Build A Wealthy Spirit

A sabbatical can change our perspective on time and money, changing how we perceive work. Since being on my sabbatical, I now prioritize my time over income. Of course, there may be jobs that provide me with both free time and a solid income, time freedom is the priority.When considering your priorities and options after a sabbatical, here are some key factors to think about:Time: How much time do you want to dedicate to work versus other activities or interests?Income: What level of income do you need or want to sustain your desired lifestyle?Location Flexibility: Are you open to working remotely, or do you prefer a job that requires you to be in a specific location?Travel: Is travel a priority for you, and do you need a job that allows for flexibility in this regard?Unconventional Schedule: Are you looking for a job with non-traditional hours or a flexible schedule?Interests: What types of work align with your passions and interests?Show Notes:No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.Community TimeCongratulations Carla on getting her Student Loans Forgiven!!April 30th is the final deadline to consolidate student loans. This is important for loan forgiveness Reasons to consolidate your loansFederal Student Loan link for consolidationCheck out our episode on student loansConfused about student loans? I’m happy to help!! Comment below and we can talk AirHelp: Partner For This EpisodeCheck out our partner for this episode, AirHelp. AirHelp is a part of the Association of Passenger Rights Advocates (APRA) whose mission is to promote and protect passengers' rights. Click this link if you've had a cancelled or delayed flight as well as support our podcast: AirHelp Affiliate LinkFind more show notes and interact with the Build A Wealthy Spirit community at buildawealthyspirit.com!

This week Michelle and I discuss our insights after reading Same As Ever by Morgan Housel. In Same As Ever, Housel talks about how many things- patterns, behaviors, economic cycles- never change and how these constants can be more interesting than things that evolve. He quotes Naval Ravikant “In 1,000 parallel universes, you want to be wealthy in 999 of them. You don’t want to be wealthy in the fifty of them where you got lucky, so we want to factor luck out of it … I want to live in a way that if my life played out 1,000 times, Naval is successful 999 times”. Michelle and I took the premise of this book and thought about how this affects us as individuals. What would be true about us if we were born into a thousand different realities where everything is different about us except our character traits? What similar struggles or triumphs would we endure in each lifetime because of these character traits? We discuss our thoughts during today’s episode. What about you would be the same in multiple realities? Is it positive or negative or both? Is there anything you could do to change it if you wanted to? Let us know your thoughts below!Show Notes:Same as Ever by Morgan Housel Community TimeCongratulations Areeb from EPISODE 13 for his partnership with Amazon! Areeb started a recycling company called Glacier, check out his episode with us. Janice CK Takeaway thread from Paul Millards interview Thank you Abby for your oatmeal recipeHYPRfocus saw FI numbers at a real estate conference she attended! Find more show notes and interact with the Build A Wealthy Spirit community at buildawealthyspirit.com!

This week we are re-visiting one of our favorite early episodes interviewing Andrew Johnson. Andrew Johnson is know for his guided meditations and hypotherapy sessions. He created the first meditation app ever!Michelle has been a huge fan of Andrew Johnson for years. She regularly uses his manifestation meditations and she genuinely feels these meditations helped bring in many of the blessings she received during her sabbatical. Michelle and I have been attending an "Intentional Living" Group here in Charleston regularly. We have been working on discovering our The ONE Thing based on the book The ONE Thing. Being on sabbatical, I had not thought about what my one thing or my one purpose is. Through the "Intentional Living" group, I realized that my purpose has started to narrow down on breaking down unhelpful ingrained thought patterns. Breaking negative patterns, allows us to be present and create positive patterns which I believe brings more positive outcomes into our lives. The hardest thing about breaking down these patterns is recognizing the patterns. Our brains are on autopilot and we are thinking thousands of thoughts a day without any awareness of this. This is where meditation is so helpful. Meditation helps us observe our thoughts so we can recognize and question the patterns we gravitate to. Andrew Johnson is also a trained hypnotherapist and he describes the parallels between meditation and hypnotherapy in this episode. Hypnotherapy also retrains our brain to unbreak deep patterns. By dissolving these negative patterns we can live more freely in the present moment and interact with the people around us with more kindness and love. Being in the energy of Andrew during this episode you can sense that he is someone who has dedicated time to this practice. Enjoy the discussion and comment below if you have had any breakthroughs with meditations or similar modalities. Show Notes:Relax Change Create Meditation (Apple, Android) Working Mindfully - “All the good stuff without the woo woo” (Apple, Android) Circles Live - Daily Live Meditations with Andrew Johnson Find more show notes and interact with the Build A Wealthy Spirit community at buildawealthyspirit.com!

When I started calculating my net worth in 2019, I felt like a complete fraud. I had -$164,000 in student loan debt and I knew I would continue to have this debt until my student loan forgiveness period is completed in April 2025. Previously, I also assumed that my net worth would be negative until the loans were forgiven. This is where I was completely wrong. As I started tracking I found that with my deliberate saving and investing my net worth was rapidly increasing DESPITE still having -164k in student loan debt. Inspired by the change, I started saving and investing even more and in Jun 2020 my net worth was positive for the first time. The plan I had created for myself worked and it worked really well! I never admitted this out loud, but on that day I set an even more aggressive goal- to become a millionaire by the time my loans are forgiven. To be honest, I’m not 100% sure I will reach this goal, but I have already received drastic life-changing benefits from the wealth I have. I already get to spend my time the way I want to and, because of that, I am happier and healthier than I’ve ever been.Show Notes: Net Worth: What It Is and How to CalculateIt by Investopedia Not an advertisement: Our favorite savings account- Capital One Performance 360 SavingsCommunity TimeAirHelp: Partner For This EpisodeCheck out our partner for this episode, AirHelp. AirHelp is a part of the Association of Passenger Rights Advocates (APRA) whose mission is to promote and protect passengers' rights. Click this link if you've had a cancelled or delayed flight as well as support our podcast: AirHelp Affiliate LinkFind more show notes and interact with the Build A Wealthy Spirit community at buildawealthyspirit.com!

When Michelle and I heard that James Clear, author of the renowned book Atomic Habits, launched Atoms, a habit-tracking app, we had to try it for ourselves. Michelle and I are HUGE fans of James Clear, to the point where Michelle may have had a less-than-wholesome dream about him ;). (ahahaha that’s what happens when you let me write the newsletter, Michelle!) He is the captain of our generation’s habit-forming ship. Putting Habit Tracking AppsMichelle and I tested out four different habit-tracking appsAtoms- James Clear’s new identity-based AppHabit Tracker- A classic checkbox-style tracker Everyday- An aesthetic “don’t break the chain” style tracker The Notes App- Yes, the yellow notepad that comes preloaded on every iPhoneIn our habit-tracking journey, we saw some recurring themes regarding habit tracking. Show Notes:Atomic Habits by James Clear Atoms the habit tracking app by James Clear Habit TrackerEveryday Tracker AppThe Notes AppCommunity TimeCheck out our Charleston Lady Podcaster friends!Harris of HYPRfocus podcast: On her podcast, Harris talks about self-optimization and self-development. Harris was on our podcast episode 157, check it out here!Sage and Kate of the SoroPod podcast: The Social Room podcast is an awesome podcast where hosts Sage and Kate interview different entrepreneurs in the Charleston Area. Thanks to everyone who signed up for or shared Michelle and Tobys’ Sabbatical Course!AirHelp: Partner For This EpisodeCheck out our partner for this episode, AirHelp. AirHelp is a part of the Association of Passenger Rights Advocates (APRA) whose mission is to promote and protect passengers' rights. Click this link if you've had a cancelled or delayed flight as well as support our podcast: AirHelp Affiliate LinkFind more show notes and interact with the Build A Wealthy Spirit community at buildawealthyspirit.com!

Michelle and I often talk about the “FI Number”: your annual spending x 25. This is the amount of money you need in your nest egg to retire [based on the Trinity study, see show notes]. By retire, we mean you can live off this amount forever assuming you take a 4% withdrawal every year for your annual spending. Knowing my FI number helped me set a goal that I could move toward, but knowing these three additional numbers gave me a clearer picture of what my finances really looked like relative to my future. Those three numbers are your (1) Coast FI number (2) Lean FI number (3) Fat FI number. Here are quick definitions from the How To Money blog. Coast FIRE: When you sock away enough in your early working years that later on, you don’t need to prioritize saving and investing. Lean FIRE: Your investment portfolio can fund all of your basic needs in life, but not much else. Fat FIRE: A hefty annual stipend, enough for you to live off – and more.Show Notes:“What is F.I.R.E., the Different Types, and How to Achieve” It by How to Money“Trinity Study” - Retirement Savings: Choosing a Withdrawal Rate That Is SustainableHow to calculate your FI number by ChooseFIRich, Broke or Dead? Post-Retirement FIRE Calculator: Visualizing Early Retirement Success and Longevity RiskCoast FI calculatorCommunity TimeThank you Paul and Oz Chen for your thoughts on Slob KabobThank you to our partner Riverside! If you decide to launch a podcast, a video interview series or a creative project with audio and/video, we recommend Riverside! We use them for almost all of our 161 episodes. Click here to use our link to get started!Find more show notes and interact with the Build A Wealthy Spirit community at buildawealthyspirit.com!

In this episode, Michelle and I discuss knowing two numbers, (1) monthly spending and (2) net worth, provides a great framework for understanding how much money we have available for our sabbatical. We also talk about two additional numbers, (3) FI number and (4) Coast FI number, that help create a clear picture of what our financial situation looks like relative to our overall spending needs. We also discuss the fear of unproductive time. I didn’t want to be a “bum” on my sabbatical. We discuss how the entire paradigm of work and time shifts when you are on sabbatical. I am now in my seventh month and I’m surprised at how much I am enjoying not working and impressed and the shift in my view of life. My only regret? Waiting so long to pull the sabbatical trigger!Show Notes:“Trinity Study” - Retirement Savings: Choosing a Withdrawal Rate That Is Sustainable How to calculate your FI number by ChooseFIRich, Broke or Dead? Post-Retirement FIRE Calculator: Visualizing Early Retirement Success and Longevity RiskCoast FI calculatorCommunity TimeThank you, Arjun, for your off-boarding checklist- check it out hereThank you, Steph for sharing Michelle’s Turn Your Layoff into a Sabbatical courseThank you Luca for recommendations on preparing sprouted oats: Check out Michelle’s New Course…Turn your Layoff into a SabbaticalWhat you’ll get out of this courseLayoff to LiberationYou'll be empowered to build a life beyond the walls of tech. Through authentic vulnerable sharing and guided conversations, you'll be able to deprogram yourself from seeing your layoff as a negative, but instead a golden opportunity to reinvent yourself and your career.You will be equipped to design your own sabbaticalYou'll receive curated exercises, readings, and reflection prompts to propel you on your journey.These will cover expected sabbatical challenges: identity loss, money scripts, ambition, lifestyle design, and how to answer the question "What do you do?"You will meet other creative thinkers in this spaceEmbarking on a sabbatical can seem lonely at times.The real magic happens when you start connecting with other people on similar journeys who understand your fears, celebrate your wins, and encourage your dreams.So we'll pair you with another person whose circumstances mirror yoursYou will gain a framework and vocabulary to think about your sabbaticalBoth co-hosts completed 12-month sabbaticals after leaving tech. In that time, we've published essays and worked alongside the leading sabbatical voices in this space.We'll share our framework and vocabulary to help you conceptualize the design and phases of your journeyClick here to sign upFind more show notes and interact with the Build A Wealthy Spirit community at buildawealthyspirit.com!

The average adult makes 35,000 decisions a day. This tasks our willpower which slowly depletes throughout the day. Many of these little decisions waste our time and our decision-making bandwidth. Reducing decision fatigue helps us be more productive and reach our goals. Here are some strategies to combat decision fatigue:Create Structure: Group or batch routine tasks together. By doing similar tasks consecutively, you reduce the need to make different decisions repeatedly. Creating a list or schedule of actions can also help streamline your workflow.Put Things on Autopilot: For decisions that don't require significant mental effort or creativity, automate or delegate them. Setting up automatic payments for bills, meal prepping for the week, or using templates for repetitive tasks can help reduce the number of decisions you need to make manually.Just Quit: Sometimes, it's okay to say no or quit tasks that aren't essential or align with your goals. Simplifying your commitments can free up mental energy for more important decisions.Limit Options for Others: When asking others to make decisions, provide them with a limited number of options. This helps prevent decision paralysis and makes it easier for them to choose. Too many choices can overwhelm and contribute to decision fatigue.Show Notes:BAWS Student Loan Episode Community TimeCheck out Michelle’s New Course… Turn your Layoff into a SabbaticalFind more show notes and interact with the Build A Wealthy Spirit community at buildawealthyspirit.com!

If you've ever wondered if there is an alternative to the traditional corporate life, this episode is for you! Sammie and Michelle had the great pleasure of interviewing Paul Millerd, author of The Pathless Path. We are sharing this episode again because this conversation had a huge impact on us and our listeners. Since we originally aired this episode, Sammie is on the Pathless Path now!  Paul wrote The Pathless Path after straying off the default path. The default path was going to university, getting a good job in consulting, going to business school and back to work. He left his job with no plans, moved to Taipei and changed his life when he decided to walk the pathless path.Paul Millerd Information: The Pathless Path (book)The Pathless Path Podcast (Apple, Spotify) Boundless NewsletterFind the Others Community TwitterShow Notes:The Disadvantages of an Elite Education by William Deresiewicz“Every year I’m renewing my subscription to the company” - Brandon MooreLife Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age by Bruce FeilerWe have a new giveaway for our replay episode! Send us an email at buildawealthyspirit@gmail.com or leave us a comment at buildawealthyspirit.com to get your copy! Paul has graciously donated books for us to give away.  Listen to Michelle on the Pathless Path Podcast!Find more show notes and interact with the Build A Wealthy Spirit community at buildawealthyspirit.com!

If you want to save money but are afraid of being cheap, this episode is for you. Sammie and Michelle delve into why being cheap is considered bad but frugal is not. They look at the characteristics of cheap people and those of frugal people. A big difference is in values, people who know what they value, can say an enthusiastic yes to things they love and no to the things they don't. However, they don't complain or put other people out if they say no, they know it's something they won't be investing in.We believe we all can have cheap or frugal moments! We even share some of our funnier cheap moments. But it's all about adapting and evolving to become more considerate about your money and your values. Let us know if you're cheap or frugal at buildawealthyspirit.com!  Thank you to our partner Riverside! If you decide to launch a podcast, a video interview series or a creative project with audio and/video, we recommend Riverside! We use them for almost all of our 161 episodes. Click here to use our link to get started! Find more show notes and interact with the Build A Wealthy Spirit community at buildawealthyspirit.com!