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It's the third edition of ChooseFI's live and interactive show via Stereo. You can submit a question, feedback, or comment, and find out how to join us for the live event by visiting ChooseFI.com/live. Brad and Jonathan are getting high on life. Not only have Brad's daughters started back at in-person school, but he and Laura were also able to attend a Crossfit class together. Meanwhile, Jonathan is successfully combating fatigue by getting the right amount of sleep, cutting out caffeine, and maintaining high hydration levels with juices. In an ongoing effort to get 1% better, Brad recently reviewed his credit card bills. He found a $50 recurring charge for his daughter's saxophone rental and decided to buy it for $500 rather than continue incurring the rental fee. He suggests doing this twice a year and asking if those recurring charges are continuing to serve you. Jonathan recently canceled his Netflix subscription and wonders if there is a way to the effort of it and streamline our finances. In a hypothetical example of a $2,000 car loan with a 2-3% interest rate, Jonathan asks if Brad would just pay the balance off versus keeping a monthly payment. At that low of an interest rate, Brad would not, but because of the intersection between math and psychology, there are others so debt adverse that they would pay it off. For higher interest debt or 8-12% or more, Brad believes that is more of a hair-on-fire scenario in which paying the debt off as quickly as possible would be best. Regardless of which side of the scenario you fall on, there is nuance and stigma. Rather than allow others to tell you what you can and can't do, it's important to know yourself and why you make the choice you do. Understanding the why behind the car payment is a better thought exercise. If it's because it gives you the cash flow to finance even more stuff, it can grow to become a difficult position is dig yourself out of. Financing allows you to trade your most precious non-renewable resource, time, for more stuff. With every dollar you are saving, are you using it to invest, or are you buying more stuff? If you are continuing to buy more stuff, then you are still in the trap and aren't looking at money as a tool. Because Jonathan is a spender, he wants to keep things simple and doesn't like having structural payments. In the hypothetical scenario, he would feel the need to pay off even a low-interest rate car loan. The first listener voicemail wants to know how much in retirement is enough to adequately cover long-term care. His original goal was $10 million at age 65. According to the 4% rule, that would give the listener $400,000 a year to live off of, which is a big number. It comes down to what does your life cost? Traditional retirement calculators all start from the point of "what do you earn today", rather than "what does your life cost". Your income is irrelevant. In retirement, you need to cover what your life will cost. Health care insurance is based on actuarial tables put into place to ensure the provider doesn't, in aggregate, lose money on you. The same is true for long-term care insurance. It's priced so that providers don't lose money on you. What is the effort to reach a $10 million balance to cover the cost of long-term care costing you in terms of time and health now? You can focus on putting systems into place now that give you the best chance to reclaim decades of quality life. Rob Phelan, fromThe Simple StartUp, called in with a question about being open to new technologies and investments. Brad isn't a first-mover on anything. However, he has a diverse set of interests and prides himself on knowing when the tipping point is to jump in earlier than the average person. He's done some reading on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and believes they could be transformative 10-20 years from now. Jonathan's process is curation and synthesis. When he reads, he skims everything and sees the point when something new becomes real. He'll do a deep five if it fits into one of the buckets he's interested in. He's been doing that deep dive into crypto and blockchain, but not NFTs. While neither Brad nor Jonathan can get behind spending $2.5 million for Jack Dorsey's first Tweet, they do agree digital ownership is interesting because of all the unique ways the concept could be implemented. Next up is a seven-year-old who says they want to learn about investing. It starts with saving. What Brad tells his own kids is that life gets so much easier if you can save money. If you spend every cent you earn, it takes away a lot of choices in life and gives them fewer options. The higher you can make your savings rate, the more freedom you'll have. As for investing, think long-term, like many decades of investing. With a long investing horizon, the best chance at being really wealthy is with low-cost broad-based index funds or ETFs. When Jonathan's kids are older, he thinks he will try and attach a real company to the discussion and carve out a portion to invest in it. It would be one they know and has products they get excited about to help make the feeling of ownership real. Natalie called in to say that she just opened an M1 Finance account for her traditional IRA contributions as well as a savings account so she can earn 1% on it. However, she's never done a portfolio rebalance. Rebalancing can be scary and easy to avoid. It comes back to having a plan and an investor policy statement and not letting your brain get in the way. M1 can do this automatically and there may be some tax consequences if it is done in a taxable account. Rebalance in your portfolio totality, not within individual accounts. If you don't have a plan, go and figure out what your goals are and have the plan match them. Rebalancing can also be done by making weighted contributions. James, who is in Jonathan's podcasting course, asks about speeding up his path to FI by purchasing multi-family real estate by withdrawing from a 401K and obtaining a HELOC. While there are likely both success and horror stories of others who have gone that route, Jonathan would look for ways to avoid 401K withdrawals or taking a line of credit against your home. Brad would only go into his 401K as a last resort. 401K withdrawals are subject to a 10% penalty and would be taxed as ordinary income. Rather than a 401K withdrawal, Jonathan says that if the deal is good enough, the money will come. Bringing on additional investors may be an alternative. Network, be creative, and try to cap the downside. Resources Mentioned In Today's Conversation Join the live show Tuesdays at 7:30 Eastern with Stereo! ChooseFI Episode 297 From Pandemic Layoff to $100K+ | A Salesforce Success Story Start your new language learning journey today with Babbel and get six months for the price of three with promo code "ChooseFI". ChooseFI Episode 016 House Hacking with Coach Carson If You Want To Support ChooseFI: Earn $1,000 in cashback with ChooseFI's 3-card credit card strategy. Share FI by sending a friend ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence.

Jonathan checks back in with Corinne from the Households of FI series to look at her numbers, goals, and map out a FI plan. Financial independence is not about having the most money. In the pursuit of FI, the math is simple, but the math will change depending on your goals. It's important to start with understanding what you want your ideal day to look like. Following Corinne's last coaching session with Jillian, she learned how to build good habits and strategies to get closer to the goals she wants. One of the strategies she's using is her phone to set reminders for the goals she wants to achieve. The reminders hold her accountable without her having to remember everything. Jonathan pointed out one of the great pieces of advice from the episode with Jillian was her advice to explore the goals you find yourself resisting giving even two minutes to. What is it in your subconscious that is sabotaging your goals? Corinne is on track to become a partner at her firm but that comes with a lot of expectations. In an exercise with Jillian, she was asked to write down what her ideal day would look like. to start, she's been writing down which activities are energizing and which are draining. It has helped her to manufacture her day to be the kind of day that makes her want to get up and go to work in the morning. She discovering that she doesn't have to work as many hours as everyone one else. She can balance it out, earning a little less money while being happier. We can make time to make each week more memorable and enjoyable when we spend less time on meanless activities. When you take what earn and subtract what you spend, what you are left with is the gap. When you live paycheck to paycheck, there is no gap. Corinne earns $120,000 a year as an accountant. She was in a five-year program where she got her Bachelor's and Master's degree that gave her enough requirements to take the CPA exam. Due to a scholarship, she graduated without any student loan debt. A similar recent graduate starting out now would make around $50,000 a year. She was able to double her salary and excel by narrowing her focus and becoming an expert in that space. In her industry, there are clearly defined roles with specific salary ranges. Increasing income requires the desire to progress and take on more responsibility. Becoming a partner wasn't always on her radar, but she liked the idea of having ownership in the business. Corinne hasn't researched the details of the retirement payout for partners at her firm, but there is some form of payout in retirement. Since she is on the trajectory to becoming partner, being able to project the retirement payout will help to calculate her FI number. One of Jonathan's favorite income tax calculators is at Smartasset.com because it will incorporate state and local taxes. Using Corinne's salary, he calculates her federal tax plus FICA and Social Security is $29,227. Since she maxes out her 401K, it reduces her tax to $23,000 and saves her more than $6,000 in income tax. The income she brings home is then $77,445, or around $6,500 per month. Now looking at Corinne's expenses, her mortgage is approximately $1,000 and she spends $500-550 a month on food. She does not have a car payment but between gas and other expenses, it's around $100 a month. Utilities run $400 per month. Additional budget categories include dining out and shopping for $500, charitable giving at $200, housekeeping is $100, and her HOA bill is $150. Though travel is on hold at the moment, she's like to budget $250 a month for vacations. And finally, an additional $200 was included to cover odds and ends. Corinne's total monthly cost-of-living is $3,375. To find out her gap, Jonathan takes her net monthly pay of $6,500 and subtracts her monthly expenses of $3,375 to calculate a gap of $3,125 each month. Jonathan suggests putting the gap to work for her as quickly as possible and sending it to her investment strategy. Before doing this exercise, Corinne had no idea what her gap was and grabbed a random number to move to savings. To start working on a plan for financial independence, Jonathan uses net worth and age. Corrine's 401K balance is about $150K and her taxable account has another $100K making her invested net worth $250,000. She is 32 years old. Using ChooseFI's simple Retirement Projection calculator, Jonathan plugged in Corinne's numbers. Her FI number is $1,012,500. Next, Jonathan uses ChooseFI's Future Value of Investments calculator to project how many years it will take Corinne to reach her FI number through both the growth of her current invested balance and her monthly contributions. Using an 8% rate of return, in 10 years Corinne will have $1.4 million far exceeding her FI number. Sometime between 7 and 8 years is when she will reach financial independence. The exercise is energizing for Corinne who previously thought she would need to eat rice and beans to reach financial independence in 10 years. She was nervous to see the numbers but now finds it motivating. Her next step will be to ensure she's taking that extra money every month and putting it to work for her. Once you've got what you earn, what you spend, identify the gap, and decide what you're going to do with the gap, you've got your FI plan in place. Resources Mentioned In Today's Conversation Join the live show Tuesdays at 7:30 pm Eastern on Stereo! ChooseFI Episode 243 Households of FI | Corinne and Jillian Johnsrud Watch ChooseFI episodes at ChooseFI.tv. ChooseFI Episode 168 Make Time Smartasset.com Apps.choosefi.com Take ChooseFI's free 5-day challenge. If You Want To Support ChooseFI: Earn $1,000 in cashback with ChooseFI's 3-card credit card strategy. Share FI by sending a friend ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence.

In the second episode in the series of taking the show live online via the Stereo app, listeners ask questions and interact during a replay of this live podcast from Tuesday evening. Experimenting with this new show format, Brad and Jonathan are adding to their talents stack and themselves getting better through the often mentioned concept of the aggregation of marginal gains. Unfortunately, just because you make progress in an area, it doesn't always mean you hold on to those gains. While your finances can be put on autopilot, physical and mental health are areas prone to backsliding. Take a little time for self-care. While reaching financial independence isn't as simple as packing your lunch every day, it can be symbolic of the transformation to a mindset to take care of all the small things. It's that effort, in the aggregate, that gives you the space to increase your savings rate, optimize investments, and earn market gains. Brad has been trying to apply the concept to his health, which has also required that he overcome several limiting beliefs. All of the changes he's been making are small, like stretching, doing pushups, or yoga in the evening while watching TV with his family. And after hearing about how important vitamin D is to metabolic health, he tested his levels and found out they were dangerously low. In his attempt to live a more examined life, Brad has noticed certain foods lead to inflammation, and that his energy level fluctuates with the seasons. Likewise, Jonathan has been examining his use of caffeine and trying to decide if he is better off with it or without it. He would prefer to have a natural, steady energy state. He's noticed that by decreasing processed sugars, he has more energy and wakes up fresher. Brad has been using a 10-minute nidra yoga YouTube video as a guided sleep meditation and says it's like getting a two-hour nap. Listener Jackie left a voicemail asking about taking a little risk by putting emergency funds into the bond market. Jonathan says there's no one answer, but he thinks we need to look at what we're protecting ourselves against and the opportunity cost that comes with having a lot of money on hand to handle emergencies. Most of us will benefit from having $1,000 in the bank to start, and then moving to one or two months of expenses in cash. As your net worth grows, Jonathan would prefer to have the money in a fully-funded emergency fund grow. Since recording episode 066 with Big ERN, Brad has been trying to come up with a true financial emergency scenario. He's been unable to think of a scenario when he might need cash in a hurry that couldn't be covered immediately with a credit card. In a true emergency, he has invested assets he could sell and transfer to his checking account to then pay the credit card bill. When you keep an emergency fund in a savings account, the opportunity costs are the potential gains that could have been made by having those funds invested. Jonathan keeps a couple of months of cash flow. In addition to retirement investments, he also has a taxable brokerage account with M1 Finance. His investment pies in M1 have been allocated for different timelines. For his shorter timeline fund, he thinks about it more like a retiree would and wants it stable. Therefore, he keeps it in a fund that is negatively correlated to the stock market, such as bonds and precious metals. For emergencies, one of the benefits of M1 Borrow is access to a low-interest margin loan against your invested non-retirement assets. The second listener voicemail asks about the ability to convert and access 401K investments after a five-year waiting period for someone who retires early. Brad believes the listener has a Roth 401K, in which contributions are made with after-tax dollars and may be withdrawn tax-free. The five-year waiting requirement applies to Roth IRA Conversion where traditional 401K contributions are converted to a Roth IRA and it is a taxable event. When rolling over money from a Roth 401K to a Roth IRA, it is not taxable and there's no wait to access contributions. At 59 and a half, all of the money may be accessed penalty-free. A listener in the Netherlands wanted to know if Brad and Jonathan would consider having a guest from another country on the podcast. Since the FI movement is worldwide, ChooseFI has listeners from all over. Exploring non-American guests is definitely something to be examined for general FI topics, as it would be difficult to speak about other countries' tax codes. The ChooseFI local groups in international locations would be a great option and resource. Listener Gavin asks about how best to decide post-FI plans. Jonathan stresses that FI is a number and not an action. It does not mean you have to leave your job. FI gives you options, time, and resources and allows you to explore what you want to do with those. Having some space financially allows you to make choices from a position of power. You can make small-scale tests before wholesale life choices. The money is the easy part. Figuring out what lights you up is the difficult part. Listener Natalie has connected with the idea of maximizing her savings but is sitting a significant amount of cash while she decides between renting and buying. She wants to know how easy it is to put money in the market if she might need it in three to five years. Of the big traditional brokerages, Jonathan thinks Fidelity is the easiest to learn from a user interface perspective. Of the software-based institutions, he likes M1. Brad says from purely a conceptual-level, it's easy to get money in and out of the market as they aren't subject to the same rules retirement accounts are. However, it's good to note that the stock markets have business hours and may be closed when you want to make a transaction and that some companies like M1 limit when transactions can take place. In live feedback of the 401K discussion, a listener pointed out that there is a phantom five-year clock on in-plan Roth conversions. Marjorie left a voicemail that she is trying to get her family back in Puerto Rico on board and is looking for Spanish language FI resources. Jonathan has been helping Lorena start a Spanish language personal finance podcast, De Peso a Peso. Resources Mentioned In Today's Conversation Join the live show Tuesdays at 7:30 pm Eastern! The Tim Ferris Show The Peter Attia Drive Podcast Ulta Lab Tests The Huberman Lap Podcast Yoga Nidra ChooseFI Episode 066 The Emergency Fund…Is it a Bad Idea? with Big ERN ChooseFI Episode 194 The Role of Bonds in a Portfolio Risk Parity Radio ChooseFI Episode 292 The Complexity in Simplicity at M1 | Brian Barnes M1 Finance Review: Completely Free Automated Investing ChooseFI Episode 289 The Roth 401K and Meal Planning Made Easy Find your local ChooseFI group. ChooseFI Episode 049 Alan Donegan and The Escape Artist | The Aggregation of Marginal Gains ChooseFI Episode 117 Making the Case for Part-Time with Bradley Rice ChooseFI Episode 047 The Cult of Home Ownership and Crushing Geo-Arbitrage | Millienial Revolution De Peso a Peso Podcast ChooseFI.com/network Join Jonathan's free podcast course at Talent Stacker. If You Want To Support ChooseFI: Earn $1,000 in cashback with ChooseFI's 3-card credit card strategy. Share FI by sending a friend ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence.

We are checking back in with Vivan from our Households of FI series who has been paired with mentor, Tae from Financial Tortoise, to go over strategies, best practices, and considerations for multiple generations living under one roof. In many Asian cultures, adult children are responsible for taking care of and being financially responsible for aging parents while also raising their own children, often referred to as the Sandwich Generation. Whether or not being financially responsible for parents is part of your culture, caring for or assisting them to make decisions as they age may be in your future. Tae writes from the perspective of the Sandwich Generation on his blog, Financial Tortoise. Living with him and his wife are his two kids and both of his parents. During the last 10 years in this living arrangement, he's paid off $105,000 in student loans and is pursuing financial independence. Vivian has been fighting breast cancer while dealing with a separation and child custody battle. She also has her mom living with her, who is helping out with her child, but she finds that there are generational differences leading to misunderstandings. She has questions about what kind of disability or long-term care insurance she would be getting for them. At 61, Vivian's mom doesn't yet qualify for Medicare and hasn't applied for Social Security, but she does have a small pension from working for the Los Angeles School District. Tae thinks there may be healthcare gap insurance available if her mom qualifies. Her mom retired from work last year. If she applies for Social Security early at 62, she'll earn 20-30% less. If she waits until age 700, she'll earn 20-30% more. As long as she has paid into Social Security for at least 10 years, she is eligible. If she hasn't been receiving paper summary statements, she can check online and see what her estimated benefits will be. Tae's parents moved in with him right when they began collecting Social Security. They didn't understand retirement accounts, but they did have real estate and rolled over equity into the down payment for a new home they could all live in and Tae took over the mortgage. Since Vivian's mom lives with her, she shouldn't have major expenses and her pension and Social Security should be enough to live one, but she would like to travel so Tae suggests looking into travel hacking. As for healthcare, Vivian's mom retired because of health issues and is no longer able to work. She currently pays for private insurance, but at 61, there isn't an ideal solution until age 65 when she becomes eligible for Medicare. She will need to enroll 3 months before she turns 65. Basic Medicare is covered, but if she wants things like hospital visits covered, she will pay a premium that is taken directly from Social Security if she is collecting it. Tae does not have long-term care insurance for his parents because it is hard to find affordable long-term care insurance now, but skilled nursing and assisted living may be alternatives. The best thing you can do is to take care of yourself. He thinks people in the FI community have the advantage of having more time to spend figuring out a care solution when the time comes. Vivian asked if Tae his FI plan included healthcare spending for his parents. He does not, but he does plan for them to age in place, which means maintaining the larger home. Living through the Vietnam war has created conflicts in some areas, like hoarding food and water. Her mother helps out with cooking, child care, and food costs, but Vivian pays for everything else. One of the reasons why Tae decided to try co-habiting with his parents was for help with childcare. It helped them fully commit to their careers. While there can be a huge cultural chasm when living with your parents as adults, Tae has learned empathy and takes time to try and understand where they are coming from. Rather than try to control what his parents are doing with their money, Tae tries to ensure his own expenses are as strong as possible. If something were to happen with his parents, if his own finances are strong, he'll be able to figure out how to deal with it. Vivian is trying to save 50% of her income as a pharmacist and her parents think she is being stingy, which runs counter to many Asian cultures where you wear your wealth. She was excited when she found ChooseFI because she previously believed you needed to have your own business to become financially independent. She's now following the advice in The Simple Path to Wealth. Saving for college is another question Vivian has. Tae's children are 4 and 6 but he's started 529 accounts for them since there is some flexibility with them. However, he believes the future of work could look different. He thinks about how he can help his children become productive adults rather than blindly save for college. Tae thinks it's good to start thinking about estate planning with her parents. He and his wife just did their own, setting up a trust and power of attorney which motivated his parents to do the same. There is a cost for everything and there are both positives and negatives when putting families together under one roof. You have to be aware of it going in. The major takeaways from Tae and Vivian's conversation are the need for managing the gap before Medicare kicks in, navigating Social Security, and feed estate planning. Tae Website: Financial Tortoise Resources Mentioned In Today's Conversation ChooseFI Episode 186 Mulitple Generations Under One Roof With Financial Tortoise ChooseFI Episode 221 Introducing Our Households of FI! Part 1 ChooseFI Episode 255 Vivian Connects with Leslie Tayne SSA.gov The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins Smart Money Mama's Family Emergency Binder Get started on your path to financial independence at ChooseFI.com/start. If You Want To Support ChooseFI: Earn $1,000 in cashback with ChooseFI's 3-card credit card strategy. Share FI by sending a friend ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence.

What are you getting hung up on with relationships and money? We continue the conversation in Part 2 of the Relationships and Money series with Jillian Johnsrud. Although March is finally here and the sunshine is motivating Jonathan to push away the processed carbs in favor of broccoli and hummus, Richmond's recent ice storms had Brad using his stash of travel rewards for the first time in over a year. Travel rewards come in handy at home too. After losing power from the storm, Brad called up a local Hyatt to see if they had power and was able to use 5,000 with Hyatt to book a room, and quickly move his family out of a cold home for the night. If he had been short on Hyatt points, he could have quickly transferred Chase Ultimate Rewards points over to cover the rate. Even if you aren't ready to travel now, plan ahead and start stockpiling travel rewards points now so you have them once you do want to travel again. Take the travel course at ChooseFI.com/travel to learn how. The next roundup episodes will feature Alan Donegan and focus on building a business in 2021. Submit a voicemail with the questions and concerns you would like to have addressed at ChooseFI.com/voicemail. Have a question on a different topic? Submit your voicemail and join the live radio shows held on Stereo, Tuesdays at 7:30 pm Eastern. In Episode 300 with Jillian, she discussed how your past money story motivates you and creates fear as it pertains to money and relationships. Part 2 of the series examines being financially independent while still dependent. Listener Asia is engaged and works full-time while her partner is still going to school and works part-time. They each have vastly different money stories and have started combining finances. Her partner is still receiving some financial support from her parents. While her partner wants to begin become more independent, Asia wonders if it would be smarter to continue as things are. Jonathan sees three issues with Asia and her partner's situation: attachment, boundaries, and economics. For Jillian, one of the elements was what habits and practices Asia's fiance can take to feel like a financial grown-up and equal partner in the relationship. She also considered what it might mean for the fiance to receive from her parents, as well as what it might mean to the fiance's parent to give. Jonathan sees nothing wrong with accepting help so long as there are no boundary or communication issues or strings attached. Brad thinks it sounds like a positive situation but is also concerned about ulterior motives. After graduating college, Brad lived at home with his parents while saving 90% of his income which gave him a huge jumpstart on his path to FI. Jonathan noted that there could potentially be some tax-filing issues that could be related to the child tax credit and paying for dependent healthcare that could be important to figure out. Jillian says society's rules don't matter, you can write your own rules of what it means to be a financial grown-up without there being a contradiction. Help can be a sweet thing family can do, but even she had issues with family members trying to control her with financial assistance while she went to school. There are other things you can do to feel like a financial grown-up, like tracking expenses or coming up with a debt repayment plan. You can be a financial grown-up, take advantage of opportunities without taking advantage of relatives as long as your goals are aligned and they want to see you succeed. Brad wants to be able to help his kids out when they are older. He respects parents who charge their children rent and teach them to be financially responsible, but he hopes to instill those lessons throughout childhood. Listener Precious will be getting married soon. So far they have been sending money back and forth to each other, but she wants to be more efficient and is wondering what the best way to begin combining finances is. While Jillian wants to believe all love will last forever, she advises against opening up a credit card together in the first few years of marriage due to the bills being divided up in a painful divorce process. However, opening up a joint checking account is a good baby step since at worst only the money in the account can be spent without going into debt. How much each person contributes and what bills get paid from it opens up the lines of communication. When you are young and your finances are simple, combining all of your finances makes a lot of sense. In contrast, Jillian's financial life is much more complicated and if she had to remarry, she isn't sure she would combine her finances with anyone else. Credit card and car debt can be kept separate, but it's usually better to have both names on a home loan since real estate is an asset being grown together. But also so that it doesn't become a painful process to untether if necessary in the future. In a new marriage, Jonathan says he wouldn't feel comfortable being a co-signer on a credit card since he would be legally responsible but have no insight into what was going on until it crashes into a wall. On the other hand, adding an authorized user gives you more control and insight into how the card is being used and it can be revoked. Brad and Jonathan have their own bobblehead figure! It was given to them by All-Star Money for being creators of content who inspire readers to improve their financial situations and helped develop an engaged personal finance community. Jillian Johnsrud Website: JillianJohnsrud.com Podcast: Everyday Courage Resources Mentioned In Today's Conversation Join us for the live show Tuesdays at 7:30 Eastern on Stereo. Travel more and spend a lot less with the ChooseFI Travel Rewards 101 course. The Chase Sapphire Preferred Card—Great for Cash Back or Travel Rewards ChooseFI Episode 300 Relationships and Money with Jillian Johnsrud ChooseFI Episode 186 Multiple Generations Under One Roof With Financial Tortise Create a powerful money plan with The One Hour Millionaire Course and get $30 off with the code "ChooseFI30". All-Star Money's All-Star Originals If You Want To Support ChooseFI: Earn $1,000 in cashback with ChooseFI's 3-card credit card strategy. Share FI by sending a friend ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence.

Money is one of the top three things people struggle to communicate with, falling right below sex and above our reasons and motivations for work. In her coaching practice, Jillian finds clients will be very open in one-on-one sessions, but when working with couples, it becomes much more uncomfortable. Jillian believes this discomfort is because discussions of things like sex and money happened behind closed doors and weren't modeled for us growing up. In response to a call put out for questions in Brad's FI Weekly newsletter, listeners submitted their questions for Jillian about relationships and money. The first comes from Jonesy who had a question about keeping the lines of communication open about money with a significant other when they are at different stages. He is working and beginning to build his portfolio and savings, while his significant other is still in school and struggling to make ends meet. Jillian suggests first trying to find common ground to discuss money. You can start with telling your own money stories, like how your parents spent money or what you wish they had spent money on. It's important to feel seen and heard. Sharing childhood stories are opportunities to start having conversations to begin learning about each other financially. Help make the conversation not feel like a trap by being genuinely curious about your partner's life and experience. You can approach discussions about money much in the same way couples talk about the parenting they witnessed and experienced. Pick one or two questions to open up the conversation and put your partner in a relaxed state. Ensure they feel seen and heard before transitioning into conversations on budgets or debt payoff. Taking the small step of sharing money stories can help the couple come away with positive feelings, feel closer, and know just a little bit more about each other. Jillian and her husband did not communicate about money well during the first few years of their marriage. They had very different money stories and didn't know how to explain why they were reacting or felt the way they were. Breaking the big scary stuff down into bite-sized non-intimidating questions is something Jillian guides users through in her latest workbook, part of which asks us to examine our parents' patterns, whether or not we have copied or rebelled against them, if what was inherited is serving you well, and do you want to take it forward. Because Jonesy and his partner aren't married, Jillian says it's okay to skip the specifics in the middle, like savings rates and budgets, and discuss the outcome, like a common goal to work toward together. If you work on learning to talk about money, understanding each other financially, and can work toward a common goal, by the time you are on the same page, the middle stuff will be easier. Listener Sam wants to know if it can work when one half of a couple is excited about being on the FI path but the other half says FI is not for them. Sam has been on her journey for three years and has a 50% savings rate and plans to retire early, but recently married and her husband's savings rate is far from the same and he plans on working until 60. They currently keep their finances separate. Jillian thinks Sam and her husband could benefit from having conversations about work, its role, and how it ties to identity. It's feasible for one person to retire while the other works, but it can create a rift unless they understand each other's stories and mindsets. Brad wonders how Sam and her husband keeping their finances separate could work logically in the long-term. Jillian thinks on the surface it cold work so long as they work on everything below the surface and sure each is truly comfortable with the situation. Listener Titan wants to know how to make the monthly chart tracking their progress toward FI more fun and exciting for his significant other. Unfortunately, Jillian thinks Titan's partner will never be excited about it. In any relationship, it seems like there's one who likes worksheets and graphs and one who prefers to talk about things. She suggests not focusing on the numbers on the graph and instead make it about the amazing life they are creating or whatever is exciting for them. Jonathan can sympathize with Titan's situation but says what were are looking for is trust that you are building an awesome life together and moving forward in the same direction. Jillian's course, One Hour Millionaire, is a 21-day program with the premise that it should only take you one hour a month to set your trajectory to a million-dollar net worth. Website: JillianJohnsrud.com Podcast: Everyday Courage Resources Mentioned In Today's Conversation Download the Stereo app and join us on Tuesdays for the live show! Compare home and auto rates from top insurers at Policy Genius. Explore Season 2 of Rebel Entrepreneur and make money doing something you love. Register for Jillian Johnsrud's, One Hour Millionaire Course, and get a $30 discount during the month of March with code ChooseFI30. If You Want To Support ChooseFI: Earn $1,000 in cashback with ChooseFI's 3-card credit card strategy. Share FI by sending a friend ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence.

It's ChooseFI's first live radio show! Recorded live on Tuesdays at 7:30 pm Eastern using an app called Stereo, the live shows will be replayed for the Friday Roundup episode. The topic of this interactive live show is: "What is stopping you from reaching financial independence?". Lorraine has a question about allocation and investing in one of Vanguard's funds like VTI or VTSAX but the answer is situation-dependent. It's important o know the investing timeline Lorraine is looking at, but hopefully, it's investing for the long-term. Investing for the long-term provides for the highest likelihood of success. However, it's money needed for something critical like an emergency fund, maybe consider keeping what you need in a savings account and investing the rest. Other factors to consider are risk tolerance, net worth, job security, and whether you have an emergency fund. How sacred you were in March is a good indicator of your risk tolerance. The right allocation will allow you to sleep at night, be confident in your plan, and stay the course. The best thing to do is take action and get invested without getting hung up on the details. Keeping your expenses low with low-cost broad-based index funds, like total stock market or S&P 500 index funds, make a significant difference over your investing lifetime. Getting to the point where you can make work optional can often seem like luck. However, the FI community believes we have the power to impact change in our lives and in our communities. Taking small actions to optimize and seeing that you can still live a life without a feeling of deprivation becomes a motivating positive feedback loop. No matter how much you earn, the message of FI can be valuable. If you are living paycheck-to-paycheck, it doesn't matter how much you earn. You need some amount of gap between what you earn and what you spend. Growing the gap by cutting expenses is usually the most effective place to start, but you can widen the gap by earning more as well. It doesn't mean going back to school or taking on a second job delivering pizzas. One way to increase your income is by negotiating your salary. If you research the highest paying professions, the search leads to a list of six-figure careers, however, the return on investment in these career paths is not what it seems. They may require a significant number of years in school and the student loan debt that goes along with it. Today it's possible to skip a degree program in favor of a certificate program and land a high-paying job in less time and at less expense. Matthew has been listening to the show for about six months. One question he's had is how people are retiring early when you cannot withdraw from retirement accounts without a penalty until you reach the age of 59.5. There are strategies for investing in retirement accounts where it goes in tax-free, grows tax-free, and is withdrawn tax-free ahead of the traditional retirement age. Investing in something like a traditional 401K account lowers your taxable income and gives you a current tax deduction. Once you reach FI and decide to not work anymore and are living off savings, you are earning $0. You can at that time pull take money from your 401k and convert it into a Roth IRA, an after-tax account, in a process known as a Roth IRA Conversion Ladder. The conversion is a taxable event, however, your earned income is $0 so the only amount subject to tax is what you convert. Even then, the total amount won't be taxed. You can still take the standard deduction and only be taxed on the remainder at the lowest possible marginal tax rate. The account will then grow tax-free. Another method to access 401K retirement funds a few years earlier is with Rule of 55. One listener wants to know what other podcasters or influencers Brad and Jonathan follow. Brad's long-time favorite is The Tim Ferris Show, Dr. Peter Attia's The Drive, and Naval. Jonathan's podcast listening tends to be focused on what will help build his talent stack. On YouTube, he likes Real Coffee with Scott Adams. The book by Scott Adams, How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, had helped Jonathan change his mindset. He went from fearing failure, to understanding there is a process and failure is completely fine. Brad thinks the best podcast that exists is Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard. Listener Josh left a voicemail saying the episode featuring the Millionaire Educator and the mentality of keeping money on your side of the ledger was one of the most impactful shows for him. The Millionaire Educator learned the rules and used them to his advantage to reduce his tax rate to zero. When the question of dream podcast guests came up, Jonathan says he's going to reach out to Scott Adams, while Brad's dream guest would be Mark Cuban for his open-minded and entrepreneurial spirit. Send in your ideas for who you'd like to hear on the show. The next voicemail asked when is the best to move from 100% equities to bonds if you are about halfway to FI. Jonathan projects he'll be at FI within 10 years and currently doesn't have anything in bonds. He thinks he would make the move to become more conservative once he has a clear exit date in mind, such as within five years. The conventional split is 60% stocks and 40% bonds, but it should match your risk tolerance. Brad mentioned that Big Ern discussed how paying off your mortgage is an alternative to holding bonds in your portfolio. Although Brad has reached FI, he doesn't have any bonds either. He thinks a young adult with a long time horizon, equities have the highest likelihood for maximizing net worth. If you can reduce your structural expenses at the point of retirement, it could act as a substitute for having bonds. Passive income is another alternative. Jonathan is currently allowing his equities to continue to grow, but before he retires, he will pay off his mortgage and get rid of that structural expense. Resources Mentioned In Today's Conversation Join the live show at ChooseFI.com/live. ChooseFI Episode 147 Negotiate Your Salary with Tori Dunlap ChooseFI Episode 211 How to Negotiate Your Salary Without Burning Bridges with Financial Mechanic Learn more about the Roth IRA Conversion Ladder. ChooseFI Episode 297 From Pandemic Layoff to 100K+ | A Salesforce Success Story Find out more about the Salesforce 5-Day Challenge. The Tim Ferris Show The Drive Nav.al Real Coffee with Scott Adams How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams Armchair Expert The Prof G Show ChooseFI Episode 013 The Unfair (FI) Advantage of Teachers | 457(b) ChooseFI Episode 019 The Stock Series Part 1 JL Collins ChooseFI Episode 066 The Emergency Fund…Is it a Bad Idea? | Big Ern ChooseFI Episode 035 Sequence of Return Risk | Big Ern Early Retirement Now: Why We Will Not Have a Mortgage in Early Retirement If You Want To Support ChooseFI: Earn $1,000 in cashback with ChooseFI's 3-card credit card strategy. Share FI by sending a friend ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence.

We are checking back in with our Households of FI family, Martin and Ayesha, who have been paired with mentors, Julien and Kiersten of Rich and Regular. Kiersten and Julien live in Atlanta and started working toward FIRE before they married five to six years ago and have paid off $200,o00 in debt, including their mortgage. They now share their journey on their blog rich & REGULAR. Ayesha and Martin live in Chicago and found ChooseFI in January 2020 and jumped in with both feet. Martin is a natural saver and had been a positive financial influence on Ayesha before finding FI so they had done a decent job managing their money. Martin was researching dividend investing after it was recommended by Ayesha's uncle who retired at 55. Ayesha felt like her aunt and uncle had the most fabulous retirement life she'd ever seen. Thanks to his example over the last 25 years, their goal is to get to where he is. Julien had a similar retirement role model in his life. A close family friend was a Registered Nurse who retried early and showed him that there is a lot of life left after 40. Since finding FI, and partly thanks to Covid, Martin and Ayesha's savings rate has increased. It has made them aware of all the frivolous, non-essential ways they spent money before. Ayesha hates budgets and doesn't want to track every penny of her spending. She was out of work for four months during Covid and they found that they didn't miss her income and it showed them that they could save a good amount of money without feeling constrained or deprived. Having a quantifiable goal and a clear target has helped provide clarity in what they are trying to accomplish. Martin enjoys trying to optimize their spending and counting the dollars they save. When they decided to get a new television, he used Offer Up to do his research and purchased a flat-screen plasma HDTV for $40. Julien used to track every single expense and look for new savings opportunities each quarter. But now, optimizing their spending has become such a deeply ingrained habit that he no longer feels the need to look at their budget. He says it becomes like muscle memory once you sort out your own system. Ayesha feels like when you can simplify your life and have good habits, your life can smoothly and asked what Julien and Kiersten's top habits are. Kiersten says doing laundry regularly keeps them from having a ton of extra clothes. She and their son have a capsule wardrobe with 20-30 pieces of matching items. She also keeps the kitchen sink clear of dishes to cut down on kitchen accessories. Julien says they have just the right amount of things they need and notes that there is stress associated with the quantity and clutter in our lives. Having too many things adds to decision anxiety and analysis paralysis. Instead, whether it is life or a financial strategy, find a handful of things you can nail every single time and ignore everything else. Julien also says that he has never made an investment in himself that hasn't paid off handsomely, no matter if it is exercise equipment, a book, or a course. Don't allow frugality to prevent you from paying to learn new learning opportunities. New skills can improve your ability to earn more income or make you more marketable. Kiersten likes to save receipts. if the item she purchased sits for several days, she didn't need it and will return it. She also purges the house of items regularly. As far as community goes, Ayesha and Martin are doing okay. In addition to family, they have a group of friends who meet to share ideas on investing and becoming financially free. However, they aren't as familiar with the concept of FI so Ayesha feels like they don't have a like-minded community Julien notes that, especially for black people, the pursuit of financial independence can be a very lonely experience. Telling people about FI doesn't work. You have to show them, like when you get to the point where you can take a two-week vacation or a month off from work. Kiersten and Julien suggest focusing on influencing the next generation. They use their freedom to step up and help out and pick up the slack with their friends' children. When it comes to building community, stay open-minded. It takes time to find your best friends and others whose values closely align with yours, but you don't need to divorce yourself from your social circle. Like their budget, Julien doesn't check his investment portfolio very often because they won't be touching that money for 10-20 years. His attention is better spent on building the business and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. They make decisions on where to invest income every quarter. You can see the crash coming on other people's lives despite the advice you may have given. Still, Julien says to leave the gate open and don't be judgemental. You may not have been the right messenger for that message. Before starting rich and REGULAR, Julien was working for a company he loved but was underpaid. When his company paid an influencer $10,000 for posting a photo on Instagram, it motivated him to start earning income in other ways. Since they already had rental real estate, he was confident he could earn more outside of work. He was eventual led into the world of digital entrepreneurship. When Kiersten was finally comfortable enough to leave her job, they were not yet at FI, but a year's worth of runway that enabled her to quit and devote that time to building the blog. The FI community often talks about what number is needed to hit FI, but that number is arbitrary. A single dip in the stock market can impact the number. Julien and Kiersten ask if you were counting on drawing down that money, what would you do for money now? Most people only earn income one way, through earned income. They don't know enjoy the quality of that income over any other. Kiersten and Julien attend FI meetups in Atlanta and other places and encourage Martin and Ayesha to do the same when they are able. Julien had challenges at the beginning of his journey. He grew up poor and was judgemental about his beliefs on spending. He found virtue in saving and said hurtful things to Kiersten because he felt she was spoiled. He's since learned leading with shame creates barriers. Whether a natural saver or a natural spender, everybody is spending. Spending today can be rewarding and motivating. Kiersten was also judgemental in a different way. She thought she knew how her life was going to be and was closed-minded. She struggled with seeing a different version of herself. She had to be open and let go of her ideas of what certain aspects of her life would look like. If they came into a windfall of money and weren't allowed to invest in themselves or their business, they would invest the money in low-cost index funds and then let it grow and forget about it. Discipline equals freedom. When you set up a framework for life by setting up non-negotiable things, it allows you the freedom to spend time doing the things you'd rather be doing. Brad agreed with Julien's sentiment about investing in yourself and that the spirit of frugality can get in the way of that. Watch out for it. The local groups are the heartbeat of the FI community. They aren't made up of podcasters and bloggers. They are regular people who are getting together and trying to live better lives. Website: rich and REGULAR YouTube: Money on the Table Resources Mentioned In Today's Conversation ChooseFI Episode 224 Introducing our Households of FI Part 2 ChooseFI Episode 251 Brad Connects with Martin and Ayesha Find your local group at ChooseFI.com/local. If You Want To Support ChooseFI: Earn $1,000 in cashback with ChooseFI's 3-card credit card strategy. Share FI by sending a friend ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence.

What You'll Get Out Of Today's Show If you are willing to look outside your comfort zone, grab good information, and take action on it, you can change your life in a matter of weeks or months. One of the hardest-hit industries during the pandemic has been hospitality. Working in that industry, Anita was looking down a long dark tunnel before stumbling upon the FI community. When Anita found ChooseFI in August, she jumped right in, taking action and interacting with Brad through the FI Weekly and submitting her frugal wins of the week. By listening to the podcast, Anita heard about Jonathan starting up the Talent Stacker podcast and the program he put together with Bradley Rice on Salesforce career development. Anita gave it a shot and her results blew Jonathan and Bradley's mind. The results Anita has had are not an outlier. It's what others are also seeing every single week. Back in the spring of 2019, Bradley was on the show to talk about Salesforce and living a life by design. After Bradley discussed earning $200K a year working 15-20 hours a week, the listening audience really responded. Based on that interest, a Salesforce group was started for the community and people began landing Salesforce jobs. In just two years, the group grew to 5,000 members learning from each other. A year ago, Anita was working as a revenue manager for a hotel connected to a convention center. At that time, the pandemic was accelerating and group after group began canceling their events. As a result, she was furloughed in March. Understanding that hospitality wasn't going to recover anytime soon, Anita decided to be proactive, began learning, and figuring out what her next move would be. In addition to taking classes online, Anita researched Fortune's top places to work. The first time she heard of Salesforce was from that list but was turned off at the thought of sales. After a little research, she discovered sales isn't what they do. She signed up for Trailhead, Salesforces's online learning account, and did it for one day before concluding it was awesome. But she wondered it was real and if was as easy as it seemed. After receiving more bad news from her employer, Anita was motivated to learn more. She found ChooseFI and binge listened to over a hundred episodes when she heard about Talent Stacker, Salesforce (again), and the free 5-Day Challenge. She ended up in the paid program and because she had been laid off, she used her time to learn everything she could like it was her full-time job. One month after starting the program, she took the first admin certification program and passed. After that, she used all of the tips from the program and landed a good-paying job in January. Prior to the pandemic, Anita was in a financially stable place. She had no debt other than a car payment, although after being laid off she was forced to move in with her boyfriend. She says in her previous hospitality job, she was on a path to get o the kind of pay she is earning now, it just would have taken a lot longer. Bradley says what Anita has done is possible because cloud-based technology is less-impacted by things like the pandemic because they are skilled positions, are able to be done remotely, and without a lot of change management. There aren't enough skilled Salesforce professionals to fill all the available positions. To help fill the gaps, Salesforce developed Trailhead, a free online training app, which removed some of the barriers to entry. Being able to study inline for a few months and then land a $60-80K per year job sounded too good to be true. This is one of those occasions when something that sounds too good to be true really is true. If you don't have basic computer skills, a Salesforce career may not be for you. However, if you like the thought of helping companies generate new leads and support new customers, it might be a good fit. There's so much information on Salesforce that it can seem overwhelming. Anita explains that she is reorganizing the business to help companies become more efficient. A Salesforce professional helps a company use the software to find more customers, sell to those customers, retain the customers, and secure the customer's data. The majority of individuals can come away from training earning $60-80K a year. Anita surpassed that when her first offer was six figures and she doubled her previous salary. Bradley says the career trajectory quickly increases from there. Even someone who isn't leaning in will likely reach six figures after three years and top out around $130K with $20-30K bonuses. The more entrepreneurial-minded can strike out and become independent consultants and earn even more. Bradley makes $200K a year working just 20 hours a week. Based on his return on investment, Jonathan wouldn't go to college if this program was available to him. He spent eight years in school and came away with $168K in debt, rather than six months of training for a couple of thousand dollars. His net worth would be two to three times higher if he had. That doesn't imply ChooseFI is anti-college. Rather, the takeaway is to think differently, look at the world for how it is, and see opportunities. The traditional path may not be for you. Taking a hybrid approach can be a benefit. Go ahead and go to college, but spend a summer in a Salesforce career development program. It helps you understand what Salesforce is, gets you halfway through a program, and helps you to decide if it's right for you. You can do this for free. Fraining is available on Trailhead. What the free Salesforce 5-Day Challenge does is show you how to get started in Trailhead and show you a clear path, and help you decide if Salesforce is for you in just 30 minutes a day. Anita chose to go through the paid portion of the course because of the clear path it offered. Announcing the introduction of a new live interactive component to the show! In an experiment over the next ten weeks, we'll be testing it every Tuesday night at 7:30 Eastern, starting February 23rd. Using an app called Stereo, we'll go live with voicemails and questions every Tuesday. Access the event at ChooseFI.com/live. Resources Mentioned In Today's Conversation Take part in the Tuesday live events at ChooseFI.com/live. ChooseFI Episode 117 Making the Case for Part Time with Bradley Rice Check out the free five-day Salesforce challenge. If You Want To Support ChooseFI: Earn $1,000 in cashback with ChooseFI's 3-card credit card strategy. Share FI by sending a friend ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence.

We are circling back to check in with our Households of FI families. First up are Matt and Megan, our international, dual military couple. Having a military pension is like having multiple lottery tickets. You have both healthcare and an inflation-fighting pension, but how many of these lottery tickets do you need to really crush this game? Naval service is Doug Nordman's family business. In addition to his own 20 years of service in the Navy, his wife almost had 20 years of active duty service in the Navy before finishing her career in the Reserves. And then their daughter joined the Navy on an ROTC scholarship and married a Naval Officer. While dual-military couples are a small demographic that hasn't been extensively studied, Doug says even if they earn just one pension, they will likely have more money than they need for the rest of their lives just because of the pension and healthcare. Matt says the US military pension system is much more simple than for the UK's Royal Navy. He and Megan are working toward FI with their investments alone and consider the pensions to be an additional comfort. Matt has served for 11 years so far and the Royal Navy's systems provide a pension based on each year of service. Megan has been in the US Navy for 15 years after doing her first 10 years enlisted. She needs to fulfill 22 years before being eligible for retirement as a Naval Officer. Doug says when you're in the military with the opportunity to earn an active duty or Reserve pension, you have four lottery tickets and you only need to have one of them to pay off because you solve the healthcare problem and have an inflation-fighting life annuity with just one. If serving in the military is still challenging and fulfilling, stay in as long as you want, but when the fun stops, don't be afraid to leave. Don't fall for the military inferiority complex. Coming from the military you already have human capital. Employers can train you on the basic skills for a job, but they can't train a new employee on those soft skills earned in a military career. Co-locating as an international dual military couple has its challenges. Matt may soon be getting a medical discharge from the Royal Navy which will help solve that issue for him and Megan. Matt notes the US military provides spouses with opportunities for increasing human capital, like free courses or paying for college. Doug thinks obtaining certifications and licenses is going the help Matt find a job in the US more than an advanced degree because he's already proven that he can do things. Networking will be key. After having conversations with others about how he can fit in, what he can help them with, and what he knows how to do, he will make a shift to an abundance mindset. Megan notes that Doug lives in a high cost of living area. He says having a high savings rate on the path to FI, as well as frugality are what enables it. In most high cost of living cities, it's housing that is the biggest expense. After you figure that out, everything else falls into place. Doug and his wife bought crappy houses and put sweat equity into them before renting them out. They also eat local, optimize spending, and slow travel. Spending in the areas that provide the most value gives you margin. People who have been in the military have an appreciation for the line between frugality and deprivation. Frugality is optimizing your spending. The transition is scary and stressful, but statistics show that within two years of getting out and starting a civilian career, half of all veterans change jobs. It's not because they can't hack it, it's because they have figured out how to get more money, get a better job, or move to a better location. They've cracked the code in a corporate environment. Megan is torn with her TSP. She doesn't know if she should go traditional or Roth. Doug says that, anecdotally, in the military where a third of your compensation is not taxed, you are probably in the lowest tax bracket of your life so all investments now should probably be Roth TSP or Roth IRA. If doing all Roth contributions doesn't sit well with you, split the difference and do half and half. Roth's weren't available when Doug was active duty and he spent time doing Roth conversions for his and his wife's accounts. In the first full year after retirement, your income probably goes down a little bit and would be a good time to look at converting a little bit and then chipping away at each year. Doug believes the job offers will come following military retirement. He had offers but for him, it was always about the drawbacks to the offer than the good things they offered. If he were looking today, he would look for remote work where he could dictate his schedule to remove all the drawbacks. He advises Matt and Megan to go build their own career, to their own quality of life, and not to feel constrained to themselves into anyone else's idea of how their working years should be. While Doug gutted out his 20 years of service, his wife gave up 20 years' worth of pension for quality of life. Even so, he says he overshot the finish line by about $1 million. If he could buy back eight years of active duty with that extra money, he would. Megan wondered if Tricare covers military retirees who live abroad. Doug confirms that it does, noting that it's called Tricare Overseas on the Tricare website. He and his wife get all of their dental care done when they travel overseas and in Bangkok, they get their routine physicals. He thinks the healthcare advantages are much more valuable than the pension boost from an additional year or two of working. In addition to questions about how to teach kids about financial independence, Doug is often asked about the sustainability of financial independence. After living it for 18 years, he can confirm assure people that the money will last. It's a good idea to stay flexible. Chances are after retirement you won't be doing one thing for the next four or five decades. Instead consider it a series of five to ten, or even three to five-year increments. Having the security of an inflation-adjusted life annuity takes the stress out of economic downturns. Doug and his wife went through the internet recession in 2002, the great recession of 2008, and watched their wealth compound over the last 18 years. During the coronavirus downturn, they made a large donation to the Hawaii foodbank and put money into their granddaughter's 529 account. Megan has heard that a high VA Disability rating can negatively impact the military pension. Doug says to make sure every medical problem is documented in your medical record. Once you leave active duty or reserves, the VA is going to do an assessment of your disability and award compensation. However, the law states that you can't have dual compensation. With a VA rating less than 50%, you give up some pension in exchange for VA disability compensation but the VA compensation is free from income tax. With a VA disability rating of 50% or higher, you are under a system of Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP). With it, you get both the pension and VA disability compensation. With respect to the inflation-adjusted pension, Doug says that in 18 years, and with three years where the inflation rate was 0%, his pension has risen just over 40% while his spending has not gone up 40%. The certificates and licenses Doug talked about being more valuable than a degree are right in line with the Salesforce challenge discussed on Talent Stacker and ChoodeFI. Resources Mentioned In Today's Conversation Meal Planning Made Easy ChooseFI Episode 221 Introducing our Households of FI! Part 1 ChooseFI Episode 245 Household of FI Matt and Megan Get International Tax Tips from Dave McKeegan The Military Guide Raising Your Money-Savvy Family for Next Generation Financial Independenceby Carol Pittner and Doug Nordman Hire great people faster with Indeed. Ship like a pro with Pitney Bowes SendPro Online. ChooseFI.com/salesforce If You Want To Support ChooseFI: Earn $1,000 in cashback with ChooseFI's 3-card credit card strategy. Share FI by sending a friend ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence.