A year-end episode featuring voicemails and messages from the ChooseFI community sharing successes, progress, exciting discoveries, and hopes for the next year of our journey toward financial independence.
- Jonathan shares how he’s used a combination of apps to track his per-meal costs and macros.
- Front-load the work and then enjoy the benefits.
- Craig, from Monday’s episode, is an extreme optimizer. Listen to the full episode with Craig Attkinson here.
- It’s always better to make decisions from a strong financial position – doing something scary or new doesn’t have to also be risky.
- Frugality for its own sake isn’t the point; frugality enables opportunity.
- Voicemail from Patricia: she and her husband paid off their mortgage, paid cash for a car, and changed one of their jobs to increase their savings.
- Kamber’s family paid off $30k in debt on a $26k salary with a family of five plus foster children, and are looking at exciting FI plans in the future, including a trip to Disney World to celebrate being debt-free.
- Erin calls in to share how she and her husband are paying off $75k in debt, as well as increasing their savings rate from 15% to 50% which puts them on track to reach FI in 2032.
- A voicemail from Liz, explaining how she’s optimizing her tax rate and estimates that her work to manage and optimize saved her $9,600 this year.
- James and Emily from Rethink the Rat Race made some big changes during the past year including new jobs, purchasing 7 rental units, and reaching Lean FI.
- Voicemail from Kyle, a member of the Virginia National Guard, who listens to ChooseFI during long training exercises, and in 2018 put several FI concepts into practice, including a career change, adjustments to his and his wife’s retirement accounts, purchasing a used car and their first home, and earning enough travel rewards to visit Ireland.
- Nancy shares successes from the year:
- A better 403b plan for teachers at her school and presentations about better investing for teachers and employees.
- Maxed out available retirement and health spending accounts.
- Contributing to lesson plans for teaching financial education.
- A voicemail from Holly, who plans to become a financial coach as her side hustle.
- Cody, from Episode 83, started a blog and a podcast and plans to leave his 9-5 job in just six months.
- A message from Kenneth, who is house hacking, increasing his savings rate, and recently opened a Personal Capital account.
- Danny Kenny explains a handful of year-end tax considerations.
