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Four Day Work Week I was fascinated by this Twitter thread from Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow announcing that: “Bolt is now the first tech unicorn to permanently switch to a 4 day work week Our 3 month experiment proved every core thesis: Heightened 1/ Productivity2/ Engagement3/ Wellness” Breslow’s thread is worth a 3-minute read, as I strongly suspect more companies will move this way in the future, and I know we have a lot of business owners in the community who likely should be contemplating this change. I never understood the concept of being stuck at an office for a certain prescribed length

Annual Financial Checkup Happy New Year! It’s hard to believe the holiday season has come and gone and now we’re gearing up for 2022. Jonathan and I released Episode 358 of the ChooseFI podcast yesterday and even though we titled it the “Getting Started Audit” it just as accurately could have been the “Annual Financial Checkup” which I think we all need. Give the episode a listen, as it’s a real back to basics look at your financial life and why it’s so important to do at least an annual review of your: Jonathan mentioned at the end of the episode

Help to Cut Down on Distractions Last week I included a Twitter thread (I’m on Twitter and would love for you to interact with me there) on how to get better at email. It focused mostly on keyboard shortcuts and processing emails quicker which is really helpful info, but I’d suggest two quick life hacks for you that have cut down on my phone & email stress significantly: Go into the settings of your phone and app-by-app shut off notifications until you are left with only the truly essential notifications.  For me this is only two things: phone calls and text messages.  That’s it.  All other notifications

Year-End Move We’re Making I confess that I hadn’t heard of the US government issued ‘I Bonds’ until Mike wrote me this response to one of our discussions on the podcast: “I got a good chuckle over the part where we speculate that Fritz is selling bonds because they are doing soooo poorly. Check out bond fund ‘TLT’ this year. Better yet, check the I Bonds rate as of 11/1 and let me know how badly that fits into a plan. “ Then I saw this CNBC article last week about I Bonds entitled “Couples can fight inflation with 7.12%

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