What I’m Listening To

What I’m Listening To

In my self-improvement journey, increasing the quality and quantity of my sleep has arguably been the single most important factor. I’m obsessive about my sleep! Dr. Peter Attia’s podcast ‘The Drive’ is a must-listen, and in Episode 126 he had Matthew Walker, Ph.D., author of Why We Sleep, on the show to discuss immune function and sleep and they passed along 5 actionable tips to improve the quality of your sleep:

• Regularity: going to bed and getting up at roughly the same time every day.
• Darkness at night:I personally bought blackout shades for my windows (here are the ones I bought) and unplugged or covered all those pesky little lights on electronics.
• Temperature: It ideally should be cold in your room for the best sleep. We keep the AC off during the day but kick it on about 90 minutes before bed.
• Don’t hang out in bed awake. If you can’t fall asleep, get up, do something else and come back.
• Alcohol and Caffeine: Avoid caffeine in the afternoon (or later) and try to avoid alcohol in the evening.

The Simple StartUp Fall Challenge

After the success of the summer camps, Rob Phelan is running The Simple StartUp Fall Challenge from October 5th - December 11th! It's a true bargain at $80, which includes the Simple StartUp workbook.

By the end of the 10-week entrepreneurship digital course, your child will have a business that is fully capable of earning an income. They will also be equipped with the financial lessons to manage and grow that income responsibly. These are the life skills that truly matter!

FI 101: 25x Annual Expenses

We say that you have roughly reached your Financial Independence number when your net worth is 25 times your annual expenses. For example, if your yearly expenses are $40,000 then your FI number is $1,000,000 ($40k x 25 = $1 million).

A cool way of thinking about this is for every $100 each month you can reduce your expenses, you need $30,000 less (!!) in your net worth to reach FI. $100 x 12 = $1,200 annually and then you multiply that by 25 to get $30,000. Small changes really add up!

ChooseFI Community Taking Action this Week

Each week I ask you to hit reply to this email and let me know your wins from the prior week. Here are a few that jumped out recently:

• Maria said, “We have two cars sitting in the driveway. We decided to sell the one that's not paid off, then wait to get a different car once we need it (we have a baby at home and no insight into when we'll be commuting again). Now we can save $509 on monthly payments, including insurance! Bonus: We looked into doing this back in April, and the offer was $5k lower than what we're getting now! Glad we waited. Now is a great time to sell a car!”
• Vasily said, "I recently signed a contract to buy a house and as soon as I met my loan officer to get my rate, I reached out to another lender to get a competing quote. After some back and forth between the two, I managed to get my closing costs reduced by $1500 with the original lender and there is nothing else I need to do. All it took was a few emails and calls."
• Jacqueline said, "over the past week I've put a lump sum on my mortgage and brought it under $100k until payoff. I'm also on target to fully fund both my 401k and 457 for a total of $39k which combined with pension and annuities and other tidbits brings me up to 40% savings rate.”
• Mallorie said, "My win for this week is, I started school yesterday, investing in myself, to hopefully get a better paying position in my next job. The best part is, TN Reconnect grant pays for my whole associate's degree (I just have to have a minimum of 6 credit hours, and a 2.0 gpa, and finish it in 5 years!) They don't cover books and fees, so my total was 162.00 for this semester! I am also taking as many CLEP classes as I can fit in... to save even more money and TIME! All this with a full-time job, and a toddler at home…but it will all pay off!!"
• Yolanda said, "I switched my phone service to Mint Mobile 3 months ago. I just renewed with them and paid for a full year for myself and my daughter. Total for the year was $570! When I was with ATT, I was paying $2,100 a year. (Makes me sick even thinking I used to pay this much). The extra money is going towards paying off my car and building my emergency fund.”