Finding Purpose on the Journey to Financial Independence

As some of you know, I was a speaker at the 2024 Slow FI Retreat, hosted by the Fioneers in early October. I had such an amazing time, for so many reasons. For starters, it was my first in-person FI event, something I had looked forward to for a long time. Meeting other like-minded folks with similar values when it comes to money is completely underrated. Even though I knew it would be wonderful, the impact of this still exceeded my expectations.

But what I want to talk about today is a topic that came up a lot at the Slow FI retreat: purpose. I finally got to meet Jordan Grumet (Doc G) at this retreat. Jordan is someone I have been following for quite some time now and whose ideas and beliefs around the topic of purpose have really resonated with me throughout my financial independence journey. He has a new book out on the topic as well, and I can’t wait to read it. Today on the blog, I’ll tell you more about some of Jordan’s thoughts around purpose, as well as share some of my own. I hope you’ll read on!

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Experiment Success Alert: an Update! 1 Year of Airbnb Hosting

It’s been a little over one year now since Mr. Dink and I embarked on our journey as Airbnb hosts. (Ok, it’s been well over a year by now – apologies for my lack of posting for the last 6 months!) Either way, in honor of this milestone (and because better late than never, right?), we thought it was about time to update the community on how this experiment has been going.

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3 Months Into Part-Time Work: An Update

These past 3 months since I shifted to an 80% work schedule have flown by. My sister-in-law recently asked me how I was feeling about it all on a trip I took to see her, my brother, and my niece. Then, I had a reader leave a comment on one of my recent posts wondering how it was going. The universe had spoken! I realized it’s about time I fill everyone in.

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Getting Out Of A Bad Situation: A Personal Case Study

One topic I’ve witnessed many bloggers in the financial independence (FI) space discuss at one point or another is how financial freedom, and especially having “F-You” money, can help get you out of a bad situation.

They write about it as one of the many ways that having extra money in the bank is beneficial. Today, I’m sharing a recent personal story in which the financial freedom I’ve gained so far on my journey helped me get out of a bad situation at work.

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Has Having a Niece Changed My DINK Status?

A few weeks ago, we celebrated my niece’s first birthday! I can’t believe how fast this past year went. It has been such a joy to watch her grow into the smiley, social 1-year-old that she is.

I haven’t written much about the NK (no kids) portion of my DINK status recently. But as I head into my late 30s, it’s on my mind often. So, in honor of my niece’s first trip around the sun, I thought it would be nice to reflect on how I’ve been feeling about the “no kids” component of our DINK lifestyle.

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Experiment “Failure” Alert: We Sold Our Boat

Today I bring you another installment of my experiment series on the blog, where I chronicle my “experiences with experiments” (say that 5 times fast) on my slow FI journey! This will be the first of the series that is a not-so-successful story. Although I had been refusing to call them failures up until this point, because I believe that there is no such thing as failure when it comes to experimentation, I couldn’t think of a word I liked better. And “failuretunity” just didn’t quite have the ring to it I was looking for. Hence, I landed on simply putting “failure” in quotation marks. Read on to hear more!

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It’s Time To Rock The Boat

Alright, friends. It’s big announcement time! Long-time readers may know that, since starting this blog, my big financial goal has been to eventually go down to part-time work. Well, it’s finally official. It’s finally time for me to rock the boat of the traditional 40-hour, 9-5 work week. I’m now officially on an 80% work schedule at my job, with Fridays off!

Read on to hear all about how I made the decision, the process of making it happen at work, and what I’m thinking about the decision now.

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Finally Spending On Me For My Birthday

Hello, friends! Last week marked my 37th birthday. For the last several years now, since 2017 in fact, my birthday tradition has been to go camping. And camping is what I did again this year, but with a twist that I’m excited to share with my financially attuned readership! I hope you enjoy this short tale that feels like a huge step for me on my personal finance journey.

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Can Routine Fuel Creativity?

I think the jury is still out on this one. Part of me believes what author Elizabeth Gilbert writes in her book Big Magic, that we should strive to be as light and carefree as possible to maximize creativity. But as creatures of habit, where does routine fit in? Today I’m here to share some of my thoughts on this topic.

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Experiment in Progress Alert!

Hello, friends! I’m so sorry I’ve been away for so long. I have missed writing, and hearing from you, so much. But I’m here today to fill you in on what I’ve been up to in the month of April and to (hopefully) get back to posting a bit more regularly.

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