Travel Rewards Success! My family has cancelled numerous trips since March 2020 and haven’t really had a travel rewards “success story” in years. That ended this week with a big win. We were able to use points to book The Atlantis resort in the Bahamas for this coming spring break using Marriott points! We were …
Continue reading “December 6, 2022: Travel Rewards Success, Optimize Sleep, Who We Spend Time With”
Simple Path, Index Funds & Long-Term Thinking We have a big week on the podcast this week starting with the episode that dropped yesterday (411) with JL Collins on The Simple Path to Wealth. This is a great refresher on long-term thinking, investing in low-cost index funds and the simplicity in matching the market over many …
Continue reading “November 29, 2022: Simple Path, Book Club Input, Saving on Medical Care”
Giving Thanks With this week of Thanksgiving upon us in America, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all our public servants and men and women in uniform. That generally sounds trite, but I was reminded of their essential nature just last night when we had a carbon monoxide alarm go off in our …
Continue reading “November 22, 2022: Giving Thanks, Munger Quotes on Investing”
Year-End Tax Planning I’m publishing a podcast episode this Friday with Sean Mullaney, the FI Tax Guy, about 401(k)s, the Mega Backdoor Roth and Premium Tax Credits for the ACA and in a case of great timing, Sean just released his “2022 Year-End Tax Planning” article. The article lists out numerous essential tax deadlines and considerations …
Continue reading “November 15, 2022: Year-End Tax Planning, 2022 FI Wins, Updates and Corrections”
Tax Gain Harvesting Ava wrote in: “I feel like a lot of your guests talk about tax gain harvesting as something to do only when they quit their jobs and have no income, but I took advantage of it while I was still working. When I was making about $50,000 in 2020, the taxable income …
Check Engine Light DIY Fix The FI Designer from DesigningFI.com wrote in with some important info: “In Episode 402, Vivian said that her car had an engine replacement and an ongoing engine warning light was adding stress to her life. I wanted to share some advice that may help Vivian and the greater FI community. …
Continue reading “November 1, 2022: Check Engine Light, PMI Removal Hack, AMA Episodes”
2023 IRS Updated Limits and Deductions The IRS just came out with the tax year 2023 update for a few essential items, which were all favorably adjusted: Free Course on Creating an Extraordinary Life I recently had the pleasure of recording an episode with Alan and Katie Donegan on the topic of index funds, which …
Continue reading “October 25, 2022: IRS 2023 Limits, Free Extraordinary Life Course, Buy or Rent?”
ChooseFI Book Club Ginger wrote in with a great idea of doing a ChooseFI Book Club and I jumped on it. The first installment is tentatively going to air on Friday December 16th. The book we picked is ‘Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals’ by Oliver Burkeman, which was recommended by numerous members of our community and …
Continue reading “October 18, 2022: ChooseFI Book Club, Library Hacks, Remove PMI”
Deep Dive on Social Security Benefits I received a helpful email from Matt, who researched a really important topic we honestly haven’t done a wonderful job covering at ChooseFI: Social Security benefits. Here’s what Matt sent in: “I went down a rabbit hole and learned how to more accurately estimate my social security benefit by accounting …
Taking Action: Online Security On Episode 397 that released yesterday, I spoke with Tom, a longtime FI Community member, about common sense steps you can take to secure your online & financial life. Today is the day I challenge you to take action to make it happen! At the very least, if you don’t have secure passwords, …
Continue reading “October 4, 2022: Net Worth Tracking, Online Security, Keys to Happier Living”
Money Saving Tips from Laura Over the years I’ve mentioned a number of my wife’s money-saving hacks on the podcast and the community has always wanted more! Laura was kind enough to write up some tips for the FI Weekly: “Hello FI Weekly readers! Laura here making a guest appearance and taking over the FI Weekly this …
Continue reading “September 27, 2022: Tips from Laura, Chrome Safety and Extensions”
The Cost of Admission for Investing Here’s a long quote from Morgan Housel, author of The Psychology of Money, with one of the best illustrations of the mentality needed for successful long-term investing in the stock market regarding normal volatility: “Anything worth pursuing in life, that has a benefit, has a price attached to it. …
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