She has built a life that combines FIRE with sustainability. Additionally, she is a leader that recognizes the women in the FIRE movement. Brad and Jonathan learn about Angela's journey and practical sustainability advice that could help the FI community. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/121 

29 Mar 10:11

121R | How to Get Any Job

Brad and Jonathan sleep habits, energy efficiency, and the best ways to land a job with Chris Hutchins from Grove. For details, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/121R 

29 Mar 10:11

122 | Intro To Dividend Investing

Dividend investing has been a hotly debated topic in the FI community. Brad and Jonathan dive into the details of dividend investing with Craig from Retire Before Dad. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/122 

29 Mar 10:11

122R | Dividend Deep Dive

Brad and Jonathan are joined by Brian Feroldi and Karsten from Early Retirement Now. With the goal of gaining a deeper understanding of dividend investing, Brad and Jonathan ask the hard questions. As the devil's advocate, they uncover more information about dividend stocks from passionate investors. If you are ready to learn more about dividend investing, then let's dive in. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/122R 

29 Mar 10:11

123 | Rich & Regular

Kiersten and Julien from Rich and Regular talk about the specific challenges that the black community faces on their journey to FI. Recognizing the fact that not everyone starts from the same spot is important, so we are diving deep into the differences today. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/123 

29 Mar 10:11

123R | Hail Mary FI

Brad and Jonathan give us an update about the "Playing with FIRE" documentary, hail mary FI and how to build an escape route from the corporate hierarchy that doesn't make room for you. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/123R 

29 Mar 10:11

124 | Dirtbag Millionaire | Chris Mamula

Chris Mamula, the "Dirtbag Millionaire," describes the mistakes he made on the way to FIRE, the challenges he facing in his early retirement, and the origin story of a book that will outline a Blueprint to financial independence based on the information shared by members of the ChooseFI community. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/124 

29 Mar 10:11

124R | Choose FI Your Blueprint to Financial Independence

Brad and Jonathan discuss the release date of a ChooseFI book, finding the best auto insurance rates, and Lynn Frair's path to FI. The book, "ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence" will be released on October 1, 2019. The goal of the book is to outline options for your path FI. Everyone's journey will be different because the concept of FI is really based on choosing your own adventure. However, there are common threads between all of the success stories. We pull that together so that you can make your own journey a successful one. To pre-order the book, go to https://www.choosefi.com/book  The complete show notes can be found at https://choosefi.com/124R 

29 Mar 10:11

125 | The Family Emergency Binder | Chelsea Brennan

Chelsea Brennan from Smart Money Mamas and creator of the Family Emergency Binder is here to talk about her unconventional choices that led to a happier life. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/125 

29 Mar 10:11

125R | Grocery Store Wars

Ways to optimize your grocery shopping, the family emergency binder, and sharing stories from the community. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/125R 

29 Mar 10:11

126 | Estate Planning Wills vs Trusts | Mark Moss

Last week, Brad and Jonathan talked to Chelsea Brennan about her Family Emergency Binder. In the same theme of planning for your family's future, today we talked to Mark Moss about estate planning. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/126 

29 Mar 10:11

126R | What is an Annuity

Brad and Jonathan tackle a listener question about annuities and discuss some updates to the travel rewards landscape. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/126R 

29 Mar 10:11

127 | Scott Scherr | Health Optimization

Brad and Jonathan discuss health optimization strategies with Dr. Scott Sherr. This episode is packed full of useful information, however, do not make life altering medical decisions based on this show alone. Although we are talking to a real doctor, do not take this as medical advice. Consult with your own physician before making any major medical decisions. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/127 

29 Mar 10:11

127R | Cut through the Noise Diet and Debt Consolidation

Gina Pogel joins us to discuss different types of debt and how to tackle them. We also dive into tactics to optimize both your health and your debt. The goal is to simplify your finances and your health by stacking multiple optimization tactics together. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/127R 

29 Mar 10:11

128 | Building Your Suit of Armor on the Path to FI | Alan Donegan

Alan Donegan joins us to discuss leveraging the power of FI to pursue your dreams with the ability to be free to fail. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/128 

29 Mar 10:11

128R | Zone of Awareness

Multi-level marketing, side hustles, energy audits, and expanding your "Zone of Awareness" -- all in today's Friday Roundup! For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/128r

29 Mar 10:11

129 | Breaking the Glass Ceiling | Liz, Chief Mom Officer

Liz from Chief Mom Officer.org talks about working moms building careers from the ground up. In this episode we learn: ⁃ How To Grow Your Salary ⁃ Figure Out What You Should be Paid ⁃ Work Hard Strategically ⁃ How To Negotiate For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/129 

29 Mar 10:11

129R | Focused Work Ethic

Earlier this week, Liz from Chief Mom Officer explained how she leveraged her work ethic and will to succeed into a successful six-figure career. Today we dig deeper into the work ethic topic with John, a 24 year old currently making 6-figures. We also announce our newly created Travel Rewards Course. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/129r 

29 Mar 10:10

130 | Paul Merriman | The Ultimate Buy and Hold Portfolio

Today we talk to Paul Merriman. The goal is to contrast the "Simple Path to Wealth Approach" with the "Ultimate Buy and Hold Portfolio." Paul is a proponent of the Ultimate Buy and Hold strategy and a legend in this space. The insights Paul provides about this strategy are priceless. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/130 

29 Mar 10:10

130R | Simplifying The Ultimate Buy And Hold Strategy With M1 Finance

Brad and Jonathan just returned from the world premiere of Playing with FIRE in San Diego. They discuss future showings (visit choosefi.com/tugg) and then get into the ultimate buy and hold portfolio strategy. For the entire show notes, go to https://choosefi.com/130R 

29 Mar 10:10

131 | Mr. Money Mustache & Mr. 1500 | Past, Present, Future

Mr. Money Mustache and Mr. 1500 discuss community building and second generation FI. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/131 

29 Mar 10:10

131R | Building a Brick in Your Wall

A recap of our conversation with Mr. Money Mustache and Mr. 1500. Plus, Jonathan and Brad answer listener questions about compounding and drawdowns during retirement. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/131R 

29 Mar 10:10

132 | Downsizing Your Life And Financial Coaching With Lisa Duke

Lisa Duke talks about her mindset shift and turning liabilities to assets. On today's show: Second Home--Asset Or Liability? Action Steps To Renting Out Your Home Getting off the "hedonic treadmill" ...and more. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/132 

29 Mar 10:10

132R Insurance | A Framework

Find out what kinds of insurance you actually need and where to find them. Jennifer Fitzgerlad, the CEO of Policy Genius walks us through everything you need to know. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/132R 

29 Mar 10:10

133 | How To Get Started Making Money With Airbnb | Zeona McIntyre

Zeona McIntyre built a successful AirBNB business and shares her best strategies, including Buying Properties Scaling the Business and Best Practices for an AirBNB Business For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/133 

29 Mar 10:10

133R | Should I Pay off My Mortgage Early Or Invest

Possibly the most burning questions of FI: Should you Invest or Pay off your Mortgage early? We go through the numbers in today's show. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/133R

29 Mar 10:10

134 | Early Retirement Case Study With Route To Retire

Jim from Route To Retire talks about about life after retirement and geo-arbitrage. His path to FI didn’t start with a community, it began when he was testing for Y2K bugs with Quicken. Don’t know what we’re talking about? You’ll just have to listen to find out. For more information, visit the show notes at https://www.choosefi.com/134

29 Mar 10:10

134R | Quit Like a Millionaire | Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung

Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung talk about their new book, Quit Like a Millionaire. Plus, Brad and Jonathan give updates on solar panels and YNAB. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/134r

29 Mar 10:10

135 | How to Leverage A Modest Income to FI with Joel from How to Money

Joel from How to Money talks about how he has pursued FI on a relatively low income, how he is reaching FI with five rental properties, and working on the Clark Howard Show. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/135

29 Mar 10:10

135R | The Plot Thickens

Another look at whether you should pay off your mortgage or invest, plus: Spam Caller Life Hack Life Hack for Small Business Owners Achieving FI on a Modest Income For more information, visit the show notes at https://www.choosefi.com/135r

29 Mar 10:10

136 | How To Fund Your Child's Roth IRA with the FI Tax Guy

A dive into taxes with Sean Mullaney, the FI Tax Guy, who talks about FI tax-efficient strategies and career paths in accounting. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/136

29 Mar 10:10

136R | Silver Spoon or Skills

Jonathan and Brad discuss a case study on funding a child's Roth IRA and listen to feedback from the community. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/136R

29 Mar 10:10

137 | Rebuilding a Life You Love with Christine

Christine and her husband, Jack, rebuilt a life that they love after an 85% reduction in pay 6 weeks into their marriage. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/137

29 Mar 10:10

137R | An Evening of Financial Independence

Brad and Jonathan discuss the Richmond Screening Of Playing With FIRE, FI 101, and how to be a storyteller. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/137R

29 Mar 10:10

138 | How To Get Paid To Go To College | Anthony Gary

Anthony talks about the strategy he used to go to college for profit in his senior year. The strategies he outlines could be used as early as freshman year to make college a profitable experience. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/138

29 Mar 10:10

138R | My Daughter's Mindset

Brad and Jonathan talk about Brad’s daughter's mindset, plus a review of Monday's episode with Anthony. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/138R

29 Mar 10:10

139 | Reaching FI With Real Estate | Sunny Burns

Sunny and his wife are 88.92% of their way to FI at only age 28 while living just 15 minutes outside of New York City. How did they do it? They share ow to pay for collect, the Department of Defense SMART Scholarship, car flipping, and more. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/139

29 Mar 10:10

139R | Time is on Your Side

Last week, Jonathan ended up at the DMV on a Friday afternoon with a crazy wait time. What should have been a quick trip turned into an ordeal worth avoiding. Today Jonathan and Brad discuss: How to Reclaim Your Time Side Hustling through the Secondary Market and how Sunny funded a Roth IRA for his child For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/139R

29 Mar 10:10

140 | FI Lifestyle Before FI Number With Nick True

Nick True from Mapped Out Money talks about designing an FI lifestyle before reaching an FI number. Currently, Nick and his wife live in an Airstream trailer with the flexibility to live wherever they want to be. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/140

29 Mar 10:10

140R | The Real Cost Of A Financial Advisor

Diving into the costs of a financial advisor and Nick from Mapped Out Money returns to discuss college hacking. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/140r

29 Mar 10:10

141 | Reset: An Unconventional Guide for Getting Unstuck with David Sawyer

David Sawyer released his book, Reset.  The book is aimed at helping people who feel stuck in their careers as well as an optimization strategy for Financial Independence in the UK. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/141

29 Mar 10:10

141R | Translating FI for the UK

David Sawyer comes back on to discuss the UK path to FI, and Jonathan makes a big personal announcement. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/141r

29 Mar 10:10

142 | Real Estate Investing Strategies with Paula Pant

Paula Pant discusses real estate as a path to FI as Brad shares his biggest financial mistake of his life - a speculative property in North Carolina. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/142

29 Mar 10:10

142R | Envelope Overwhelm

How to simplify personal finance and discussing Paula Pant’s take on real estate from Monday’s show. Personal Finances Made Simple Jonathan’s Budget Evolution How ChooseFI Makes Money For more information, visit the show notes at https://www.choosefi.com/142r

29 Mar 10:10

143 | Beyond Financial Independence With Edmund Tee

Edmund Tee talks about reaching FI and the goals of teaching more people worldwide about Financial Independence. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/143

29 Mar 10:10

143R | Is This the Top?

As most have probably seen, the news is calling for a recession soon. Specifically, Peter Schiff, a prominent economist, is warning of an impending financial disaster. However, this market volatility is nothing new. Join us today as we talk about Market Volatility, going Beyond FI, and Andrew Luck Embraces FI? For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/143r

29 Mar 10:10

144 | Junior Achievement: 100 Years Of Financial Education With Crystal Law And Laura Goodman

Crystal Law, Director of Financial Literacy Experiences, and Laura Goodman, VP of Volunteer Engagement join us to discuss Junior Achievement. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/144

29 Mar 10:10

144R | Guard Rails and Dumpster Fires

A recap from Jonathan and Brad's visit to FinCon, FI Military, YNAB, and "what if my finances are like a dumpster fire?". For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/144r

29 Mar 10:10

145 | Turnkey Real Estate Investing and How to Build a Team With Paula Pant

Paula Pant of Afford Anything returns to dive deeper into real estate investing. In this second conversation, Paula covers turnkey, deal syndication, and building a team. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/145

29 Mar 10:10

145R | Stuck

A discussion of what to do with a windfall, a review of turnkey real estate investing, and a meditation for stock market investors when the market is falling. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/145R

29 Mar 10:09

146 | Embrace The Suck With Shannyn Allan

Shannyn Allan joins us to discuss "embracing the suck"--when life just doesn't go as planned. Listen to Shannyn's stories about graduate school, calling off a wedding, and wire fraud during the purchase of her first home. ...and how she found FI at the right time in her life. Listen to the whole story at https://ChooseFI.com/146

29 Mar 10:09

Bonus Episode - Guided Meditation for Stock Market Volatility With JL Collins

A Guided Meditation for When the Stock Market Is Dropping The market is plunging. You’re starting to panic. You want to hit the “sell” button! DON’T! Tune into this relaxing meditation, and let the soothing voice of JL Collins help you embrace this wonderful market cycle We interviewed JL Collins on episode 19 of our podcast https://www.choosefi.com/019-jlcollinsnh-stock-series-part-1/   Check out JL Collins Website JLcollinsNH where you can read the entire Stock Series https://jlcollinsnh.com/stock-series/   and his book the Simple Path to Wealth https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1533667926/  

29 Mar 10:09

146R | Fork in the Road

This week’s Friday Roundup includes a discussion with Chuck Jaffe about why he can’t be part of the FIRE movement because he has no plans to retire. Also, a recap of Shannyn’s story from Monday and ChooseFI Book Launch Parties. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/146R

29 Mar 10:09

147 | Negotiate Your Salary With Tori Dunlap

Tori Dunlap about starting a business as a kid and tips for negotiating your salary. She is on a mission to help women earn their first $100k. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/147

29 Mar 10:09

147R Contributions, Corrections and Criticisms

Compounding vs total return, envelopes vs simplifying your finances, and the potential value you could get from working with a “assets under management” financial advisor. Also, Tori Dunlap reached her goal to save her first $100k by age 25 on the day her interview aired! For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/147r

29 Mar 10:09

148 | Struggle | The Psychology of Poverty with Andréa Motenko

Andréa has committed her life to social studies and taking FI information to people experiencing poverty. She grew up in a similar situation. At age seven, Andréa saw her first violent murder. Throughout her childhood, being raised by a single mother, she struggled with food insecurity and housing insecurity. However, she was also a student in the elite private school system, which led to an Ivy League education. After coming such a long way, she has a unique perspective on the relationship between poverty and reaching FI. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/148

29 Mar 10:09

148R | FI101 | Expense Ratios and House Hacking

Craig Curelop, author of The House Hacking Strategy: How to Use Your Home to Achieve Financial Freedom, shares his house hacking strategies. We also discuss Expense Ratios and the new book, ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/148R

29 Mar 10:09

149 | On Trajectory With Tyson Koska

Tyson Koska shares his On Trajectory tool and what led him to his own path of Financial Independence. Brad and Jonathan discuss how Tyson got started with FI and how On Trajectory tools cover net worth tracking and digital options. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/149

29 Mar 10:09

149R | Whole Life Insurance

How to break Old Navy and cockamamie life insurance schemes are just two of the topics Brad and Jonathan cover in today's episode. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/149r

29 Mar 10:09

150 | Accountability | Diania Merriam

Diania Merriam discusses accountability, shifting perspectives, and community. She has a great perspective on building community and life with balance. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/150

29 Mar 10:09

150R | Goals vs Systems

Building your blueprint to FI starts with the basics. A simple thing like tracking your spending can set you on a path that will change your life forever. Today, we get back to FI 101 and uncover the stark difference between goals and systems. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/150r

29 Mar 10:09

151 | Unstoppable | Creating A Framework For Decision Making With David Hauser

As a successful start-up founder, David Hauser felt mercilessly driven to create success through extreme measures. Today, he opens up to Brad and Jonathan about his drive to succeed and how he has applied an experimentation framework to his health and wellness. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/151

29 Mar 10:09

151R | Fit Waist Fat Wallet

Using David Hauser’s framework from last week of decision making through split testing, Brad and Jonathan look at their sleep, fitness, and diet. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/151R 

29 Mar 10:09

152 | Is it too late? | Becky Heptig

Becky Heptig shares her personal story to show that FI is an attainable goal at any age. It is an encouraging story because it shows no matter what age you find FI at, it is not too late to change your life for the better. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/152 

29 Mar 10:09

152R | Can I Retire Yet | A Case Study With Early Retirement Now

Big ERN comes on the show today to break down the numbers of Becky’s retirement plan. He works through their real numbers to determine how solid their retirement plan is. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/152R https://choosefi.com/becky

29 Mar 10:09

153 | RIP Medical Debt | An Inside Look At Debt Collection And Forgiveness

Medical debt has the power to seriously hurt your financial future. Many Americans are faced with unavoidable medical debt that has crippled their financial situation. RIP Medical Debt is a nonprofit working to forgive medical debt for pennies on the dollar. Today on the show, they share their background and the amazing progress they've made. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/153

29 Mar 10:09

153R | Navigating Health Insurance

On today’s Friday Roundup, Jonathan's shares his experience with health coverage after his wife welcomed a new baby into their family. We also discuss Healthshare plans and Healthcare After FI. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/153R 

29 Mar 10:09

154 | Hacking The FAFSA | Brian Eufinger and Seonwoo Lee

Graduating from college debt-free can accelerate the path to FI dramatically. Brian Eufinger and Seonwoo Lee share their best tips on hacking the FAFSA on today's episode. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/154

29 Mar 10:09

154R | Inception

Tim and Amy from Go With Less join Brad and Jonathan to discuss their unique travel strategy. Plus, tips on how to design your dream life. Some of the topics in today’s show: House Sitting With Tim And Amy Build Your Dream Life FI 101 and more For more information, visit the show notes at https://www.choosefi.com/154r

29 Mar 10:09

155 | Boundaries As A Single Parent On The Path To FI | Leslie Tayne

Leslie Tayne opens up about her journey as a single parent, financial problems in her first marriage, and how to move forward from debt. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/155

29 Mar 10:09

155R | Year End Tax Planning

Sean Mullaney joins the show to discuss year-end tax planning. He goes into deductions, self-employment income, and how to get the most from your deductions. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/155r

29 Mar 10:09

156 | Retire Before Mom And Dad | Rob Berger

Rob Berger, founder of Dough Roller and Retire Before Mom and Dad, talks about the simple math of early retirement and more essential FI lessons that are important to talk about.  For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/156

29 Mar 10:09

156R | Coming Back From A Gap Year

A gap year might seem unthinkable for some but Noah and Becky share exactly how they navigated their gap year. Plus, Brad and Jonathan discuss emergency funds and your risk tolerance. For more information, visit the show notes at https://www.choosefi.com/156R

29 Mar 10:09

157 | Atomic Habits | James Clear

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits , shares his story. The conversation dives into the difference between systems and goals. How To See Through The Short-Term For The Long-Term The Compounding Effect How Identity Drives Your Habits Goals, Systems, and more For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/157

29 Mar 10:09

157R | The Compound Interest Of Self Improvement

After learning more about habits with James Clear this week, Brad and Jonathan discuss the compounding interest of self improvement and turning intention into action. What’s covered in today’s show: • Building Habits • Identity Statements • Find Your Tribe …and more. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/157R

29 Mar 10:09

158 | Real Hourly Wage | The Frugal Engineers

Kim from The Frugal Engineers shares her journey and the importance of determining your real hourly wage. Kim’s story goes from Boarding School to College to a real hourly wage to quitting her day job and building a business. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/158

29 Mar 10:09

158R |Your Real Hourly Wage and Savings Rate Calculation

Learn how to calculate your real hourly wage and savings rate. We discuss Kim’s story shared on Monday’s episode, meal planning, and more. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/158R

29 Mar 10:09

159 | The Business Coach Approach to Double Your Revenue | Jaime Masters

Jaime Masters has been a part of the personal finance space since 2011. It all started with a desire to share her story. Listen as she talks about time management, building a business, sales and marketing, and more. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/159

29 Mar 10:09

159R | From Solopreneur to Entrepreneur

It's the last Friday roundup of the decade! Learn how to level up your skills with: Everyday Courage New Year's Resolutions Building A Business with Intentionality For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/159R

29 Mar 10:09

160 | End of Year Wins 2019

As we ring in the new year, it is time to celebrate our community’s wins. This episode is dedicated entirely to the wins that have happened throughout the community this year. The goal is to congratulate everyone on a fantastic year and inspire the community to continue to achieve amazing things next year. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/160

29 Mar 10:09

160R | Everyday Courage

The ChooseFI family is launching a new podcast today. Everyday Courage is officially live! Please take a moment to subscribe to Jillian Johnsrud's new podcast https://www.choosefi.com/everyday-courage

29 Mar 10:09

161 | Money Letters 2 My Daughter | Jackie Cummings Koski

Jackie Cummings Koski shares her story of a single mom that made FIRE a reality. She proves that there is no one way to achieve FI. The goal can be accomplished by people from all walks of life and Jackie offers a unique perspective of FI. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/161

29 Mar 10:09

161R | Reignite

Welcome to the first Roundup of 2020! Brad and Jonathan share exciting announcements like: • Launch of Everyday Courage by Jillian Johnsrud • FI101 and the ChooseFI International Foundation • Updates To The Tax Code For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/161R

29 Mar 10:08

162 | The 4 Tendencies and FI

Although finding the path to FI can be exciting, it can be frustrating to have difficulty communicating this vision to your family and friends. Gretchen Rubin joins the show to shed some light on the four tendencies or people and how to communicate with each tendency. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/162

29 Mar 10:08

162R | There's Water In The Cup

Half full? Half Empty? Ehh... There's some water in the cup. Medical bills are never fun, but at least you met your deductible... at the very end of the year. Brad and Jonathan discuss building credit from ground zero, and reflecting a bit on Gretchin Rubin's "The 4 tendencies". In addition, we share a segment with Larry Hagner from the Dad Edge Alliance discussing the importance of financial intimacy. This is your Friday Roundup! For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/162R

29 Mar 10:08

163 | Finding FI | Liz and Braden

Liz grew up with a single mom that struggled financially after getting divorced. Due to that, she had to learn how to budget at a very young age. She helped her mom pay off some debt over a period of years. Braden had a completely different relationship with money. He grew up in a well-off family, so he never had to worry about money. He did get a job at 16 because his parents wanted him to learn the value of hard work. Liz and Braden share their story of: • Landing over $100k in scholarships • World Travels • Finding FI • Staying at Home For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/163

29 Mar 10:08

163R | Roth IRA Conversion Ladder Case Study

An updated case study of the Roth IRA conversion ladder and a challenge for the community are some of the topics that Brad and Jonathan tackle today. For more information, visit the show notes at https://www.choosefi.com/163R

29 Mar 10:08

164 |Our Rich Journey | Amon & Christina Browning

Amon and Christina join the show today to share their journey to Financial Independence as two federal employees with young children. The couple was able to retire early in just eight years! For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/164

29 Mar 10:08

164R | What are the 5 Love Languages

Learn about the five love languages and how they can help you communicate with your partner better. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/164R

29 Mar 10:08

165 | Do You Need a Budget? | YNAB

The founder of YNAB, Jesse Meacham, shares his story about: Finding your "non-negotiable" Introducing your spouse to FIRE Do you really need a budget?   For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/165

29 Mar 10:08

165R | Do You Realize What You're Doing

Answers to several reader questions about investing efficiently for your financial freedom. Learn more about low-cost broad-based index funds or if you should max out your 401k early. Recent market volatility has provided an opportunity to test your investment resolve. Any low-cost broad-based index fund is a solid investment strategy, VTSAX is not the only option. Understanding the difference between Roth vs traditional options can help you plan your tax-efficient retirement. Fee-only advisors that act as fiduciaries in every area can be helpful. However, many financial advisors are not fiduciaries and have an assets under management fee structure. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/165R

29 Mar 10:08

166 | Modern FImily With Court

Court joins the show to share how she and her wife tackled six figures of student loan debt and achieved financial independence in their early 30s with a family. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/166

29 Mar 10:08

166R | It's a Small World After All

Find out more about the upcoming ChooseFI documentary series, Andrew and Zach's experiments in financial independence, and community corrections. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/166R 

29 Mar 10:08

167 | Learn Hustle Grow

Rob and Reshawn from Learn Hustle Grow discuss combining their finances and building a real estate portfolio. They talk about money mindsets, building a life together, paying down their home, working in sales and more. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/167

29 Mar 10:08

167R | Should I Refinance My Mortgage?

Dropping mortgage rates prompt a conversation that explores the pros and cons of refinancing your mortgage at a lower rate. Plus, Steve Chen from NewRetirment joins the show to share the comprehensive retirement planning tools that his company has to offer. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/167R

29 Mar 10:08

168 | Make Time

John Zeratsky, author of Make Time, joins Brad and Jonathan to share actionable tips to build a framework that cuts through your perpetual state of busyness. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/168

29 Mar 10:08

168R | Prioritize Your Priorities

With the principles outlined in Make Time, you have the potential to dramatically improve your life in a short period of time. Plus, hear an inspiring FI story and tips for teachers. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/168R

29 Mar 10:08

169 | A Purple Life | Early Retiree Case Study

The anonymous blogger behind, A Purple Life, joins Brad and Jonathan to share her journey to financial independence. With the helpfulness of anonymity, she shares exact numbers including her income, salary negotiations, expenses, and more. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/169 

29 Mar 10:08

169R | Prepared, Not Scared

With a week of market scares, this episode revisits the importance of being prepared, not scared. Plus, you’ll hear about some exciting announcements from the ChooseFI community. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/169R 

29 Mar 10:08

170 | The Simple Startup

Rob Phelan, author of The Simple Startup joins the show to share more about this new resource that can help anyone learn how to build a business. Plus, he shares the path of creating a financial literacy course for all grade levels that brings in the concepts of Financial Independence. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/170

29 Mar 10:08

170R | A Capital Gains Case Study for 2020

Learn more about the implications of capital gains and the mechanics of tax optimization for these gains. We use two case studies to help you realize the power of optimizing your capital gains strategy. For more information, visit the show notes at https://choosefi.com/170R

29 Mar 10:08

171 | Financial Resilience

In light of current events, We are temporarily switching to a daily show to support the community

29 Mar 10:08

172 | Bear Market

Bear Market vs Recession and why you can't panic sell   To get started on your path to Financial Independence go to https://www.choosefi.com/start

29 Mar 10:08

173 | Emergency Fund

In light of current events, We are temporarily switching to a daily show to support the community. Is your Emergency Fund in place? https://www.choosefi.com/CIT https://www.choosefi.com/start

29 Mar 10:08

174 | Looking Out For Our Community

In light of current events, We are temporarily switching to a daily show to support the community.   Is your Emergency Fund in place https://www.choosefi.com/CIT Our Favorite Taxable Investment Tool https://www.choosefi.com/M1 Access Community, Resources and More  https://www.choosefi.com/start  

29 Mar 10:08

175 | Social Distancing with Style

Be Creative With Your Social Distancing Resources for Accidental Home Schoolers Opportunity for People with Student loans Crossfit at home: https://wodprep.com/free-workouts Find a new healthy routine, don’t mope Walk (with distancing),  Driveway happy hour Student loans FEDERAL: No interest at this time PRIVATE: Refinance with Credible : https://www.choosefi.com/credible/ Michael Kitses interview on Monday - very timely Accidental Homeschooler - our resources are out, we will have more with Vincent next week https://www.choosefi.com/credible https://www.choosefi.com/start

29 Mar 10:08

176 | Flexible Spending Rules For Early Retirees

Michael Kitces joins the show to share his research on flexible spending rules as they apply to Financial Independence. His call for flexibility could impact your path to FI by several years. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/171

29 Mar 10:08

177 | This is Not a Drill

In light of current events, We are temporarily switching to a daily show to support the community. Access Community, Resources and More https://www.choosefi.com/start https://www.choosefi.com/CIT  

29 Mar 10:08

178 |Important Tax Update

Continuing the daily episode series, Jonathan and Brad talk about some tax info from Sean Mulaney. https://www.choosefi.com/start

29 Mar 10:08

179| Accidental Homeschooler

Continuing on this daily podcast journey we talk about what happens when you life decides it is time to home school for a bit https://www.choosefi.com/Vincent https://www.choosefi.com/start https://www.choosefi.com/CIT

29 Mar 10:08

180 | The Art of the Pivot

Looking at this through the lens of opportunity we explore how businesses are pivoting in difficult times.   https://www.choosefi.com/start

29 Mar 10:08

181 | The Creative Penn | Joanna Penn

Joanna Penn shares her story of building multiple income streams and becoming a writer. She outlines how anyone with the passion to be creative can do the same. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/172

29 Mar 10:08

182 | Escape from Wall Street | Rick Ferri Part 1

What does investing in Index funds look like in 2020? Rick Ferri from the Boglehead Podcast comes on the show to talk about his story, and how he left Wall St to invest in Index funds. https://www.choosefi.com/start Learn More about Rick Ferri: https://rickferri.com/ Follow on Twitter @rick_ferri https://www.bogleheads.org/

29 Mar 10:08

183 | Is The FIRE Movement Over?

Jonathan and Brad Discuss the implications of the pandemic on the Financial Independence Movement. Jonathan and MK discuss Skill Stacking & Brad shares what his idea of the perfect education would look like

29 Mar 10:08

184 | Stimulus Package Breakdown: The Cares Act

Sean Mulaney weighs in on the 2020 Stimulus Package via voicemail, and gives some pro tips for your filing process. Jonathan and Brad share some of their insight on the Cares Act as well. https://www.choosefi.com/start

29 Mar 10:08

185 | Adapting to the New Normal with Dominick Quartuccio

What is Normal? Normal is the baseline our minds establish for as a reference point for everything that comes into our lives. This baseline is not immutable however. Dominick joins us on the show today to talk about some of these ideas in these very "un-normal" times. https://www.choosefi.com/  

29 Mar 10:08

186 | Multiple Generations Under One Roof With Financial Tortoise

Tae, from the Financial Tortoise, shares his money story from the perspective of the sandwich generation. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/186

29 Mar 10:07

187 | Distance Education

Mandy shares how teachers are pivoting in this difficult time, and gives her advice for teachers and parents who are thrust into this new era of learning. Additional information is provided for accessing Accidental Homeschooler and K-12.   

29 Mar 10:07

188 | Stay the Course | Rick Ferri Part 2

Rick Ferri joins Brad and Jonathan back on the show to teach us how to make a cake. During this process you may just learn a thing about asset allocation. Whatever you decide to do with today's knowledge just remember, stay the course.  https://www.choosefi.com/start Learn More about Rick Ferri https://rickferri.com Follow on Twitter @rick_ferri https://www.bogleheads.org

29 Mar 10:07

189 | Jonathan's Investor Policy Statement

Jonathan outlines his investor policy statement, and his process for how he thought it out.

29 Mar 10:07

190 | The Sandwich Generation with Jean Chatzky

When it comes to talking about money and the future with both your parents and kids, tactfulness is everything. Jean Chatzky joins the show to help us navigate these strange waters.

29 Mar 10:07

191 | K-12 Financial Literacy Curriculum

Financial Educators Rob Phelan, Danielle Mendonsa, and Mandy Bert have created a financial literacy program for anyone and everyone. Today they join the show to talk about its inception and release.

29 Mar 10:07

192 | Freelancers and the Paycheck Protection Program with Travis Hornsby

Travis Hornsby from the Student Loan Planner joins the show to talk about the Paycheck Protection Program for small business and independent contractors.     More resources:   Our Podcast: https://www.choosefi.com/episodes/ Financial Resilience Daily Show: https://www.choosefi.com/financial-r/ Blog: https://www.choosefi.com/all-articles/   About us:  Everything we do, we do to help you slash your expenses, crush debt, and build ways to earn a living remotely by starting online businesses. Then we help you invest in the safest way we know how, despite the ups and downs of the stock market. We take the hits, so you don't have to, because ultimately, we want you to become financially resilient during these trying times, and get you started on the path towards Financial Independence. Please SUBSCRIBE and enable notifications to see NEW EPISODES.    CONNECT: ►OUR WEBSITE: https://choosefi.com ►BUSINESS EMAIL: feedback@choosefi.com

29 Mar 10:07

193 | The Market Always Goes Up

We all know the market always goes up, but it is still nice to get that reminder. Brad and Jonathan talk about the market's history and how time in the market is always better than timing the market. Links from the show: https://www.choosefi.com/cit https://www.choosefi.com/M1   Our Podcast: https://www.choosefi.com/episodes/ Financial Resilience Daily Show: https://www.choosefi.com/financial-r/ Blog: https://www.choosefi.com/all-articles/   About us:  Everything we do, we do to help you slash your expenses, crush debt, and build ways to earn a living remotely by starting online businesses. Then we help you invest in the safest way we know how, despite the ups and downs of the stock market. We take the hits, so you don't have to, because ultimately, we want you to become financially resilient during these trying times, and get you started on the path towards Financial Independence. Please SUBSCRIBE and enable notifications to see NEW EPISODES.    CONNECT: ►OUR WEBSITE: https://choosefi.com ►BUSINESS EMAIL: feedback@choosefi.com

29 Mar 10:07

194 | The Role of Bonds in a Portfolio | With Frank

Frank Vasquez joins the show to talk about portfolio diversification with bonds, and the important value that they can add. Other ChooseFI Media: Support our YouTube channel by subscribing at: https://www.youtube.com/choosefi?sub_confirmation=1 Listen to other episodes from our Financial Resilience Daily Show at: https://www.choosefi.com/financial-r/ Dig deeper into Financial Independence by reading our Blog at: https://www.choosefi.com/all-articles/   About us:  Everything we do, we do to help you slash your expenses, crush debt, and build ways to earn a living remotely by starting online businesses. Then we help you invest in the safest way we know how, despite the ups and downs of the stock market. We take the hits, so you don't have to, because ultimately, we want you to become financially resilient during these trying times, and get you started on the path towards Financial Independence. Please SUBSCRIBE and enable notifications to see NEW EPISODES.    CONNECT: ►OUR WEBSITE: https://choosefi.com ►BUSINESS EMAIL: feedback@choosefi.com

29 Mar 10:07

195 | The Rebel Entrepreneur - What Can You Build?

Brad and Jonathan talk with Alan Donegan about possible ways for how you can pivot during this time. Additionally, listen until the end for the special announcement from Alan and the ChooseFI Team.

29 Mar 10:07

196 | Have We Seen the Bottom? An Economic Outlook with Big ERN

Big Ern joins the show to talk about possible scenarios for the recession we find ourselves in, and markers to look out for on the horizon for the recovery of our economy.  

29 Mar 10:07

197 | Introducing: Casual Wednesdays

After 40 days of quarantine, we are beginning to adjust to this new normal. We're talking groceries, working remotely more permanently, creative socializing in quarantine, and finding your lost money.

29 Mar 10:07

198 | Living Your Story

Today is community mailbag where the team answer questions and listens to feedback from you our listeners, but first they talk about Big ERN's optimism.

29 Mar 10:07

199 | Making Portfolio Adjustments with Big ERN

Big Ern joins ChooseFI again this week to discuss making necessary adjustments to your portfolio when the economy takes a downturn.

29 Mar 10:07

200 | Stock Fundamentals with Brian Feroldi

On a recent episode we gained a better understanding bonds. Today Brian Feroldi who writes for the Motley Fool joins us to give us a deeper understanding for stocks and how they are valued.

29 Mar 10:07

201 | The Rule of 55

It's mailbag time, and today we answer a question about the rule of 55 and how some are able to access their 401k penalty free at 55. We also have a segment with Jillian from Everyday Courage

29 Mar 10:07

202 | Student Loan Planner with Travis Hornsby

Travis Hornsby is back on the show to share a bit of knowledge on his specialty: Student Loans. Travis digs into some details that could potential save you thousands of dollars on your student loans.

29 Mar 10:07

203 | Real Estate Investing During a Recession or Financial Crisis with Coach Carson

Coach Carson comes on the show to provide some insight on the current real estate investing market, and what to look for when starting out.

29 Mar 10:07

204 | Join the Rebellion

On today's episode we have the long awaited Barrett top 50 recipes(well, top ~30), the guys talk about ideas for Mother's day, the new Podcast for all things business called the Rebel Entrepreneur has launched, and a thought provoking mailbag question 

29 Mar 10:07

205 | Tax Loss Harvesting with Sean Mullaney

Today Sean Mullaney is back to talk about 5 money moves to make during a financial crisis, and digs deep on what it looks like to make back money on a realized loss when you panic sold.

29 Mar 10:07

206 | What Happens When the Paycheck Stops? - Keys to a Successful Retirement with Fritz Gilbert

Fritz from Retirement Manifesto joins the show to talk about the mentality you should have when entering retirement.

29 Mar 10:07

207 | 2020 Health Challenge

Today is community mailbag, and we are taking a look into some corrections, criticism, and feedback from previous episodes . Next we have a Frugal Win of the Week from Will for his brother Matt. Before all that though, Jonathan talks about his 2020 health challenge, and the power of incremental progress.

29 Mar 10:07

Bonus With Everyday Courage

Today we have a bonus episode featuring an episode from Everyday Courage with Jillian Johnsrud and JL Collins. Figuring out how to invest is a challenge for many, including Jillian. By the time she and her husband started investing, they had paid off all their debt and saved up a lot of cash. Like many people, Jillian waited far too long to start investing. She was scared, intimidated and didn't really understand it. JL Collins says this is all too common, and he is here to make investing simple.

29 Mar 10:07

208 | There Is No Failing With FI | Bianca DiValerio

Bianca, a flight attendant, reached Financial Independence in her late 30’s after many bumps in the road. She shares her story of financial resiliency.  

29 Mar 10:07

209 | What Happens When the Paycheck Stops? - Keys to a Successful Retirement with Fritz Gilbert (Part 2)

Fritz from Retirement Manifesto is back to dig a bitter deeper into the minutiae of the numbers behind retirement, and the use of the bucket strategy.

29 Mar 10:07

210 | Little Known Roth Hacks

Today on our mailbag episode we have exciting news from MK, information on 401K's to Roth IRA's, news from Choosefi Publishing, an alternative summer camp possibility, and more from our community

29 Mar 10:07

211| How to Negotiate a Higher Salary without Burning Bridges | Financial Mechanic

Jessica, The Financial Mechanic, shares how she created a ten-year path to financial independence through a career shift and salary negotiations. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/211

29 Mar 10:07

212 | Kicking off our FI Case Study Series | Kashia Palmer

Today Jonathan and Brad are doing a case study with Kashia Palmer. Kashia shares her story about getting out debt and has the guys look through her budget to find out her time frame for financial independence.

29 Mar 10:07

213 | Is The Retirement Saver's Credit Worth It In 2020?

Jonathan makes one the Barrett Top 50 for some "FI-ne Dining", the guys detail this little known tax credit, got some community Feedback, Brad was on Jillian's latest episode of Everyday Courage, and ChooseFI case Studies will be coming regularly to a podcast player near you. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/213

29 Mar 10:07

214 | How to Rock a Blog Without The Painful Learning Curve | Ashley Barnett

Today Ashley Barnett from the ChooseFI team joins the show to share her story and teach us how to make a blog that stands out!

29 Mar 10:07

215 | Your Self-Worth is Not Your Net Worth | Audrey Bellis

Audrey Bellis, joins us for a Wednesday case study. Audrey shares with a us a story of empowerment and self-motivation. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/215

29 Mar 10:07

216 | How to make FI more inclusive | With Chris Browning of Popcorn Finance

Chris Browning joins the ChooseFI podcast to have a vital conversation about systemic racism in America and what we in the FI community can be doing to help. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/216

29 Mar 10:07

217| How to Save Thousands in US Federal Taxes Using Geo-arbitrage | David McKeegan

David from Greenback Expat Tax Services explores the basics of taxes for expats. Learn about the rules surrounding expats taxes and strategies to consider.  

29 Mar 10:07

218 | COVID Budget Awakening | Brandi Sellers

Brandi joins us and shares her story on another case study episode. After sharing her finances, Brandi sees the big difference that small changes can make for retirement. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/218

29 Mar 10:07

219 | I was Laid Off, Now What?

Today we talk about using skills to pivot when laid off using MK as a fantastic case study of this concept. Additionally we have some announcements and awesome community wins in the mailbag today.   For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/219

29 Mar 10:07

220 | Fix My 403b | Nancy Bachety

Nancy Bachety worked as a school teacher for and was deeply dissatisfied with the 403b retirement fund that was being offered to teachers. On this episode Nancy shares her story and how she fixed her 403b account. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/220

29 Mar 10:06

221 | Introducing our Households of FI

Today we are introducing the first 4 households in our on-going case study project where we follow 8 households on their journey towards FI. Each household is just starting their journey to FI, and each of which ultimately have the same goal: achieving FI. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/221

29 Mar 10:06

222 | The Mid LIfe Crisis

A lot of people think FI is about having as much money as possible, but that is a fundamentally flawed supposition. Jonathan and Brad saw plenty of "successful" people in the workforce who were miserable. Today we talk about the Oh-so-dreaded mid life crisis, and what FI is really about. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/222

29 Mar 10:06

223 | Slow Traveling the World the FI Way | Nomad Numbers

The Nomads join the show to talk about their system for perpetual travel, and all the nuances that go into a nomadic lifestlye. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/223

29 Mar 10:06

224 | Introducing our Households of FI

Today we are introducing the second 4 households in our on-going case study project where we follow 8 households on their journey towards FI. Each household is just starting their journey to FI, and each of which ultimately have the same goal: achieving FI. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/224

29 Mar 10:06

225 | The Power of the Staycation

Today we're talking about staycations, traveling the world ~$1,200/month, and community wins! For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/225

29 Mar 10:06

226 | Trip Of A Lifestyle To All US National Parks

Lauren and Steven Keys from Trip of a Lifestyle join the show to share their story of frugalality to live a life doing the things they love. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/226

29 Mar 10:06

227 | The Golden Albatross | Grumpus Maximus

Grumpus Maximus has partnered with ChooseFI Publishing to release his book The Golden Albatross. While pensions can seem like a dry topic, Grumpus has created an in-depth guide to the subject while simultaneously making it enjoyable to read. Today Grumpus is on the show to talk with us a bit about his story. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/227

29 Mar 10:06

228 | Overcoming the Debilitating Fear of Public Speaking

The guys talk about their strategies for public speaking, and Brad shares how podcasting has played a key role in learning to play into his strengths in order to overcome his fear of public speaking. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/228

29 Mar 10:06

229 | Managing Stress by Leveraging FI | The Fioneers

Corey and Jess from The Fioneers join the show to tell share their story of getting on the same page financially. They talk about incremental freedom, habitual spending triggers, and stress management. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/229

29 Mar 10:06

230 | College Hacks from the ChooseFI Community

Jonathan, Brad, and MK have collected tips, comments, hacks, and feedback from the community for crushing college debt free. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/230

29 Mar 10:06

231 | Are You Too Good for Casserole?

Jonathan makes a bet, the secret to wealth lies in the Casserole, and the guys share their thoughts on college planning For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/231

29 Mar 10:06

232| Raising a Money-Savvy Family for Next-Generation Financial Independence | Doug Nordman and Carol Pittner

Doug Nordman and Carol Pittner Join the show to talk about how to raise your children to think about the potential of money in a positive way   For more information on the show and for shownotes visit https://www.choosefi.com/232

29 Mar 10:06

233 | You Need to Start Building Your Network | Jordan Harbinger

Jordan Harbinger shares his tips and techiques for managing and expanding your network For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/233

29 Mar 10:06

234 | What's in Your Index?

Brad's children learn a valuable lesson on running a business and some of the associated difficulties. As Tesla becomes a potential candidate for the S&P500, the guys take the opportunity to touch a bit on questions you might have about this aforementioned index. And the pronunciation of our Brand: ChooseF.I. or ChooseFI? Or is there even a potential dark horse in this race as a third alternative? Find out on today's Friday Roundup! For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/234  

29 Mar 10:06

235 | How I Built a 7-Figure Online Course | Jacques Hopkins

Jacques Hopkins shares how he built an online course and some of the skills he had to learn along the way. If you have been sitting on an business idea you definitely want to listen to this episode! For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/235

29 Mar 10:06

236 | The Intersection of Fitness and Financial Independence

The guys talk about their journey toward financial independence and fitness and how closely the two correlated to one another. For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/236

29 Mar 10:06

237 | Build Your Talent Stack

Today we talk about asset allocation versus information allocation. What are you doing with all the information you are taking in? Are you making intentional steps to build your talent stack? Tune in to today's Friday Roundup! For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/237

29 Mar 10:06

238 | Half Price College with the Millionaire Educator

Gerry Born, the Millionaire Educator, joins the show to talk about strategizing college via online classes, dual enrollment, and CLEP Testing.  For more information, visit the show notes at https://ChooseFI.com/238

29 Mar 10:06

239 | The Gatekeepers are Gone

  Don't believe that you need anyone's permission for access anymore. The gatekeepers are gone and the ability to access knowledge on-demand and create a business model around it has never been easier. The realization that you have autonomy gives you control over your life is transformational. You can control your expenses and reach FI. You can choose to pursue interest-led learning and follow a passion. There is no more "they" you need to seek permission from. MK didn't need the permission of traditional publishing's gatekeepers, instead, she learned how to self-publish. Employers are beginning to value skills over degrees. Google recently announced they are offering 3 new online certificate programs in skill areas critically important to the tech industry. Google is even offering 100,000 need-based scholarships for individuals enrolled in the certificate programs. Start building a talent stack around what interests you. Bradley Rice from episode 117 is building BradForce Academy, a course designed for people in a Salesforce career looking for more freedom and flexibility. Working just 20 hours a week as a Salesforce Freelance Administrator in 2019, Bradley Rice made $225,000 using skills he had picked up during his lunch hour. From the community, Chris shared a big win on the ChooseFI Facebook page. He and his wife maxed out her Employee Stock Purchasing Plan and used to it help pay off her student loans once it reached its maturity to qualify as long-term capital gains. For the first time in 20 years, they feel like they are winning the game. Josh challenged Brad to share what his Todoist organized life looks like. In it, Brad has everything scheduled, from chasing his home air filters every 2 months to passport renewal reminders to subscription cancelation dates. Brad's taking his Red X month off from work, but ChooseFI episodes will continue with amazing pre-recorded shows, including an episode with The Budgetnista, Tiffany Aliche, and deep dives with the Households of FI. Jonathan issues a challenge to start on the path to FI. Gather a small group of friends and go through a 6-8 week transformation together starting September 1. Resources Mentioned In Today's Conversation Google Announces 100,000 Scholarships for Online Certificates Earn $1000 or more with ChooseFI's 3 Card Cashback Strategy M1 Finance ChooseFI Episode 117 Making the Case for Part Time with Bradley Rice Salesforce Freelance Consulting Course Preview BradForce Academy BradForce YouTube Channel ChooseFI Episode 024R The Friday Roundup | How to Hack Your ESPP Todoist ChooseFI Episode 221 Introducing Our Households of FI!! Part 1 ChooseFI Episode 224 Introducing Our Households of FI!! Part

29 Mar 10:06

240 | The Budgetnista

  For video highlights from the episode, check out choosefi.com/240. Tiffany Alice was raised by a financially savvy father who taught her how to save and handle her money, but a few poor choices in her 20s destroyed her finances. Since overcoming her mistakes, she's made it her mission to help others fix their finances. After falling victim to a con man, Tiffany found herself more than $35,000 in credit card debt. Though her pre-school teacher salary wasn't a high income, she was saving aggressively by living simply and transferring her credit card debt to 0% interest cards. During the 2008/2009 recession, she was $300,000 in the hole between credit card, student loan, and mortgage debt when she was laid off from her job. Seeing that she was struggling less with financial hardship because of the lesson's Tiffany had learned from her father, friends began to ask for help with their finances. She liked teaching and turned teaching financial education into a business. Through her business, she can make good money, help people, and still have happiness and time. She feels that she is living her life in complete alignment. Even with a high net worth, she and her husband continue to live frugally and without debt. One of the lessons her mistakes taught her was to get straight to a solution sooner rather than allow shame or ego to delay it. It's important to acknowledge your role in mistakes, take full responsibility, and then get over it. Teaching financial education was the easy part. Tiffany found that her own financial struggles allowed her to relate to people. She doesn't consider herself to be a guru but an educator helping her girlfriends along. Tiffany built her business from one-on-one financial coaching to a following of over half of a million people in her Dreamcatcher community. Volunteering in her community and utilizing her network, in addition to social media helped get her business off the ground. When followers from outside her local area began to request her course, Tiffany scaled the business to reach anyone, no matter where they lived, with her Live Richer Challenge. When it launched, 10,000 people had signed up. To date more, than 900,000 have taken one or more of her Live Richer challenges. Along the way, Tiffany learned about blogging, video editing, affiliates, monetization, and self-publishing. A good teacher has to be constantly learning, listening, and reading, but what made Tiffany a really good teacher comes from being a pre-school teacher, she honestly cares about her students. She's taken her skills in leading and caring about students as a teacher and applied them to her business, making it an amazing place to work where her employees fee

29 Mar 10:06

241 | Troy & Lindsay Calculate Their FI Number with Brad | Households of FI

  The Troy and Lindsay are new on their journey, finding FI several months ago after making a budget and realizing they had no money left over at the end of the month. Compared to other systematic approaches to becoming debt-free, they felt FI was creative and adaptable to a variety of lifestyles. The first step Troy and Lindsay took was to determine where all their money was going using a budget tracker, which enabled them to cut monthly expenses and continue to do the things they enjoyed doing, like going to happy hours. Except for their mortgage, the Troy and Lindsay have paid off all of their debt, contribute to a 401k, and have an $80,000 net worth, including a $15,000 emergency fund. Though they both enjoy their jobs now, Lindsay is a teacher, so Brad suggests considering her pension's “worth vs worth it” as Grumpus Maximus has discussed on the podcast and in his book, The Golden Albatross. Use the 4% rule of thumb to determine what your net worth should be to reach FI. Using the 4% rule, you can withdraw 4% of the balance each year to live off of and reasonably expect it to last for the rest of your life. To calculate your FI number, multiply your annual expenses by 25. For every $100 cut from your monthly expenses, is $30,000 less you need to save to reach FI. Troy and Lindsay recently refinanced their mortgage from 4.75% to 3.25% and are investing the $500 a monthly savings into 401ks and Roth IRAs. When wondering about paying off their mortgage, Brad acknowledges that there is a real psychological satisfaction the goes along with it, but he looks at it in this way. The interest portion the payment is the true expense, while the principal payment is a reallocation of net worth going from your checking account into home equity. Brad suggests taking the time to document a year's worth of expenses and look at different scenarios for what life may be like in retirement to come up with a range of possible annual expenses. When calculating their FI number, Troy realized the number was double if he included a mortgage payment. Brad suggests looking at the mortgage amortization schedule for prepayment options. Food expenses have been cut with a goal of $500 a month. Lindsay checks to see what's in the pantry before shopping and meal preps one day a week to avoid eating out, but she isn't penny-pinching when it comes to quality. Removing mortgage and childcare from their expenses, Troy and Lindsay's monthly expenses are about $3,500 per month, which puts their FI number at just around 1 million dollars. They are currently saving roughly $50,000 per year to add to the $80,000 net worth but are wondering where they go from here. Brad acknowledges there can be a lot

29 Mar 10:06

242 | The Financial Gym | Shannon McLay

  For those on the path to financial independence, finance, fitness, and life optimization all intersect. During her career in the banking industry, Shannon McLay found it didn't work for the people she wanted to help. She set out to use her skill set and training to change the coaching industry and founded Financial Gym. Even for those who not physically fit, they know what it looks like and there are many resources available for achieving it. The path the financial independence is similar in that it is a long journey. You have to work up to it, will experience setbacks, and take breaks. Much like diets, budgets don't work long-term. Making lifestyle changes is the key to success. At the Financial Gym, clients hit 90% of the goals set for themselves by examining their money behaviors and constantly working to figure out what's will work for them. The two largest emotions people have regarding money are fear and shame. Once people drop these highly charged emotions and understand the financial numbers don't define them, they can break through and embrace moving forward. After turning 30, Shannon realized she didn't want the life she was leading. Her life's trajectory changed when she came to understand that to have long-term sustainable happiness is to help other people and not expect anything in return. During her work as a financial advisor for Merrill Lynch, she discovered she enjoyed helping out her pro bono clients far more than the wealthy ones. It allowed her to see there was a need for a service where it didn't matter what you looked like financially, you just needed to get financially healthy. Much like going to the gym to get healthy, her concept of a financial gym was a place to meet with financial trainers for a monthly membership fee. Following the model of H&R Block, Shannon believed people wanted to meet with a financial advisor face-to-face. She was advised to prove the model would work before looking to raise money. Experimenting with different plans and prices, she had great success with her first clients increasing their net worth. Clients wanted to keep working with her, but she was running out of money to continue investing in her business. When a former boss invested $100,000 in her concept, she rebranded using the gym concept. The physical environment of the Financial Gym created a community where clients had a shared goal and a safe space to talk about money. Shannon was able to scale her business by developing a training program and teaching compassionate and empathetic people what she knew. Those contemplating becoming an entrepreneur should ask themselves, “Am I a good problem solver?” because running a business is like solving a lot

29 Mar 10:06

243 | Corinne and Jillian Johnsrud | Households of FI

Progress Coach, Jillian Johnsrud, meets with Households of FI member, Corinne, to review the two exercises designed to help her understand how she can prioritize her life to focus on the things that matter the most. After taking a quiz to reveal which of the Four Tendencies she is, Corinne discovered that she is an Upholder. She has many things that she would like to do but struggles with feeling guilty about doing non-work related things that are important too. Corinne would like to find more time for meditation and develop better awareness and confidence with her finances. Though Corinne always felt like she was decent with money, beyond investing in a 401k, she would like a better understanding of what her baseline expenses should be and where she can make improvements with a budget and investments. When it comes to learning, Corinne feels that she learns best by practice, repetition, and talking through things, but would love to make her processes as automated as possible. Jillian suggested that Corinne may learn about investing best through a book club, class, or mastermind group. Her goals for mediation are to be more in tune with her body, realize when she needs to step away from work and take a break plus try and have mediation become a part of a daily routine. Jillian divides priorities into two categories, the things we want to make progress on and the action steps to take. There is a huge return on the investment when taking those actions, but things that help with progress are foundational and make life easier. As habits develop in stages, Jillian suggests Corinne first try to find a place in her life for a two-minute meditation habit, before getting started and trying to optimize it. This will help test out when mediation might be appropriate and get through the learning curve. Then focus on any hesitation resistance to doing those two minutes. Creating habits can be more successful when added to an existing routine or by creating a prompt. Corinne would also like to make progress in her career. She needs to stay focused better during working hours to make the most out of them and make progress with communication and executive presence. Exercise, eating healthy, and socializing with friends are other areas where Corinne would like to reduce friction and make doing them easier. Since starting a new habit is so difficult, Jillian likes to divide the year up into six-week chunks and focus on one of the new habits in each of the six weeks. The synergy between the habits begins to build momentum. For the exercise “Challenges and Motivations”, Corinne felt making partner at work was her biggest motivation because she values being part of a team or community

29 Mar 10:06

244 | Mentorz : A Second Generation FI Success Story | Ava and Don Wettrick

  Who do young people look up to today? The lifestyles marketed on MTV and social media not exactly something to aspire to, but where can the next generation go to find something different? Inspired by the work of her father, Don Wettrick, and feeling like she needed to take charge of the issue, Ava Wettrick created MentorZ, a platform designed to introduce great people to Generation Z. As a young child, Ava thought her dad was the smartest guy in the world. It wasn't until she got older that she realized he wasn't necessarily smart, he just read a lot. She's witnessed his transition from teacher to owning a non-profit and embrace the experience. Being a voracious reader, it didn't take much pushing from her dad to begin consuming content from the likes of Tom Bilyeu, Simon Sinek, and Victor Franco and having an influence over her peers. Since getting to know several entrepreneurs, Ava questioned whether or not college is worth the time and expense. She was surrounded by highly successful people telling not to go to college, but she is attending college and has found it helpful to have the financial support of her parents and scholarships while growing, learning and choosing the information she wants to consume. Don acknowledges that for some majors, college is still relevant, and for those who have the money should go, but have a plan. He thinks the best thing students can do is to start doing the thing they might love and begin to shadow people to determine if it is a good fit. Majoring in entrepreneurship at Ball State, Ava is learning about accounting, marketing, running a business, and being a CEO which has only accelerated her drive to make the podcast a success and provides quality content and great messages. Interviewing guests for her podcast has been a significant personal learning experience and changed her perspective on the power of an interview. She waited a year to release the episode recorded with Tom Bilyeu because she feared it wasn't good enough and yet people think it was one of her best. And following her interview with Dov Baron, she received feedback that he believed in her and wanted to mentor her. While there are ways of doing things to make them appear more important than they are, “fake it til you make it” can have its drawbacks. Don believes humility can be key when it comes to Imposter Syndrome. When it comes to second generation FI, Don says it happens by osmosis. His kids have been raised under a frugal lifestyle. Since his last appearance on the podcast, Don left his teaching job to take the non-profit to the next level, growing both the team starting chapters in co-working spaces and tech hubs. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S CONVE

29 Mar 10:06

245 | Matt & Megan get International Tax Tips | Dave McKeegan

To watch the video highlights, click on ChooseFI.com/245 Matt and Megan are a dual military family on the path to FI. Matt is serving in the UK Royal Navy and Megan is serving in the US Navy, making their tax situation unique. Currently, they plan on having Matt get a green card, allowing him to work in the US, while Megan finishes out her Navy career to earn a pension and then move abroad in about seven years. Once Matt gets his green card, he will be taxed like any other US citizen. He owns an apartment in the UK that he would like to sell. Dave McKeegan notes that since there is no wealth tax in the US, Matt will not be taxed on his assets, but once he gets a green card or meets the substantial presence test, he would potentially have to pay capital gains tax on the sale of the apartment so it would be best to sell it first. Due to the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA), every bank around the world is required to report US citizen account information to the US Treasury Department. US citizens are also required to report accounts on a FinCEN 114 form and assets held overseas are subject to capital gains taxes. Dave wanted Matt and Megan to be aware that mutual funds held outside of the US can often be viewed as passive foreign investment companies. Any investments overseas should be US compliant as well. Vanguard has a number of retirement funds that report correctly to both the US and UK and are exempt from taxes. Matt and Megan are interested in how the can best take advantage of the US tax system and simplify it for themselves. To reduce their taxes, Dave advises Matt to physically give up his green card once they move abroad so that they can place money in international investments under Matt's name and he won't be taxed like he is a US citizen anymore. As long as their assets are less than $2 million, leaving the US will not trigger an exit tax. Depending on income, where their assets are held, and if they have children, their US tax filing status may change to take advantage of higher exemptions, but they should sell the UK property before filing “married filing jointly” as long as he doesn't already meet the substantial presence test. Matt may qualify for a tax-free UK pension when he retires from the Royal Navy but if he has a green card, he will need to pay US taxes on his pension until they move overseas and he gives up the green card. Dave McKeegan has moved around the world and is currently living in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is one of a number of countries that only tax sources of income earned within that country. As his business is located in the US, Dave pays US taxes. If Matt and Megan were to move to a country with tax laws like Costa Rica

29 Mar 10:06

246 | Overcoming and Battling Financial Abuse | Rachael Partleton

  What happens when someone is using your finances to prevent you from making decisions that are in your own best interest? What does financial abuse look like and can you reclaim your financial life? Rachael shares her story and how she's become passionate about economic empowerment. Although she had a successful career and what appeared to be a healthy relationship from the outside, Rachael found herself in a relationship with someone who walked all over her. Slowly over time, Rachael's boyfriend began chipping away at her confidence and inserting himself into her finances, putting his name on all of the bills, linking bank accounts, opening joint accounts, and pushing to have his name on the mortgage to the property she had purchased on her own. Your instincts and feelings are worth paying attention to. Had Rachael explored her feelings more, she believes she would have listened to them better. Not knowing what's happening with your bills or financial accounts is a red flag. Sharing accounts is only good when both people are acting in good faith. The drive to take over control finances may start as a result of insecurity in the relationship, but it can take a turn and be used against the other person as a form of punishment. Rachael describes financial abuse as a psychological assault where your trust is so broken that it can damage the relationship you have with yourself. If you aren't making decisions willingly and freely, you are giving up bits of your power and it's then a slippery slope to giving away too much. There's nothing inherently wrong about merging finances but there's needs to be a conversation it. After 10 years, the relationship ended, Rachael found herself in a legal battle over the property, was experiencing PTSD and unable to do her job. The systemic assault she experienced during the relationship and in its aftermath destroyed her trust in society. All the business, government, legal, and social systems she sought help from had failed her. The bright light in her experience is that Rachael has now become an agent of change to have new laws passed in the UK to help other victims of financial abuse. Learning to tell her story and fight for herself was incredibly difficult, but also a skill-building endeavor. She channeled her anger, found her voice, and learned how to speak clearly and with confidence. Always a fan of journaling and understanding the power of words, Rachael started a blog as an unfiltered outlet for her feelings. The positive feedback she received from family and friends also helped build her confidence. Not wanting to return to teaching, Rachael attended one of Alan Donegan's PopUp Business Schools to possibly become a perso

29 Mar 10:06

247 | Zach and Marilyn Talk Real Estate Investing | Paula Pant

Continuing the financial independence case study series, Households of FI family, Zach and Marilyn are a married couple with young kids. Using Dave Ramsey's baby steps, they no longer have any debt but have wondered what to do next. Looking to explore investing in real estate, ChooseFI connected them with real estate expert, Paula Pant. Though Zach and Marilyn once lived below the poverty line, they managed to pay off their debt, including student loans, a car loan, credit cards, and medical debt. During that time, they gained a little experience with buying and selling property. Since that time, Marilyn has gone back to work and their income almost doubled. Having earned a profit on some previous homes they flipped after living in and renovating them, it's encouraged them to use the skills they've acquired on future investment properties. Where they currently live in Cedar City UT, the market is a bit inflated and are concerned about the 1% rule where monthly rent should equal 1% of the total purchase price. Paula explains that if a property rents for 1% of the purchase price, that is 12% per year at full occupancy. Since it is estimated that operating costs will be roughly 50% of the monthly rent, 6% of the purchase price is what if leftover as an unleveraged dividend on the property. Assuming no increase in the value of the property, but keeps pace with inflation, that's roughly another 3% based on historical averages, the property gives a 6% dividend and 3% inflationary increase, for a total return of 9%. It is a rough way to determine if a property is worth looking into further Exceptions for the 1% rule of thumb may be made when operating costs are expected to be less than the 50% average, such as if property taxes are extremely low or if it is a newer home. Other exceptions to the 1% rule can also be made when buying a multi-unit home where you live in one unit and rent out the others. In those cases, personal criteria for where you want to live also come into play and the 1% rule can be thrown out the window. Because property values are a little inflated where they live, Zach and Marilyn are interested in buying properties in markets where they don't live. Paula believes that it's easier being an out-of-state landlord because it forced her to treat it like a business when she couldn't just pop over and take care of issues herself. Zach and Marilyn were also interested in what criteria they should consider regarding properties that are fixer-uppers versus being move-in ready. Paula says what she teaches the students in her real estate investing course includes a graph where on the x-axis represents a spectrum with “You Find Deals” at one end and “Your Creat

29 Mar 10:06

248 | You Are More Than Your Financial Capital | Laura Oldanie

What does it look like when you are invested in building wealth, environmentalism, and sustainability? How do you combine raising your net worth while optimizing these other areas of your life? You build a holistic approach to the different types of capital. Laura learned about the different forms of capital through her experiences with permaculture, which is a design science that looks to nature as an example of a closed-loop, no waste system. Her introduction to permaculture through her gardening interest in sustainability. The permaculture flower has seven petals, with each petal representing concepts like Land in Nature, Stewardship, and The Built Environment. In addition, 12 guiding principles can be applied to each petal, such as Catch and Store Energy. She became intrigued after learning permaculture could be applied to more than just the landscape. Not pleased with the investing options available through her employer's retirement account investment options, Laura turned to the permaculture space around money, investing, and finances. Financial permaculture got off the ground around 2010-2013 where permaculture principles were applied to finances. While much of the thinking done early on has been at the macro level, Laura has been working to bring it down the personal finance level. Socially responsible investing is something that Laura does at the local level. She looks for investment opportunities in her local community, like purchasing a share in a local permaculture farm. But she recognizes local investments are few and far between, so she casts a wider net for meaningful investments outside of the stock market, like with the American Homeowner Preservation Fund which buys distressed mortgages and works to keep people in their homes. While it may sound like a charitable contribution, Laura is investing in these opportunities through her retirement account. Though she recognizes these investments may be riskier, she believes there are far greater risks to the environment with many other investments. Anyone considering investing in this way should do their due diligence and understand the risk before investing in a non-diversified portfolio. Laura tries to mitigate this risk using multiple forms of capital as a safety net. In addition to financial capital, there are material capital, intellectual capital, experiential capital, social capital, living capital, cultural capital, and spiritual capital. Other forms of capital sometimes discussed are time, health, and attention. Within social capital, Laura discussed communities helping each other through mutual aid societies and time banks and how they have been springing up since the pandemic began. Understan

29 Mar 10:06

249 | Carol connects with The Retirement Answer Man Roger Whitney

Brad is back after taking August off of work as his Red X month. Though his original vacation plans were changed because of COVID, he made the best of it. They spent three weeks in Long Island visiting family, enjoying the pool, board games, and a digital detox. While Brad was away relaxing, Jonathan used that time to work on a couple of big passion projects. During the month of August, Jonathan created a podcast course and membership group. He also started a new podcast as a way to demonstrate to the group how you start one. The Talent Stacker podcast uses the content discussed on ChooseFI but then goes even further and fills in the holes to focus on skills, certificate programs, and career paths that don't require the high cost of college. The first episode of Talent Stacker has already been released and this coming Monday's episode will feature Bradley Rice where he and Jonathan discuss a carer path you can start for free with no talent stack, no career, and no experience and after 6 months of training, you can make a minimum of 60-80K with the ability to scale for an even higher income. The Talent Stacker membership program has lifetime guaranteed access where they will work with you to as long as it takes to get you working in that new job earning $60,000. Programs such as the one discussed on next Monday's Talent Stacker episode are becoming more popular with examples like Google's new career certificate program which also takes about 6 months to complete at a fraction of the cost of traditional college. The Vice President of Global Affairs at Google, Kent Walker, stated they consider the certificate to be the equivalent of a four-year degree for related roles. The next Households of FI family featured this week is Carol, sho found FI in 2020. In her mid-50s, Carol claims she is financially illiterate and does not want to end up being a burden to her child. Her goals are to change her deprivation mindset when it comes to money, retire with financial security, and kick her lifelong issues with credit cards. Carol was introduced to financial planner, Roger Whitney, to come up with a financial plan of attack. Since finding FI, Carol has jumped right in reading and listening to as much as she can. In that time, she has cut her debt in half. She believes her first steps should be to pay off debt, start an emergency fund, and begin saving aggressively for retirement. She also knows she needs a mindset shift. Carol struggles with budgets, but she's contributing to her 401(k) for the first time and is only giving herself a small amount of spending money with everything extra going to savings after her bills have been paid. Roger suggests there are two ways to tackle

29 Mar 10:06

250 | Money Lessons From My Grandparents | Anne Zonca

Once you realize financial independence is possible for you, how do you ensure the money lessons you've learned are consistently passed down to future generations? Anne Zonca's family is well ahead of their time when it comes to financial independence. When many are focused on second-generation FI, Anne herself is third generation FI working to pass along her family's lessons to her own children. Children of the Great Depression, Anne's grandparents were deeply effected by having lived through it. Starting out in marriage with literally nothing, they worked hard and saved so that they never had to live through a financial situation like that again. Understanding that saving was not enough, they began investing in the stock market in the 1950s. With a formal education, her grandfather stayed informed with the Wall Street Journal and sharing stock tips with his brother. They invested in individual stocks, picking ones they felt were stable, like oil and gas, or utility companies. For stocks that paid dividends, they reinvested the dividends. with this strategy, they were able to build a substantial amount of wealth. Anne's mom recounted stories about how her grandfather got into stock investing, but Anne became more aware of her grandparents investing prowess around 14 when they began gifting stock to their children and grandchildren. While the value of the gifted stock wasn't necessarily a large sum, it was substantial considering they were regularly gifting to 4 children and 11 grandchildren. The gifted stocks were paying decent dividends, but rather than receive a lot of checks for small amounts, the dividends were all reinvested. Though the growth on the stocks gifted to Anne was not enough for her to reach FI, she definitely had a heart start and was learning about stocks and investing at a young age. Her grandparents gifting stock to the family was a win-win scenario as her grandparents did not have to sell the stock and pay capital gains on the appreciated value. Though the recipient bears a tax burden, children are entitled to a certain amount of capital gains each year tax-free. Currently, children can have up to $2,000 of capital gains before being subject to capital gains taxes. Following the example set by her grandparents, Anne's parents were able to achieve financial independence as well through entrepreneurship and real estate. Although preceding generations had reached financial independence, it wasn't wealth being passed on from generation to generation that got them there. It was the lessons of spending less than you make and smartly investing the extra that perpetuated generational success and wealth. Despite her grandparents' success in the stock

29 Mar 10:06

251 | Should I Pay off the Mortgage on the Path to FI? | Brad Connects with Martin and Ayesha

Martin and Ayesha are both natural savers who have been great about living below their means but lacked a real plan. Their goals are to maximize investments for retirement and finding ways to utilize dividend funds. After stumbling across the ChooseFI podcast, they felt like their financial independence number and retirement seemed obtainable which has helped push them to commit and make even bigger changes. While Martin and Ayesha had a 20-25% savings rate before finding FI, Brad commended them on what a great job they were doing. He also stressed that FI is about living a better life and having the financial security to get you there, not what your savings rate is. Despite the inclination to save, Ayesha always resisted the thought of meticulousness and restrictive budgets. However, she found that she could get behind the idea of focusing on spending on what they truly valued, so they began using Personal Capital as a less obtrusive method of tracking their spending and gaining insight into their habits. Something that Martin and Ayesha place considerable value on are experiences, particularly travel, spending time with friends and family, and being healthy. Instead of getting together at restaurants and spending money on pricey meals out, they began hosting monthly potlucks. Ayesha has found the website Budget Bytes to be incredibly economical when it comes to low-cost recipes and efficient for discovering uses for the ingredients she already has in her refrigerator. It's helped to cut their grocery bill to around $600 per month for their family of 4. Due to quarantine restrictions, Ayesha was out of work for months, which she calls a blessing in disguise. During that free time, they were able to take a deep dive into their spending and immediately saved $500. It also allowed them to slow down and spend more time with family enjoying the outdoors, playing games, and eating all three meals together. Following the time off from work, Ayesha has realized that it does cause her some stress which made her want to buy things. It also strengthened her conviction to reduce her workload within 5 years to perhaps just one day a week so that she can find more joy in the moment. Although Martin enjoyed his two-hour daily commute, working from home during the pandemic has made him more aware of the importance of time. He now strives to make the most of his time and focus on using it in ways that bring him the most value. While their monthly expenses are not constant because life is lumpy, it runs around $3,500 but can go as high as $5,000 a month when home repairs are needed. Martin and Ayesha have a goal of reaching FI in seven years and are looking at exploring several di

29 Mar 10:06

252 | Life Rebuilt | Julia Harder

Everyone's path to FI is going to look a little bit different and there is so much we can learn from each other. Hoping to inspire and share lessons learned through conversations with community members, Brad and Jonathan speak with Julia Harder, an active duty member of the Coast Guard, is already well on her path to FI. Always a natural saver, Julia was influenced by her dad, who stressed the importance of investing, and Dave Ramsey's teachings that debt is bad. She was on a good financial path, yet she still felt something was missing. Though it sounds counterintuitive, Julia's path to financial independence began with divorce. Prioritization to her marriage, she rarely spent money on anything she didn't absolutely need. During her marriage, her husband helped her learn that some spending can be a good thing. Unfortunately, he was an irresponsible spender and there were months Julia found she couldn't pay all of the bills. Although she knew something was wrong, she failed to listen to her instincts and all of the red flags that kept popping up. she just assumed everything would be okay rather than taking a step back and thinking about it critically. Following her divorce, she was left with a $300,000 mortgage, a $20,000 car loan, no savings, and was feeling like she had hit rock bottom financially. Following Dave Ramsey's advice, Julia began to follow his steps to get back on her feet and find herself and her financial objectives again. Julia was all in on Dave Ramsey's strategies. She cut up her credit cards, began using cash for everything, and made a budget every month. It gave her discipline and solidified her habits. She found ChooseFI in May 2019 after she began teaching personal finance to other members of her Coast Guard unit. The thought of optimizing investments and taxes really caught her attention. It was exciting to begin taking action to optimize her money in these areas as well. It was more difficult to come around with respect to travel rewards credit cards, but because she had learned to be disciplined with her budget, she could spend money on a rewards credit card and begin optimizing her travel spending too. Before ChooseFI, Julia thought she was killing it with her 15% savings rate. She assumed 59 and a half was the earliest she could retire because that's the age her finical advisors had given her. She was blown away when a ChooseFI guest discussed their 70% savings rate. It was then that she realized she could control so much more than current her zone of awareness concerning savings and retirement. Julia plans on remaining in the Coast Guard until eligible for a pension at 20 years of service. While others often ask if she'll be bored, she

29 Mar 10:06

253 | Back to Basics

Going back to the basics of ChooseFI being a crowdsourced show, Brad and Jonathan address what's going on in the FI community with a wild card Friday episode. Why revisit content that's already been discussed? After several years of introducing new ideas, the ChooseFI audience may be in a different place financially and ready for a refresher on some of the more advanced concepts presented earlier in the show's history. And newer listeners may not have combed through the archives and missed out on topics relevant to their situation. This episode back to basics provides an orientation of what ChooseFI hopes to deliver. Goals for the podcast are to introduce a new idea or story during the Monday episode. But not every strategy or tactic works for everyone. Friday's Roundup episode looks at that idea from different perspectives, incorporates audience feedback, and seeks to answer additional questions. The FI Weekly is the email Brad sends out every Tuesday where he provides subscribers with ideas to ponder, inspire, and motivate people on their own journey and shares what actions he is taking to make his life a little bit better. Opt in to receive Brad's email, The FI Weekly, at ChooseFI.com/start. Financial independence means different things to different people. For Jonathan, it means he has options allowing him to choose what he does during the best years of his life. For Brad, it means freedom, giving him the ability to live life on his terms, spending time with his family. Pursuing financial independence doesn't mean living a life of deprivation. It's about choice. No one should tell you how to spend your time, your freedom, or what to spend your money on. You have the freedom to spend money on an expensive car if you choose, as long as you understand the impact of that decision. It's not even about being at financial independence or not. Simply being on the path to FI gives you options. Whether you're in a toxic situation at work or want to pursue a passion project, just working toward FI gives you options those on the standard path cannot afford to take. Sharing stories from the community and discussing the decisions they have made broadens and brings to light the scope of options available to the variety of personal challenges you may have. The pursuit of financial independence is not necessarily about hitting that FI number. It's a life optimization strategy. If you are working in a low-wage job and don't see the path, you can be trained in a new industry and be making $60-80K within six months. Check out the Talent Stacker podcast. Shane recently posted in the ChooseFI Facebook Group, “I'm a recent college graduate, 23 years old. What advice would you give y

29 Mar 10:06

254 Creating a lifestyle not a Job | Corbett Barr

Building a business online has never been easier than right now, but Corbett Barr was forging his path in the early 2000s when it was hard. We're diving into his origin story to learn what gave him motivation and why he believed entrepreneurship was for him. Working as a consultant in Fortune 500 companies, Corbett had the kind of job a lot of people really wanted and could build a career around. Though he wasn't aware of financial independence at the time, he didn't want to climb the ladder only to find it had been leaning up against the wrong wall. Unhappy with his career, he was nudged toward entrepreneurship but was scared to take the leap until a friend asked if he wanted to become involved in a new project, which he was able to do without risking any of his own money. In his early 20s, Corbett was furloughed from his job during the 2000-01 financial crisis. During his efforts to stay afloat, he was ashamed and learned how important it is to save as much as possible. His savings gave him enough of a cushion to last a year or so in order to find out if he had what it takes to be an entrepreneur. His picture of entrepreneurship at the time was working yourself to the bone, sleeping under your desk, and hitting a home run before earning a bunch of money and doing whatever he wanted. But he found that he still had a host people he still needed to answer to and felt even more trapped than if he were an employee. After putting in so much time, effort, and money, it was painful to realize he didn't have much to show for it. But after having a taste of entrepreneurship, it was hard to imagine going back. Rather than jump into another project, Corbett and his wife took an eight-month sabbatical in Mexico to clear his head, reset and pivot. The Mexican sabbatical allowed him to put some space between himself and the friends, family, and San Francisco venture capitalists influencing his life to see that something else was possible. It was around that time he discovered concepts of location, independence, lifestyle design, and digital nomads. He realized that perhaps what he wanted wasn't to be wealthy, but instead to have enough time and control to do the things he wanted, like working on the things he wanted or spending time with friends and family. When discussing the dark side of entrepreneurship, Corbett says we don't often see the path of destructions can leave in people's lives. However, it has become much more democratized in recent years where you don't have to take investment money or big-name advertisers. It allows you to really be in control and think about how you go about doing it. Though he originally envisioned building a product and then finding customer

29 Mar 10:06

255 | If People Can Do it Then I Can Do it Too | Leslie Tayne Connects with Vivian

Picking back up with the Household of FI series, Vivian is a single mom who found FI in the last year, but initially, it seemed impossible. It wasn't until she was introduced to the ChooseFI podcast and saw real people reaching financial independence that she believed she could do it too. Vivian has been dealing with a number of challenges: a cancer diagnosis, a child custody battle, and caring for parents who have no savings of their own. As a pharmacist, she earns a significant income. She's already managed to pay off $300,000 in student loans in six years and believes she can save $60,000 a year. Vivian has been paired with mentor, Leslie Tayne, also a single mom and attorney who helps people with debt relief. Leslie acknowledges that what Vivian is going through with her separation is one the most challenging times in her life and it is a very emotional experience along with being financially damaging. However, there is a light on the other side and she will come out with more freedom and more control. Because her significant other's mom used to watch her child while she was a work, childcare is a challenge right now. Childcare is expensive and not something you can find discounts on. As an attorney, Leslie helps her clients to fix their financial messes without judgment. She doesn't believe in a debt-free life since life has its ups and downs. Instead, it's okay if being debt-free is not realistic. We should learn to embrace our debt but what is important is how you manage the debt. Due to the separation, Vivian will be selling the house that is entirely in her name. If she makes a profit, she should talk to her tax preparer about qualifying for a capital gains exemption. Vivian is also interested in ways to save for her child's college education to which Leslie offers several options: contributing to a 529 plan, a state pre-pay program, or a regular savings account. There are tax advantages to contributing to a 529 plan over a savings account and should Vivian's child decide to not go to school, the money in the 529 plan may be used for grandchildren or withdrawn with earnings taxed at regular income tax rates. The Texas pre-pay option would allow Vivian to lock in current undergraduate tuition rates and required fees. When it comes to budgeting for groceries, Leslie says that her family mostly eats at home and orders out just once a week. One trick to not overspending at the grocery store is not to take the children with you, shop with a list, don't allow yourself to get distracted, and buy non-perishables in bulk. When you have no choice but to bring your child with you, you can allow them to pick one item so that they can pick something they want without

29 Mar 10:05

256 | Double Your Income by Flipping the Second-Hand Market | Flea Market Flippers

How can you recognize the value in the secondhand market, begin optimizing a strategy, and turn it into income? Today's guests, Rob and Melissa Stephenson, the Flea Market Flippers, have built a six-figure business flipping the bargains they find. Rob spent weekends as a child with his parents visiting yard sales. They bought items and then listed them for sale to a bigger market using the newspaper classified section. Rob followed in their footsteps, flipping items as another side job without realizing the full potential of it. Selling used items is no longer a local market. With the launch sites like eBay with 181 million users, the whole world becomes the market. Rob and Melissa's business model capitalizes on larger items, such as commercial exercise equipment or restaurant equipment. They find the items locally from establishments going out of business. They look for the higher retail items which will make them a lot of money. It helps them to work less and make more profit. From their 89 sales last year, they made $80,000. For example, over the summer, they found a 40-inch range that retailed for $4,500. They bought it for $200, brought it home, then sold on eBay for $2,800. Over the last five years, Rob and Melissa have honed their freight skills and can ship very large and heavy items for reasonable prices. While they have become comfortable shipping large items, Rob and Melissa want people to start where they are at. Start with the items in your house, learn the system, how to take photos, how to sell on eBay to slowly build your confidence. The majority of the time, they research an item before buying it. Some things do sell quickly, but other items need time for the right buyer to find them before they sell. There are skill sets involved that make flipping items work: finding the deals, researching prices, making offers, marketing, taking good photos, and shipping. However, Melissa says it's actually a really simple business. There are lots of options for finding items, but Rob's favorite apps are Facebook Marketplace and OfferUp. He will scroll through them for ten minutes while sitting in his LazyBoy at night. There are fewer risks than there were several years ago. Smartphones have made it possible to jump onto eBay to check everything for the last 30-60 days that has sold. It's similar to the MLS with the housing market and looking for comparable properties that recently sold. If you can't find it on eBay, a good rule of thumb for items in good condition is 50% off retail. They no longer do many actions on eBay, opting for Buy It Now and listing for the price they want. Since you can see what an item has sold for the in past, if you want to sell it

29 Mar 10:05

257 | Back to Basics: Getting Started with FI

In this ChooseFI Back to Basics episode, we review Health Savings Accounts (HSA). What happens when you need to finally pull money out after funding it year after year? ChooseFI Chief Content Officer, MK, is just weeks away from having her baby. For years, she and her husband, Jason, have been funding separate HSA accounts without making any withdrawals. They now contribute to a family plan HSA and decided it was a good time to test out how complicated the process was to withdraw HSA funds. They discovered some plans are easier than others. The process of withdrawing funds from the fund MK had rolled over to Fidelity was super easy. Jason's was a bit more tricky due to the Health Insurance Portability Accountability Act (HIPPA) compliance laws and auto-reinvest settings. Now that they tested it out, they feel confident they will know what to do in the future. An HSA is a type of investment vehicle that gives you a tax deduction in the current year and helps pay for healthcare-related expenses. Only those participating in qualified in high-deductible healthcare plans are eligible for HSAs. For 2020, the IRS defines a high-deductible plan as one with a deductible of $1,400 for an individual, or $2,800 for a family. the maximum a family may contribute in 2020 is $7,100, and half of that for an individual. The money going into the account isn't subject to income tax and sits in the HSA account until you submit for reimbursement of healthcare expenses. HSA withdrawals for healthcare expenses are also tax-free.The benefit of an HSA is that the money can build and grow over time. Healthcare expenses do not need to be submitted for reimbursement as they are incurred. HSA participants can pay out-of-pocket and wait for years before requesting reimbursement if they choose to. The IRS criteria dos state that the high-deductible plan must be a qualified plan. Check with your company's human resources department to determine if your plan is a qualified one. HSA participants should also understand who their plan is with, what investment options they have, and what the fees are. Based on fees, Fidelity and Lively are two good providers who offer low-cost, board-based investment fund options. The goal is to cash flow medical expenses in your younger years when they are generally lower, funding the HSA with pre-tax dollars and allow them to grow until later in life when healthcare costs begin to increase. There may be additional tax benefits from using your employer's HSA provider rather than Fidelity or Lively. Because you can submit for reimbursement years after the expense was incurred, save your receipts. Brad has a Google doc that lists all of the healthcare expenses he pays

29 Mar 10:05

258 | Back to Basics Part 2: The Income Side of the Equation

Brad has been taking part in a mastermind group and teaching its members about financial independence. While they understood the “Why of FI”, how to get started wasn't as clear. The Back to Basics series of episodes covers just that, how to get started on the path to FI. The journey to financial independence is not about deprivation. It is about a life of personal choice and abundance. Its starts with understanding your “why” and then setting goals for the next 5, 10, or 15 years. There's a difference between the money you need to pay bills and meet basic needs and discretionary spending. Understanding how much your lifestyle costs is the first step. It can be psychologically difficult to do this first step. It may reveal mistakes, but it's important to be honest with yourself and not beat yourself up over them. We all make mistakes. After knowing what your life costs, what comes next? To calculate your FI number based on your current lifestyle, multiply your monthly expenses by 12 to get your annual expenses. This is how much money you will need each and every year in retirement to cover your expenses. The 4% Rule of Thumb suggests that you can withdraw 4% from your total assets each year to live on and reasonably expect the money to last for the remainder of your life. For example, if you have $1 million in assets, 4% of it is $40,000 that you could withdraw each year. The 4% withdraw rate is adjusted for inflation. To get to your FI number, multiply your annual expenses by 25. $40,000 multiplied by 25 is $1 million. $80,000 in annual expenses, multiplied by 25, results in a FI number of $2 million. Whether starting with a net worth of zero or with some assets, the next step would be determining your current path to your FI number. The point of saving money is not for it to be finally used for a retirement far off in the future. Save to reclaim decades of your life when you can spend time as you see fit. Reframing the goal of saving allows you to reorient and see that saving money is investing in your time. One of the reasons Brad and Jonathan enjoy board games so much may have parallels with financial independence. Both involve iteration and getting better and better at making smarter decisions through gamification. People who win games the most have an intermediate mindset. They understand the limitations balanced with longterm thinking. When looking at income, what is the bare minimum needed to cover your expenses? For a married couple living in Virginia spending $80,000 a year on expenses, they will need to earn an income of $102,000 before taxes and without contributing to savings or retirement. They would pay $9,000 in federal taxes, $5,000 in state taxes,

29 Mar 10:05

259 | Kristi & Big ERN

In our eighth Households of FI touchpoint episodes, Kristi was successfully following the standard path with a six-figure job and keeping up with the Joneses but waiting to take a breath and enjoy life. After finding FI, she realized the money was no longer the goal but simply a tool. Kristi has been connected with Big ERN, from Early Retirement Now, and over several conversations, they discuss Employee Stock Purchase Plans, 401K contribution strategies, the phase of retirement, and more. While wealth accumulation is simple math, decumulation is more complicated so Big ERN created the ultimate safe withdrawal rate series. Some recent changes Kristi has made to her investments since starting her path to FI are moving from a Roth 401K to a traditional 401K and maxing her contributions out. She also moved her current balance and future contributions out of target retirement date fund and into an S&P 500 fund. While Kristi has the option to self-manage her 401K in a Schwab account which would give her access to a total stock market fund, Big ERN doesn't believe that the difference between it and an S&P 500 fund is minor. Expense ratios are a more important consideration. Moving from a 0.2% expense ratio to a 0.02% might be worthwhile, but leaving the money where it is fine when the difference is 0.01% unless it is an in-kind transfer or a quick process. Human Resources may know how long the process is likely to take. Kristi approached her HR department about making after-tax contributions so that she could do a mega-backdoor Roth conversion, but the HR department was not clear on how much she would be allowed to contribute. She found the ChooseFI community to be quite helpful for bouncing ideas off of. She's also interested in her company's Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). The advantage of it is that she can purchase stock at a 15% discount, but she will pay taxes on the discount and be required to hold the stock for two years. Such a purchase gives her investment a 5% per year boost, however, there's no diversification in purchasing company stock. Kristi's income, bonuses, and employment are all already tied to her company. That being said, Being ERN says he would probably still do the ESPP, although he would only keep two year's worth of money in the plan and then pull it out. After taking it out, it will be subject to long-term capital gains. The ESPP may have contribution limits, in which case she should make the additional contributions to her 401K and then do the backdoor Roth conversions. Big ERN likes to say don't let the tail wag the dog, meaning that asset allocation and expected returns should be the primary concern before tax considerations. Kr

29 Mar 10:05

260 | What's your Survival Number? | Jully-Alma Taveras

Immigrating to the United States as a child, by early adulthood, Jully found herself caught up in our consumer culture and had acquired five figures worth of debt. After working to dig her way out and starting on her path to finical independence, she's become an advocate. Drawing from her experience, she now help Latinas become financial powerful through investing. At the age of four, Jully moved from the Dominican Republic to New York. Her extended family all began making the move as well, but as many immigrants to, they continued to send money and invest in their socioeconomic systems back home. For immigrants, investing in their home countries has multiple purposes. There is often an expectation that money will be sent home to support the family. Jully's father supported her grandmother by building her a new home and making sure she was taken care of. However, when the grandmother also immigrated to the US, the house back in the Dominican Republic was rented out and became the first property in a real estate portfolio. Immigrants have struggles that a typical American doesn't go through. Investing in real estate in their home countries helps connect them to their communities. However, Jully says immigrants tend to invest more in real estate than in the stock market. She shares the message that it is important to diversify their investments. When she started working for a non-profit at the age of 19, Jully began investing a 403b for the free money. That decision was criticized by her mother who felt retirement was a long way off and that it wasn't necessary because Americans receive Social Security. When her family first arrived in the US, they didn't speak the language. It was a lesson in how to figure things out in the moment and just survive. It took a couple of years before her father began thinking in an entrepreneurial way and on a bigger scale. He went from driving a taxi to starting a bodega business. The bodega enabled Jully to see both her parents work in that environment, build their business, send money home, and contribute to the community. The money lessons she learned from her parents were to be generous and give. But the reality was her father worked a lot to build their life and they didn't see him much. Had he invested more, perhaps they would have been able to see him more. Jully went to school for fashion merchandising and economics. When she got her first job, lifestyle inflation kicked in. Working in the fashion industry required looking good with the latest trends. After accumulating the debt, Jully realized that she was channeling her emotions with her shopping. She was both celebrating and consoling herself with shopping to the point whe

29 Mar 10:05

261 |"Nothing Gold Can Stay" | What is a HELOC?

After 18 years of ownership, Brad says goodbye to his beloved Honda Civic, Golden Boy. When it comes to car ownership, ChooseFI often talks about only buying a new car every 15 years. Over a 45 year adult lifetime, the savings, when invested, can amount to almost $750,000 when compared to someone who leases or just manages a constant car payment. Although Brad wanted to keep the car, it had been having some mechanical issues and his family was no longer comfortable riding in it anymore. The impact it was having on Brad's family was not worth it. For his next vehicle, Brad opted for a 2013 Honda Civic rather than a brand new car. He purchased his new Civic through Caravana, the car vending machine business, who was selling Civics for roughly $3,000 less than CarMax. The buying process through Caravan was quick and streamlined. The car was delivered to his home and he spent approximately one-hour signing paperwork and finalizing documents. There are sweet spots when purchasing used vehicles. Although Brad's car is seven years old, after five years, cars have generally already depreciated at the fastest rate. If you are going to buy new, keep it forever. If you buy used, target 5-7 years old. Listener Oscar wrote into the show asking about Home Equity Line of Credit (HELOC) which hasn't been something that ChooseFI has discussed much in previous episodes. A HELOC is a revolving line of credit on your home where the equity you have in your home is used to secure it. For instance, a home worth $300,000 with a mortgage balance of $100,000 has $200,000 worth of equity. A HELOC allows homeowners to tap into the equity locked up in their homes. An advantage of using a home equity loan over other options for access to cash, like credit cards, is that the interest rate is often much lower, although it is a variable rate and can change. The interest rate on a HELOC may be in the 3-5% range versus 15-30% with credit cards. For homeowners who placed a sizable down payment on their home, whose home has appreciated, made extra payments, etc., a HELOC becomes a potential source of low-interest revolving credit. A HELOC is different from a home equity loan in that with a loan, the loan amount is deposited into your bank account and interest begins accruing immediately. A HELOC provides you with the ability to tap into the equity at any time, such as in the case of an emergency. No interest accrues until you decide to access the money. It gives you options if ever needed. Occasionally, HELOCs can be had for no closing costs. Considering that the process to apply and be approved for a HELOC can take weeks, it can be useful to have one in place so that it is already available if and w

29 Mar 10:05

262 | How to Decide | Annie Duke

Annie Duke is a world champion poker player and author of Thinking in Bets, a book which makes the case for embracing uncertainty in our decision-making framework. In Annie's latest book, How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices, she answers the question, what does a good decision-making process look like and how to incorporate that into your own life. The only way we can become better at making decisions is from our own experience, and our experience is going to be the outcomes of past decisions we've made. We need to understand the way in which knowing how something turned out can mess with our ability to figure out why. In a thought experiment concerning the 2015 Super Bowl between the Seahawks and the Patriots, Annie reviews a play called by Pete Carroll in the last seconds of the game. Though widely panned as the worst play called in Super Bowl history, Annie states that it's hard to evaluate the quality of the play called when we already know the outcome. Had the outcome of Pete Carroll's play been a touchdown, the reaction would have been the opposite. This phenomenon is called Resulting, where the quality of the result is attributed the quality of the decision. Reviewing the actual odds of the result of that specific play, Annie determines that Pete Carroll's decision was far from the worst play called of all time as there was only a 25 likelihood of that specific result. Annie applies what she's learned playing poker, specifically realizing that what you see happen doesn't change the decision that you make, to other aspects of life. The paradox of experience is that while we know we need all of these experiences to learn, we see how things unfold and we take our lessons for individual experiences, not in the aggregate. Poker has some surprising similarities to real life in that your outcome is a combination of luck and the quality of your decisions. The definition of luck is what you don't have control over. You cannot control your own luck. You can control the quality of the decisions you make and reduce the chance that luck has an influence that will turn out poorly for you. While we are all under the influence of luck, we are also very much under the influence of our own decisions. In our decision making, we should see the luck clearly and make the decisions that are more likely to advance our goals. Brad ties that to ChooseFI's philosophy of the aggravation of marginal gains and striving to do 1% better. We have a lot of cognitive bias that delude us into believing things are much more stable than they really are. COVID has torn that away from us. We are also feeling the effect of imperfect information. COVID is not a special case, it's j

29 Mar 10:05

263 | Pick Your Five: Accountability & Decision-Making

Jonathan draws a parallel between the episode on Monday with professional poker player Annie Duke and hitting his weight loss goals. Finding himself well over his desired weight, Jonathan took a health challenge and has kept the weight off for six months making him a weightloss statistical abnormality. Where most people diet and get to a goal weight, because the effort was a diet, they end up regaining the weight. What Jonathan did was make a lifestyle change. Tying to the discussion with Annie Duke, Jonathan recognized that he couldn't control everything, made better decisions, and set himself up for more opportunities. All of it helped to increase the opportunity for luck to strike. Jonathan isn't alone in his endeavor. Through weekly accountability phone calls with his father and FI community member, JD Roth, they check in to ask if each has followed through with their goals for the week Their goals aren't all that strict but they are trying to be 1% more intentional with their decisions and look at their decision-making framework, watching for triggers, giving into them less often, and coming up with solutions to not be tempted. Brad notes the discipline equals freedom and that the framework Jonathan has created for himself makes everything easier and no longer requires willpower. The accountability and decision-making strategies Jonathan applied to his weightless journey can be used for virtually anything you want to achieve in life. Taking action and trying to be just 1% better what ChooseFI is all about. All of the small wins begin to add up, creating nothing but good, grows your gap, and continuous the virtuous circle. When we upgrade the quality of our decisions, the impact of them begins to compound and increases our probability of success. Brad discusses how 70-80% of the contestations he hears involve one of the three killers of happiness: sarcasm, complaining, and blaming. We can change our mindset and the locus of control to impact our future. He believes putting space between stimulus and control can have positive and compounding effects. As often mentioned on the show, you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Those five have the greatest influence on your life and you don't want them to have those happiness killer characteristics. Be intentional with your five picks. Choose people who give you a path forward and will hold you accountable to the things you said were important to you. Brad and Jonathan discussed how the concept of resulting, pro and con lists, and infecting others with our opinions before asking for advice is not helpful when trying to make better decisions. As mentioned during Monday's episode, making bet

29 Mar 10:05

264 | Recognizing Scarcity and Uncertainty | Leisa Peterson

Your money story informs so much of your life even if you're not aware of it. For 30 years, Leisa Peterson has been researching and studying how trauma in early life contributes to the money challenges faced later in life. Growing up with a scarcity mindset, money became an escape that gave her motivation. Leisa decided in her mid-twenties that she was going to have money in her life and not have any stresses about it as her parents did. Earning money became an all-consuming response to the trauma she had experienced. There's a very broad spectrum of trauma from mild to quite serious and not everyone reacts to it in the same way. Some people like Leisa may end up wanting a lot of money, while others are lead to feeling like they have no control over money. An adverse childhood study from Kaiser was intended to understand how childhood trauma affected health. In Leisa's reading of the study, she found one of the findings included financial problems and realized this was something not a lot of people were talking about. These childhood experiences become very disruptive, brings an uncertainty to how life is viewed and crushed the sense of self. The concept of scarcity and uncertainty go together. This leads to struggling with either an extreme need to control or feeling out of control with money. Because kids are absorbing everything we say, it's important to change the language we use around money. When people become more familiar with their trauma backstory, they are better able to talk with their partner about their money challenges. Disconnects in communication can occur when each other's backstories are quite different. We can only know what we know from our own perspective. The job in relationships is not just to understand ourselves, but to see the other person and how they are approaching money differently because of their backstory. When people think of something as being scare in supply, they are going to buy more of it. Toilet paper is a relevant example of this for 2020. Someone coming from a home without enough money may have strange buying behaviors. Their idea of scarcity or uncertainty may be showing up in their daily behaviors with money. For spouses or partners who have different money stories, Leisa encourages them to just start somewhere. Think about how money was treated at home growing up and have a conversation about it. Questions to consider asking are: Did mom and dad talk about money? Did mom and dad fight about money? What is your first memory of money? When did you make your first money? How did that make you feel? Were you afraid? It can be difficult to have these conversations for the first time with another person. Journaling is a way

29 Mar 10:05

265 | Talent Stacker

What's in your talent stack? Inspired by content discovered over the last four years while producing ChooseFI, Jonathan has spent the last couple of months hard at work on the side on a new passion project. As said many times here on the show, financial independence isn't about doing less, like sitting on a beach sipping cocktails. It's about aligning your what you value with your life and having the freedom to pursue what you are passionate about. ChooseFI has given Jonathan the opportunity to look at and do better with his personal finances, but it's also helped him realize that he loves to work hard, but not necessarily for a paycheck. He'll work twice as hard when it aligns with his interests, passions, autonomy, mastery, and purpose. While Jonathan has not reached FI, he does have all the benefits of it. FI is not binary because the benefits of FI start accruing from Day one. Time is your precious non-retable resource. You can stick your head in the sand and gut things out until reaching FI, or look around and see what other options we can create for ourselves that bring more joy, autonomy, mastery, and purpose. When you find that your ladder is leaning up against the wrong wall, you don't need to stick it to that commitment and grind it out for another 20 years. You don't need to wait for anyone to give you permission. You can pivot. One of the better messages to come out of the FI movement is that no matter what has happened, huge student loans, disastrous real estate deals drug addiction, or divorce, you can always move forward and make your life better. A life optimization strategy begins with financial security and gives you space for mastery and exploring new things. You don't need to be in the top 1% of anything. Just being better than average at a bunch of different things will open up opportunities. What does a high value, high return on investment, talent stack look like? Students coming out of college are ill-prepared for the way the world really works. The world wants to know what have you done and what can you do for it. What if you were to focus on the skills the world wants and is willing to pay a high salary for? And then very economically earn certificates stating that you can do this work? You can retain and earn these skills in a year or less. There are very few jobs that actually require a college degree. Through certificate programs, you can get jobs earning between $60,000 and $160,000 a year. Jonathan says if he were starting over, knowing what he knows now, this is what he would do. Jonathan has started another podcast, the Talent Stacker podcast. It's not for those set on going to college. It's for people looking to see what other cho

29 Mar 10:05

266 | Breaking the Cycle of Poverty | Yanely Espinal

Yanely grew up in a low-income household in Brooklyn and then attended Brown University. But by the time she graduated, she had accumulated a bunch of credit card debt that she was hiding from her family. She tried to figure out dealing with her debt on her own by reading books, listening to podcasts, and watching YouTube videos. After paying it off, she thought it was ridiculous she had never learned it in school and started her own YouTube channel to share her story. That eventually led to her landing the perfect job and a solid career path. Growing up, there wasn't a lot of money in Yanely's household, so there weren't many conversations about money either. When there was talk about money, it was always negative and caused tension. One thing that her father did teach her was to never have a loan or owe debt to a friend or family member and that she needed to always pay them back. Interestingly, that sense of obligation did not transfer over to institutional borrowing which she believes is a common mindset in neighborhoods like the one where she grew up. When Yanely was accepted to Brown University, she had no idea how expensive it was going to be. Although she received a full scholarship, she discovered she still need to purchase things such as textbooks, a laptop, and other supplies. Because her father taught her not to borrow money from anyone, she wanted to figure it out on her own and applied for her first credit card. She attributes her attempt to be resourceful using credit cards to a lack of financial literacy. She thought she was doing the right thing and on the right path at the time. Her payment history was good since always made the minimum payment and never missed a payment on her credit cards, but her credit utilization was high as she was always close to maxing out her card limits. With each credit card application, banks continued to give her credit cards with higher and higher credit card limits. Trying to keep up with the rich kid lifestyles of her classmates ended up getting her $15,000 in debt. Moving from a neighborhood filled with Caribbean immigrants to an elite university was a culture shock. Yanely felt like she didn't fit in because she didn't talk or act like her fellow students. Not understanding expressions and phrases others used made her feel dumb. Going from a top performing student in high school to feeling like being in the wrong pack may be part of the reason why it's physiologically difficult for low-income who attend prestigious universities. Yanely says the biggest thing a low-income student can do is expose themselves to the rigorous language and vocabulary that is going to be expected of you. Students are often not prepare

29 Mar 10:05

267 | Timing the Market

Following US Election Day results, it's important to remember the alligators and kittens, a concept to approach overall mental wellbeing. The negative influences in life are alligators and all of the things that make life better are kittens. Focus on getting rid of the alligators. It's a human bias to focus on the negative. How do you focus time and attention on the things that make life better? For Brad, he cut watching the news out of his life which has helped him to achieve a better mental framework for life. The business model of the new is to keep you watching through the next commercial break. They cause anxiety. You can stay informed without being a part of that model. Control what you can control and you will be in a better financial position four years from now regardless of the election outcome. There is so much outside of our control right now and worrying about it isn't productive. Despite the number of people who are confident they know what will happen to the stock market as a result of the election, the fact is that we just don't know. Market uncertainty is one of the reasons to have a plan for your money regardless of what is going on and automate it. Not only is it difficult to try and time the market, but you need to get it right twice, both when you buy and when you sell. The FI community is about long-term thinking. It's not about quarterly earnings or even five-year trends, but performance over multiple decades and the decisions that will help get you to the wealthiest point over that time period. With that long-term thinking in mind and in a time of calm, it's a great time to write down your investor policy statement. Having a plan for your investments, written down in an investor policy statement helps you to avoid being reactionary or make rash decisions. In February, the Dow hit a high of 29,500. By March 20th, it had dropped 20-30% and many predicted it would go even lower. Defying the dire predictions, the Dow recovered 30-40% of its gains within a few months. The problem with making market predictions is that there are far too many variables for you to account for and again, you have to get it right twice. Even the professions are wrong 50% of the time. What chance do you have of making your investment decisions around emotion enough to stay solvent or long-term or outperform the market over the long-term? Essentially no chance. The highest likelihood of long-term financial success is to control the expenses on your investments. Low-cost index funds are going to be your best bet. Following your investor policy statement and injecting new money when you can benefits you with dollar-cost averaging. Time in the market is much more powerful

29 Mar 10:05

268 | We Want Guac | Financial Independence for Gen Z

Optimize your finances during your 20s, no matter what your income is, and build significant wealth. But what are your options when working an entry-level job when you have a large amount of student loan debt? Amy's first job out of college was an entry-level position earning $30,000. By the age of 25 had a $100,000 net worth and has tripled her salary in the last few years by learning how to market herself. The average cost of a four-year college degree in 2019 is $122,000. Amy was fortunate that her parents paid for college and she graduated with degrees in Communications and International Relations without any student loan debt. She graduated without any job offers and her only source of income came from waitressing which wasn't enough to live in Boston on. After a couple of months, she contacted a temp agency and got a job earning $15 an hour. Nearing the end of college, she saw that recent graduates weren't getting the jobs they had hoped to get. She calls that time her “Year of Fear” because she didn't have much in savings and terrified of what was going to happen. For the rest of the year, she continued to work full time at her temp job and waitressing on the weekends. With the benefit of hindsight, she realizes she has an average amount of skills as anyone else coming out of college, which is inadequate for the realities of today. The ultimate goal of going to college is to graduate and get a well-paying job. But the focus is on grades and prerequisites, not how to find mentors, write a resume that resonates with people, or navigate the application process to get the jobs you actually want. The way the job application process works now is broken While there may not have been any skill Amy believes would have initially made landing a job easier, it would have helped to find people who agreed to meet and interview her in the first place. After submitting resume after resume to company websites and since times out of ten hearing nothing, Amy emphasizes flipping the script and having the companies and recruiters come to you. Amy was able to go from $30,000 to $93,000 a year by learning how to market herself on LinkedIn so that people found her. What makes you stand out and how can you improve your chances? The first step is to decide what it is that you want. If you are marketing to everybody, then you are marketing to nobody. Next, start looking at the job positions and titles that you want, study the job applications for those positions, the job requirements, descriptions, and language used. Using that verbiage in your resume or LinkedIn profile allows hiring managers to see that you are perfect for the role and HR departments who use algorithms to narrow

29 Mar 10:05

269 | Let's make Lemonade with a Twist

ChooseFI Facebook Community Manager recently posted a meme that hit home with Brad. It said, “Plot twist: 2020 has actually been the best year of your life. You faced challenge after challenge, you've adapted, and you've overcome. 2020 has forced you to grow exponentially. Don't take that for granted.“ 2020 had been Jonathan's best year ever. Instead of giving in to fear, doubt, and insecurity, he decided to lean in. By being more intentional with the things that were important to him, like his health, Jonathan has lost 20 to 30 pounds and is in the best shape of his life. Jonathan also sought to build his personal talent stack and built two new businesses. He is feeling more agency and is more fulfilled than at any other point in his life. Previously, Jonathan‘s beliefs about himself were all based on external validation. But as he began to get more freedom and autonomy in his life, he began to question those beliefs and reclaim his identity statement. Learning that things such as student loan debt is good debt and you'll have to work until retirement age, just aren't true allowed him the space to challenge the status quo in other areas of his life. Initially, he even questioned whether the success of ChooseFI was the result of a random lightning strike of luck. However, he's taken his interest-led learning and skills he's learned, applied them to two new business models, and achieved success with them. The interest-led learning Brad and Jonathan frequently discuss on the show helped Jonathan lean in March, and it also lead Brad‘s eight-year-old daughter, Molly, to learn how to cook a perfect pan-seared chicken breast just like Gordon Ramsay. The things you believe about yourself become part of your identity statement. But you can turn the limiting beliefs around and say that you're the type of person who can learn anything. It may be just a Google or YouTube search away. You can reframe your identity by asking yourself what you want it to be. Though she isn't running now at nine months pregnant, part of MK's identity is that she is a runner. However, in high school, she was the slowest person on the team. She thought she couldn't do what the other's on the team were doing, but her coach didn't have the word “can't” in his vocabulary. His mindset is something she has carried through to other areas of her life. MK challenges you to take the word “can't” out of your vocabulary too because once you aren't allowed to use it, your mindset will shift and you can begin to redefine who you are. A case in point for the power of working to get 1% better was in the news last weekend when Chris Nikic became the first person with Down Syndrome to complete a grueling Ironman

29 Mar 10:05

270 | Designing your Year for 2021 | Dominick Quartuccio

One of ChooseFI's most popular guests is back! Dominick Quartuccio returns to talk about after the shock of 2020, how to bounce back and what it looks like to design your life for next year. Brad's relationship with Dominick goes back to when they were in college together. After reconnecting several years ago, Dominick has become a source of inspiration and a mentor to Brad. In previous episodes, conversations with Dominick have centered around the idea of drift. It's the state of existence where we think we're making intentional decisions with our lives, but in reality, it is habits, patterns, unconscious beliefs, expectations, societal pressures, etc. that are really driving decisions. It's only when an outside force, normally a quite dramatic one, forces itself upon us that we wake up from that state of drift. For the first time in human history, the entire world is going through an experience together. It's caused everyone some sort of pain, whether it was losing a loved one, a financial loss, or anxiety. Most of us have gone through periods of suffering in the past that when we look back on them, those were the moments that made us into the person we are today, and given the choice, we wouldn't change them today. Instead of wishing to speed up 2020 and get it over with, Dominick encourages us to pause and look at the past year to see where you've been and highlight the standout moments. The purpose of this exercise is so that we can envision a 2021 that has the potential to be the most meaningful, fulfilling, and prosperous year of our lives. In his role as a leaser, Dominick has seen behind the curtain of people's personal lives and noticed a distinct difference between those who have an inner foundation of work leading up to the pandemic and those who have never done the work. Fortifying your inner foundation allows you to be strong and thrive if there are tougher times in the year ahead. There are two parts to the exercise of designing the next year of your life: looking back at the year you just had and looking forward to creating the year that you want. Dominick places inner work underneath the umbrella of personal development. Where personal development could be an external skill to better yourself, such as reading a book to learn a new skill that can be applied in the real world, inner work is oriented inward, like examining what lights you up. When the conditions of the outside world change, when you've done the inner work, you don't feel shaken and you are standing on something stable. We've experienced more emotional turmoil in the last year than any other, making it worthy of introspection. In the last year, what were some of the standout moments

29 Mar 10:05

271 | Future Proof

In a world of uncertainty, how can we future-proof our skillset and also create an environment to help our kids thrive as adults? Growing up, Brad never thought about entrepreneurship, but as he has gotten more into this FI mindset, the concept has shifted for him and how he is a model and mentor for his girls. While Brad initially thought virtual learning might not be good, he has reframed it and now believes his daughters will look back on this year as a time when they were living their best life. Both girls have gone through The Simple Startup workbook, but Molly seemed especially taken to it. After spending a day last week cleaning out one of Brad‘s garden beds in her free time at home, his daughter Molly and her friend have decided they would like to start up a landscaping business. It may be that you just need to see the framework and behavior model for entrepreneurship. The business idea may not be as important as understanding the framework for building a business as quickly as possible. Brad sat down with Molly to help her think her way through what it is she is capable of and really wants to offer with her business. Whether or not her gardening endeavor ever takes off is less important than the thought process they worked through which can help her out the next time she has a business idea. Having these conversations with your kids is a great way to connect and future-proof their lives. While the majority of people in the world will never become entrepreneurs, it's good to start thinking like an entrepreneur and have evidence of what you have skills you have built. The Simple Startup still has openings for the Winter Challenge. One student from a previous course is 9-year-old Analise, who while hesitant at first, ended up crushing it with her business, Creative Card Designs. The concept behind Creative Card Designs are fun personalized cards you would want to send to someone to say hello, thank you, or for occasions like birthdays. Analise hand draws each card. She has some designs that can be personalized but also takes design requests. Her business mission statement is: To connect people by making quality, personalized cards for different occasions. Keeping her business under control, so far Analise has sold two cards. She wants to make it bigger, but sometimes she messes up and burns through her materials just making one card. So she's trying to scale her business by going digital. This will allow the cards to still be personalized, but make it easier on her. After coming up with the idea, starting the business, and creating different designs, Analise has set up a website for online ordering which goes directly to her Gmail account. Currently, she's c

29 Mar 10:05

272 | Understanding Compound Interest & Investing for Beginners

As the ChooseFI community continues to grow, it's necessary to discuss some fundamental basics that serve the audience who are just getting started, as well as provide a refresher for those who have been on the path for a long time. In this episode, we revisit the magic of compound interest and investing for beginners. Getting to financial independence where work becomes optional and your investments are producing enough income to live off of for the rest of your life is easier when you understand why saving and investing now is important. Kimberly asked a question in the ChooseFI Facebook group requesting help understanding compound interest and the basic principles of a compound interest account. Investopedia states that interest may either be simple or compounded. Simple interest is based on the principal amount. In contrast, compound interest is based on the principal amount plus the interest that accumulates on it every period. For example, in a simple interest calculation, a deposit of $1,000 earning 10% interest each year would earn $100 in the first year, resulting in a balance of $1,100 in year one, $1,200 in year two, and $1,300 in year three. In a simple interest calculation, the interest percentage is not applied to the interest earned beyond the initial principal. The real world, however, works on compound interest, which is based on the principal amount and the interest that has accumulated. Using the same example of $1,000 in principal and 10% interest, after the first year, the balance is the same at $1,100, but in year two, interest is calculated on the new balance, resulting in $110 of interest and a new balance of $1,210 going into year 3. It starts small in the early years but really ramps up later on. Using simple interest, a $1,000 investment at 10% will have earned $4,500 (45 years x $100), for a total of $5,500. To illustrate why compound interest is often called the 8th wonder of the world, when using compound interest, that $1,000 investment at 10% grows to $72,890. The difference becomes even more apparent when using the example of $1,000,000 earning 10% simple interest versus $500,000 earning 10% compound interest. After 45 years, the simple interest balance grows to $5,500,000, while the smaller $500,000 principal grows to $36,500,000 with compound interest. When you don't spend everything you make and invest in compound interest vehicles, you can be well on your way to becoming a millionaire or multimillionaire. Einstein has been attributed with saying, “Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world. He who understands it, earns it…he who doesn't…pays it”. The benefits of saving and investing are not limited to the end of the 45

29 Mar 10:05

273 | What's an Emergency?

We're going back to basics and taking a deep dive into the Roth IRA and the levers, tools, and investing strategies available to investors. Although ChooseFI offers the free FI101 course, taking small actions are important. Get up to speed and start taking action with the free five-day challenge by going to ChooseFI/start. ChooseFI has presented basic investing strategies over the years and will revisit in the coming months to distill and hash out all of the different methods to understand the fundamentals. Many of the strategies have a lot of overlap starting with low-cost broad-based index funds. What they all share is a common-sense approach and simple investing strategy which is that time in the market is better than timing the market. Most traditional index funds are cap-weighted resulting in a higher percentage of money being invested in a few top companies. Rather than take a dogmatic approach to low-cost broad-based fund investing, it may require the application of scrutiny, being open-minded, intellectual honesty, and consideration. JL Collins helped open up Jonathan's eyes to the power of simplicity and helped give him the confidence to start doing better with his finances. But as the terms and concepts have become more familiar, other perspectives become visible, along with the pros and the cons, and the questions he's been able to ask have gotten better. The questions you have as you learn more are worth exploring to help build confidence in your plan. When investing, minimize fees as much as possible. Fees for buying and selling, expense ratios, and advisory fees are all negatively impact your long-term returns. We can learn new things and get rid of limiting beliefs. After a speculative real estate investment went poorly, Brad was afraid of real estate investing. However with some security, knowledge, and looking at it as a business, he has now invested in two single-family rentals which are doing well. Financial independence is not finances. It's not money, health, or time. It's all of it. It's making objective, fair-minded judgments about societal norms, seeking the truth, and making decisions in our best interests. Sean Mullaney is a big proponent of the Roth IRA and the possibility of using a Roth IRA as an emergency fund. Sean says that I all his years of practice, not one of his clients has ever had too much in Roth accounts. The advantage of the Roth IRA is flexibility. With a workplace 401k, your employer does not have to allow distributions and if they do, it is probably subject to penalties and taxes. In contrast, contributions may be withdrawn from a Roth IRA at any time, tax and penalty-free. In a world of uncertainty, you never know when

29 Mar 10:05

274 | Tax Planning 2020 | Sean Mullaney

It's end-of-year tax planning time. As you get further along in your financial independence journey, there are likely more end-of-year tax planning items you'll need to be aware of. Having a checklist to review annually is useful. It's been an unusual year and December is that time to begin making end-of-year tax considerations. In addition to the normal checklist, there may be additional items to consider in this remarkably different year. Sean Mullaney says unique to 2020 are Roth conversions. While Roth conversions should be on the checklist every year, this year there was a much greater chance of diminished income which may provide the opportunity to make Roth conversions in a lower marginal income tax bracket. In any year when income is much lower than it normally is, Roth conversions would be at the top of your mind. The deadline is December 31 and there are no extensions. While complex situations may benefit from professional consultations, anyone with mostly W2 income can find their tax brackets online. If your income has dropped from 22-24% to 10-12%, locking in a Roth conversation at that lower rate is effective tax planning. A Roth conversion is when you go into a traditional IRA account and convert it to a Roth IRA. This is a taxable event, but you are intentionally choosing it because you are in a lower tax bracket for the year rather than convert or withdraw funds in a letter year when your income is higher and the taxes will be higher. How much money should be converted to a Roth IRA? Sean says he has never encountered a client who has had too much money in a Roth IRA. While the action is irrevocable, there is no penalty for converting too much. If a portion of the conversation is taxed at 22%, it is not the most efficient conversion, but your future self will likely still be quite happy that you did it. Some employers allow for Roth conversions within their 401K plans. The deadlines for completing some of these end-of-year tax planning checklist times vary. Solo 401Ks and qualified business income tax deductions should be completed as soon as possible. In addition to Roth conversions, another item with a Dec 31 deadline is charitable contributions. Checklist items with an April 15 deadline are traditional IRA, Roth IRA, and health savings account contributions. A good rule of thumb is individual tax accounts have a tax return deadline, not an end-of-year deadline. The reason solo 401Ks have an “as soon as possible” deadline is that unlike IRAs, solo 401Ks require more time and paperwork to do. It may not be necessary to have it funded by Dec 31, but you'll want it set up and have a well-documented game plan. S-corps do have to fund the employee-s

29 Mar 10:05

275 | Board games and War Games

It's no secret that Brad and Jonathan's families are board game fans. One way they can typically save 20-60% on the cost of board games is by watching for price drops on Amazon using CamelCamelCamel. Brad was able to save a substantial amount on the purchase of a squat rack simply by being able to stand by and wait for the price to drop. Listener Liz heard about CamelCamelCamel on the podcast and added a list of board games to her watchlist. She was eventually able to purchase all of them at roughly half the list price. Life may be the ultimate board game where your finances are a piece of it. When you know the rules, it makes it easy to win. Just like there are strategies for winning at Monopoly, there is an unwritten and unspoken framework for living a better life. Now that 2020 is getting back to a more steady-state, it may be time to start wargaming your finances and look at your risk tolerance. This year that stress-tested our investor policy statements and mindset. Perhaps you don't have the risk tolerance you thought you did. Times of stress and uncertainty are not the time to make changes. Adjustments should be made when times are calm. There are different variables to consider and one of the questions to ask is “How much does your life actually cost?”. This can change over time and affect your risk tolerance. A couple of years ago, Brad intentionally increased his costs by moving to a more expensive home. Though it increased costs by 40-50%, they felt the life benefits would outweigh the additional costs. The only debt Jonathan has is his mortgage, reducing his structural expenses to housing, food, utilities, and insurance. He thinks even some of that could be cut down to support a survival budget if required. If this year has shown us anything, it's that your income source may not be a stable as you might have previously thought. You shouldn't be dependent upon anyone. There's a mindset of positivity that takes a terrible situation and figures out how to pivot. With your wargaming plans set, you can find a way out of it. Brad lived through a financial calamity at 22 years old when he worked for Arthur Anderson. After the Enron scandal, his company went out of business. He witnessed others who were living on the financial edge, but because Brad lived at home and had very little debt, he was fine. Jonathan says he doesn't mind spending a lot of money on an item, but he doesn't want to spend a lot of money on something that locks him into structural, recurring payments that make his life more expensive. If something were to happen to his business, Jonathan is confident that with the skill set he's acquired and one year of financial runway he's saved, he w

29 Mar 10:05

276 | How to Set up Your Financial Life | Investing and Banking

Continuing the conversation discussing financial basics, today's episode covers how to get started investing, banking, and setting up your financial life. As a recent college graduate, Brad had the motivation to get his financial life together but didn't really know how to go about doing it. During his first job, he wanted to open up a Roth IRA after learning about the power of compound interest. Unfortunately, the investment advisor who helped get him set up invested in a fund with a 5% upfront load. That means 5% of his investment automatically went to pay the advisor's commission. Brad'sinvestment was treated like a quick payday for the advisor. Not all financial advisors are bad, but you can learn how to get set up with a low-fee or no-fee investment without feeling confused or overwhelmed by the process. It's important to understand all of the possible fees that can impact the return on your investment. In addition to load fees, there are other fees to watch for, such as assets under management fees where you pay a percentage for the advisor to manage your account, or expense ratios which pay the team who actively manage the activity of buying and selling within the fund account, and with a surrender charge, you may pay fees to get your money out of the investment. If Jonathan was giving a family member financial advice on how to get started, it would begin with banking. Do they have a banking system set up and understand the differences between checking and savings accounts? What other variables should be considered? Getting a checking account set up is first and becomes the repository for income coming in and money going out, such as paying bills. Brad uses autopay to have many bills automatically draft from his checking account. Brad likes simplicity. Because he knows which days money will be coming in, he sets up his bill autopay dates around that. He also ensures he has a couple extra thousand dollars in his checking account to cover anything unexpected with him having to track the balance every day. Jonathan does something similar in that he uses the pay from last month to pay this month's bills, which means there is always around a month's worth of pay in his account giving him plenty of margin. Try to minimize fees in every aspect of your life. Select a bank account option that requires the lowest minimum account balance to avoid a monthly fee. Avoid overdraft fees by asking the bank to remove that option or connect to a credit card. Don't pay ATM fees by trying not to use cash or plan ahead and withdraw cash from your own bank fee-free. Some online banks will reimburse ATM fees. Brad doesn't keep all of his financial assets in a checking account. He

29 Mar 10:05

277 | Gauging the Weight of your Portfolio

Setting up your financial life includes updating your investor policy statement and examining the rationale for equal weighting inside your index funds. Brad is giving his physical fitness a boost in December with a month-long burpee challenge. A full-body exercise that can be done quickly at home without any equipment, Jonathan asks what would change about your life if you took the challenge of doing 10 burpees every day for the next year? Brad was inspired to take on the burpee challenge after watching Alan Donegan and his wife, Katie, in a video they posted of themselves doing burpees. They weren't holding anything back and completing each rep with a high degree of difficulty. He wondered what it would look like to give everything your all in life, like Alan and Katie were with their burpees? Jonathan reflected on how he is often more focused on getting to the end result than he is in the quality of the movement, which he likens to the old saying about losing sight of the forest for the trees. We should focus on systems, processes, and workflow, over results. Get up off the couch and do something that will make your life better in some small way. Cancel a subscription, get rid of convenience, meal plan, do something that makes your life 1% better. And if you start doing burpees as a result of this episode, send in an email to let Brad and Jonathan know. Although we often talk about and identify the massive actions people can take to make their financial lives better, the community has been very receptive to the idea of aggregation of marginal gains. This year, Jonathan has been having conversations with his wife about their investor policy statement and what changes they might make to it since they feel like they are in a place of calm and unemotional decisions can be made. Brad and Laura believe in thinking long-term, lowering their expenses, continuing to invest, and having things on autopilot. Their investments are almost entirely in low-cost brand-based index funds, like total stock market and S&P 500 funds. they also do have some bonds, international stock funds, and rental real estate. Jonathan and Dani have similar investing strategies. They invest for the long-term and diversify in low-cost funds to avoid fees. Recently, Brad and Jonathan discussed the difference between a total stock market index fund and an S&P 500 index fund and how with a cap-weighted fund you a disproportionate amount of the largest companies. A lot of investors believe you should try to have small and mid-cap companies equally weighted in your portfolio. It used to be difficult to set your portfolio this way. Recently, online investment firms have come online, such as M1

29 Mar 10:05

278 |Retire Early...For You | Amy Blacklock

Don't fall for the misconception that financial independence is just for 20 and 30-year-olds. It is for everyone at any age and it's not too late to get started. Amy had a wake-up call in her early 40s. Starting with no net worth, through flexibility and adaptability, she got started and reclaimed decades of her life. Amy describes herself as a trier of many things. She used to wonder how other people do it. How do other people drive new SUVs, live in a large home, dine out, and save for their kids' education and their own retirement? She says most people don't do it all. You have to select for yourself what's important and save wisely to spend on it. Previously, Amy was trying to keep up with everybody else, thinking that she needed it all to be happy. She was buying all the stuff but wasn't saving for the future. She heard something on the radio one day about needing to save a million dollars for retirement and thought it didn't seem possible to get there. She and her husband were in their 40s and she knew something had to change. Amy began looking at what other people were doing but what she didn't know if that everybody was just like her, trying to keep up and not saving for the future. She had grown up with a single mom who had a lower-middle-class income. She always wanted more because she felt like she was always lacking. When she got a job and was earning money, she worked hard and thought she deserved all those things everyone else had. She had fallen into the trap of thinking money equals happiness and once in, it was hard to get out of that trap. While she had a mortgage and car loans, she didn't have much other debt. However, she was spending almost everything coming in and her net worth wasn't moving forward much. After a divorce a the age of 43, Amy's net worth was approximately $150,000. The desire to get out of a job she hated and start her own business lead her to examine her spending. She began researching methods and ideas for saving money where she found Mr. Money Mustache and many other personal finance blogs and websites. Though Amy realized she and her new husband were older, she thought that they could make significant changes and create the financial space they needed to retire early for them. Trying to keep up with everybody else wasn't getting them anywhere, but she might be able to learn and try to keep up with the people saving money and retiring early even if they were far younger. Originally, they had been thinking they would don't retire until 67, so retiring in 10 years in their 50s sounded much better. Trying to convince her husband to get on board with the changes that needed to be made meant that his habits had to change. They

29 Mar 10:05

279 | Be Wise, Your Financial Future is at Stake | Dan Otter

Teachers have been getting taken advantage of when it comes to their investment options. Thankfully, the internet and technology have made it easier to get the word out and help teachers wanting to do better. During his first year of teaching, Dan Otter was asked if he cared about his financial future. He politely listened to a hardball sales pitch about an investment scheme he didn't fully understand. Rather than blindly following other teachers at his school who had invested in it, Dan began to educate himself by learning about John Bogle, Vanguard, and low-cost investing. He learned the salesperson who had approached him was trying to sell him a high-cost annuity inside a 403b and that it was a terrible product. Unfortunately, most of his colleagues had signed up for these poor investment products despite having more than 100 options available to them, including Vanguard. Dan began to speak up and asked pointed questions when other teachers began to talk about their sales agent in the teacher's lounge. Though he had never done it before, he started looking at their statements and showing them how much the fees were. Appreciating Dan‘s insight and help, it was suggested that he put on workshops. After thinking about it, he bought the domain 403bWise, and with help from a friend, they built and launched the website in March 2000. The mission of the website was education and advocacy, where teachers and school employees could come and learn about the 403b in a non-sales environment and also advocate for low-cost options like Vanguard. Although this was 20 years ago, Dan says the problem with 403b persists today. Teachers usually find 403bWise after they have been sold one of these expensive products. Dan says that not all 403b's are created equal. After working in different environments where 403b's are available. They were largely terrible in the public school systems with many vendors. Private schools generally have just one vendor, as do universities, like Fidelity, TIAA-CREF, or Vanguard. 403b's fall outside of federal oversight, specifically Arista regulation, so the employer does not have the same kind of fiduciary duty. Just being on the list signifies tacit endorsement, however, the vendors are not vetted by the school districts. Just because you aren't paying money out of pocket, doesn't mean there are no fees. Vendors make the fees hard to find. Teachers all over the country can get fee information on the website, 403bcompare.com. Dan says to look for costs in two places; mortality and expense, and then look at the mutual funds that are part of the annuity. If you find out that you are in a bad product, you may also have to pay 7% of your balance just to

29 Mar 10:05

280 | The Debt Free Guys

Is it possible to live fabulously without being fabulously broke? The Debt Free Guys say you can. After a year and a half of dating, John and David finally came out of the closet to each other regarding their finances. Between the two of them, they had $51,000 in credit card debt even though they had 15 years of experience in financial services helping others with managing their money. Starting with the first credit card his parents gave him for emergencies, David began a 17-year run carrying credit card debt. Instead of reserving for emergencies, he viewed it as a source of side money and never understood the value of paying it off. Despite never paying the balance off, his credit card limits kept increasing. After accumulating a significant amount of credit card, he began having trouble making even the minimum payments. Once, when his parents wired him money, it was immediately garnished from his bank account because he had failed to make payments. And yet he still didn't learn his lesson. Both John and David came from a time when it wasn't okay to be gay. As a result of being a part of a marginalized community, many parts of society sent the message that they couldn't be who they were. The baggage they carried, as a result, manifested itself in various ways, one of which can be financial challenges. Prudential conducted a study that showed there is a sexual orientation and gender identity pay gap. A university study has also shown that simply being gender non-conforming can limit you from getting a job or being promoted. As a result, gay men sometimes seek validation through their clothing, bodies, cars, houses, and vacations even if they have to finance it. The LGBT community hasn't traditionally fit the image of retired couples financial services companies market to. The community hasn't been encouraged through representation to think about their finances. The premise of the Queer Money Podcast is the get the finance conversation started which is what any community needs to start moving toward financial security. They challenge the community to think about what it is they truly want in life despite how they are told they should look, act, and want. It was the trap they had been living in. Although they were making decent salaries and experts in money, John and David weren't living according to their values. After having the discussion, they decided what they wanted was to be able to retire comfortably, travel without accumulating credit card debt, and give back to the LGBT community in a way that didn't penalize them. David says that even in the financial services industry there is a facade and although the experts know what they should do, they are hiding

29 Mar 10:05

281 | End of Year Wins | Part 1

It's the ChooseFI Christmas Edition where we hear end-of-year wins direct from our community members. During this live event, listeners shared the actions they've taken during the past year that have helped them to spend less, earn more, and enjoy the journey. This year, the year-end-win episode took place in a three hour live Facebook and YouTube event featuring around 20 members of the community. Despite how tough this year has been, many people were able to implement some of the strategies and tactics discussed on the show into practice and find more margin in their lives. The first featured win comes from Valerie. She purchased a condo a couple of years ago and has been working on renovating it. While not a financial win, Valerie says putting it behind her is her biggest personal win. Finally closing out the permits allowed her to refinance her mortgage, saving her $466 a month. She was also able to pay off her credit card renovation debt, saving her an additional $600 a month. In total, Valerie paid off $34,000 of debt. Besides the debt, Valerie also maxed out contributions to her HSA and because she now has an additional $1,000 a month, she increased her 401k contributions from 8% to 11%. Valerie opened her first taxable investment account and rebalanced her portfolio, while her side hustles earned her $4,000, mostly from participating in focus groups. Due to COVID, Valerie wasn't spending as much money and it allowed her to focus on things she might not have had the time to do and she's now one-third of the way to her FI number and hoping to retire by 2030. Brad comments that cutting $1,000 in monthly expenses is $300,000 less Valerie needs in retirement when using the 4% rule. Valerie has been sharing her copy of ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence with family members. The second end-0f-year-win comes from Michelle who learned about ChooseFI after Googling financial independence while attending a conference. To convert her husband, she had him read ChooseFI's book and then scheduled a date night to discuss it. Michelle‘s husband, Greg, never thought he could retire early. They didn't have a lot of debt but bought into the concept of getting 1% better and things began to snowball. During the last year, Michelle and Greg joined their finances, maxed out their 401k, sold a rental home, bought a short-term rental, and broke up with their financial advisor. They opened a Vanguard account and moved their accounts over after discovering their financial advisor was making a lot more in fees than the $50 per month to come up with an investment plan. Because Michelle and Greg met later in life, they had maintained separate accounts. After joining fina

29 Mar 10:05

282 | End of Year Wins | Part 2

It's Part 2 of ChooseFI's end-of-year wins where we hear directly from our community members. During this live event, listeners shared the actions they've taken during the past year that have helped them to spend less, earn more, and enjoy the journey. This year, the year-end-win episode took place in a three hour live Facebook and YouTube event featuring around 20 members of the community. After listening to the podcast for months or years, how did individual members of the community take in information and take action leading to success in a very challenging year? Success isn't just the nuts and bolts of money. Ultimately, it's a life optimization strategy. In response to Brad sharing in an earlier episode that he was joining Alan Donegan in his burpee challenge, Christine wrote in to share that she was inspired to step up her run by throwing in burpees along the way even if she couldn't complete the pushups. Being perfect isn't realistic. Challenge and struggling are important, as is trying to get to the point of mastery. You grow during times of discomfort and failure. The first end-of-year win comes from Eric. Introduced to FI by his best friends over a year ago, Eric binged listened to the podcast. In January of 2020, Eric and his wife re-scripted their financial life. Eric is an architect and started creating YouTube content as a side hustle on his channel 30X40 Design Workshop. Re-scripting their financial life started with paying down all their debt, including mortgage, with the cash they had saved that wasn't doing very much for them and built a six-month emergency fund. Having that headspace allowed them to take more risks during the year. They don't have a specific monthly budget, but as long as his wife keeps her job as a research scientist, they are good. Everything he makes is going toward FI, including a post-tax brokerage account and 529s. The FI literacy they've picked up from the podcast has shown they are a lot closer to their FI number than they thought. The friend who introduced Eric to FI was Jason, who also had end-of-year wins to share. Jason figured out early in his career that he didn't want to persist working for other people until retirement age. Five years ago, Jason learned about the FIRE community and began to buckle down, working toward a strategy. Jason says they've always been good savers and put salary increases and bonuses toward retirement savings. In 2019, he realized 2020 was the year they could hit FI. He actually achieved it in May 2019 and stayed at his job until June 2020 because he had some things he wanted to see through. In June, they moved from a high-cost-of-living area to a more moderately priced location. He began

29 Mar 10:05

283 | End of Year Wins | Part 3

It's Part 3 of ChooseFI's end-of-year wins where we hear directly from our community members. During this live event, listeners shared the actions they've taken during the past year that have helped them to spend less, earn more, and enjoy the journey. This year, the year-end-win episode took place in a three hour live Facebook and YouTube event featuring around 20 members of the community. Are you building an amazing life or are you a cog stuck in a very depressing wheel? It could be either or it could be both. The community members featured in this end-of-year wins episode have had the wake-up call. We can't control everything, but there probably are some things we can control that we haven't yet considered. Hopefully, these wins from the community will provide inspiration and imagination to find improvement with at least one thing. Our first win comes from Sara, who teaches high school science. She began listening to the podcast in December of 2018 and after binge listening to half of the available episodes, she opened a Vanguard account with all of the money she had saved. This year, she put money into 457s, maxed out Roth accounts, and put some money in a 403b. And finally, Sara also just made her last mortgage payment, paying it off in just 11 years. With the mortgage paid off, Sara is now debt-free. A special shout out to MK who recently gave birth to a brand new tax-deduction, otherwise known as a baby girl. MK and her husband, Jason, hit FI in their late twenties, and in addition to working for ChooseFI, MK has written a handful of science fiction books and teaches others how to self-publish with her YouTube channel, Author Your Ambition. The next end-of-year win comes from Whitney who fired her financial planner this year. While her financial planner had set Whitney and her husband up fairly well, they were finally ready to fly on their own. Now that she understood what she was doing, she was able to get out of some of the actively-managed funds and do some tax-loss harvesting. After an unfortunate incident with a supervisor, Whitney was motivated to figure out how she could not work if she didn't want to. Previously, she had no extra time to figure things out, but being at home due to COVID allowed her to explore hobbies, take care of health issues, and do more activities with her son. Although making even the 1% better changes aren't always easy, it is a positive feedback loop where it becomes easier and easier. Whitney plans is to retire in the next couple of years. Next is Carlos, who welcomed a new baby this year. His wife took some photography classes and after seeing that her photos were pretty good, set up a new business as a photographer. Jonath

29 Mar 10:05

284 | JL Collins Returns

When it comes to investing strategies, one of the most influential books available claims that if you keep it simple, you'll actually do better. Here to talk about the philosophy behind his investment strategy is one ofChooseFI's most requested guests, JL Collins, author of The Simple Path to Wealth, and popular blog series, The Stock Series. The influence of JL Collins cannot be overstated. The content he produced changed the trajectory of Brad's life and made him feel comfortable investing. In 2011, JL's daughter was in college but was turned off of all things financial after he pushed too hard. Because he wanted her to know how to invest and handle money, he decided that he needed to write it down for when she was ready. It was suggested that he archive the advice in a blog and share with friends and family. Much to his surprise, strangers began to find it and he quickly had an international audience. The book came out of the growth of his blog. Always having the ambition to write a book, The Simple Path to Wealth became a more organized and concise compilation of his blog articles. Four years later, 2020 has been its best selling year and the success has greatly exceeded expectations. Readers have responded positively to the authenticity of his writing, which he believes is because he was writing for his daughter. Now that she is a young adult, she's been receptive to the information and is now on board with the strategy presented. For Brad, investing always seemed like something that required thousands of hours of understanding and special insight until he began reading The Stock Series on JL's website. It gave him hope that he had a chance at long-term success for wealth that would last for many decades. JL acknowledges the method in the book is the last and best method he came to after going through other iterations involving picking stocks and actively managed funds. The other methods work, but they are harder and a lot less powerful than a low-cost index fund. JL says this method isn't just for beginners, it's the best way to invest for everybody. The most powerful way to invest is the simplest and the easiest. He realized that not everyone wants to think about investing the way he like thinking about it. Most people know it's important, but have more important things they want to do with their lives. His approach allows them to set it and forget it. The investing world is complex by design because the more difficult it is to understand, the more Wall Street can charge in fees. Jack Bogle, the founder of Vanguard, was the first one to invent index funds and talk about index fund investing. Because outperforming the market as a whole is extraordinarily dif

29 Mar 10:05

285 | Beginning of a New Era

What You'll Get Out Of Today's Show 2021 kicks off the fifth year of the ChooseFI podcast. Despite being at different points in their own financial journeys, Brad and Jonathan have experienced the benefit of incremental growth with both their finances and self-improvement. While it may seem simple and even mediocre, they are living amazing lives. You need to control what you can control, starting from wherever you are. If you can optimize at the margins, you can reclaim decades of your life. It's not just the ChooseFI podcast trying to share this message and concepts. The entire community is working to share this message. In a Facebook post from Jessica, she shares that her goal at the age of 19 was to save $5,000 so that she could feel stable. She began finally saving at the age of 26. By spending less and earning more, five years later, she hit the net worth milestone of $100,000. The concepts ChooseFI presents are not new. The show brings information together to tell a story to motivate and encourage people to take action with it. Don't just do what people tell you to do. Look at what they are doing. JL Collins' blog series, The Stock Series, started out as a way to document what he wanted to teach his daughter about investing. Warren Buffett plans ate leave 90% of his investments in a low-cost index fund. What is impressive about index fund investing is that there is ample evidence that over the long-term, this simple plan outperforms other strategies. Index funds, like total stock market index funds, are self-cleansing. Rather than trying to pick the winners or attempting to build your own index where you need to stay abreast of what's happening in the market, your ownership in companies performing poorly automatically decreases as a percentage with an index fund. To illustrate this point, of the original companies making up the DOW in the early 1900s, none of them remain within it today. With an index fund, you end up buying the up and coming companies that are replacing those losing value without having to do any research. It's an odd phenomenon that people do not like to buy stock when the market is down. There are drops of 10% just about every year, 30% every few years, and black swan events like 2020 are more common than we like to believe. Despite of the ups and downs, stay the course and keep investing. US currency is backed by the confidence of the federal government. As much as a large percentage of the world also has confidence in our government, $100 today is not worth the same as it was a hundred years ago. Not only has inflation eroded the value, but more money has been printed than 100 years ago. Whenever the government prints more money or inje

29 Mar 10:05

286 | I Like to Dabble

Many industries we once believed were recession-proof have proven otherwise. What can we do to build multiple streams of income and the resilience needed so that we're not reliant on anyone else for financial security? Side hustles and passive income are key strategies. Daniella worked for an IT company for four years when they laid her the weekend before her wedding. Luckily, she quickly found a remote job working as a contractor but was laid off from it as well. The layoffs ruined Daniella's confidence and self-esteem. Before the first layoff, she was living paycheck to paycheck and carrying debt. Occasionally, she needed to sell things for gas money until the next paycheck arrived. It was a financial low. Daniella still had the severance from her first job in an emergency fund and was encouraged to freelance to keep stable while looking for a new job. Freelancing was something Daniella had some experience with and reached out to an old client. The talent stack Daniella developed was not simply technical. She had a strong artistic and design background which was mostly self-taught. She says when going for a job interview, be upfront about all of the experience you have. Think about it and write it all down so you don't leave anything out. Not all jobs require the employee to be a world-class expert. Sometimes having a wide variety of experience and being able to synthesize different pieces of information is what employers need. The freelancing came out of panic. In addition to the debt, she had not been aggressively investing for retirement and believed the only way to go forward was a job. After finally landing a new job with a FinTech company, Daniella began reading about personal finance for her blog about the journey she and her wife were on to get their finances together. Dabbling is something Daniella has done since high school but it was never something she believed could be used to build wealth. Reading the stories of others changed her mind. The future became clear on what they had to do versus what they wanted to do. While her original side hustles only fueled her spending behaviors, they eventually morphed into doing fun things. Her wife is an expert in reselling guitars, and in addition to freelancing, Daniella also did thrift store flips, repaired items for resale, and sold her own paintings of live concert events. Daniella is in a much different financial position now. They have one year's worth of an emergency fund saved up, and all of their debt is paid off. They still have their side hustles, and her blog makes a third of what she makes in her full-time job. If she were to lose her job again, she would be able to reach out to the huge online net

29 Mar 10:05

287 | The Examined Life

Are you the kind of person who sets New Year's resolutions? Like many Americans, Jonathan used to set weight loss goals for the new year, but not this year. Instead, he and his accountability partner, JD Roth, spent the previous nine months working on it and began the year, at or very close to their goal weight. Not having to work on big weight loss goals is allowing Jonathan to be aware and focus on testing smaller adjustments that will make him feel better and have more energy. Brad once had an experience while on vacation that made him realize how his normal diet was causing him joint pain. He wasn't even aware he had joint pain until one day it was gone. It was only then that he understood he had a problem that needed to be worked on. When you live an examined life, you don't have to accept the things that are reducing your capacity to function as normal. Brad thought his morning smoothies were a healthy choice, but it turns out the negative impact was a sugar crash necessitating an afternoon nap. It wasn't something he noticed until he stopped the daily smoothie routine. The examined life concept can be applied to your personal finance life as well. It's not as much a goal as it is a mastery of process. Brad embraces James Clear's concept of setting up systems that work in his life versus setting goals. He has set up eight different things he wants to accomplish as a part of a system with checkpoints along the way. In an attempt to develop two new habits, Brad is habit stacking. With habit stacking, you take one habit you have and combine it with another you want to create. Brad has combined his desire to become more fluent in Japanese with moving more during the day by taking walks around the neighborhood while listening to the Pimsleur language learning app. It's not perfect, but it's a system that is working for him. Brad is also following the advice of Chris Guillebeau and conducting his own annual review. This annual review sets the big picture, the intentions, the purpose, and outcomes. It then breaks life down into different areas where concrete goals may be set, such as self, health, family, community, travel, and others. While neither has large plots of land in suburban Richmond, VA, Jonathan and Brad have both contemplated starting some sort of micro garden. Listener James wrote in to say that he's been able to cut down on his grocery bill by going a whole year eating only vegetables he's grown himself. James says knowledge isn't needed. Just try growing things. You'll learn as you go. Also, grow what you are actually going to eat. Kale is great, but not if you won't eat it. And finally, squash is king as it produces pounds and pounds of food. Start

29 Mar 10:05

288 | Mad Fientist

Should you rush to reach FI? Or use it as a map in a lifelong pursuit to master your relationship with time, money, and happiness? Brandon, from the Mad Fientist, wishes he would have found more free time to work on other goals while on his journey to FI. When Brandon was first on the show four years ago, he had just reached FI and discussed the psychological hurdles he had to overcome. What's changed for him since then, and with the benefit of hindsight, what would he do differently? Brandon's dream as a child was to write music and put it out in the world. However, his musical tastes are not mainstream, so becoming a pop star was never one of his ambitions. He did not want to just be a consumer, he wanted to be a creator and always felt that it was his job that was holding him back. It wasn't until after reaching FI that he realized it wasn't was what holding him back at all. He had been spending his free time on things like television on travel instead of his music project. His problem was psychological. As a math and science guy, he didn't believe he could do it. Trying meant the risk of failure, and if he failed, the dream would be gone. It took Brandon two years to come to grips with and get over that hurdle. During his pursuit of financial independence, Brandon has tunnel vision, with all his time and effort devoted to making and saving more so that he could reach FI more quickly. The result was a decrease in his overall happiness. He admits that he did it wrong. The whole point is to master the relationship between money, time, and happiness. Mastery is probably better to focus on over goals. Goals delay your happiness because you are always looking to the future instead of enjoying the present or the journey. Reaching FI for Brandon didn't have an impact on his life other than making him more confident that he could step away from his job. Motivating yourself to do something is hard when you don't have any sort of external motivation to do it. In 2017, Brandon wanted to do two things: get better at songwriting and get fit. The personal trainer he was working with asked him how much he wanted to bench press or how much muscle mass he wanted to put on. Those were goals Brandon didn't care about. With his mastery mindset, he only wanted to get healthy and stay healthy. In contrast to getting fit, his specific goal for songwriting was to write a song and share it with his brother. When he finished it, not only was it awful, but the whole process was awful and it caused him to quit pursuing any additional songwriting until he summoned up the courage again in 2019. Pursuing mastery may be summed up by asking, “Am I better today than I was yesterday?” Continuing

29 Mar 10:05

289 | The Roth 401K and Meal Planning Made Easy

For almost 12 months, we've all been trying to do the best that we can. As frequently discussed on the show, we try to do things slightly different, optimize in the ways that we can, and make the best of the situation. Jonathan's wife Dani has been coming up with all kinds of creative little activities for the kids. Even Jonathan was recruited for a rock painting project. Brad has been listening to a new podcast, Ordinary Sherpa, created by Heidi, a member of Jonathan's Talent Stacker podcast. The podcast is about creating little adventures in life with your family. At the same time, in the mastermind group Brad takes part in, he was inspired by a discussion related to dads really showing up to be a part of their kids' lives. The podcast theme and mastermind group discussion converged for Brad when his daughter, Molly, asked him to go explore the creek with her. Rather than playing along for a minimally acceptable amount of time, Brad showed up like he really wanted to be there and they had hours of fun exploring together. What if you started to show up for everything in your life with the attitude that you really wanted to be there? It's difficult to be focused on growth in all areas of your life at the same time. There are different seasons when you will be able to lean into one over another but it's good to figure out a baseline you're comfortable with and recognize when it's time to rebalance. Since Brad's financial life is on autopilot, it's not something he spends much time focusing on. However, sometimes things do backslide and he needs to return a little focus to it. Such as, he recently canceled two recurring charges for streaming services, not because their costs were going to have a significant impact, but because he was no longer getting value from them. Relationships is an area Brad believes he could spend more time focusing on. If he were to ask himself, “Am I showing up as the best version of myself for my wife and kids every day?” his answer would be “no”. Who should be leaning into and leveraging their Roth 401K? Sean Mullaney, The FI Tax Guy, says the Roth 401K works similar to a 401K except the funds going in are taxable today and come out later tax and penalty-free. Those currently in a high tax bracket looking to retire early are probably better off contributing to a traditional 401K. But someone just out of college in a 10% federal tax bracket may benefit from paying 10% in taxes today rather than 20-30% later on. Even someone who may have substantial taxable income in retirement may benefit from a Roth 401K. A Roth 401K can also be a hedge against future tax rates for anyone who prefers to lock in their tax rate today. If your 401K plan offe

29 Mar 10:05

290 | We're Talking Millions | Paul Merriman

Does your portfolio own enough of the companies that carry a lot of the growth over extended periods of time? When you buy index funds, you aren't as diversified as you think you are. Cap weighted index funds mean you are buying a lot of the companies that are doing really well. But there are two asset classes Paul Merriman is a fan of that he thinks don't get enough attention, small cap and value. Although many people claim to believe in a buy and hold strategy with investing, their behavior says otherwise. They like to buy when things are hot because they believe it's going to keep going up. If you look back as far as 1928, a lot of the time the S&P 500 is walloping small cap value returns, yet at the end of this 92 year period, small cap value made 24 times the amount of money the S&P 500 did. Even though there are long periods of underperformance, when small cap value does take off, there is outstanding performance. Then when it reverts back to the mean, there is a higher compound rate of return. Owning a large cap fund means each holding in that portfolio, and how much of the portfolio it represents is based on how large that company is. The big companies represent 80-85% of the corporate public value in our economy. However, history shows that the smaller companies and the value companies produce a better rate of return because they are more risky. It doesn't have to be a lot to make a big difference. If you were put 10% in a small cap value fund, it would give you a legitimate shot at having 20-30% more money when you retire. The top 20 companies probably make up 20-30% of the money you have invested. Investing in an S&P 500 or total stock market fund provides an illusion of diversity. As companies get to be bigger in size, it becomes increasingly more difficult to double or triple in size. Companies are valued by the number of shares times the price in the market. Large cap index fund companies average a market capitalization value from $50 billion to $150 billion. Small cap companies are roughly 1/50th the size of the big companies with values averaging $2 billion. They are legitimate companies, but many of them will fail. Since 1928, the S&P 500 or total stock market compound rate of return has averaged 10%. However, research has shown that only 4% of those public companies made virtually all of that 10%, while 96% of companies averaged just 3%. As an aggregate, small companies are much more likely to double or triple in size. Value companies can be seen as companies that are out of favor and years later, they may still be out of favor. Academics don't advise buying value companies one at a time. People come into value companies to make t

29 Mar 10:04

291 | If I Could Turn Back Time

After four years of working on the ChooseFI podcast, Brad and Jonathan want to share their lessons learned, the list of things they might do differently, and highlight a few episodes to re-listen to. Brad is back in the studio after missing out on Episode 290 with Paul Merriman. He's doing fine and appreciates everyone's concern. With Paul Merriman's Ultimate Buy and Hold Portfolio strategy, the thesis is that diversity is great, but own equal amounts of all asset classes versus a cap-weighted index fund to capture the growth potential of small companies. Unfortunately, for the last 12 years, the majority of growth has come from large companies. Brad says Paul's book reads like a FI manual with a high-level overview of small steps that could be million-dollar decisions. The decisions are not little. As discussed in Brad's The FI Weekly email this week, the Rule of 72 states how long it will take you money to double at a given rate of return. 72 divided by the rate of return is how many years before the money doubles. For example, 72 divided by 8% equals 9 years to double your money. The impact of that last double can be worth millions, that's why getting started early is critical. If your new and haven't already, today is the day to start. Jonathan agrees Paul's book is a great FI primer and was surprised by how much he enjoyed reading it. He says it would make a great gift. ChooseFI often talks about the aggregation of marginal gains. It can be quantified as each half a percent improvement means we can make an extra million dollars. Come up with 10 and that's an extra $10 million over your investing lifetime. If you can't do all 10, pick three or four and implement early, aggressively, and consistently. If they could turn back time and look at how their own understanding has grown and developed over the last four years, what would the conversation look like from both micro and macro views? Starting with investing, in the beginning, the most powerful concept inspired by JL Collins was to avoid the fees, a sentiment echoed by Paul Merriman as well. Diversity and time in the market are also key. You will lose approximately 40% of your total net worth when invested with a financial advisor at 1% in a mutual fund with a 1% expense ratio. The dramatic loss happens when your gross 8% market return is reduced to just 6% after fees. In Episode 052 with Todd Tresidder, he highlighted that there are three asset classes you could invest in, paper, like the stock market, entrepreneurship, such as starting your own business, or real estate. Inside of paper assets like the stock market, Todd says complexity can be valuable, but others like Big Ern and Rick Ferry say most peop

29 Mar 10:04

292 | The Complexity in Simplicity at M1 | Brian Barnes

M1 Finance transformed Jonathan's ideas about how simple complexity could be and has quickly become his favorite investing platform, especially for taxable accounts. Brian Barnes investing story begins at the age of 10 when his parents exposed him to trading stock in a brokerage account with Ameritrade. He was captivated by the notion of investing and the intellectual puzzle of how a company was doing. His parents laid a general foundation of financial independence and security. Once basics were covered, they placed value on putting money someplace where it could accrue value, compound, and become ownership is something valuable. Getting started at the tail end of the Dot Com bust, it was a great time to be buying when prices were low and companies were valued cheaply. Brian says there is a big difference between traders and investors. Traders speculate on price and try to make money on short-term movements. Investors buy ownership in companies, asset classes, or industries to accrue value over long periods of time. When you aren't making frequent investment decisions, it becomes more about viewing your portfolio in totality and making a decision on what to do with the extra money you have leftover from your paycheck. In the trading world, you have to go in and make the same decisions to buy the same securities over and over again, but with M1, you can make the decision once and let the software automate the process. With day trading, you can't just be right once, you need to be right over and over and over again, constantly timing the market perfectly. It's difficult to predict costs even when commissions are free and it's tax-inefficient. With an investing mindset, you want to own over long periods to accrue value and generate cash flows. At the age of 25, Brian realized investing platforms hadn't changed in 15 years. He looked at consumer applications work that sought to make things simpler, more intuitive, and automated wondering why there hadn't been progress in the financial services world. He thought it would be nice if he could tell a software platform the portfolio he wanted to own, and anytime he had money, he could throw it into the platform and it just went to work. He wanted to deploy all of the money by purchasing fractional shares so there wasn't any cash drag. And finally, incredibly low fees with no commissions. As M1 has expanded, it's grown from his “wouldn't it be nice” idea to other areas like borrowing and spending, allowing users to have one financial institution instead of needing to use multiple apps. M1's philosophy is that a great product allows you to do complex things simply. What they allow customers to do is determine what share of t

29 Mar 10:04

293 | Gamestop Squeezed to the Max | Brian Feroldi

Wondering what happened with GameStop and confused about what a short squeeze is? The complexity of this kind of trading is far from the simple strategy of buy and hold investing. Even for those who have no plans to jump on bandwagon, it's good to understand exactly what is going on. We can learn what's happening, how it works, and move intelligently forward. In an effort to understand systems, Brad has been having a maddening healthcare experience. He needs a CT scan but hasn't been able to find out what the base cost will be. The negotiated cost won't be known until after the procedure so Brad won't know how much it will cost him until then. At a macro level, the stock market has had a fairly smooth move up and to the right for the past 10 years or so. For investors, it's been somewhat predictable, at least until this last week when GameStop stock began to skyrocket. There are aspects of the stock market the average investor doesn't see. Hedge funds are participating with huge amounts of money in layers that are essentially hidden to the masses, until it wasn't, and they got caught unaware. Brian Feroldi says the last few weeks have been some of the weirdest in the investing world that he's ever seen. The story has infiltrated mainstream culture and he's been getting questions from all over about what is going on. Even his mom sent a text asking about GameStop. First, GameStop is a physical seller of video games. As video games became popular, GameStop was a great investment, however, once people began downloading video games, its business prospects declined. As a result, GameStop stock prices have also been declining for many years and it is believed they will cease to exist as a business in a couple of years. Investors or many managers can make money when a stock declines in what's called shorting the stock. A short sale stock is the opposite of becoming a buy and hold investor in a stock. A short sale works by going to your broker predicting a stock's decline and state you want to short that stock at a particular price. The broker goes and borrows shares of the stock from another investor for the price you stated and you collect the proceeds from the sale. Your goal is to then buy those shares back at a later date for a lower price and return them to the original investor. The original owner of the stock makes money by receiving a small fee from the person borrowing their stock, almost like being charged an interest rate. The more demand there is to short a stock, the higher the fees. There is no set timeframe when shorting a stock. I can be shorted indefinitely. However, if the owner of the stock wants to sell it, the broker who borrowed the stock would ha

29 Mar 10:04

294 | From Corporate Muzzle to Invested Development | Amanda Holden The Dumpster Doggy

Amanda Holden's approach to educating others includes laughter and shenanigans to democratize information and get it to stick. Amanda worked in corporate America at an investment management firm, but helping rich men get richer wasn't her calling. She hated the job and decided to establish a set of rules that we allow her to quit in six months and go travel. She chose to supplement her bare-bones spending by living off the excess of others. That including asking for leftover uneaten lunches which earned her the nickname, Dumpster Dog. Pulling burritos out of the trash and drastically cutting her spending worked. Amanda's savings enabled her to leave the job she hated and travel for a year. Dumpster Doggy has now become her identity, showing others how they can make it work even if they don't have a lot. Being privileged enough to live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world also means that we take it for granted and are surrounded by vast amounts of waste. Are we throwing so much away that we are sabotaging our chance to get what we really want? While each day she felt like she was trying just keep putting one foot in front of the other, at the time, she didn't think of it the changes she was making to leave a toxic work environment as a metamorphosis. She hated the job so much that she felt like the only option was to quit and start over from zero. Hating it that much allowed her to take a risk on doing something that aligned better with who she wanted to be and what she wanted to do. Her advice to anyone who doesn't dislike what they are doing quite as much as she did is to start saving and doing what they want to do on the side. Then assess once there is momentum to decide if you want to take it further. Amanda acknowledges that she was privileged with a level of comfort and security when taking her leap as she had a family to fall back on for help if needed. She isn't trying to sell entrepreneurship to everyone. It makes sense for some people but there are aspects of it that she doesn't love. It won't be the right fit for everybody. What worked for Amanda was starting by giving her service away for free and collecting as much feedback as she could. While she has the blog, For her business, she started out cold calling on sororities. She asked to come in to teach them about investing and then collecting their feedback. After building this foundation, she began to explore what the sticking points were for people and how she could begin to charge for her services. Amanda says it's all about connections, so utilize your network to get your information into the hands of whoever can help get you in the door. Amanda wants women to be in the conversation becau

29 Mar 10:04

295 | Emergency Fund for the Zombie Apocalypse

This Friday's episode continues with the theme of looking back at how our perspective has changed since the show began. What has changed, have we pivoted, and what do we feel more confident about now than we did then? Last Friday Brad shared the saga of trying to find out how much a CT scan was going to cost him. In response to the story, members of the community reached out with their ideas for saving on the cost. One listener shared a link for MDsave.com, a company that contracts with different healthcare providers to provide very specific pricing for a number of healthcare-related services and procedures that you pay in advance for. Using the CPT code for his procedure, Brad discovered there were no providers in his area, but there was a good number in Charlottesville about an hour away. Had he used this website, he could have paid under $300 for his CT scan. Without using it, his insurance company was billed $2,083. For prescription drug needs, there is a similar website called GoodRX.com The healthcare system is broken. Price transparency in healthcare, like both of these websites offer, cuts the middleman out and lowers costs. Jonathan suspects that anytime you are using these apps you are sacrificing some privacy. If you have a high-deductible plan and rarely if ever reach it, you may be better with the discount as you cannot double-dip and need to choose whether you go through the app/discount card or your insurance company. However, prescriptions do qualify as HSA reimbursable expenses. Emergency funds are a part of every financial plan, with most stating a fully funded fund contains three to six months' worth of expenses. ChooseFI has pushed back a little on the standard emergency fund concept, asking if you really need one, what does it need to look like, and what are we protecting ourselves from? Both Brad and Jonathan's perspective on the emergency fund has changed over the years. Most personal finance experts conceptualize it as money sitting around doing nothing waiting for an emergency to occur. The further down the path to FI you travel, the role of the emergency fund begins to change. At what point should you stop allowing your emergency fund to lose value from inflation and invest it instead? When first starting out, a fully-funded emergency benefit provides psychological benefits. But 1o-15 years down the path to FI, there are very few true emergencies. There is an opportunity cost to your money sitting on the sidelines. Could you have that money invested, earning and growing for you? Brad can't think of a scenario where he would need thousands of dollars in cash in a hurry. Even if the unthinkable were to happen, he could pay with a credit car

29 Mar 10:04

296 | Transition Planning from a Military Career on the Path to FI |Doug Nordman

We are circling back to check in with our Households of FI families. First up are Matt and Megan, our international, dual military couple. Having a military pension is like having multiple lottery tickets. You have both healthcare and an inflation-fighting pension, but how many of these lottery tickets do you need to really crush this game? Naval service is Doug Nordman's family business. In addition to his own 20 years of service in the Navy, his wife almost had 20 years of active duty service in the Navy before finishing her career in the Reserves. And then their daughter joined the Navy on an ROTC scholarship and married a Naval Officer. While dual-military couples are a small demographic that hasn't been extensively studied, Doug says even if they earn just one pension, they will likely have more money than they need for the rest of their lives just because of the pension and healthcare. Matt says the US military pension system is much more simple than for the UK's Royal Navy. He and Megan are working toward FI with their investments alone and consider the pensions to be an additional comfort. Matt has served for 11 years so far and the Royal Navy's systems provide a pension based on each year of service. Megan has been in the US Navy for 15 years after doing her first 10 years enlisted. She needs to fulfill 22 years before being eligible for retirement as a Naval Officer. Doug says when you're in the military with the opportunity to earn an active duty or Reserve pension, you have four lottery tickets and you only need to have one of them to pay off because you solve the healthcare problem and have an inflation-fighting life annuity with just one. If serving in the military is still challenging and fulfilling, stay in as long as you want, but when the fun stops, don't be afraid to leave. Don't fall for the military inferiority complex. Coming from the military you already have human capital. Employers can train you on the basic skills for a job, but they can't train a new employee on those soft skills earned in a military career. Co-locating as an international dual military couple has its challenges. Matt may soon be getting a medical discharge from the Royal Navy which will help solve that issue for him and Megan. Matt notes the US military provides spouses with opportunities for increasing human capital, like free courses or paying for college. Doug thinks obtaining certifications and licenses is going the help Matt find a job in the US more than an advanced degree because he's already proven that he can do things. Networking will be key. After having conversations with others about how he can fit in, what he can help them with, and what he knows how to d

29 Mar 10:04

297 | From Pandemic Layoff to $100k+ | A Salesforce Success Story |Anita Smith and Bradley Rice

What You'll Get Out Of Today's Show If you are willing to look outside your comfort zone, grab good information, and take action on it, you can change your life in a matter of weeks or months. One of the hardest-hit industries during the pandemic has been hospitality. Working in that industry, Anita was looking down a long dark tunnel before stumbling upon the FI community. When Anita found ChooseFI in August, she jumped right in, taking action and interacting with Brad through the FI Weekly and submitting her frugal wins of the week. By listening to the podcast, Anita heard about Jonathan starting up the Talent Stacker podcast and the program he put together with Bradley Rice on Salesforce career development. Anita gave it a shot and her results blew Jonathan and Bradley's mind. The results Anita has had are not an outlier. It's what others are also seeing every single week. Back in the spring of 2019, Bradley was on the show to talk about Salesforce and living a life by design. After Bradley discussed earning $200K a year working 15-20 hours a week, the listening audience really responded. Based on that interest, a Salesforce group was started for the community and people began landing Salesforce jobs. In just two years, the group grew to 5,000 members learning from each other. A year ago, Anita was working as a revenue manager for a hotel connected to a convention center. At that time, the pandemic was accelerating and group after group began canceling their events. As a result, she was furloughed in March. Understanding that hospitality wasn't going to recover anytime soon, Anita decided to be proactive, began learning, and figuring out what her next move would be. In addition to taking classes online, Anita researched Fortune's top places to work. The first time she heard of Salesforce was from that list but was turned off at the thought of sales. After a little research, she discovered sales isn't what they do. She signed up for Trailhead, Salesforces's online learning account, and did it for one day before concluding it was awesome. But she wondered it was real and if was as easy as it seemed. After receiving more bad news from her employer, Anita was motivated to learn more. She found ChooseFI and binge listened to over a hundred episodes when she heard about Talent Stacker, Salesforce (again), and the free 5-Day Challenge. She ended up in the paid program and because she had been laid off, she used her time to learn everything she could like it was her full-time job. One month after starting the program, she took the first admin certification program and passed. After that, she used all of the tips from the program and landed a good-paying job in January.

29 Mar 10:04

298 | Habits For Wealth Building | Rich and Regular

We are checking back in with our Households of FI family, Martin and Ayesha, who have been paired with mentors, Julien and Kiersten of Rich and Regular. Kiersten and Julien live in Atlanta and started working toward FIRE before they married five to six years ago and have paid off $200,o00 in debt, including their mortgage. They now share their journey on their blog rich & REGULAR. Ayesha and Martin live in Chicago and found ChooseFI in January 2020 and jumped in with both feet. Martin is a natural saver and had been a positive financial influence on Ayesha before finding FI so they had done a decent job managing their money. Martin was researching dividend investing after it was recommended by Ayesha's uncle who retired at 55. Ayesha felt like her aunt and uncle had the most fabulous retirement life she'd ever seen. Thanks to his example over the last 25 years, their goal is to get to where he is. Julien had a similar retirement role model in his life. A close family friend was a Registered Nurse who retried early and showed him that there is a lot of life left after 40. Since finding FI, and partly thanks to Covid, Martin and Ayesha's savings rate has increased. It has made them aware of all the frivolous, non-essential ways they spent money before. Ayesha hates budgets and doesn't want to track every penny of her spending. She was out of work for four months during Covid and they found that they didn't miss her income and it showed them that they could save a good amount of money without feeling constrained or deprived. Having a quantifiable goal and a clear target has helped provide clarity in what they are trying to accomplish. Martin enjoys trying to optimize their spending and counting the dollars they save. When they decided to get a new television, he used Offer Up to do his research and purchased a flat-screen plasma HDTV for $40. Julien used to track every single expense and look for new savings opportunities each quarter. But now, optimizing their spending has become such a deeply ingrained habit that he no longer feels the need to look at their budget. He says it becomes like muscle memory once you sort out your own system. Ayesha feels like when you can simplify your life and have good habits, your life can smoothly and asked what Julien and Kiersten's top habits are. Kiersten says doing laundry regularly keeps them from having a ton of extra clothes. She and their son have a capsule wardrobe with 20-30 pieces of matching items. She also keeps the kitchen sink clear of dishes to cut down on kitchen accessories. Julien says they have just the right amount of things they need and notes that there is stress associated with the quantity and clutter in

29 Mar 10:04

299 | What's Stopping You from Reaching FI?

It's ChooseFI's first live radio show! Recorded live on Tuesdays at 7:30 pm Eastern using an app called Stereo, the live shows will be replayed for the Friday Roundup episode. The topic of this interactive live show is: “What is stopping you from reaching financial independence?”. Lorraine has a question about allocation and investing in one of Vanguard’s funds like VTI or VTSAX but the answer is situation-dependent. It’s important o know the investing timeline Lorraine is looking at, but hopefully, it’s investing for the long-term. Investing for the long-term provides for the highest likelihood of success. However, it’s money needed for something critical like an emergency fund, maybe consider keeping what you need in a savings account and investing the rest. Other factors to consider are risk tolerance, net worth, job security, and whether you have an emergency fund. How sacred you were in March is a good indicator of your risk tolerance. The right allocation will allow you to sleep at night, be confident in your plan, and stay the course. The best thing to do is take action and get invested without getting hung up on the details. Keeping your expenses low with low-cost broad-based index funds, like total stock market or S&P 500 index funds, make a significant difference over your investing lifetime. Getting to the point where you can make work optional can often seem like luck. However, the FI community believes we have the power to impact change in our lives and in our communities. Taking small actions to optimize and seeing that you can still live a life without a feeling of deprivation becomes a motivating positive feedback loop. No matter how much you earn, the message of FI can be valuable. If you are living paycheck-to-paycheck, it doesn’t matter how much you earn. You need some amount of gap between what you earn and what you spend. Growing the gap by cutting expenses is usually the most effective place to start, but you can widen the gap by earning more as well. It doesn’t mean going back to school or taking on a second job delivering pizzas. One way to increase your income is by negotiating your salary. If you research the highest paying professions, the search leads to a list of six-figure careers, however, the return on investment in these career paths is not what it seems. They may require a significant number of years in school and the student loan debt that goes along with it. Today it’s possible to skip a degree program in favor of a certificate program and land a high-paying job in less time and at less expense. Matthew has been listening to the show for about six months. One question he’s had is how people are retiring early when you cann

29 Mar 10:04

300 | Relationships and Money | Jillian Johnsrud

Money is one of the top three things people struggle to communicate with, falling right below sex and above our reasons and motivations for work. In her coaching practice, Jillian finds clients will be very open in one-on-one sessions, but when working with couples, it becomes much more uncomfortable. Jillian believes this discomfort is because discussions of things like sex and money happened behind closed doors and weren’t modeled for us growing up. In response to a call put out for questions in Brad’s FI Weekly newsletter, listeners submitted their questions for Jillian about relationships and money. The first comes from Jonesy who had a question about keeping the lines of communication open about money with a significant other when they are at different stages. He is working and beginning to build his portfolio and savings, while his significant other is still in school and struggling to make ends meet. Jillian suggests first trying to find common ground to discuss money. You can start with telling your own money stories, like how your parents spent money or what you wish they had spent money on. It’s important to feel seen and heard. Sharing childhood stories are opportunities to start having conversations to begin learning about each other financially. Help make the conversation not feel like a trap by being genuinely curious about your partner’s life and experience. You can approach discussions about money much in the same way couples talk about the parenting they witnessed and experienced. Pick one or two questions to open up the conversation and put your partner in a relaxed state. Ensure they feel seen and heard before transitioning into conversations on budgets or debt payoff. Taking the small step of sharing money stories can help the couple come away with positive feelings, feel closer, and know just a little bit more about each other. Jillian and her husband did not communicate about money well during the first few years of their marriage. They had very different money stories and didn’t know how to explain why they were reacting or felt the way they were. Breaking the big scary stuff down into bite-sized non-intimidating questions is something Jillian guides users through in her latest workbook, part of which asks us to examine our parents’ patterns, whether or not we have copied or rebelled against them, if what was inherited is serving you well, and do you want to take it forward. Because Jonesy and his partner aren’t married, Jillian says it’s okay to skip the specifics in the middle, like savings rates and budgets, and discuss the outcome, like a common goal to work toward together. If you work on learning to talk about money, understanding each

29 Mar 10:04

301| Money and Relationships | Part 2

What are you getting hung up on with relationships and money? We continue the conversation in Part 2 of the Relationships and Money series with Jillian Johnsrud. Although March is finally here and the sunshine is motivating Jonathan to push away the processed carbs in favor of broccoli and hummus, Richmond’s recent ice storms had Brad using his stash of travel rewards for the first time in over a year. Travel rewards come in handy at home too. After losing power from the storm, Brad called up a local Hyatt to see if they had power and was able to use 5,000 with Hyatt to book a room, and quickly move his family out of a cold home for the night. If he had been short on Hyatt points, he could have quickly transferred Chase Ultimate Rewards points over to cover the rate. Even if you aren’t ready to travel now, plan ahead and start stockpiling travel rewards points now so you have them once you do want to travel again. Take the travel course at ChooseFI.com/travel to learn how. The next roundup episodes will feature Alan Donegan and focus on building a business in 2021. Submit a voicemail with the questions and concerns you would like to have addressed at ChooseFI.com/voicemail. Have a question on a different topic? Submit your voicemail and join the live radio shows held on Stereo, Tuesdays at 7:30 pm Eastern. In Episode 300 with Jillian, she discussed how your past money story motivates you and creates fear as it pertains to money and relationships. Part 2 of the series examines being financially independent while still dependent. Listener Asia is engaged and works full-time while her partner is still going to school and works part-time. They each have vastly different money stories and have started combining finances. Her partner is still receiving some financial support from her parents. While her partner wants to begin become more independent, Asia wonders if it would be smarter to continue as things are. Jonathan sees three issues with Asia and her partner’s situation: attachment, boundaries, and economics. For Jillian, one of the elements was what habits and practices Asia’s fiance can take to feel like a financial grown-up and equal partner in the relationship. She also considered what it might mean for the fiance to receive from her parents, as well as what it might mean to the fiance’s parent to give. Jonathan sees nothing wrong with accepting help so long as there are no boundary or communication issues or strings attached. Brad thinks it sounds like a positive situation but is also concerned about ulterior motives. After graduating college, Brad lived at home with his parents while saving 90% of his income which gave him a huge jumpstart on his path to FI.

29 Mar 10:04

302| Navigating a Multigenerational Household | The Financial Tortoise

We are checking back in with Vivan from our Households of FI series who has been paired with mentor, Tae from Financial Tortoise, to go over strategies, best practices, and considerations for multiple generations living under one roof. In many Asian cultures, adult children are responsible for taking care of and being financially responsible for aging parents while also raising their own children, often referred to as the Sandwich Generation. Whether or not being financially responsible for parents is part of your culture, caring for or assisting them to make decisions as they age may be in your future. Tae writes from the perspective of the Sandwich Generation on his blog, Financial Tortoise. Living with him and his wife are his two kids and both of his parents. During the last 10 years in this living arrangement, he’s paid off $105,000 in student loans and is pursuing financial independence. Vivian has been fighting breast cancer while dealing with a separation and child custody battle. She also has her mom living with her, who is helping out with her child, but she finds that there are generational differences leading to misunderstandings. She has questions about what kind of disability or long-term care insurance she would be getting for them. At 61, Vivian’s mom doesn’t yet qualify for Medicare and hasn’t applied for Social Security, but she does have a small pension from working for the Los Angeles School District. Tae thinks there may be healthcare gap insurance available if her mom qualifies. Her mom retired from work last year. If she applies for Social Security early at 62, she’ll earn 20-30% less. If she waits until age 700, she’ll earn 20-30% more. As long as she has paid into Social Security for at least 10 years, she is eligible. If she hasn’t been receiving paper summary statements, she can check online and see what her estimated benefits will be. Tae’s parents moved in with him right when they began collecting Social Security. They didn’t understand retirement accounts, but they did have real estate and rolled over equity into the down payment for a new home they could all live in and Tae took over the mortgage. Since Vivian’s mom lives with her, she shouldn’t have major expenses and her pension and Social Security should be enough to live one, but she would like to travel so Tae suggests looking into travel hacking. As for healthcare, Vivian’s mom retired because of health issues and is no longer able to work. She currently pays for private insurance, but at 61, there isn’t an ideal solution until age 65 when she becomes eligible for Medicare. She will need to enroll 3 months before she turns 65. Basic Medicare is covered, but if she wants things

29 Mar 10:04

303 | Structuring Your Emergency Fund | Stereo Live Q&A

In the second episode in the series of taking the show live online via the Stereo app, listeners ask questions and interact during a replay of this live podcast from Tuesday evening. Experimenting with this new show format, Brad and Jonathan are adding to their talents stack and themselves getting better through the often mentioned concept of the aggregation of marginal gains. Unfortunately, just because you make progress in an area, it doesn’t always mean you hold on to those gains. While your finances can be put on autopilot, physical and mental health are areas prone to backsliding. Take a little time for self-care. While reaching financial independence isn’t as simple as packing your lunch every day, it can be symbolic of the transformation to a mindset to take care of all the small things. It’s that effort, in the aggregate, that gives you the space to increase your savings rate, optimize investments, and earn market gains. Brad has been trying to apply the concept to his health, which has also required that he overcome several limiting beliefs. All of the changes he’s been making are small, like stretching, doing pushups, or yoga in the evening while watching TV with his family. And after hearing about how important vitamin D is to metabolic health, he tested his levels and found out they were dangerously low. In his attempt to live a more examined life, Brad has noticed certain foods lead to inflammation, and that his energy level fluctuates with the seasons. Likewise, Jonathan has been examining his use of caffeine and trying to decide if he is better off with it or without it. He would prefer to have a natural, steady energy state. He’s noticed that by decreasing processed sugars, he has more energy and wakes up fresher. Brad has been using a 10-minute nidra yoga YouTube video as a guided sleep meditation and says it’s like getting a two-hour nap. Listener Jackie left a voicemail asking about taking a little risk by putting emergency funds into the bond market. Jonathan says there’s no one answer, but he thinks we need to look at what we’re protecting ourselves against and the opportunity cost that comes with having a lot of money on hand to handle emergencies. Most of us will benefit from having $1,000 in the bank to start, and then moving to one or two months of expenses in cash. As your net worth grows, Jonathan would prefer to have the money in a fully-funded emergency fund grow. Since recording episode 066 with Big ERN, Brad has been trying to come up with a true financial emergency scenario. He’s been unable to think of a scenario when he might need cash in a hurry that couldn’t be covered immediately with a credit card. In a true emergency, he has

29 Mar 10:04

304 | Mapping Out Your FI Number

Jonathan checks back in with Corinne from the Households of FI series to look at her numbers, goals, and map out a FI plan. Financial independence is not about having the most money. In the pursuit of FI, the math is simple, but the math will change depending on your goals. It’s important to start with understanding what you want your ideal day to look like. Following Corinne’s last coaching session with Jillian, she learned how to build good habits and strategies to get closer to the goals she wants. One of the strategies she’s using is her phone to set reminders for the goals she wants to achieve. The reminders hold her accountable without her having to remember everything. Jonathan pointed out one of the great pieces of advice from the episode with Jillian was her advice to explore the goals you find yourself resisting giving even two minutes to. What is it in your subconscious that is sabotaging your goals? Corinne is on track to become a partner at her firm but that comes with a lot of expectations. In an exercise with Jillian, she was asked to write down what her ideal day would look like. to start, she’s been writing down which activities are energizing and which are draining. It has helped her to manufacture her day to be the kind of day that makes her want to get up and go to work in the morning. She discovering that she doesn’t have to work as many hours as everyone one else. She can balance it out, earning a little less money while being happier. We can make time to make each week more memorable and enjoyable when we spend less time on meanless activities. When you take what earn and subtract what you spend, what you are left with is the gap. When you live paycheck to paycheck, there is no gap. Corinne earns $120,000 a year as an accountant. She was in a five-year program where she got her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree that gave her enough requirements to take the CPA exam. Due to a scholarship, she graduated without any student loan debt. A similar recent graduate starting out now would make around $50,000 a year. She was able to double her salary and excel by narrowing her focus and becoming an expert in that space. In her industry, there are clearly defined roles with specific salary ranges. Increasing income requires the desire to progress and take on more responsibility. Becoming a partner wasn’t always on her radar, but she liked the idea of having ownership in the business. Corinne hasn’t researched the details of the retirement payout for partners at her firm, but there is some form of payout in retirement. Since she is on the trajectory to becoming partner, being able to project the retirement payout will help to calculate her FI number. One o

29 Mar 10:04

305 | Finding Your Locus of Control | Stereo Live Q&A

It’s the third edition of ChooseFI’s live and interactive show via Stereo. You can submit a question, feedback, or comment, and find out how to join us for the live event by visiting ChooseFI.com/live. Brad and Jonathan are getting high on life. Not only have Brad’s daughters started back at in-person school, but he and Laura were also able to attend a Crossfit class together. Meanwhile, Jonathan is successfully combating fatigue by getting the right amount of sleep, cutting out caffeine, and maintaining high hydration levels with juices. In an ongoing effort to get 1% better, Brad recently reviewed his credit card bills. He found a $50 recurring charge for his daughter’s saxophone rental and decided to buy it for $500 rather than continue incurring the rental fee. He suggests doing this twice a year and asking if those recurring charges are continuing to serve you. Jonathan recently canceled his Netflix subscription and wonders if there is a way to the effort of it and streamline our finances. In a hypothetical example of a $2,000 car loan with a 2-3% interest rate, Jonathan asks if Brad would just pay the balance off versus keeping a monthly payment. At that low of an interest rate, Brad would not, but because of the intersection between math and psychology, there are others so debt adverse that they would pay it off. For higher interest debt or 8-12% or more, Brad believes that is more of a hair-on-fire scenario in which paying the debt off as quickly as possible would be best. Regardless of which side of the scenario you fall on, there is nuance and stigma. Rather than allow others to tell you what you can and can’t do, it’s important to know yourself and why you make the choice you do. Understanding the why behind the car payment is a better thought exercise. If it’s because it gives you the cash flow to finance even more stuff, it can grow to become a difficult position is dig yourself out of. Financing allows you to trade your most precious non-renewable resource, time, for more stuff. With every dollar you are saving, are you using it to invest, or are you buying more stuff? If you are continuing to buy more stuff, then you are still in the trap and aren’t looking at money as a tool. Because Jonathan is a spender, he wants to keep things simple and doesn’t like having structural payments. In the hypothetical scenario, he would feel the need to pay off even a low-interest rate car loan. The first listener voicemail wants to know how much in retirement is enough to adequately cover long-term care. His original goal was $10 million at age 65. According to the 4% rule, that would give the listener $400,000 a year to live off of, which is a big number. It comes

29 Mar 10:04

306 | Myths and Misconceptions |Diania Merriam

Diania Merriam is the Chief Economeist behind the EconoMe conference, a two-day event at the University of Cincinnati whose roots are in the FIRE movement. In 2019, Diania was preparing for the launch of EconoMe in the spring of 2020. She could not have anticipated the risk of a global pandemic impacting her conference, but it was successfully held on March 7, 2020, just before the event location’s shut down. The 2020 event hosted 250 attendees and nine expert speakers. After putting 20 months of work into the conference, Diania was gratified to hear that 90% of participants loved the event and would recommend it to a friend. Getting together as a community is something that has been missed in the financial independence community over the last year. While some may label the movement as a cult, that is s misconception. Like many others in the financial independence community, Diania felt the need to share content to make it accessible and help those receptive to the message get their financial houses in order, much like Mr. Money Mustache did for her. She finds that many people have preconceived notions and assumptions, thinking that it won’t work for their personal situations, but Diania believes putting more content out there will help others it’s a mindset and there are no hard and fast rules. Although some may believe you have to be a white 3o-something male with a tech career to be in the FIRE movement, Brad points out that is far from the reality ChooseFI sees in its Facebook and local groups. Brad says that 90% of the responses to his weekly email are from women. Financial literacy is for everyone and FIRE is merely an aggressive and enthusiastic brand of it. Though there seems to be an assumption that those in the FIRE movement earn high incomes while eating rice and beans, Diania says in truth, it is rather agnostic when it comes to income. It might be easier for those with high incomes, but those with lower incomes can also improve their finances. The way to improve your finances is to increase income, decrease spending, and invest the gap. What is most important is the gap. The loudest voices in the space tend to talk about frugality because it’s the easiest thing you can do when first starting out, however, ideally, you should be doing both. Jonathan gets angry at the assumption that there’s little to nothing you can do to increase your income. You aren’t stuck at your current salary level. A lot of personal finance content revolves around sacrifice and struggle, but there is a sense of optimism in the FIRE community. You have control over reducing your expenses and increasing your income. Coming across FIRE content helped Diania realize how much priv

29 Mar 10:04

307 | How to Factor My Mortgage Into My FI Number| Live Stereo Q&A

After four weeks of hosting the live weekly show via Stereo, Brad and Jonathan continue to refine the format and come up with ideas for improving the experience. Jonathan needs some specialized dental work performed and the dentist he found is out-of-network. Insurance isn’t going to cover much in this situation, but thankfully, it doesn’t put him in financial straits. As they reminisce about being children of the 80s, Brad and Jonathan come to the conclusion that time moves on and the rulebook changes. If you are stuck in a world that doesn’t exist, you aren’t going to be successful. Be aware that things change and be open-minded. Google is coming out with its own certificate programs in project management, data analytics, and user experience design through Coursera what will cost most around $250. Google is partnering with 130 other companies to partner with them to hire the graduates of these programs. In past decades, a college degree may have mattered, but in 2020, employers are looking for what can you do or what have you done, not necessarily the degree. Listener Colin called in to say that he started a side hustle last year teaching people computer programming and asked about how to go about finding new clients. Jonathan says that as a business owner, Colin has a product he has created and needs to figure out how to deliver that product, ensure a great experience, find new customers, and finally scale and grow the business. For Colin’s business, is there an awareness problem or is there a problem converting awareness into sales? Brad says something that has worked for him is making connections within his niche and be authentic. Jonathan suggests establishing yourself as a subject matter expert using LinkedIn and Quora and a blog or podcast to begin attracting people interested in the subject. Another thing Colin should do is demonstrate his course has value, get testimonials, and constantly test and iterate. Marjorie called in because she knows how much Jonathan loves the Paprika app, but recommends a similar app called Whisk. It can download recipes from the internet, but you can also take pictures of recipes to upload to the app. Plus, it organizes recipes really well, has a weekly meal planner, and can create a shopping list. The next caller said she loved the coaching call that Jonathan did with Corrine and would love to hear more of those kinds of episodes. Jonathan worked with Households of FI member, Corrine to map out her FI number. Jonathan recommends watching the video for that episode because he shared a lot of screenshots while working with Corrine. Similar to the recipe app Whisk, Brad said that he could have saved money on his recent CT scan

29 Mar 10:04

308 | 102 Business Ideas for Kids |Simple Startup with Arianna and Sheila

Do you have a budding entrepreneur at home? Help them bring their business ideas to life, learn the value of money, and gain future-proof skills. About a year ago, Rob Phelan, launched The Simple StartUp workbook and live coaching series aimed at helping kids aged 10-18 develop their first business idea. This episode will highlight lessons learned from his program. The Simple StartUp has given Brad a language to talk with his own girls about business and entrepreneurship. His daughter, Molly, has grasped the concept of affiliate marketing and how it might help her Gardening Gals business. Molly and her friend are now making slime and thinking about the costs of each component in the slime like little businesswomen. Rob says even if she doesn’t become an entrepreneur, she is learning personal finance skills, problem-solving, how to break down costs, and return on investment. These are conversations every parent can be having with their child as we are all customers of different businesses. Rob has put together a document that parents and kids can use as a launch board. Access it for free at ChooseFI.com/idea. At the core of any business idea is something that will solve a problem for someone else. The Simple StartUp tries to help kids get past the idea that they need to come up with the perfect idea before they can start a business. In reality, you’re going to go through multiple businesses or many iterations with your business. It does not need to be super creative or innovative to get started and learn about the process. In his document, Rob came up with 102 ideas that kids ages 10-18 can start at home right now if they have some skills and equipment available. The kids taking Rob’s course usually start with assets they already have by thinking about their skills, hobbies, and interests. They go through a thought exercise of thinking about complaints people have and what solutions they propose for solving them. Can they solve it in such a way that people are willing to pay for it? Parents can prompt their children to go through the thought exercise themselves when they have a complaint about something. Everyone has something that they are marginally better at than the people around them. Annalise messaged Jonathan to let him know that her Easter cards have been released. In The Simple StartUp, she has learned what a powerful selling tool word-of-mouth marketing can be and is working to create super fans by reaching back out to previous customers like Jonathan. What Analiese is doing is core to business development. Like Kevin Kelly states, you can make a living forever if you have 1000 true fans. Recommendations from someone people trust are better than any PR

29 Mar 10:04