020R | Introducing Our First CrowdSourced FI Plan & Case Study | Part 1

020R | In today's Friday Roundup we introduce our first crowd sourced case study from a listener and we have a challenge to you:  Implement one life hack this week that will make your life easier and less stressful and send it to us at [email protected] (or leave a voicemail on our homepage!) and we'll read it on next week's Friday roundup. In Today’s Podcast we cover: Our first Friday roundup after a non-guest episode which leaves lots of time for audience input, questions and voicemails We want the podcast to be ‘By FIRE for FIRE’ and make it truly crowdsourced Jonathan and Brad are living a normal middle class lifestyle, just smarter. We aren’t doing anything especially different – just optimizing Brad and his wife Laura had a conversation about what makes their spending different than their friends and neighbors While the fixed expenses are essential (home, cars, cell phones, cable, etc.) the discretionary expenses also make the difference between a non-FI mindset and one pursuing FI How Brad’s kids are not constantly ‘wanting’ new toys, to redecorate their rooms, etc. It wasn’t intentional on the parent’s part, so the thought is that they saw the lack of wanting modeled in the house Jonathan’s frugal win of the week: He superglued a broken lamp in his house and it is still working 1.5 years later!   Upgrading your house not only wastes money, but it wastes a ton of valuable time searching for these items and getting it “perfect” Stressed lives and an ask of the audience: Implement one life hack this week that will make your life easier and let us know about it! It’s so easy to get bogged down in the details of life, business, etc. that you miss the truly essential items that could move the needle and make a difference Brad focuses on things he can get better at over a period of many years such as Brazilian jiu-jitsu and stretching/mobility “You are going to be the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with” and discussion surrounding it Feedback from Deidra: She recommended SBLI for life insurance after hearing our Episode 20 show Brad had a conversation with a friend of his this past weekend on FI and on his plan to retire in 16 years with a pension, fully paid off rental homes and his primary residence paid off, plus 401k and 457 balances Voicemail from Harrison: Info on an alternative to Vanguard and VTSAX. He recommends SWTSX which has  a lower expense ratio and no minimum balance Voicemail from Paul: Part 1 of 3 as a live case study with his life Our questions for Paul for Part 2 of the case study Voicemail from Isaac with a question on travel rewards and how to deal with Chase’s 5/24 strategy Feedback from Nia – international perspective and info for UK listeners Itunes reviews and the 2 winners of The Simple Path to Wealth Where ChooseFI is going: Ideas from the audience and future episodes Links from the show: Todoist SBLI life insurance Mutual Assurance Society of Virginia UK Monevator Blog - How to Invest Books Mentioned in the Show: The One Thing by Gary Keller The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins