JL Collins Interview, Half FI is 75% FI, Frugal Tip plus Community Wins | FI Weekly

JL Collins Interview and My Favorite Article

JL Collins recently appeared on Hasan Minhaj’s YouTube channel and it has nearly 1 million views in the first month! JL is a great friend and an extraordinary ambassador for the financial independence community.

Check out the ‘Financial Literacy for Dummies (Like Me)’ video and be sure to forward it to friends you think might benefit from it.

I’ve also been contemplating business building recently and it reminded me to listen to Episode 107 of ChooseFI with a local friend of mine, Craig Attkisson, who is a co-owner of what has become one of the biggest landscaping firms in Virginia.

He passed along hard-won wisdom on building processes and incentives into your business and it was a wonderful episode.

Craig mentioned one of my favorite articles of all-time from JL’s blog, “Why Your House is a Terrible Investment;” Craig read this article years ago and sold his house and built his own tiny home on some family land and dramatically reduced his living expenses. A very cool FI-action story.

Half FI is More Like 75% FI

My friend Katie from ‘Money with Katie’ published an article a few years ago that I really enjoyed called, “Why Hitting “Half FI” is More Like 75%.”

The article is loaded with info, but in essence, Katie crunches the numbers and says that once you’re halfway to your FI Number, you’re most likely at least 75% of the way there in terms of time to FI.

Here’s an excerpt from a key section from Katie’s article:

“Where did she technically hit “half FI”?

That said, we can define half FI as – ready for this? – the FI number halved. In her case, $500,000.

She didn’t hit $500,000 until sometime between year 8 and year 9!

Yet by Year 11, she was FI.

If she weren’t watching her progress, she’d probably clock in during year 8/9 “halfway there” and be like, Ugh, I’m only halfway there? 8 more years to go?

No, sis!

Those returns are compounding. The snowball has taken on a life of its own. Just three years later, she’s FI.

Reaching half your FI number means you’re about 75% of the way through your FI investing timeline.”

I genuinely love analysis like this by people who look at the problem a little bit differently and come out with clarity that helps us all on our FI journey!

Katie’s podcast ‘Money with Katie’ and her newsletter are absolute can’t-miss pieces of content for me and I highly recommend them both.

It’s amazing that Katie found personal finance through ChooseFI way back at the start of our show and is now one of the most important voices in all of personal finance.

Frugal Tip of the Week

Here’s one of my favorite life hacks that I oddly haven’t highlighted in the newsletter in years:

If you shop at Amazon.com, you need to start using CamelCamelCamel.com. Weird name, but a great way to save money! If there’s something you need to buy in the future you can track the historical price trends for that item at Amazon and you’ll be shocked at how much it goes up and down over time.

Set a price watch for the price you want to pay and CCC will email you when it drops to that price.

I set a Price Watch for any recurring purchases (think toiletries, etc.) or for something I ideally would purchase in the future if it hits a certain price threshold (board games are a perfect example) based on the historical price graph.

You can do this for literally ANY item on Amazon, which is just about everything in existence.

ChooseFI Community Taking Action This Week

1% win for me this week: My VPN subscription was due for renewal. On the account management page, it showed an auto-renewal for $161 for 2 years. I don't think I paid that much 2 years ago, and inflation couldn't have been that bad. I decided to re-priceshop. To my surprise, when I go to my VPN service's web page-where they put in the most effort in promotion to attract new subscriptions-the same plan is only $89 + additional 3 months. No trick, no incognito mode, same company, my account was logged in so they knew I am an existing subscriber. Simply manually renewing versus auto-renewal saved me almost 50%.

• Patrick

My fiance and I had a couple of wins this month. After some major ups and downs since August, with lack of housing and job offers being rescinded, we finally have some clarity! We scored a cute apartment with a beautiful view at a very reasonable price in a new town that we're excited about (although, we will grieve leaving our current community that we love). My fiancé also scored a job offer that he's excited about. I scored an agreement with my current employer to work remotely temporarily, which will help bridge the gap until I find something locally. Also, I will have a whole month off (paid and with benefits!) during our wedding month, which I'm so excited about! We couldn't have done this without the principles of ChooseFI. We are both prepared to take pay cuts, which we can afford since reaching CoastFI. We still plan to save as much as possible to reach full FI, but we're happy to extend that timeline in exchange for stability in the other parts of our life. Always just looking for that balance between the pursuit of FI and enjoying our lives right now! One more small win--I found out many months ago that my employer was mistakenly not contributing the agreed-upon amount to my 401K and as of today I finally received that "backpay" into my 401K for the entire time that it was owed. Yay!

• Anonymous

My 1% better is I am slowly letting go of my "poverty mindset" and I FINALLY signed up for a travel reward credit card. I've been too afraid and reluctant to spend on any luxury deemed not necessary because if I lived my childhood and early adult years with nothing, then I could live the rest of my life with nothing and be happy/safe. Now, I'm finally reaching a point in my financial foundation and life where I don't need to be afraid of suddenly having nothing tomorrow. (Yes, this was my fear for years.) I want to provide the experience of travel for my husband and I to enjoy together. I won't stop shopping at Goodwill or working on our own cars, but I am opening myself to enjoying my life. Afterall, I deserve it.

• Samantha

Thanks to the ChooseFI podcast and my wife who discovered it, we have booked a family trip to Disney world this year by using exclusively credit card points to pay for lodging, airfare, and park tickets. When calculated out, we saved over $4500. Thanks again for helping us to see the best ways to save money, enjoy life all while also planning for the future and to live that FI life!

• Dylan

My 1% better this week is that I increased my 401k contribution by 2% for a total of 16% and then also get a 5% match for my employer. I know most people are decreasing or completely stopping investing due to the market currently, but since I started listening to you 3 years ago, I am confident that the stocks are on sale and therefore I am buying more. I believe this will help me in 5 to 10 years to help increase my retirement savings. Thanks again for what you do and bringing all this knowledge to the general public.

• Lydia

I became a widower over a decade ago, with a daughter who is now turning into a teenager. It has been tough, but helpful grandparents, a vision for FI and travel, and podcasts like ChooseFI, Stacking Benjamins, and Frequent Miler have helped me get enormous value out of life despite the difficulties. Now in my late 30's, I would like to share that I have been able to:

• Get my investment portfolio to $1M
• Take my daughter to 10 countries so far, plus 2 countries I have solo traveled to, and mostly on points
• Visit all 50 states, take my daughter to Disney three or four times, and watch games in 65 of the 121 major pro sports stadiums in the country (NFL, MLB, NBA, and NHL) so far.
• Be on the path to RE at 45, if I choose to do so. Recently, I walked into my boss's office and stepped back from my stressful management role, which financial security gave me the confidence to do. I am transitioning laterally into a position with fewer management responsibilities right before a long trip booked on points this summer
• Matt

Click HERE and let me know what you did to make your life 1% better this week!