Updates & Inspiration for Your Financial Independence Journey

The ‘Most Warren Buffett Question Ever’ In his newsletter, George Mack highlighted a thought experiment Warren Buffett posed that I wanted to highlight here (all directly quoted from Mack’s newsletter): In 2001, Warren Buffett gave a talk at the University of Georgia. He asked them the most Warren Buffett question ever: If you could invest in a friend and get 10% of their income for life — who would you pick? Once the students answered the question, he then asked this: • Why would you invest in that person? • What character traits do they have? Now they have a list of character traits to adopt. Shortly after this, Buffett asked: If you could short a friend’s earnings, who would you pick and why? Now you have a list of character traits to avoid. —- 1. Do not think this thought experiment is only about money. You can use it for whatever currency you value. E.g. Happiness coin If you could get 10% of a friend’s happiness, who would you invest in and why? If you could short someone’s happiness, who would you pick and why? You can run the same thought experiment with Fitness coin, Friendship coin, Romance coin, etc`

Investing is a Two-Step Process As discussed with Tori Dunlap on Episode 494, one of the biggest errors we see people make is when they contribute to their retirement account or move money to their taxable brokerage account and stop there thinking that money is “invested” because it’s in their account at Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab, etc. So many people just have the money sit there idle (for years or decades) because they didn’t take the next step and actually purchase investments like an ETF or mutual fund. [Before some sticklers respond saying “but you can do it in one step!” and make the purchase so the cash goes directly into your investment of an ETF or mutual fund: Yes, some of us do that in one step, but most people don’t unfortunately.] Action step: Review all your accounts and see if you have any cash sitting around that you actually intended to be invested in the market and initiate that transaction to get it working for you! I actually found I had a few thousand dollars sitting in one of my Vanguard accounts and I promptly made a purchase of VTI to get it invested ASAP. Are You Actually Invested in a Money Market Fund?

Preparing for an International Trip I’m getting set to take a trip to Europe — first to Barcelona and then to London to see Taylor Swift. There will of course be an amusement park trip plus we’re doing some fun, wacky things like taking a trapeze class in Kensington Gardens in the middle of London. Here are a few tips and tricks I’ve picked up over the years: Undoubtedly there are things I’m missing on this list, but it’s a good start for some important items you may forget before your next international trip! [** Here’s how I download offline Google maps on Android: Search for the city name then click on the actual city name (it doesn’t look clickable). Then click the 3 dots menu in the upper right and click ‘Download Offline Map.’ You can then zoom on the area you want for the offline map and click ‘Download.’ I also suggest doing this for your local state/city/area!] Design Your Extraordinary Life Exercise If you haven’t listened to Episode 493: Design Your Extraordinary Life with Katie & Alan Donegan yet, I can’t recommend it highly enough! It was an incredible live episode from Las Vegas featuring many members of our community, my co-host

What I’m Reading, Watching, Playing Reading: My reading pace has slowed a bit the past month, but I’m still working my way through a few books. I mentioned Stoicism and Ryan Holiday’s book ‘The Daily Stoic’ here a few weeks ago, and my friend Matt gave me a stack of Ryan’s other books, so I’m starting from ‘The Obstacle is the Way’ and also concurrently reading a page a day of ‘The Daily Stoic’ and ‘The Daily Dad.’ Since finishing Brandon Sanderson’s ‘The Stormlight Archive’ books, I’m in the market for a new fantasy series, so if you have something to recommend, definitely let me know! Watching: I’ve watched a lot of English Premier League football (soccer) over the past few months, especially as the season came to a thrilling end this past week. While it was sad to see my beloved Arsenal fall just short of their first title in 20 years, I have turned watching matches into fun events: While visiting NYC a few weekends ago, I found a bar where Arsenal supporters gathered to watch them beat Tottenham. The energy of watching this communally was really something special. That emboldened me to seek out the Arsenal supporters in Richmond, and I

Is the Stock Market a Casino? Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports posted a ridiculous tweet that got over 3 million views where he said: “My problem with the stock market is it’s just one big casino where the people in charge rig it to (expletive) over the little guy and make all the money for themselves.” My response to this kind of emotional outburst is simple: Owning a share of stock means you are a part owner of that company. A company like Ford broke ownership of their company into 4 billion little pieces, each one represented as one share of their stock. There’s no gambling involved in long-term ownership of companies. The only people who think the stock market is gambling are people treating the stock market like a casino. If you don’t ‘believe’ in stock market investing at all, that means there is literally no publicly traded company in the United States that you want to be an owner of. That’s impossible. So, let’s be clear, investing in the stock market isn’t gambling and it isn’t some nebulous unknown. You are buying small ownership stakes in companies. In the case of a total stock market index fund, you

In what has become an annual segment in the FI Weekly, Kevin Kelly is back on his 72nd birthday with 101 Additional Advices (I wish I had known).

2 Minute Walk After a Meal The Path to FI allows us to focus on what’s really important in life and health is at or near the top of that list! I’m always looking out for highly beneficial tips that are easy to implement and here’s one I wanted to pass along: The New York Times published an article entitled, “Just 2 Minutes of Walking After a Meal is Surprisingly Good for You.” The article said: “Walking after a meal, conventional wisdom says, helps clear your mind and aids in digestion. Scientists have also found that going for a 15-minute walk after a meal can reduce blood sugar levels, which can help ward off complications such as Type 2 diabetes. But, as it turns out, even just a few minutes of walking can activate these benefits.” “In a meta-analysis, recently published in the journal Sports Medicine, researchers looked at the results of seven studies that compared the effects of sitting versus standing or walking on measures of heart health, including insulin and blood sugar levels. They found that light walking after a meal, in increments of as little as two to five minutes, had a significant impact in moderating blood sugar levels.” It’s

Core Stoic Beliefs I picked up Ryan Holiday’s book ‘The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living’ and I’m going through it one page per day as per the construct of the book. It reminded me of a prior segment I wrote in the newsletter 3 years ago, which is worth highlighting again: “One of our finalists for a new project management software for ChooseFI is Basecamp, which prompted me to go back and listen to Episode 195 of The Tim Ferriss Show with Basecamp co-founder David Heinemeier Hansson. Among the many gems was their discussion of stoic philosophy and David’s article “It’s Always Your Fault.” This isn’t about beating yourself up needlessly, but instead turning the power around from the elusive “they” impacting you, to YOU being the source of power. Tim remembered a powerful question a former coach asked him that I think is important for each of us to ask ourselves: “How are you complicit in creating the conditions you say you don’t want?” To round this out, here’s a 2-minute video from Jocko Willink entitled “Good.” I hit this up for a little extra dose of motivation every now and again; it’s pretty

Valuing Social Security as an Asset Should we value social security as an asset in our FI number? My friend Jesse Cramer (guest on the podcast next month) put together a compelling case that we not only should value social security in our FI calculations, but also roughly how much the value is based on the income stream. (Hint: nearly $400,000 per person) I think the vast majority of us pursuing FI are way too conservative when it comes to our safe withdrawal rates, not counting social security at all plus padding our annual expenses so our FI number is just a little “safer.” This all adds up to working extra years needlessly. Jesse’s article, ‘Valuing Social Security as an Asset in Your Retirement Plan’ is a quick read and hopefully helps you feel more comfortable including social security in your FI calculations. What Recent Accomplishments Make You Feel Proud? One of my favorite recent posts in the Facebook group came from community member Thichimy Sophie Nguyen, who asked: “What recent accomplishments make you feel so proud?” This was a subtle shift on my 1% wins question, and with over 170 comments, it definitely struck a chord with the community. Too many amazing accomplishments to

What I’m Reading, Watching, Playing Reading: I continue to juggle multiple books: – ‘Build the Life You Want: The Art and Science of Getting Happier’ by Arthur Brooks and Oprah Winfrey. I’m only just starting this book, but the practical tips I’ve already picked up gives me hope this will be a transformative read. I waited a long time for this one from the library ‘holds’ and so far it’s worth it! – ‘Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most’ by Greg McKeown. I found his prior book ‘Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less’ to be impactful, and Effortless seems like the perfect companion to figure out how to work on what truly matters and make it simpler in the process. – ‘Rhythm of War’ by Brandon Sanderson. Finishing up the 4th audiobook in the Stormlight Archive series. I’m hooked on audiobook fantasy series, and this is one of the best! Watching: For the first time in many, many years, I binged an entire Netflix series in under 48 hours and just COULD NOT STOP watching. The show is called ‘One Day’ and I cannot possibly recommend it any more highly. It’s wonderful. It first seemed like a lighthearted romantic comedy, but over the

The Incredible Power of Compounding (In Real Life) Two weeks ago, I featured this quote in the newsletter: And last week I said now is the time to track your Q1 2024 net worth (it’s still a great time!) With those 2 items in mind: I rarely talk about my own personal finances, but this was too astonishing not to highlight the ‘in real life’ power of compounding and tracking: Our net worth increased in Q1 2024, just from market growth, more than our entire net worth figure on January 1st, 2013. Think about that! That was two CPAs working and saving for over a decade to get to that January 1st 2013 net worth. And now, from the immense power of compounding, just by sitting around and watching our investments grow for a measly 3 months, our net worth increased by more than that! Truly astonishing. What is Fat FI? I was recently up in NYC recording two live podcasts with Paula Pant for her Afford Anything podcast (Episodes 500 and 501), which was so energizing and fun. I didn’t have “performing to a packed comedy club in Brooklyn” on my life bingo card! I was fortunate to have a few of my lifelong friends make it

It ALL worked. All of it. Connie is a member of our community who responds to these emails frequently and she just sent in the most massive ‘wins’ email. This needed to be featured front and center in the newsletter: It ALL worked. All of it. When my husband passed in 2021, I needed to make some moves – some fast and some slow. I needed to wait until it all proved itself out over these last 3 years before I could write. All moves were aided by different episodes of ChooseFI, and I NEVER would have been aware had it not been for your amazing podcast. SELF-EMPLOYMENT: My business is a single-owner LLC, but I still file as an S corp from when I had employees so that I can pay myself wages as a W-2 employee and take the rest as an owner distribution. What that enabled me to do: 1. We hacked the FAFSA for college. Both daughters (twins) start college in fall of 2024 and both are receiving max benefit from both federal and state aid! College will be debt-free! This will save our family $170,000 over the four years. 2. We hacked the ACA for