Updates & Inspiration for Your Financial Independence Journey

The Skill of Spending Mr. Money Mustache was recently on Episode 377 of the BiggerPockets Money podcast, and he eloquently described something in a way I had not heard before. He talked about a lot of the fun of pursuing Financial Independence as developing your “skill of spending.” I’ve always referred to this in a related manner where I say pursuing FI is “living the same middle-class lifestyle as everyone else, but getting wealthy in the process.” MMM cut this to its essence when he described the ‘skill of spending’ as something worthy and laudable in and of itself. If everyone else is spending $100 per month for cell phone service and you can get a nearly identical plan for $15 through Mint Mobile, that is part of your skill of spending. If everyone else spends $5k+ to take their family on a vacation, while you used travel rewards points and saved on your car rental through Autoslash, that is part of your skill of spending. If everyone else buys the most expensive house they can pay for each month, but you’re in the same area and school district for a fraction of the price, that is part of your skill of spending. This skill of spending

Keep Moving As part of making 2023 my ‘healthiest year ever’ I am making a concerted effort to get outside and walk at least a mile every single day. While there isn’t anything magical about 10,000 steps per day necessarily, I think it’s directionally accurate in the sense that most of us simply don’t move enough. And that’s even for people like me who exercise and consider themselves healthy.  When I started tracking my steps, there was no other conclusion other than this:  I simply wasn’t moving enough during non-exercise hours. I heard Dr. Peter Attia say the following on the Limitless series on Disney Plus and it stopped me in my tracks: “We don’t stop moving because we get old, we get old because we stop moving.” This ties in so beautifully with Dr. Attia’s concept of the ‘Centenarian Decathlon’ which is where you look at the things you want to do as an 80 to 100-year old and work backwards to what you need to be doing today and in the intervening decades to make that a reality. Want to be able to pick up your great-grandchild when they come running at you to say hello, instead of getting knocked

Mindful FIRE Resources This week’s guest (ChooseFI Episode 420), Adam Coelho was kind enough to create a free guide specifically for the Choose FI community. This guide builds on Adam’s experience teaching mindfulness, meditation and envisioning to over 2500 of his fellow Google colleagues around the world. The free guide includes: Free Annual Credit Report Cody Garrett from Measure Twice Money published a helpful post on Twitter that I wanted to pass along: “Time to check the annual credit reports from Experian, TransUnion, and Equifax! Review your contact information, payment history, account numbers, responsible debtors, opening and closing dates, credit limits, and highest balances. Free at AnnualCreditReport .com“ I want to reiterate that this is entirely free and this is different from just checking your credit score.  Each of the 3 main credit bureaus have a file on you and you really need to periodically check this for accuracy. Since they are required to offer us this free service annually, you may as well take advantage and give it a quick glance at the beginning of each year. Fear Wasting Your Life I listened to Bill Perkins, author of Die With Zero, on recent episodes of All The Hacks with Chris Hutchins and The Drive with

Secure 2.0 and the FI Community Sean Mullaney, the FI Tax Guy, just put out an article on the ‘Secure 2.0 and the FI Community’ that I think is ultra-valuable. I’m going to publish an episode with Sean on the podcast later this month to dive into the nuance of Secure Act 2.0, but I always want to get this info out as quickly as possible via the FI Weekly newsletter. The two most intriguing items to me are: Bold Move and Doing Hard Things I had planned to recommend the National Geographic series on Disney Plus called ‘Limitless with Chris Hemsworth’ here all on its own. If you have any interest in longevity and increasing your healthspan (and who doesn’t?), you’ll get a ton of value out of it. But I’m able to double up that recommendation with a few other interesting related items: Episode 419 of ChooseFI came out yesterday with Dominick Quartuccio on ‘Your Bold Move for 2023’ and I’ve come to a conclusion for my ‘bold move’ for 2023: I want to get in my best shape ever and really focus on my health and fitness. I don’t know yet precisely what that will look like, but

New Year, New Contribution Limits Happy New Year! It’s a new year, so that means there are new contribution limits for retirement and tax advantaged accounts and even if we maxed these accounts out in 2022, we’re back down to $0 contributed in 2023 and are ready to fill the accounts up again. My family can contribute to an HSA since we have a (very) high deductible health insurance plan.  I saw the recurring reminder in my ToDoIst app on January 1st to max out the HSA, then quickly googled what the new contribution limits are for 2023 ($7,750 for a family), and initiated the contribution via Fidelity. This all took about 5 minutes and it’s an example of the continued action we’re taking to optimize and make our financials lives better. What action are you going to take this month to improve your financial life? Net Worth Calculation for 2022 Speaking of taking action, here’s a timely one: I think it’s really important to track your net worth on a yearly basis (I personally do it on a quarterly basis but since the year and quarter just ended, this is a nice easy two-for-one to get started!). Really simple to

Year End Wins Episode is Live I’m going to keep the newsletter short and sweet this holiday week.  I hope you are enjoying some rest and relaxation and time with loved ones! The 6th annual Year End Wins podcast episode came out yesterday, so if you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, download ChooseFI Episode 417 and enjoy the community’s favorite episode of the year. Two Items of Note I promised to keep this email short, but wanted to pass along two things I’m keeping my eye on: ChooseFI Community Taking Action This Week ​

But What if Things Go Right? Diania Merriam was on the podcast this week (Episode 416) and it was an extraordinarily powerful episode describing how she quit a toxic work environment on principle and really flexed her FI-muscles. Her email newsletter with 8 Lessons Learned from 1 Year of (F)un-employment is, simply put, a must-read. My favorite was #2 ‘We’re so scared of what could go wrong, but what if things go right?’ EconoMe Conference 2023 I also floated this at the end of the episode with Diania, but wasn’t certain at the time of recording: I can officially confirm that I’ll be attending the EconoMe Conference which is being held March 17-19, 2023 at the University of Cincinnati. This is the first live FI event I’ve attended since 2019 and I could not be more excited!  We’re still figuring out the details, but I’ll definitely be helping to co-host some of the events and workshops. If you’re looking for an in-depth FI event, EconoMe is a great choice in every way.  I’d absolutely love to meet and hang out with as many ChooseFI community members as possible, and this 3-day event is a perfect opportunity. Diania was kind enough to offer our community 10% off

Optimal Order for Investing Your Money Our good friend Tae Kim from the Financial Tortoise (he’s been on the podcast in Episodes 186 and 302) put out a YouTube video last month that went viral with over 200k+ views called, “Optimal Order for Investing Your Money.” I highly recommend watching the 10-minute video and while I could probably quibble around the margins with a few of the picks (maybe not Roth IRA?), I thought this was an excellent primer for how to conceptualize the prioritization of your savings. Here’s Tae’s list: 1) Emergency Fund2) 401(k) match (essentially a 100% instant return)3) Pay high interest (over 5%) debt4) Max Roth IRA (for tax certainty)5) HSA (Health Savings Account)6) 529 plan (if you have kids)7) Max 401(k)8) Taxable account (regular savings)9) Pay low interest debt (under 5%)10) Pay off mortgage (purely optional) End of the Year: Take Action It’s easy to just write off these last few weeks of the year and think that positive changes should wait until the new year or be accompanied by some silly ‘resolution.’ My challenge to you today is simple: Take one action to make your life better between now and the end of theyear. You

Travel Rewards Success! My family has cancelled numerous trips since March 2020 and haven’t really had a travel rewards “success story” in years. That ended this week with a big win. We were able to use points to book The Atlantis resort in the Bahamas for this coming spring break using Marriott points! We were originally contemplating using cash to book the hotel, but it was over $800 a night, which seemed excessive. Then Laura remembered reading something years ago that you could use rewards points, so I looked into it and mocked up a 4-night stay.  It came to 300k points and I had a balance of 305k Marriott points. I nearly forgot something huge, which Marriott was kind enough to remind me of:  You get the 5th night free on an award booking, so we were able to get a 5th night for that 300k points. We’d had these points sitting around for years, so to get $4,000+ of hotel nights felt like a big win for us! This reminds me of an email that Ahmed wrote in: “One my latest wins was using points to book a hotel for my trip to the Boston Marathon in April! Hotels are

Simple Path, Index Funds & Long-Term Thinking We have a big week on the podcast this week starting with the episode that dropped yesterday (411) with JL Collins on The Simple Path to Wealth.  This is a great refresher on long-term thinking, investing in low-cost index funds and the simplicity in matching the market over many decades and, in the process, outperforming nearly all active investors. Stay tuned for Friday’s episode (412) with Alan and Katie Donegan that we’re calling “What’s in Your Index Fund?”  Katie dove deep on the fundamentals of some of the biggest index funds and the three of us had a great time discussing the ins and outs of this essential investing strategy. These were on my mind when I saw Brian Feroldi, great friend of the show and author of the fantastic book “Why Does the Stock Market Go Up?,” tweeted something we all need to remember, especially in times of turbulence in the markets: “I don’t know how the market will perform in December. I don’t know how the market will perform next year. I don’t know how the market will perform over the next 3, 5, or 10 years. I do know the odds tilt ever more

Giving Thanks With this week of Thanksgiving upon us in America, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all our public servants and men and women in uniform. That generally sounds trite, but I was reminded of their essential nature just last night when we had a carbon monoxide alarm go off in our home and our local fire department showed up within 5 minutes of our call. Three firefighters and an engine came out and professionally tested and swept through our home in minutes and, after diagnosing the faulty sensor, gave us the all clear. That is why we pay taxes and why we have a society that functions. I’m reminded of this every time I go to the library or a state or national park; or when the school bus comes to pick my girls up to take them to public school. Tens of millions of public servants working to make this a happier, healthier, functioning society. Thank you. Munger’s Best Quotes on Investing Charlie Munger, the vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, is, in my opinon, one of the clearest thinkers on Earth. I find such wisdom in his statements that I’m constantly searching for more gems

Year-End Tax Planning I’m publishing a podcast episode this Friday with Sean Mullaney, the FI Tax Guy, about 401(k)s, the Mega Backdoor Roth and Premium Tax Credits for the ACA and in a case of great timing, Sean just released his “2022 Year-End Tax Planning” article. The article lists out numerous essential tax deadlines and considerations you should be familiar with before the end of 2022, which is rapidly approaching! If you’re looking for more in-depth general strategy on year-end tax planning from Sean, we’ve had him on the podcast the past 3 years to discuss this very topic, so check out Episodes 155R, 274 and 351. Calling for 2022 FI Wins! My favorite ChooseFI podcast episode each year is our “Year End Wins” episode where we play voicemails and read emails from the community celebrating your biggest wins of the past 12 months. If you want to share your wins with the community, hit reply to this email or send in a voicemail and detail out your FI year in review! I’d love to highlight as many of these as possible on the episode airing at the end of December. Updates and Corrections I love the ChooseFI community for so many reasons,