Saving Time on Vacation
We’re on vacation right now and one of the biggest frustrations is how much focus goes into what we’re going to do each day for meals.
The time and energy that goes into finding restaurants, or going to a grocery store, shopping, cooking, etc. is ridiculous.
The entire vacation ends up revolving around the simple act of eating.
My wife Laura had a brilliant plan this vacation and she fried up 4 lbs. of chicken cutlets at home before we left and packed them in a cooler for our road trip (along with the sandwiches she made for the road trip itself!).
When we got to the Airbnb, we immediately froze them and then were able to pull them out of the freezer during the week. This amounted to a combination of 4+ dinners/lunches throughout the week and just lightened the cognitive load of “what are on Earth are we going to do for our next meal?” each day.
To be clear, this did save a good bit of money over eating out those four meals, but the primary benefit we found was the time savings.
Everything is Negotiable
Episode 119 of the ChooseFI podcast introduced us to the concept of “everything is negotiable,” which proved to be one of the most enduring rallying calls for our community in the 2.5 years since it came out.
Got this email from Tara which illustrates it perfectly:
“Guys, I just wanted to thank both of you and also Paula Pant at Afford Anything. You had her on your podcast on Episode 330 and were talking about the house buying process. One thing she said was that “the asking price is the asking price,” meaning that the asking price may or may not have anything to do with what you actually offer on the house.
We used this advice directly recently: We had some knowledge about recent sales in the neighborhood, so we knew the house was overpriced, but Paula’s advice on your podcast gave me the courage to go in with an offer that was $130,000 under asking price.
It was a long crazy story after that, but we’re now under contract for the house for $124,000 under asking price. I think if I hadn’t recently heard that episode with Paula, I never would have bothered putting an offer in. Instead, we close on the 24th of August!”
Search for Positivity
“There is an endless amount of negativity if you search for it and there is an endless amount of positivity if you search for it. So, search for positivity.”
— Brian Feroldi on the The Business Brew Podcast
ChooseFI Community Taking Action This Week
- Jake said, “Jake said, “I made a big move this week. I applied for a 1 year leave of absence from my job. I am waiting to hear if it gets approved. I am excited to have more time to spend with my family and to work on my rental properties business and my free Airbnb course. I am able to make this move due to the amazing financial base I created through a FI mindset. This may also act as a trial of leaving my job depending on how things go. Excited for new possibilities. Thanks as always for keeping me motivated and on track.”
- Samantha said, “Because of FI and having a solid knowledge of how we use our money to create a life we love, my husband was able to safely leave a job he hated and take on his dream job even when it meant taking a pay cut. We’re still a ways off from FI but this move was going to make his everyday life so much happier and more rewarding. What’s better is that he can take the train to work now which means we could sell one of our cars and use that money to fund a big central air project to improve our home without taking on any extra debt! Just yesterday we received his payout from his paid time off at his old job and it was enough to put us over the $100k net worth mark which just makes it feel like a sign that this was the best move for our family!!”
- Juan said, “Our 1% better this week is that I finally took action on starting a new side hustle. I just applied for my notary license and once I get it, I will start doing loan signings. I will be using the loan system course by Mark Wills to get my side hustle going. I also got ordained to perform marriage ceremonies in the state of Washington which I will do when they come up.”
- Maggie said, “My 1% better is that I talked to my manager about my salary not reflecting my worth in the market, matching my peers or my time with the company. Unfortunately, he said no and that there was nothing he could do but I count this as 1% better because now I have confirmation that even though they say they value me a lot, they will not back it up. Getting that no is my fuel to jump start skilling up in some new skills to hopefully find a work from home job I enjoy more in the near future.”
- Kosta said, “My 1% this week is passing the defined contribution – 3 exam and earning the Qualified 401k Consultant (QKC) designation! Ever since listening to the podcast and hearing the argument between degrees and certificates I have been on a certification frenzy. Since 2019 I’ve earned the Wealth Management Specialist certification, Qualified 401k Administrator (QKA) and recent the QKC. This has led me to take my income from $49k to $64k and 2 promotions. The cost? $0. My work reimbursement program paid me back for all the certifications/designations as long as I passed the exams.”
- Matt said, “My 1% this week has been moving my money from a managed fund that was charging about 1.2% fees to vanguard VTI ETF charging 0.03%. And at the same time, I set up a $2800 per month automatic payment to the VTI fund.”
