Five-Minute Win: See Where Your Points Can Take You
Spend five minutes playing around with an award travel search tool.
If you've never used one before, I'd start with PointsYeah, especially their Daydream Explorer. Put in your home airport and see where your points could take you. You don't even need to have a trip in mind.
If you want to go deeper, Seats.aero and AwardTool are two other tools worth playing around with.
Knowing There Will Be Winners
I was listening to Tony Robbins on the Modern Wisdom podcast that came out yesterday, and he was waxing poetic about sophisticated investors, private equity and opportunities outside the public markets.
It immediately raised my spidey sense.
Not because I think nobody can outperform the stock market. Of course they can. But whenever I hear about an investment strategy that supposedly gives sophisticated investors an edge, I come back to Warren Buffett's famous $1 million bet.
In 2007, Buffett bet that a simple, low-cost S&P 500 index fund would outperform a collection of hedge funds selected by professional investors over the next ten years, net of taxes and fees.
The index fund won. By a lot.
It would be easy to extrapolate from this that nobody can beat the market, so don't even try. But I don't think that's the real lesson.
There's a huge gap between knowing there are investors who will outperform and believing I can identify them in advance, gain access to them, and retain the advantage after their fees.
The first one is obviously true. It's the second one that's so difficult.
At the end of the next decade, there will be stocks that returned 20% or 30% per year. There will be fund managers with incredible track records. There will be cities where real estate prices exploded.
We'll know exactly what we wish we'd invested in. But that doesn't help us today, because we're making the decision without the benefit of hindsight.
That's one of the reasons I've always found index investing so compelling. It doesn't require me to figure out who the winners will be. I can admit that I don't know and still participate in their success.
There will absolutely be winners. I just don't need to know their names in advance.
A Few Things...
One of my favorite parts of writing this newsletter is spending the week with my eyes and ears open for things I think are worth sharing with you. It might be an idea from a conversation, something I read or listened to, a useful tool, or just something from my own life.
A Better Question
I listened to Vanessa Van Edwards on The Diary of a CEO talking about how much the quality of a conversation can change based on the question you start with.
Instead of the automatic “What do you do?” or “How are you?”, she suggests questions that give someone a chance to tell a story:
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What was the highlight of your day?
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Anything exciting you’re working on?
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What’s your personal passion project?
And once you know someone better, you can go a little deeper:
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What have you always wanted to learn?
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What’s your biggest goal right now?
My current favorite: What have you changed your mind about recently?
Turning Off the Infinite Scroll
I noticed recently that I was starting to pick up my phone more often than I wanted to, and when I paid attention to what I was actually doing, it was almost always one of two things: Reddit or the Google feed on my Android phone.
It started out innocently enough, as I was just looking for info on my favorite soccer team, Arsenal. But I started noticing how much time was disappearing into apps with infinite scroll.
I deleted Reddit from my phone, which was an easy decision because it is a cesspool. But the bigger win was something Erin figured out: you can turn off the Google Discover feed entirely.
On Android, open the Google app → profile picture → Settings, search for Discover, and turn it off.
Now when I open that part of my phone or go to Google something, instead of an endless list of stories, there's nothing there.
We’re Not So Weird Anymore
I don't make many guest podcast appearances these days, but I recently joined Robert Brokamp on The Motley Fool's Hidden Gems Investing podcast to talk about the current state of the Financial Independence movement.
We talked about why you don't see nearly as many FIRE articles in the news anymore. A decade ago, FI was novel enough to be a story. Now it's everywhere. To a large degree, the core ideas of FI have simply become personal finance.
Or, as I put it on the podcast: “We used to be (considered) these frugal weirdos. And we’re not so weird anymore.”
The fundamentals haven't changed: “For most middle-class people, there’s precisely one way to get ahead financially: live below your means.”
Listen to The Current State of the Financial Independence Movement.
Family Weekend at William & Mary
We spent Saturday in Williamsburg for Family Weekend with Anna, including a scavenger hunt that had us running around town trying to decipher clues and find random landmarks.
It was ridiculous and surprisingly competitive, which is pretty much exactly what you want from a family scavenger hunt. We missed exactly one riddle that would have put us at the top of about 150 teams, and I’m embarrassed to report that we’re all still thinking about it.
Ten Years Later
It’s almost exactly 10 years since Jonathan and I first met in 2016, and lately I’ve been thinking about what ChooseFI has actually been about over that time.
I came across a line while reading Drownproof this week that put words to something I’ve been trying to articulate for years:
“Until you view yourself as the author of your life, you will be the victim of it.”
We’ve spent a decade talking about index funds, taxes, travel rewards, career moves, college, healthcare and hundreds of other topics. On the surface, that can look like a collection of financial tactics. But the people who seem to get the most out of ChooseFI don’t simply accumulate more tactics. They start approaching their lives differently.
They start questioning things they once assumed were fixed. If something looks complicated, they learn it. An expense that seemed unavoidable gets another look. If a career isn't what they hoped it would be, they look for another one. They stop assuming that the way things are is necessarily the way things have to be.
I think that’s why financial independence is so powerful. Money creates options, but the process of pursuing FI also teaches you to notice that you have options in the first place.
Ten years later, I think that may be the larger idea behind ChooseFI.
Become the author of your own life.
Around ChooseFI
A few things happening around the ChooseFI community...
Community Wins
One of the most-loved parts of the newsletter is the ChooseFI Community Taking Action section, and it only continues to exist because you share your wins. Hit reply to this email and send in your win.
Local Groups
If you haven't already, take 30 seconds to join your local ChooseFI group. You'll automatically receive email notifications about meetups and events in your area.
Mark, one of our admins in San Diego, posted this about their recent meetup:
“Amazing case study event today with our San Diego group!
A big thank you to Ruth for having the courage to share her story and present such an interesting and thought-provoking case study. And thank you to everyone who contributed their insights, questions, and ideas - the discussion was fantastic!”
Continue the Conversation
Have thoughts or questions about this week's podcast? Join the discussion on Episode 618, where YNAB founder Jesse Mecham and I discuss the major shift from learning how to save to learning how to spend.
Travel Rewards
My Top Ten Recommended Travel Rewards Cards page is always up to date, including current welcome offers. If you're thinking about your next travel rewards card, that's the first place I'd look.
If you apply using our links, ChooseFI earns a commission at no additional cost to you. This is how we're able to keep the podcast and newsletter ad-free. For nearly a decade, we've made the deliberate choice not to interrupt the podcast with traditional ad breaks, and I'd love to keep it that way. If you're going to apply for one of these cards anyway, using our link gets you the same offer, costs you nothing extra, and helps us keep ChooseFI ad-free. We're incredibly grateful.
