037R | Today we discuss Episode 37 with Scott Rieckens, the filmmaker behind the FI documentary Playing with FIRE, plus emails and voicemails from the community and a discussion of reaching FI in a high cost of living area.

The great American Eclipse and our viewing Brad’s vacation and how they spent $0 on hotels for 16 nights The value of slow travel and why it makes vacation dramatically better.

Vacation doesn’t have to be stressful How expectations management is so crucial to life and on vacation Time is such a crucial tool Scott’s slow travel with his family and the yearlong adventure they are on visiting family and friends while filming the documentary There should be creativity and excitement in your future and your decisions The list of things that made Scott’s wife happy on a weekly basis and how this was an inspired decision by Scott

Sell your value first and then grow your network. How Scott did a masterful job at this by creating a network and even leaning on our network How Brad connected instantly with Scott and wanted to help him

This documentary can help take the concept of FI to the mainstream Email from Paige on limiting beliefs and how it isn’t “impossible” to live in a high cost of living area for under $50,000 per year Paige thinks that you may need to be a “little more intense” to hit FI on a low income, but that it is certainly possible and it is all about savings rate

How we all have limiting beliefs that we need to work through to “think about a problem a little bit differently” Brad’s decision to leave Long Island, and how that helped the path to FI. But could they have been more intense and stayed and still reached FI?

You can be on the path to FI moving forward no matter where you’ve been or what “bad” decisions you’ve made in the past There’s no perfect person or situation for FI – just try to be a little better going forward to make positive changes Email from Art Vandelay and how they love the show and have made a lot of positive changes since listening.

Should we stop the FIRE from spreading? We need local leaders for ChooseFI local meetups so please reach out to us

Voicemail from James about his successful trip from Nashville to Europe using travel rewards points

Voicemail from Rachel about how to hack your TSP to save money on your student loans