FI Minded: Achieve Financial Independence & Have Fun Doing It

I’ve always dreamt about becoming a dad. I know little moments like teaching them the ABCs, running them to soccer practice, or helping them pick out their prom outfits are going to bring me a lot of joy. I’m even ready for the challenging moments like sleepless nights, pre-teen outbursts, and difficult “growing up” conversations.One thing that I’m not sure I’m ready for is the cost of children. I was reading a survey and apparently, the average cost of raising a kid from 0 to 18 years old in the United States is $237,000. And I’m not quite sure I would be on the low end of the average.I agree with Maya Corbic, our guest today, that you can’t put a price on the love that you’ll have for your child but the financial impact has to at least be considered in your decision-making progress.How much does a pregnancy cost? What financial milestones should I accomplish before having a child? Can I realistically afford to take care of a child right now?These are all questions that will be answered in today’s episode. As I mentioned, we’ll be talking to Maya Corbic. She is the creator behind the popular Instagram page teach.kids.money where she is helping parents raise financially savvy children. She is also the author of “From Piggy Bank to Stocks: The Ultimate Guide for a Young Investor” where she introduces children (and honestly parents) to the exciting world of investing.This is a great episode for anyone considering parenthood and also soon-to-be parents as we discuss a lot of early childhood cost savings tips.Let’s get into it. I hope you enjoy my conversation with the 1st gen immigrant, CPA, and energetic mom of 2…Maya Corbic.Key Takeaways:The average cost of raising a childFinancial milestones to consider hitting before becoming a parentFinancial to-dos to prepare for an addition to your familyHow to reduce your child-related expenses and find great dealsHow to invest in your children's education through a 529 accountThe sneaky benefits of a custodial accountThe importance of aligning your family and financial valuesMore of Maya:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teach.kids.money/From Piggy Bank to Stocks: https://dinariiwealthykidsclub.lpages.co/from-piggy-banks-to-stocks/More of The Struggle is Real:Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

We are closing up on 2023 and I thought it would make for a fun episode to recap some of the top financial news headlines from the year.Being a fellow money nerd, this year provided many interesting headlines that were fun to follow and watch play out. And looking back at it all, these stories reminded me of an important lesson that I’ll share at the end of this episode.Key Takeaways:The Federal Reserve continues its interest rate hikesThe new Federal borrowing benchmarkThe impact of the global banking crisisReflecting back on the debt ceiling deadlockHow the debt ceiling worksAre tech industry layoffs behind us?What you can do when faced with negative news?Should I change my investing approach in 2024?Mentions:The Best Interest (Does the Debt Ceiling Affect Your Finances? - E57): https://pod.link/1553180943/episode/697707e884c01785b397166817ac6d91More of The Struggle is Real:Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

Today we dive deep into a universal struggle that affects us all: the comparison trap. In a world fueled by social media highlights and curated success stories, it's easy to find ourselves measuring our worth against others.This happens to me all of the time. I see someone else’s life: the promotion, the new house, a fancy vacation, their business success…and start frantically wondering why I don’t have that yet. Setting aside dismissing my own successes, never once did I stop and think…is that something I actually want?With the highlight reels and the constant moving of our own goalposts, it is easy to see how our definition of success would start to get muddy. We slip into allowing others to define it for us and fall back into the never-ending loop of the comparison trap.It’s time to take back control, use comparison as inspiration, not envy, and define success on our own terms. To help us do that is my friend Hayley Dawson, Founder of The Blocks.Hayley and I immediately connected over many of our shared interests including unpacking the unique struggles of today’s 20-somethings. On top of overcoming the Comparison Trap, we discuss why your goals aren’t timebound to your 20s, why quitting should be celebrated, and how to make decisions based on what matters to you.Key Takeaways:Today’s unique struggles of people in their 20sHow social media has exasperated comparison and self-doubt5 powerful ideas for overcoming the Comparison TrapHow to change jealousy and envy into inspirationYour dreams don’t have deadlinesDefining success on your own termsThe false definition of successWhy quitting should be celebratedHow to make up your own mindMentions:Tenants: The People on the Frontline of Britain's Housing Emergency by Vicky Spratt (https://www.amazon.com/Tenants-Frontline-Britains-Housing-Emergency-ebook/dp/B094DTJLZR)More of Hayley:Instagram: @_theblocksMore of The Struggle is Real:Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

The holiday season is in full swing and I’m so excited to spend the next month celebrating with friends and family. With all of the parties and get-togethers, it will be 2024 before we know it. But before we say goodbye to 2023, I have a few things I want you to check off your to-do list.In today’s episode, I’m going to give you a financial checklist of 8 tasks you may want to consider doing by Dec. 31 to tidy up your finances. Don’t worry, all of these tasks take 30 minutes or less so you can get back to enjoying the holidays.So if you’re ready to set yourself up for financial success in 2024, let’s get into the 8 tasks on the end-of-the-year financial checklist.Key Takeaways:8 easy and essential year-end tasks to completeReviewing your retirement accounts and adding additional contributions where you canRebalancing your assets to stay aligned with your investment strategyCreating a debt payoff plan for 2024Conduct a year-end tax review to maximize your savingsApplying tax loss harvesting to offset capital gainsCompleting a Roth conversion to take advantage of a low effective tax rateReviewing your budget and finding areas to cut costsWhere to get your free credit report and a simple task to improve your credit scoreMentions:www.annualcreditreport.comMore of The Struggle is Real:Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

I love big, life changes…said absolutely no one ever.Significant life changes like moving out of your hometown, changing career paths, or ending a significant relationship are terrifying even if you know it is what you should do. It takes proper planning and a lot of courage to follow through with these major milestones.These decisions have never come easy to me. I was terrified to quit my first job. It took me over 6 months to pull the trigger on moving out of my hometown. And I don’t even want to talk about the countless relationships that drug on because I didn’t have the courage to end them.At the end of the day, they were all the right decisions. The only thing I regret is not making those decisions sooner.  I needed some encouragement from my friend and today’s guest Kay Cote.Kay knows a thing or two about change. Growing up outside of Fargo, North Dakota, she’s learned to embrace these big life decisions. She’s lived in South Africa temporarily, tried RV life, quit her corporate job to become an entrepreneur, relocated to Austin, and most recently, decided to take a chance on a career change by jumping into the music industry.Through Kay’s story and her PIVOT method, by the end of this episode, we’ll be feeling equipped to say yes to that hard decision and embrace the change that comes with it.So if you’re ready for that, let’s get into it. I hope you enjoy my conversation with the minimalist, storm-chasing fanatic, and shuffle dance queen…Kay Cote.Key Takeaways:Building the courage to move out of your hometownCommunicate without verbal languageThe benefits of moving to a new city or countryBreaking out of the mundaneBuilding confidence and independence by movingHow to use the PIVOT method when thinking through major changesHow to get more opportunities by staying open-mindedUsing reflection to figure out what you want to do with your careerNothing in this life is permanentMore of Kay:Website: www.kaycote.comInstagram: thekaycoteMore of The Struggle is Real:Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

Do you currently feel like you’re stagnant in your career? Like you haven’t learned a lot lately and are living the same work day over and over?Or maybe you want to expedite your professional growth as you’re looking to take the next step?Well, this is the episode for you because we are going to be talking about how starting a side project can solve these feelings and 8 ideas for projects that you can start today.Key Takeaways:3 reasons why side projects are helpfulUsing side projects to foster learningBuilding a network through your side projectFinding a sense of identity outside of your 9-to-58 ideas for side projects you can start todayMore of The Struggle is Real:Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

What kind of impact would it have on your career if you could be mentored by Tim Ferriss, Brene Brown, Cal Newport, Oprah Winfrey, Les Brown, Ryan Holliday, James Clear, and Carol Dweck?This is a handful of the top thinkers from the last decade and the great news is, we can receive their mentorship.No, unfortunately, they don’t have a special lottery program where you can enter to win a free mentoring session but they do have something even better, a book.Yes, all of these top thinkers are also authors and they’ve condensed the knowledge they’ve gained from decades of experience into an organized format that costs less than $20 even free if you’re savvy about it.Today we are talking about the power of books. My friend Nick Hutchison from BookThinkers is going to teach us how to boost your career through effective reading. Nick and I get into all kinds of reading techniques like note-taking strategies, how to read faster, finding time to read, and when to stop reading a book that isn’t serving you.If you’re ready to take your career and life to the next level by reading impactful books, then this episode is for you.I hope you enjoy my conversation with the creator of BookThinkers a massive online community of book lovers and the author of the newly minted book, Rise of the Reader…Nick Hutchison.Key Takeaways:How to make time to prioritize reading booksOne easy shift that will allow you to read 26 books in a yearHow to get access to books for freeThe importance of reading wide when you first start readingWhy it is critical to set an intention before reading a bookNote-taking strategies to maximize retentionShort-hand note-taking strategiesHow to read fasterA mathematical framework for deciding when to stop reading a bookMentions:$100M Offers: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No (https://www.amazon.com/100M-Offers-People-Stupid-Saying/dp/1737475731)More of Nick:Personalized Book recommendation: DM Nick at www.instagram.com/bookthinkersBuy the book on Amazon: https://a.co/d/c9dE0lnLearn more about Nick: www.nickhutch.comLearn more about BookThinkers: www.bookthinkers.comMore of The Struggle is Real:Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

In this current series, we’ve been deep-diving into blueprints for how you can take control of and accelerate your career with various professional growth strategies.Assembling a personal board of advisors and reading books are amazing avenues for taking steps forward in your career but we also want to be playing defense and ensuring we aren’t taking any steps backward.We don’t want to be putting all of this hard work in only to be paddling upstream. Over the first decade of my career, I’ve noticed 3 career-killing habits that can set young professionals back regardless of their talents.If you want to ensure that you aren’t slipping into one of these habits and what to do if so, well, this episode is for you.Key Takeaways:The line between arrogance and confidenceSpecific examples of arrogance in the workplaceWhat to do if you find yourself slipping into the habit of arroganceHow complacency can flat-line your careerRecent trends show concerns about complacency in the workplaceHow to break out of complacencyWhy a negative attitude at work will isolate youHow to correct negativity and become a coworker people like to be around againMore of The Struggle is Real:Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

Have you heard of this concept before? A personal board of advisors. I think it is kind of interesting.Many companies have a board of directors who help advise and guide them on key decisions. Why shouldn’t we have a similar group to rely on?Especially as early career professionals, we face many critical questions about career pivots, job opportunities, work-life balance, purpose, leadership moments, and more.When I started thinking about it, assembling a personal board of advisors is a must for high-performing professionals. We can’t do this all alone. We need guidance and support from a diverse group of professionals.But I have so many questions about how to actually execute this concept. Who should be on my board? How do I ask them? How often do we meet? How do I make sure it is meaningful for my board members too?So I invited my friend Pete Schramm to the podcast to tell us how to assemble a personal board of advisors and to get all of our questions answered.Pete is the CEO and Founder of Latitude, a software company focused on employee connection, and the author of Pathfinders, Navigating Your Career Map with a Personal Board of Advisors.This is a really powerful concept so I am hoping you take what you learn today and run with it.Key Takeaways:How a personal board of advisors differs from a group of mentorsHow a personal board of advisors can help guide you through a career transition10 different seats and functions you can recruit for your personal board of advisorsSMARTY goalsWhy one individual shouldn’t be responsible for multiple seatsHow often do we meet with our personal board of advisorsHow to ask someone to be on your personal board of advisorsPre-qualifying questions to make sure someone is a good fit for your boardHow to get an easy yes from a potential board memberWhat’s included in your career mapHow you can add value to your board membersMentions:Episode 108: 7 Local Events Where You’ll Meet Your Next Boss, Mentor, or Business Partner www.tsirpodcast.com/108More of Pete:Book: Pathfinders, Navigating Your Career Map with a Personal Board of AdvisorsLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pete-schramm-pmp/More of The Struggle is Real:Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/

We are kicking off a new series called “Your Map to Professional Growth.” The goal of this series is to give you ideas for how you can take ownership of your career. Each episode will center around a different blueprint for growing professionally.But all of these tools are useless, just like a map, if you don’t know where you want to go.With that in mind, it seems fitting to kick off this series with a conversation about setting professional goals for yourself. In particular, there are 3 types of goals that we are discussing to help you give clarity to your career and define your Northstar.Having a sense of your professional goals and what you want from your career, at least in the near term future, is going to give you a starting place when implementing the strategies that we will be talking about in the rest of this series.So if you’re ready to get serious about your professional growth, understand the map ahead, and pick a direction that is going to get you excited, let’s get into it.Key Takeaways:3 types of professionals goals to set for yourself4 questions to ask yourself to decide what skills you need to focus onDeciding on the next stop of your career pathPutting numbers to your financial targetsMentions:E117 - The Career Conundrum: Follow My Passion or the Money www.tsirpodcast.com/117More of The Struggle is Real:Find show notes and more at https://www.tsirpodcast.com/Follow us on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/tsirpod/