June 25, 2024: 30 Day FI Challenge, My Favorite Health Podcast, Don't Attribute to Malice plus Community Wins
30 Day FI Challenge
At Camp FI Mid-Atlantic last month, a group created a fun “30 Day FI Challenge” to embolden themselves to take action after the weekend event.
They were nice enough to turn this into a Google Sheet and share it with me and since I liked it so much, I asked if I could spread it to the wider community.
Some examples:
Identify and write down 3-5 hobbies that you might want to do in your current or FI life
Send a thank you message/note/call to one person who made a positive impact on your FI journey
Review your wants vs. need expenses and calculate your Lean FI number
Health Podcast I'm Loving
I recently interviewed Dr. Bobby Dubois and that episode of ChooseFI (“The 6 Pillars of Health”) is going live on Monday.
To say I was impressed with Dr. Bobby is an understatement and I urge you to listen to the episode!
But don’t stop there.
His new podcast, ‘Live Long and Well with Dr. Bobby’ is the single best health podcast I’ve listened to, and believe me, I’ve listened to a lot of them.
His credentials are impeccable and he undoubtedly could wow you with his intellect (like some other famous health podcasters I listen to), but instead he aims to simplify, curate and condense only the most important information that you can take action on.
It is the same ethos I use to create ChooseFI; Dr. Bobby is a kindred spirit and I’m so glad I was introduced to him.
Do your health a favor and subscribe to ‘Live Long and Well with Dr. Bobby’ (find it here on Spotify and Apple Podcasts). His first 7 episodes going through each of the pillars are essential listening.
Don't Attribute to Malice
I had a recent email interaction with a longtime community member (one of my favorite emailers) that highlights the intersection of Occam’s Razor and Hanlon’s Razor perfectly.
I thought it was interesting enough to mention here in the newsletter.
Hanlon’s Razor most succinctly states:
“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by neglect, ignorance, or incompetence.”
Occam’s Razor is the most famous philosophical razor and it roughly states: If you have multiple ways to explain a situation, you should pick the simplest or most obvious explanation.
[Note: A “Philosophical razor,” per Wikipedia is a “rule of thumb that allows one to eliminate ("shave off") unlikely explanations for a phenomenon, or avoid unnecessary actions.”]
In the email in question, we missed including a guest’s YouTube channel in our show notes and it was questioned precisely why this link was omitted.
There were multiple potential explanations, including that we somehow maliciously left out the link to the YouTube channel because we didn’t want to highlight that portion of our community.
Or, using the knowledge gleaned from Occam and Hanlon’s razor we could have:
1. Not attributed a mistake to malice
2. Assumed the simplest answer is the correct one
In this case, that would have been the correct interpretation.
We simply goofed and missed the link in the show notes and I was so thankful the emailer alerted me. I fixed it in about 30 seconds and all was well in the world.
I fear that a lot of us think the world is out to get us somehow, when the realistic truth is the world has never been safer and 99%+ of people you meet are just trying to do the best they can each and every day.
Give people the benefit of the doubt and I think you’ll be surprised at how good the world really is.
ChooseFI Community Taking Action This Week
My 1% better this week is unsubscribing from as many advertising emails as I possibly can! Already feeling so much relief from not constantly being bombarded with unnecessary news or purchases that we don't need.
- Angelica
My 1% better is saving over $170 on my 6 month auto insurance policy! Chatted with a coworker who had the same auto insurance as I do - USAA. He told me about their SafePilot program which tracks a couple of driving habits (and speed is not one of them!) and can save you up to 30% on your insurance. I decided to try it out and saved over a payment and a half by just being a safe driver!
I also have a 1% better for my family. I told my parents and sister about the advantages of a high yield savings account vs a normal savings. They have now switched over to make their emergency funds continue growing without doing anything!
-Maddie
Our 1% (maybe more?) is in the past year, my husband and I restructured our bills. We found a new insurance company for our car, house, and umbrella; paid off 3 cars; and reconfigured our health insurance plans for us and our son. Those changes in addition to NOT spending our annual raises allowed us to "find" $2,065 a month that we did not have before!
We repurposed that found money into my 403b to raise my monthly contribution from $300 to $1,300, and we put the rest into savings buckets each month at ALLY bank (I finally got the courage to open a HYSA through what I've learned at Choose FI), thus earning more money from the interest.
Lastly, I opened a Roth IRA last fall and began investing in VTI, but this past winter I had enough in there to roll it over to VTSAX! Our son turned 18 in January, and I helped him start his Roth IRA, as well.
- Ann
Thanks for your email today, I read it this morning and noticed you mention "The Daily Stoic" again. I looked it up and ordered it along with "The Daily Dad" on Amazon this morning (I handed it to my 7 yo son and said wrap this up and give it to me for Father's Day!). It arrived on my doorstep later the same day.
I read the intro and then went to 5/28's entry. What a great one for my first day. The ending was: "Don't get upset. Do the right thing, That's it." I'm looking forward to 365 more entries. Thanks for the recommendation in the weekly email. I consider it my 1% better tip of the week that you gave me.
- Jon
My 1% better was achieved on my family's annual Memorial Day weekend trip to the Indy 500. We were late booking a place to stay and all the rates were insane, but like you describe in last week's email, rooms for points were still affordable. We booked a room for ourselves and my in-laws who were planning a trip to the area to visit friends anyway. They watched our daughter while my husband and I were at the race and got a free place to stay. Win for everyone!
- Rebecca
My 1% better this month has been working with my parents to help them navigate their plan for retirement - they are about 7 years away and I have been pestering them to take advantage of some of the free retirement resource they have access to. After being on their call with the Fidelity advisor, he said, "You should listen to your daughter - she knows what she is talking about." (Narrator: I know...because I have been an avid listener to Choose FI). So thanks Brad and Co. for making sure we have the tools we need to succeed and help our families on the way.
- Alex