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No Shortcuts (In Life or FI) “There are no shortcuts in this game (of life). Everyone wants to buy the shortcut, that’s how Men’s Health magazine survives.  No one wants to hear just go to the gym 3 times a week and lift some heavy things and then sleep 8 hours. There are no shortcuts.  The shortcut is to be consistent.”       – Pro poker player Chris Sparks on the Jorgenson’s Soundbox Podcast This quote reminded me so much of the FI Mindset of long-term thinking, consistently putting in effort and doing hard things. There’s no get rich quick scheme

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

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

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

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:

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

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

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

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.”

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

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

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