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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

The Power of Incentives Incentives are one of the most important factors driving human behavior and Charlie Munger speaks eloquently on what he calls the “superpower of incentives” in these short quotes: “Show me the incentive, and I’ll show you the outcome.” “Never, ever, think about something else when you should be thinking about the power of incentives.” If you have some free time and want to read Munger’s brilliant speech on psychological tendencies including a significant section on incentives, I suggest reading the transcript of The Psychology of Human Misjudgment.” This will make you smarter.  Full stop, no question about it. I try to pass along little bite-sized lessons to my daughters which we refer to as “strategy” sessions.  Here’s the most recent strategy session I highlighted on Twitter about incentives: Ask a barber if you need a haircut. What do you think he’ll say? If you are paid by the hour to mow a lawn, will you go fast or slow? If someone gives you advice that goes against their best interests, TRUST THEM FOREVER Life Hack: Google Maps Google Maps ranks as the #1 most important app on my phone.  It is truly essential.  I just realized I have a tip for

What I’m Beyond Excited About A few months ago, I wrote about a deep dive I was taking into the new world of NFTs. It came with a promise that I’d keep you updated because I think this technology will change the way we live nearly on the level of going from no internet to internet. This is a 0 to 1 change that will transform everything.  It isn’t about “owning” some kitschy internet jpeg file like many of the media stories would have you believe, it’s about scarcity, ownership and insider access communities across nearly every aspect of life both online and offline. At first, I thought this was limited to ownership of digital items, but it’s so much more than that. Embedded in this Travel & Leisure article on “How Cryptocurrency NFTs Could Change the Way We Travel” was a simple but transformative use case: “Restaurants are also exploring the technology. Quality Eats, which has two locations in New York City, created an NFT-backed cocktail this spring called Into the Ether. In March an anonymous buyer, Opensea username 7AA335, purchased the drink’s secret recipe as well as the rights to a free round on every visit for .75 Ether, or about $2,000.

Taking Action Sometimes I get an email that is just so amazing it has to be included verbatim in the FI Weekly. Tyler wrote in with the progress they’ve made in the 53 weeks since finding ChooseFI: “This week we made an offer on our first rental property and the offer was accepted! 53 weeks ago, I found the Choose FI podcast. In those 53 weeks my wife, kids (8 and 6) and I have made some big changes. Like you said, nothing to do with pinching pennies but just being wiser with our time and money. In the last 53 weeks we have done the following on our path to FI: I know you and Jonathan didn’t create the FI movement but I wouldn’t have found it without you guys. You have changed my family’s life, THANK YOU!” Brad on Twitter? Words I never thought I’d say: I just joined Twitter. I’m blown away by the value our good friend Brian Feroldi is adding to the world with his Twitter account and he convinced me to join and see if I could do something similar.  I’m planning on making this account a more real-time “FI Weekly” with quick-hit thoughts, ideas, quotes, etc. 

The Essence of FI Part 2 Last week I included a section called the ‘Essence of FI’ and after some reflection, I wanted to add a Part 2: Part of the Essence of FI is how much you love your future self, and how much you value that future self.  It’s easy to merely live in the moment and maximize enjoyment now, with no care for the future you. Enjoying life is essential, but if you reframe delayed gratification as an act of self-love instead of deprivation, I think this slight mental pivot will greatly enrich your day-to-day life.  In my own life, I know I’m giving a gift to my future self when I save money, exercise, eat less, and go to bed instead of scrolling on my phone.     I’ve started a practice of literally thinking about my future self when I grapple with difficult decisions that I know are a long-term benefit, but would be so easy to do the opposite in the short-term. Active Duty Military: Huge Benefit A large percentage of our community is active duty military, so if that’s you or you know someone on active duty, please pass this along: American Express waives

The Essence of FI I was listening to the All The Hacks podcast episode with Morgan Housel and the following quote from jumped out to me as the essence of the financial aspect of FI: “I’ll leave you with one financial hack that might disappoint you, but it’s the only hack that works and it works incredibly well in finance. You want to do well with finance? Spend less money than you make and be patient. That’s 90% of what finance is, and if you can actually do those, you have a black belt in finance.  It’s the only hack that I think really truly works in a way that moves the needle.” It prompted me to reflect on what FI truly means to me.  It certainly isn’t about being cheap, pinching pennies, or living a deprived life in any way. It’s about finding value in everything you purchase, making intentional decisions, and taking action to make life better.  It’s about long-term thinking and the power of simplicity, compounding, and autonomy. It’s about spending time with people you love, doing things that challenge, inspire, and energize you. Simply put, the path to Financial Independence is the road to freedom and a better life. But make no mistake, it

Books I’m Enjoying (Plus a Quote) I’m currently reading two of the best books I’ve read in my entire life (shout out to the FI Weekly community for recommending them!); reading these will definitively make your life better, so first check if your local library has them, but if not, the Amazon links are: The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World’s Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life by William Green In the “Beyond Rich” chapter of Green’s book, this paragraph jumped out to me, as it touches on so many things we talk about at ChooseFI: “Money can provide an invaluable cushion, a lifeline, a critical defense against uncertainty and misfortune.  But it’s not enough.  We also need the mental fortitude and resilience to weather those storms and rebuild in their wake.  For most of us, the quality of our lives depends less on our finances than on inner attributes such as equanimity, acceptance, hope, trust, appreciation, and determined optimism.  As John Milton wrote in Paradise Lost, which he dictated after going blind, “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven.” Two

Take Action The main reason ChooseFI exists is to inspire you to take action to make your life better. Small changes compound to something significant, and you’ll be amazed how wonderful it feels to get started taking control of your life! A friend of mine recently found the FI Community, and he asked for ideas he could implement today to get started with some quick but significant wins. Here are the items we talked about for huge impact, but minimal effort (and this represents a small fraction of easy things YOU can do no matter where you are on the Path to FI): Look into refinancing your mortgage. Admittedly this isn’t minimal effort to complete, but getting a quote is nearly effortless and you potentially could save hundreds of dollars every month in mortgage payments. Change your cell phone carrier to either Mint Mobile or Republic Wireless. If you’re still with a legacy carrier, this can be a massive savings every month! Open an investment account at a place like Vanguard or M1 Finance. My friend thought he needed to wait until he had $3,000 to invest in the VTSAX mutual fund, but I told him about the exchange-traded fund symbol VTI which is nearly

Live Event with Paula Pant If you haven’t yet listened to ChooseFI Episode 330 with Paula Pant, it is quite likely the most important podcast on real estate you’re going to hear this year! Paula explored why this time it truly is different in the overall housing market, and gave us detailed, actionable steps on how to navigate this market both as a buyer and seller. I’m also excited to announce that Paula and Jonathan are co-hosting a ‘virtual live event’ next Monday June 28 at 8pm ET to help you “discover how you can make more money without going back to school.” You can register for the live event at Affordanything.com/career Turn Everything into a 5-star Experience The ‘My First Million’ podcast episode entitled “How to Turn Any Bad Experience into a Good One” is only 7 minutes long, but it is absolutely loaded with mindset-altering gold, and presents one of the most important concepts of all: Your state of mind and how you frame an experience is a huge component of your outcome (or perceived outcome). The question they posed, was “How do you turn everything into a 5-star experience?” The person in question was dreading going to the

New Adventures One of the things I’m personally working on as part of the mastermind group I’m in with Dominick Quartuccio is being open to new adventures in life. Too often I don’t seek out new experiences or doing something I’m either scared of, or could fail at. It’s nice to have routines, but routines become boring when you don’t mix it up at all. Exactly one year ago in this newsletter I mentioned Ben Aldridge’s book, “How to Be Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable: 43 Weird & Wonderful Ways to Build a Strong, Resilient Mindset” and I coincidentally just picked it back up again this week as part of my “Adventures in Life” project. I’m now on the lookout for adventures of all types, no matter how small. My definition of adventure is loose, basically just going outside of my comfort zone and trying something my brain would normally steer me clear of. Adventure #1 last week: I saw a friend at the pool who had the telltale signs of the “cupping therapy” on her back (famously Michael Phelps showed up at the Olympics with these marks all over his back). Within 24 hours I had my first session plus a massage

One Year of the FI Weekly Tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the FI Weekly Newsletter! I can’t tell you how much I’ve enjoyed writing this and reading your replies full of wins, questions, actions taken, etc. fills me with more joy than you can imagine. I’m hopelessly behind on responding to all your emails, but please know that I do read each and every one of them! A trip down memory lane from newsletter #1: Book: The Infinite Game by Simon Sinek. Even for long-term FI thinkers this book is a game changer. I now think in terms an ‘infinite’ (200+ year) timeline. Simply put, a must-read. Life Hack: Camel Camel Camel is the horribly named site that’s an invaluable tool for any Amazon.com shopper. Prices fluctuate up to 50% on every item (seriously), so set a price alert and get an email when it drops below your purchase threshold. Investing Philosophy When I polled the community on your Favorite Books of 2020, the most frequently mentioned was The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel. I listen to a lot of podcasts, and the recent episode of ‘We Study Billionaires’ with Morgan (Episode TIP351) was one of the best I’ve ever heard.

A Full Review of Your Finances Cody Garrett, one of the most helpful and active members of our community and a CFP, recently posted the following in our FB group: “When is the last time you completed a FULL review of your finances? If you don’t know where to start, here’s a data gathering checklist that includes the most common documents to review.” ​Click here to see the entire list and be sure to bookmark this for an annual review. The Simple StartUp Summer Challenge Registration is closing on June 7th for this Summer’s The Simple StartUp’s group course and I wanted to pass along the info: The Simple StartUp is hosting a 6-week Summer Challenge group to help aspiring 10-18 year old entrepreneurs figure out a business idea, and then turn it into a profitable venture. Rob Phelan is the host and he will guide your child through all the steps to getting started through video lessons, live webinars twice a week, and a thriving exclusive online community of current and past Simple StartUp participants (if you want to hear success stories, check out Episodes 271 and 308 of ChooseFI). The time commitment each week is flexible and all the