Four Day Work Week
I was fascinated by this Twitter thread from Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow announcing that:
“Bolt is now the first tech unicorn to permanently switch to a 4 day work week
Our 3 month experiment proved every core thesis:
Heightened
1/ Productivity
2/ Engagement
3/ Wellness”
Breslow’s thread is worth a 3-minute read, as I strongly suspect more companies will move this way in the future, and I know we have a lot of business owners in the community who likely should be contemplating this change.
I never understood the concept of being stuck at an office for a certain prescribed length of time if I could do the work both well and in a shorter amount of time. You shouldn’t penalize your best employees by forcing them to “work” extra hours than is necessary to complete their tasks.
Breslow summarized their learnings from this experiment (quoted):
- Learning 1: More days doesn’t mean more done
- Learning 2: Focus predicts success
- Learning 3: Creativity is the holy grail
- Learning 4: Everyone’s more present
- Learning 5: We are happier
Brian Feroldi Book Launch
We are excited to announce that our latest book from Choose FI Publishing is now available for pre-order everywhere books are sold!
Written by Brian Feroldi, one of our all-time most popular guests on ChooseFI and one of the most influential personal finance voices on Twitter, Why Does The Stock Market Go Up?: Everything You Should Have Been Taught About Investing In School, But Weren’t breaks down the most common questions everyday people have about the stock market and investing in easy to understand terms.
This book will make investing and the stock market clear in plain English and even though I know I’m biased, I honestly think it’s the most important book on understanding the basics of investing written in a very long time.
Why Does The Stock Market Go Up? will release on April 5, 2022 and if you preorder the book now, you’ll get an exclusive invitation to join me, Jonathan and Brian on a Live Q&A Event in early April.
Quote I’m Pondering
“That is the single best piece of advice I’ve heard on this show: It’s okay not to know where you’ll be, who you’ll be, what you’ll be doing in five to ten years. And it’s not just okay to not know, it’s wonderful. My life changed more in the last 10 years than I could have ever imagined.”
— Steven Levitt, host of the People I (Mostly) Admire podcast and co-author of Freakonomics
ChooseFI Community Taking Action This Week
- Kathy said, “I wanted to share two wins this week that brought me great joy: 1. My 18-year-old told me that his college roommate (also 18) has been working for three years and does not have an IRA. My son took it upon himself to share information on how to set one up and the reasons for doing so early. Glad that the lessons we taught him took hold! 2. We were able to provide our Airbnb for free to an Afghan refugee for several months. Our coast FI situation meant we didn’t need the income to meet expenses and allowed us to instead use our bounty to help someone in need.”
- Nick said, “My 1% better is getting all of my annual changes taken care of at the beginning of the year…adjusting my 401(k) contribution upward to hit the new $20,500 limit, transferring $6,000 to my Roth IRA, buying $10,000 in I bonds, making a 529 contribution for my daughter (which provides a state tax deduction in our state), and doing an overall asset rebalance. Now I can enjoy the maximum time in the market for 2022 and I don’t have to take any action until Todoist reminds me to repeat the cycle in January 2023.”
- Janis said, “My 1% better is this – every year my family does a Q1 spendfast. For the first three months of the year we only buy what we “need,” not what we “want.” Basically, all the bills get paid (obviously), groceries, and gas. If something comes up, we determine if it’s a need or a want. One year I had to replace a toilet – definitely a need. It’s fairly easy to do this as it follows the holidays, where wants have been purchased. If a want does come up, it is noted. On April 1st it is reconsidered. Often the want is no longer important. This helps our family to focus on priorities – both with money and time/energy – and sets the tone for remainder of the year.”
- Brian said, “My 1% better was doing an annual financial audit for the first time. It’s was amazing to see what we achieved in the past year and what we can achieve over the next 12 months. Turns out we’re way closer to our FI number then I thought, with it just 5 years away!”
- Kelly said, “Our 1% was signing up for the employer’s new HSA/High Deductible Health Plan, getting a nice employer contribution to the HSA, and maxing out the rest. Health plan savings $1700. Free employer HSA contribution of $1500. Medicare taxes saved on HSA contributions $84. And, with the increased HSA savings, we can cover the remaining balance of our kid’s braces tax-free – taxes saved $360. Not to mention earnings on the HSA monies that stay invested! Additionally, we are paying the orthodontist on a points-earning credit card for an additional savings of $31. Lastly, I lost an earring the week before Christmas when it fell down a heat register. The husband bought me replacement earrings for $170. But I was determined and found a creative way to retrieve the lost earring (after 100+ attempts). New earrings got returned. Savings of $170. Wahooo!”
- Barbara said, “My 1% is I made some phone calls to better align investments and max out the options I had pretax! I had procrastinated so long and it took all of ten minutes!”
