080R | Conversation about teaching your children to save and invest, healthcare options, and an argument in favor of home gardening and composting.

• Brad contemplates applying for “Survivor”.
• Review of Monday’s episode with Khai from AlabaMalaysia.
• How does Jonathan use the idea of “anchoring” in his own life: setting big goals so that even if he misses, good things still happen?
• Brad and Jonathan talk about how they would set little, achievable goals, to reach a larger, long-term goal.
• Jonathan talks about answering the question “What do you do?”, with comments from the Facebook group.
• How does Brad have bank account and investment accounts set up for his children?
• Is there a better way to have those accounts set up?
• Blain, from the Facebook group, wonders whether his son should start investing with a Vanguard account, or an M1 account?
• Contributions made to a Roth can be withdrawn penalty free.
• What are the best ways to support your children and help them save money, as 2nd generation FI?
• Voicemail from Jacqueline asking about financial education apps for youth.
• “7 Fun Money Apps for Kids” from U.S. News
• • PiggyBot
  • FamZoo
• How important is it to teach your children about not only budgeting to save money, but to be generous?
• What is Brad considering in regards to his family’s health insurance: HSA, health share, or considering health insurance for a small business?
• What are some complications with a health share?
• Email from Karen, about the value of gardening and composting.
• • Gardening Tips from Karen
• Is composting addicting?
• Jonathan tries to convince Brad that gardening and compositing is simple enough to start now.
• Leave a ChooseFI review to enter the drawing for a ticket to CampFI in Joshua Tree, or to receive a book.

Links:

The Simple Path to Wealth

Design Your Future

Freelance to Freedom

080 | Khai Shing, a former contestant on The Amazing Race, and blogger at ALABA+MA+LAYSIA, talks about balancing her pursuit of FI while finding ways to travel, worldwide, at discount prices.

• Did Khai start with global travel, or with The Amazing Race?
• Took about 3 months from applying to The Amazing Race with her twin brother, to being selected for the show - traveling all over China.
• Khai grew up in Malaysia, and plans to return there for retirement, once she achieves FI.
• How did Khai and her brother set themselves up to be selected from their video application?
• What was the highlight of The Amazing Race for Khai?
• Is it easier to achieve FI living in Malaysia versus living in the US?
• When Khai calculates her FI number, does she base her living expenses off US expenses, or the expected cost of living in Malaysia?
• Why does Khai use 35x as her multiplier for calculating a FI number?
• How long is Khai’s FI path?
• How does world travel fit into Khai’s lifestyle and financial plan during the next 8 years of her path?
• How and when did Khai and her husband embrace the FI mentality?
• How does budgeting and saving work for Khai’s family?
• How do Khai and her husband manage travel with family and work?
• How does Khai travel the world for $1,600?
• A layover is less than 24 hours, but a stop over a has much more relaxed time frame.
• United Airlines had an “excursionist” perk - a free stopover in a city within the same region: Excursionist Perks.
• Where will Khai go next?
• What perks still exist with Alaska Air?
• What does Khai like to see and do when she travels to a new country?
• Why does Khai like to document her trips on her blog?
• What are Khai’s favorite experiences from her travels?
• Khai met her husband during an exchange program to the US.
• What advice does Khai have with regard to keeping life balanced?
• Gratitude: “when we focus on appreciating and being content with what we have in life, it helps us to focus on what's truly important.”
• “The fact that we can even dream about FI, and a good chance to make it a reality is a great privilege that we should be thankful for.”

Links:

MadFIentist

The Lifetime Table

For more, go to http://ChooseFI.com/080

079R | Highlights of Monday’s episode with Tim & Amy Rutherford, discussion about healthcare, additional podcast recommendations, and voicemails from the ChooseFI community.

For more information, visit the show notes at http://ChooseFI.com/079R

079 | Tim & Amy Rutherford talk about early retirement, living with lower expenses and a busier schedule of fun, free activities, and what life changes they made to get there.  

• How did Amy and Tim meet and what were their spending habits at the time?
• What did “frugal” look like for Amy and Tim initially?
• With enough money in the bank, cutting their spending gave them an opportunity to retire almost as soon as they became aware of financial independence.
• Managing spending is equally as important as replacing income when it comes to reaching financial independence.
• Optimizing life is one of the most enjoyable things Amy & Tim ever did.
• What factors did Tim & Amy consider prior to leaving the workforce?
• • Physical health
  • Mental health
• How did a chart help Amy get excited about saving?
• “What’s tracked and measured can be improved.”
• There are fun, free activities in every part of the world.
• How do Tim & Amy fill up their days now that they’re retired?
• • Walking
  • Inviting friends for dinner
  • Finding local activities
• Who are Tim & Amy’s “tribe” and how do they find them in new cities?
• What does it look like for Tim & Amy to be house sitters?
• • They watch houses and pets, for free, with a place to stay for free.
• How much are Tim & Amy spending now, and how did they get there from $115k?
• Tim & Amy are actually living below their current budget – they aren’t missing out on things they wish they weren’t.
• “I want to walk the world while I still can.”
• How do Tim & Amy describe their retirement?
• Would Tim & Amy consider selling their house and traveling full time?
• How would people get started with house sitting?
• • House Sitting Magazine
  • House Sitting World
• Tim & Amy buy experiences instead of things.

For the links to resources mentioned in this episode, go to http://ChooseFI.com/079

078R | Lots going on in this episode with a recap of Episode 78 with Travis Hornsby about Student Loan Debt Repayment Options.

But also, Brad sold his house and Jonathan has become a “rockstar” at selling things on Craigslist.

For more information, visit the show notes at http://ChooseFI.com/078R

078 | Travis Hornsby, founder of StudentLoanPlanner.com, talks early retirement, traveling Europe, and developing a passion for helping people crawl out of student loan debt.

• Why did Travis attempt retirement at 25?
• If you’re unhappy before reaching FI, will you be happy afterward?
• Where did Travis’ frugal tendencies come from?
• How did Travis get paid to go to college?
• Do many universities offer full scholarships, and where should students find that information?
• Does attending an Ivy League university make a difference?
• Travis retired with $230,000 saved, with a plan to spend just 20k a year.
• Did Travis have a long-term plan for his retirement?
• Living expenses in the United States are high relative to many other places in the world if you’re an adventurous person.
• Why did Travis’ job performance improve after he decided to quit his job?
• If you’re on the path to FI but haven’t made it yet: develop a product or service that you’re passionate about and give yourself a year or two of buffer during which you don’t depend on income from your venture.
• How did Travis commit himself to helping people with student loan debt, having never been in debt himself?
• How much research did Travis have to do in order to ensure his student loan spreadsheets were accurate?
• Why didn’t Travis’ father-in-law give his initial blessing to Travis marrying his daughter?
• How did the Student Loan business grow?
• If you have less than 100k of student debt, your best option is likely to refinance for the lowest possible interest rate and pay it back as quickly as possible?
• If you owe less than double your salary and you’re not working at a not-for-profit or for the government, you should probably refinance.
• If owe more than twice your income with federal loans, there are loan forgiveness options, depending on your type of work.
• Is loan forgiveness guaranteed, and who can qualify?
• Adjustment to loan forgiveness policies will impact students taking loans beginning in July 2019.
• How do Travis’ suggestions change if someone has private loans?
• Federal loans provide the most flexibility for repayment or forgiveness.
• Two recommended choices:
• • Pay back loans as aggressively as possible
  • Pay minimums, maximize forgiveness

Student Loan Planner

[email protected]

Physician on Fire

Mr. Money Mustache: From Zero to Hero

For more information, visit the show notes at http://ChooseFI.com/078

077R | An second part to the conversation between ChooseFi community member Tallis, who teaches dance classes in retirement facilities, and Pop-Up Business School founder Alan Donegan, to help get Tallis’ side hustle off the ground.

• Precursors to this episode: Episode 30 and Episode 56.
• Tallis gives an update on her side hustle to-do list.
• Client feedback: the questions you ask impact the results you’ll get.
• What is the best way to sell Tallis’ dance classes to the retirement facilities.
• Tallis continues to wonder how to best monetize her service?
• Tallis hopes to facilitate workshops to train dance-class teachers.
• Alan and Tallis previously discussed securing sponsorship, potentially from pharmaceutical companies.
• Currently, Tallis’ dance class is endorsed (and paid for) by the American Parkinson's Disease Association, so classes are free for participants.
• Could Tallis collect a fee from participants?
• Most important considerations right now: how is going to pay, and how much to charge?
• Different payment models can impact clients’ commitment to the classes.
• Training an organization to facilitate its own courses will pay significantly more than providing courses directly to individuals.
• How can Tallis decide on a price for her workshops?
• People equate cost to value: if you charge too little, they’ll think the product isn’t valuable.
• Alan recommending contacting potential clients (retirement communities) that are well outside her target geographical location in order to practice her pitch and get feedback on potential pricing.
• Pricing has a lot to do with confidence.
• Successful business models have repeatability.
• Marketing is rarely starting from the ground up: find other businesses in a similar space, or businesses that are doing something that you think would be really effective the space you’re targeting and start there.
• Pitch tip: don’t allow your voice pitch to go up when giving your price. Use a statement tone that sounds confident – even from beginning to end of your sentence.
• What’s up next: get feedback from local contact about other offerings.
• Go big! Don’t offer your service to just a few potential clients.
• Expect that it’ll take 1-5 months to get the program from start to point of sale.
• The only way to know if your business will be successful is to ask people to buy; before that moment, feedback is hypothetical.
• Tallis is part of the Des Moines ChooseFI local group – contact her there.

077 | Experienced travel hacker and world traveler Marla Taner shares story of reaching financial independence, and her best tips for getting to Hawaii, Costa Rica and the Caribbean with minimal expenses, using credit cards points and air miles.

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Thank you for being a part of the ChooseFI community!  🙂 If you want to support us, here are some easy ways:

1) Leave an iTunes review: http://www.choosefi.com/itunes

2) Use our page to sign up for travel credit cards

Note: We may receive a commission if you are approved for cards on this page

3) Most importantly, find your friends, coworkers, and family members who may be open to this message and tell them about the podcast! (Episode 21 is a great starting place)

As Jonathan would say, "The FIRE is spreading my friends!"

076R | Brad and Jonathan brainstorm ways to implement local adventure into their own lives and the lives of the ChooseFI community. Also, achat about high school reunions, local libraries, and a few clarifications about 401k contributions.

• Jonathan's 26-year-old sister just hit an 85% savings rate.
• Living at home can be super helpful to the recent college graduate, or young person entering the workforce.
• Getting to $100k net worth is the hardest part: after that, compounded interest starts working for you.
• Brad signed up his daughter for www.code.org, a website that teaches coding paired with Minecraft.
• Review of Monday’s episode with Mrs. Adventure Rich.
• Getting the right mindset is the most important part of getting on the path to financial independence.
• How does Brad feel about not having a FI number or date?
• Is the pursuit of financial independence a race or a journey?
• What was positive about the way Mrs. Adventure Rich’s coworker introduced her to FI.
• How has Mrs. AR lowered the barrier of entry for local adventures?
• How can local ChooseFI groups apply these ideas to exploring their own cities?
• How does the idea of exploring your own city connect with the idea of intentionally creating memorable moments, as introduced by Chris in ChooseFI episode 71.
• Adventure is anything that makes you feel like, “Hey, this is really living.”
• Have we traded adventure for convenience?
• How can someone plan for those things that truly bring value to their life?
• Check out ChooseFI episode 37, with Scott, talking about rolling out the red carpet for the valuable things in your life.
• Follow up from Robert, from The College Investor: how much student loan debt has the ChooseFI community paid off?
• Voicemail from Suzanne: in addition to physical books, her local library often provides access to online newspapers, to online language programs, STEM programs for students, as well as actual after-school programs for students from the public schools.
• Voicemail from the Peerless Money Mentor : the local library in Baton Rouge, LA, provides some access to Treehouse coding courses.
• How would Brad or Jonathan describe their lives at a high school reunion?
• Once you have all your financial needs taken care of, what do you want to do? What's your purpose?
• Email from Danny: how do employer contributions impact a 401k?
• Employer matched contributions do not count toward the $18,500 yearly limit for your 401k.
• There are some additional ways to maximize full contributions to your 401k, up to $55k a year.

Additional links:

The Reluctant Frugalist