Richmond Event: Create Your Extraordinary Life
I’m excited to announce that Alan and Katie Donegan and I are hosting an event right in my backyard in February:
Extraordinary Richmond 2026 Event: Create Your Extraordinary Life
February 14-16, 2026 (with an optional social Friday night 2/13)
I’ve seen them run prior versions of this workshop in Las Vegas and Bali and I believe this is truly life-changing and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
I’ll also be recording a live ChooseFI Podcast at the event and there’s going to be lots of time to hang out and get to know your fellow FI Community members.
It’s in an incredible walkable community with everything within a short walk. You will not need a car once you get on-site, so it should have a real close-knit feel.
The event hotel is 1 minute from the workshop, plus there’s a Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, 10+ restaurants, a coffee shop, best gym in town, etc., etc. right here in the community.
The event is limited to 100 people and since there are only 34 left after they sent it out to the Extraordinary Events email list yesterday, I suspect they will sell out quickly today.
Check out the link above and even if you can’t make it, join the email list and get notified early for our next event.
2026 IRS Tax Brackets
The IRS just released the new tax brackets and standard deduction info for 2026 and Cody Garrett was kind enough to summarize it all in an easy to read table for our community:
2026 Federal Income Tax Details
Of note: The Standard Deduction 2026: $16,100 for single filers and $32,200 for married filing jointly.
For additional info see the IRS article here.
Long-Term Cap Gains at 0% 2026 Updates:
Single filers pay 0% long-term capital gains rates on up to $49,450 of taxable income in 2026.
Married filing jointly filers pay 0% long-term capital gains rates on up to $98,900 of taxable income in 2026.
Capital Gains Harvesting is a powerful concept that Cody Garrett and I discussed in-depth in Episode 517. This is truly essential information and you must go back and listen to that episode.
You pay a 0% Long-Term Capital Gains (LTCG) tax rate on long-term capital gains when your taxable income (inclusive of the Long-Term Capital Gains) is up to:
$98,900 for married filing jointly and $49,450 for single taxpayers and you pay $0 in tax on those LTCG.
Since this is taxable income, it is actually after the standard deduction is applied, so your reported income could be significantly higher (again, the Standard Deduction 2026 is $16,100 for single filers and $32,200 for married filing joint filers).
Let’s use an example of a married couple in 2026:
They earn: $32,200 of W-2 wages that year.
They sold stocks with a current market value of: $305,000 but that they bought ("basis" of) originally for $206,100. This means they will report a LTCG on their tax return of $98,900.
Incredibly, all this income and LTCG will amount to $0 of federal tax liability.
Tax return would look like:
$32,200 wages + $98,900 LTCG - $32,200 standard deduction = $98,900 taxable income
The entire $98,900 LTCG would be $0 of tax with the 0% preferential rate.
ChooseFI Updates/Reminders:
Get email notifications of local events: If you haven’t joined your ChooseFI Local Group on our site, now’s the time! Create a free account here, and you’ll get email notifications of all local events in your area.
Big News: The ChooseFI App Is Now Live on iOS & Android! Many of you who created early accounts on our new Local Community system know just how much work, care, and intention has gone into building this platform — and why it’s going to be absolutely central to how we support FI communities and local groups around the world moving forward. Jonathan is building this in real-time and can make this something extraordinary. Download for iOS here and Android here.
Slow FI Retreats 2026: I’m excited to share that I’ll be speaking at The Fioneers’ Slow FI Retreat in New Hampshire in early October 2026. If you want to get clear on what you’re building toward—and start designing your ideal life now—this is the event for you. Learn more and sign up here. Only 9 tickets remain and Early Bird pricing ends this Friday!
Travel Rewards Credit Cards: I keep my Top Ten Recommended Cards page constantly updated, so it should always be your first source for travel rewards cards. Just a note that the offer just increased on my #2 rated card (and the one I personally use) to the best I’ve seen. The annual fee is significant, but I detail how it is offset to nearly $0 with a travel credit and yearly bonus.
(Note: We earn a commission if you sign up for credit cards through our site. I don’t advertise on the podcast or in the newsletter. Your support using these card links makes that possible. Thank you!)
ChooseFI Community Taking Action This Week
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This week, I finally got rid of a junk car that's been out of commission for over a year. My spouse and I work from home, but had two cars from when we both had to commute. One of the cars has been broken for over a year. We don't need the car, so this past week, we signed up to donate it and it got hauled away. Some U.S. states allow you to take an unused car off of your car insurance policy; ours does not. We'll now be savings $1100 a year now that we can take it off the insurance. — Courtney |
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My win is that I recovered from burnout and actually really love my job now. I started on the FIRE path due to some difficult years in my teaching role. 5 years later, I was able to shift roles and I really love the new position. I feel the “flow state” more days than not and am gaining immense satisfaction. Added bonus is that being at coast FI means I truly am still going to work because I want to, not because I have to. — Eric |
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I am actually 2% better after a couple of changes. I sat down and looked at my employers health care plan options for 2026. I am finally going to choose the high deductible plan and start contributing to an HSA after years of hearing about it. I don't have health issues, am young, and can cover the deductible if required. I am excited to see how much the HSA grows since I have about 30 years to let it ride. Additionally, I am calculating less federal tax withholdings than the past few years since I keep ending up with high tax refunds that could have been growing instead of being saving for taxes. Lastly, I have been helping my youngest sister set up a budget, invest, and save this year since she started her first full time job after college. It’s exciting to teacher her what I have learned and push her to invest while she is young so she can be wealthy later in life. There is always more to learn and new ways to grow and change! — Riley |
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Feeling blessed that even with three kids we can still enjoy this journey. We have a paid off house, flexible work schedules, quality time with our kids, quality time for our marriage, quality time with friends and our church community. This of course did not happen overnight but these 1% wins have been stacked over years. This is hopefully encouragement to other people out there that this is more than just an excel spreadsheet it is a way of life that you get to design. By getting the fundamentals down even if some would consider them boring it makes for an exciting life down the road. — Chris |
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Finding ChooseFI has been life changing! I have cut back on frivolous spending, started tracking my budget, and networth checks. Choosing FI and realizing my goal of wanting to hit COASTFi by 40, I also took a chance and applied for a federal job. I am a social worker and veteran so this a win win for me. I will receive a $20k bump in salary! Learning from you all has allowed me to plan for increasing my saving rate to hit FI faster rather than allowing lifestyle creep to ruin this progress. — Jen |
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I deposit into the investment portfolio held within my registered retirement account every month using dollar cost averaging. And even though I (fortunately) always had the full years worth of contribution room ready to deposit and invest at the start of the year, previously I would do this by putting 1/12th of the contribution room into the registered account to invest every month. This left the excess funds in a non-registered, taxable high interest savings account (HISA) waiting for their turn to be deposited into the non-registered account. After seeing at tax time the taxes owed on this non-registered interest income, I realized that I could just deposit the full contribution amount into the registered account at the start of the year, buy a HISA-equivalent ETF within the registered account, and then every month sell 1/12th of the annual contribution room from this security and invest the proceeds into my long-term retirement portfolio. This way the interest from the funds are growing in a tax-sheltered account instead of a taxable HISA and my tax bill will be lower each spring compared to my old way of doing it. — Liam |