Updates & Inspiration for Your Financial Independence Journey

What are you Trying to Master? With the help of author Daniel Pink’s framework, we’ve identified five main motivating factors that drive much of human behavior:  Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose, Identity and Connection. I want to focus today on ‘Mastery’, as I think this aspect of motivation often gets overlooked entirely. Sure, many students and those early in their careers are consciously pursuing knowledge and mastery, but honestly, how many older people are actually trying to “master” any new skill or learn anything new at all? I think the answer is just about nobody. Routines turn into ruts and we just don’t have the energy, time or motivation to even attempt to learn anything new. I know I was guilty of this for a solid decade of my adult life.  But something shifted and I now relish the “white belt beginner’s mindset” which amounts to being terrible at something but soaking up all the knowledge I can with a long-term goal of attaining some level of mastery. I still have a long way to go, but just in the past five years I’ve taken up weightlifting, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and the Japanese language. It’s motivating knowing each is a long-term effort that may take

Simple Tips for Online Security I recently chatted with a friend in the cyber security field about some of the common-sense online security practices I follow, and he thought it was a good 80/20 analysis of low-hanging fruit to get the vast majority of the benefits of being safe online without it being overwhelming.  There’s always another rabbit hole to dive down in online security (VPNs, throwaway email addresses, etc., etc.), so this is not an authoritative list certainly, but just some smart practices you can implement today to be a little bit safer: Turn on Two-Factor Authentication (extra login security notifications, etc.) everywhere possible.  This includes all financial sites, plus high value accounts like all your email and social media. Use a highly regarded password manager such as Lastpass or 1Password and take the time to update every password so it is unique and generated with 20+ characters, with symbols, numbers and letters. Then make sure your “master password” is something you’ll never forget but is as unbreakable as possible! Do everything you can to NOT click on links in emails you receive purporting to be “official” emails. These ‘phishing’ emails are quite sophisticated so even if they look official, I just

10 Things I’m Thankful for in 2021 I thought it would be fun during Thanksgiving week to highlight some things I am thankful for.  Practicing gratitude is one of the keys to happiness, so I wanted to take this chance to share ’10 Things I’m Thankful For’ with you: 1.     My daughters’ amazing teachers and coaches: We are so appreciative of what these teachers and coaches do for our girls on a daily basis. Teachers and coaches work hard every day to ensure our kids have a happy place to learn, grow and thrive and this year with all the additional challenges, it’s especially important to thank them. 2.     Low-cost Index Funds: With the click of a button, and for almost zero fees, I get to become a partial owner of 3,000+ companies.  This would be almost impossible to do without the index fund revolution. 3.     Automated bill-pay: Not sitting down every month to write a bunch of checks, making sure I have stamps, and not missing any deadlines.  This frees up so much mental space. 4.     My incredible wife and kids: Words can’t do justice to how thankful for and lucky I am to have these three ladies in my life. They bring me

2022 Limitations for 401k, IRA & HSA This week I came across an article from CNBC describing how the IRS increased the 401k contribution limits for 2022 plus one from Kiplinger’s on the 2022 HSA limits. While I suggest looking at both of them in more depth (especially if you’re 50 and older as you have the opportunity for additional contributions to some accounts), the highlights are: 401k contributions: Employee contributions increased to $20,500 for 2022.  Per the article, “The new amounts also apply to 403(b), most 457 and Thrift Savings Plans.” IRA contributions remain the same at $6,000 HSA contribution limits for 2022: self-coverage = $3,650. Family coverage = $7,300 Mad Fientist Quote on FI It’s a rare treat when Brandon, the Mad Fientist, posts a new podcast episode and his release this week didn’t disappoint.  This quote jumped out to me immediately: “For me, back then, it (FI) was a finish line.  Everything was going to be great after that finish line and everything wasn’t working prior to that finish line.  And I think that was definitely the wrong way to do it. I think the more you can view it as just a spectrum where every dollar you’re saving is adding to that power

Year-End Tax Planning It’s hard to believe how quickly 2021 is coming to a close – December 31st will be here before you know it and that means it’s a good time to make sure all your year-end tax items are in order.  Our good friend Sean Mullaney, the FI Tax Guy, put out an updated ‘2021 Year-End Tax Planning’ article with all the deadlines and considerations you need to be aware of for both 12/31 and future deadlines for tax year 2021. Everything in the article won’t be applicable to you, but I got great value out of scanning the article to make sure I had everything covered ahead of time. My suggestion is that your 5 minutes of FI action this week should be to click on Sean’s article now while you still have time to make changes and plan ahead.  This could potentially save you thousands! Mental Models: Cost -Benefit Analysis Our ChooseFI website team continues to put out high-quality content that not only highlights the fundamentals of Financial Independence, but dives into the mental models you need to succeed at life. Ray wrote a masterful article on “Cost-Benefit Analysis and Financial Independence” that we published yesterday.  As a former poker player, he

A Tale of Action Over 9 Years On occasion I get an email response to the FI Weekly that is so astounding I have to include it verbatim in the newsletter.  Jo wrote in: “I have a couple of amazing things I wanted to share on the 1% better front! Officially, I have just one college class left to complete my bachelor’s degree, years ahead of schedule, thanks to taking and transferring 13 classes from Sophia.org! (Brad note: We talked about this site and concept in-depth with the Millionaire Educator on Episode 238 of ChooseFI) This alone saved me $12,480!! And the last class will be reimbursed in full by my employer, which will bring my total reimbursed tuition to $6,960! The sticker price for my online degree from SNHU would have been about $40,000 but in total out of pocket for me was only $18,065. **Now, the ROI on the $18k investment** I work in healthcare in Boston, MA and the job market here puts a huge premium on education; specifically, to make the jump to leadership you truly need a minimum of an undergrad degree. Knowing this, I enrolled in an online program through SNHU and have been slowly chipping

Taking Action is the Goal The (not so subtle) secret behind the FI Weekly newsletter is this: My entire goal is to inspire you to take life-changing action.  And it starts small, one little change after another, until your life has radically transformed for the better. Last week I linked up a Forbes article that gave exact directions on how you could take 5 minutes and check if you had “unclaimed money” with your current (and prior) state of residence. Here are some wins from the community from people who clicked and took action: Miranda said, “I found almost $18,000 of unclaimed money for an immediate relative and made her day today by sending her the attached screenshot! AMAZING! She had no idea but she will definitely be getting in touch with the comptroller’s office :)” Debi said, “I found $58 in Florida and my family has some money in Missouri they didn’t know about!” Steven said, “I was able to claim over $200, including $50 from my grandfather who died before I was born…Oh snap! It was actually $800! I had an unclaimed auto insurance payout for… ???. Who cares!? Haha. Thanks Brad!” Cory said, “I recently went on the unclaimed money scavenger

Do You Have Unclaimed Money? Here’s an incredibly easy action step for the week: I came across an article in Forbes that details how there’s $49 billion in unclaimed property sitting with the treasury departments of the 50 states that actually belongs to the citizens but hasn’t yet been claimed.  “Unclaimed money can come from a range of sources, including abandoned checking and savings accounts, company refunds, annuities, customer overpayments, payroll checks, investment accounts, trust distributions, life insurance payments and utility security deposits. It can also include physical items that were abandoned in safe deposit boxes such as precious metals.” Click through to the Forbes article and they have a state-by-state listing map of “Unclaimed Property Websites By State.”  Couldn’t hurt to take 3 minutes and see if you have any money that’s rightfully yours! Die With Zero JL Collins recommended the book “Die With Zero” by Bill Perkins as a way to expand my mental framework on spending money, and I’m really enjoying it.  While the title might lead you believe Perkins’ thesis is counter to the FI Mindset of saving for the future (dying with $0??), I think it adds nuance and context to what a ‘life well lived’ actually looks

Around the FI Community I wanted to do a quick roundup of some of the ways you can get involved with the FI Community either through online communities or, depending on your comfort level, ‘in real life’ meetups & events: ChooseFI Local Groups: The lifeblood of the ChooseFI community is the 300+ Local Groups we have in 300 cities across the world. Obviously the last 18 months have made meetups nearly impossible, but that is changing as we’ve seen groups get creative with outdoor events, and you can still join your closest local group to get involved in the community online. The Simple StartUp Winter Challenge Rob Phelan’s The Simple StartUp course for young entrepreneurs is back open for enrollment! This is an 8-week interactive online course running January 12 – March 9, 2022.  If you have a budding entrepreneur at home (generally ages 10-18), looking to gain real-world skills in starting a business with little to no startup costs, then you need to look into TSSU. Rob will be on ChooseFI this coming Monday to talk about TSSU and you can go back and listen to Episode 308 where we chat with Arianna about the business she started during the course. Camp FI For

Salary Negotiation Wins I’m continually blown away by how much the concept of salary negotiation has resonated with the ChooseFI Community.  I’d recommend you go back and listen to these two actionable episodes on salary negotiation that contain specific scripts of what you should say to create a win-win for you and your employer: Here are the two wins from the community I wanted to highlight this week:    Sandy: “This week my 1% better is an 18% raise!! I listened (and re-listened!) to episode 211 with the Financial Mechanic and took notes about how to negotiate my salary. I did my own market research, applied for another job to gauge what I could potentially get paid, (landed an offer and negotiated that starting salary – first timer here!) and then used that competing offer as leverage to ask for a raise in my current position. My current employer was appreciative that I came to them before leaving the company and agreed to match the competing offer! Now, I know I am getting paid my worth and I am that much closer to FI! You never know unless you ask! My brother shared this podcast with me ~2 years ago and

Favorite Board Games Last month in the newsletter, I wrote out my case for the significant benefits of board games to make you a better decision-maker & negotiator, plus how they help you focus on both long-term and probabilistic thinking.  In short, I think board games are one of the best tools to upgrade your mental skillset for life. I promised I’d list some of our favorite games other than just Catan and Ticket to Ride – the old favorites that I always mention. This is also your chance to use one of my other favorite life hacks: CamelCamelCamel.com (CCC).  Create an account at their site and you can copy the website URL of any product from Amazon.com into the search box at the top of CCC and see how the price changes over time.  For instance, as I’m writing this, Catan is $42.95 but one glance at the chart at CCC shows it often goes down into the $24-$28 range.  You can set a “Price Watch” and they’ll email you when your item drops down to the price you ideally want to pay.  And you can do this on ANY product on Amazon.  It’s crazy how much prices change throughout the year. Our Top 10 Board Games: Dominion:

4 Years of Consistent Action Jen wrote in last week with an email detailing consistent action taken over the last 4+ years of listening to ChooseFI and I wanted to copy it here verbatim: “Long time listener from episode 1, but a first-time contributor. Our family has made countless 1% better moves over the past 4 years since I first began listening, including: We are in our mid-40s and are now on track to be work-optional by 2030, right when our kids are finishing up college (if they decide to go that route!). Thanks to the entire ChooseFI team for such consistently actionable content! Jen” The Cheat Code to Life I listened to the most recent Mad Fientist podcast and he quoted a brilliant message from Mrs. PoP from Planting our Pennies: “There is no downside to having a high net worth – it acts like a giant shock absorber that smooths over life’s bumps, and after a while, it feels like life is a game and you’ve discovered the mother of all cheat codes.” Laura and I have always thought of our path to FI as living essentially the same middle-class life as everyone around us, but still saving,