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Saving Less to Live More. Should You Do the Same? | Carl Jensen aka Mr. 1500 - E63

January 29, 2024 / 01:06:29

This episode features Carl Jensen, known as Mr. 1500, discussing his journey to financial independence and recent media attention with his wife Mindy. Topics include childhood influences on financial behavior, the FIRE movement, and personal spending habits.

Carl shares insights from his blog, 1500 Days to Freedom, detailing his financial journey and the impact of his upbringing on his current financial mindset. He reflects on how his father's struggles with employment and mental health shaped his views on money.

The conversation also touches on a recent interview with Ramit Sethi, where Carl and Mindy discussed their financial situation and the anxiety that comes with spending money. Carl reveals his desire to shift from viewing money as a security blanket to seeing it as a resource for enjoyment.

Listeners will hear about Carl's experiences with spending on memorable events and how he is learning to balance saving with enjoying life. He emphasizes the importance of creating experiences with family and friends.

The episode concludes with reflections on the challenges of teaching children about money and the different reactions siblings can have to financial upbringing.

TL;DR

Carl Jensen discusses financial independence, childhood influences, and balancing saving with spending for happiness.

Video

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welcome to the best interest podcast
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where we believe Benjamin Franklin's
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advice that an investment in knowledge
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pays the best interest both in finances
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and in your life every episode teaches
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you personal finance and investing in
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simple terms now here's your host Jesse
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Kramer welcome everybody to episode 63
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of the best interest podcast my name is
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Jesse Kramer today on the episode we
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have have an interesting gentleman his
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name is Carl Jensen some people call him
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Mr
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1500 Carl for a long time and and still
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does write a blog called 1500 days to
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Freedom he was one of the original and
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big Financial Independence bloggers and
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his blog title 1500 days to Freedom
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describes his journey over a five or so
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year timeline from when he made up his
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mind that he wanted to Achieve Financial
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Independence until when he eventually
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did it but more recently Carl got a lot
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of press a lot of interesting press and
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I shouldn't say it wasn't Carl alone it
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was also Carl's wife Mindy Mindy is one
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of the co-hosts of the Bigger Pockets
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money podcast and Mindy was kind enough
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to invite me on last year we'll throw
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that link down in the show notes it's
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one of the biggest personal finance
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podcasts out there but back to the point
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of today's episode Carl and Mindy they
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recently appeared in an interview with
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RIT seti if you don't know RIT he wrote
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I will teach you to be rich he is
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probably top five top 10 personal
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finance creators and influencers in the
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world and he interviewed Carl and Mindy
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in a very public way about their money
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scenario it's a very intriguing
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interview and and as you listen to Carl
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and I talk today you might be inspired
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to go listen to that original interview
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yourselves so we'll make sure we throw
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that link down in the show notes but
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their conversation the conversation
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between RIT and Carl and Carl's wife
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Mindy it inspired articles in Fortune
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Magazine it inspired articles in Yahoo
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finance and Carl reached out to me
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afterwards and and we were kind of
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talking back and forth and I I invited
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him on the podcast and he says you know
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Jesse actually I have a pretty
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interesting topic in mind I want to dive
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deeper into some of the things that
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remit didn't end up publishing so that's
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what we're going to do in today's
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episode we're going to dive into some of
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the backstory some of the interesting
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ways in which Carl's childhood both
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personally and financially have rippled
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into the future to affect his Current
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financial life and I think there's some
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interesting lessons that we can all take
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away from Carl's example but before we
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get to Carl let's discuss some other
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interesting topics in regards to kind of
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family circumstances and personal
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finance a study that came out in 2019 by
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Harris poll in TD Merit trade it showed
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that the most significant influence on
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the way Millennials handle their
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finances is the way their parents
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handled their money followed up closely
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by the financial state of the household
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when they grew up this is a conclusion
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that at least in my mind promotes
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teaching financial literacy to children
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but the the tacit implication in the
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article is that there's a positive
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correlation between our childhood
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exposure and how we act as adults the
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way that growing children view finances
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becomes their their normal and that
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normal is what they will tend to revert
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to as adults in other words Frugal
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parents tend to lead to more frugal
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children households that save tend to
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lead children who save households in
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debt they tend to lead to children who
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take on debt and households that
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scramble to pay the bills tend to lead
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to children who scramble to pay the
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bills etc etc ET Etc all the way down
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the line now I'm sure there are plenty
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of people out there who experience the
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opposite of this they experience some
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sort of negative correlation it's
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something that I've heard before someone
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will come out and say well actually my
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parents were terrible with money and now
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I'm going to learn my lesson from them
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and I'm going to choose to be good with
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my money that's wonderful I I hope
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people choose that path but this poll
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this TD am Merit trade and Harris poll
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suggests that that's actually an
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uncommon result so what does that mean
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for us moving forward I see two big
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takeaways the first takeaway is that we
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should learn from others it's how we're
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wired as humans and the second is that
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we should set a good example for others
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because they will benefit from our good
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example
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teach your children
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well their father's
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H humans we are curious Learners we seek
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patterns we seek reason we model our own
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actions on what we see around us so with
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that in mind think about the people in
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your life think about some of the
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financial decisions you see them make
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and if you're comfortable enough ask
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them some questions when did they start
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thinking about retirement how do they
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handle the finances inside of their
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marriage what purchases have they loved
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or what purchases have they regretted
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the more you learn about other people
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the more information you will have to
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make your own decisions in your life
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some of the biggest decisions I've made
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in the past few years have been direct
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result of knowledge that I've learned
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from others for example how do I feel
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comfortable buying my house rather than
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continuing to rent why do I have
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multiple retirement accounts right why
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do I have a 401k and a Roth IRA and an
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HSA and how do I divide up the money
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that goes into those three different
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accounts why did I open a high yield
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savings account with Ali bank and
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another high yield savings account with
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flourish cash all of these decisions
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were based on ideas that I learned from
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others a great example the bogleheads
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guide to investing a wonderful book it
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taught me multiple investing ideas that
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I immediately put into practice after
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realizing this is going back many years
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that I was only getting a0 2% interest
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rate on my long-term banking my
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long-term savings I asked a family
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member where he kept his savings the
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next week I had opened my Ali bank
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account which at that time was paying
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2.2% it was an 11 times increase in my
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monthly interest that I got for my
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savings I can comfortably admit that
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everything I know I learned from others
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and you're probably the same from your
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parents to your teachers to your friends
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everything you learn you've learned from
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someone else so it seems to me that we
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can also choose to be examples for
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others maybe it's your children your
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present children or your future children
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maybe it's a friend a sibling a partner
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someone in your life good habits rub off
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on other people my wife for example has
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started me to get into a habit of making
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my bed now I know I'm a 33-year-old man
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and I don't always make my bed honestly
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going back to Childhood I never quite
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understood why making the bed is so
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necessary like what's the big deal but I
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do have to agree with her a made bed it
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does look better and it's nice to climb
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into at night it's a good habit it's a
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good habit fair enough so much in the
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same light as my wife teaching me to
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make the bed we all have the potential
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to spread good financial habits to those
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close to us in our lives but unlike the
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maid bed which subjectively you could
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say isn't that big of a deal financial
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habits they are a big deal they
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significantly impact Our Lives setting a
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good example for another can create a
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huge net positive in that person's life
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and then across enough people it creates
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a huge net positive for society when you
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think of personal finance celebrities
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even ones who maybe you don't own always
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agree with think of someone like Dave
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Ramsey well he's influenced hundreds of
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thousands of people into better
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financial habits especially on the
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budgeting side and the savings side and
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the paying off debt his investment
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advice has been put down enough we all
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kind of know that it's got its faults
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but he has helped hundreds of thousands
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of people get out of debt stay out of
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debt do things like that that's amazing
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that's an amazing influence and amazing
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ability to teach people that he's had
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now we won't all achieve that same level
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of reach or the level of celebrity that
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someone like Dave Ramsey has but we can
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certainly reach our own circle of family
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and friends it's a worthwhile Pursuit
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and it's certainly the main reason why I
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continue to write on the best interest
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and continue to publish the best
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interest podcast now changing gears a
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little bit closer to Carl and Mindy's
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story and today's conversation let's
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talk about the two roads to financial
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Independence two roads diverged in a
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word and I I took the One Less Traveled
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by and that has made all the
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difference now some of you will
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recognize that poem that was just read
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that is Robert Frost's famous poem The
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Road Not Taken now especially the last
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few lines of that poem that you just
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heard that's the the most famous part of
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the poem and most people interpret that
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poem and those lines as as if to say
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Frost's Choice it made all the
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difference in a good way it was a good
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difference that it made robbert Frost is
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telling us to to break the mold to be
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different to create an extraordinary
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life because that's inherently a good
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thing however if you read the whole poem
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you'll notice that Frost makes no such
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claim The Road Less Traveled it's
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neither good nor bad Frost is not
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passing any sort of judgment on the path
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that one takes in instead Frost's point
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is that the decisions that we make in
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life just like a fork in the road they
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steer you in a direction that cannot be
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undone the other way of thinking about
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it is the statement that there are no
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counterfactuals once you take the left
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Road you cannot take the right Road
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anymore you've made your decision and
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because of that even a tiny decision in
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life can make all the difference perhaps
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in a good way perhaps in a bad way one
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road it leads to another road and then
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to another road and then to another road
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now Robert Frost would never again find
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himself at the particular intersection
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that he was writing about his choice
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left or right it led to another future
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Choice and then another future choice
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and another future choice but those
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choices would never lead him back to
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where he stood at that moment to that
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particular decision yet knowing her way
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leads on the way I doubt it if I should
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ever come back in the long run a simple
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fork in the road it can fundamentally
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change your life this idea is chaos
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theory it's nonlinear it's just like the
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apocryphal idea that a butterfly's
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flight in South America it can change
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the direction of a major hurricane over
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the Atlantic small changes in input can
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cause massive shifts in output now in
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this case a small change in the path you
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take and a particular Trail in the woods
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that might cause some sort of
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fundamental shift in your life time only
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moves in One Direction we can't say
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things like well if I'd done this
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instead of that then I'd be here instead
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of there you you can pretend like you
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know what would have happened but you
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can't be certain nevertheless we dwell
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on opportunities misss you know if I had
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gone to that party in college I probably
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would be married to Margo Robbie right
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now you just can't say that you you
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can't know that to be true but we don't
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even really begin to think about
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disasters that we've averted I think
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that's something that more and more
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people ought to be thinking about if I
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had gone to that party maybe a
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distracted driver would have T-boned my
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car at the stoplight and broken my leg I
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mean just think about it I bet that
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fewer than 1% of people out there have
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actually had thoughts like this before
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we've all had accidents happen to us and
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we think about the bad luck that fell
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upon us and we'd say man if I was if I
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was 5 seconds later or 5 Seconds earlier
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this accident would have been completely
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avoided but because of my timing I got
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screwed
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we never think about the fact that
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sometimes we cruise to work perfectly
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safe and sound and we aren't even aware
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of the fact that if we had been 30
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seconds later coming out of the door
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that morning some random driver would
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have T-boned us going through a red
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light instead we passed through the
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green light 30 seconds before that other
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guy ran the red light safely luckily 30
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seconds later and we never thought about
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it we never met that person but those
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things have happened in life we're just
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blissfully unaware of them so think
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about it when was the last time you
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considered that a few mundane choices in
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your past have probably saved your life
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by avoiding a fatal accident you might
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scoff it's certainly a train of thought
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Less Traveled than be one
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traveler long I stood looked down one as
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far as I
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could to where it bent in the
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undergrowth
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then took the other as just as Fair okay
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so now that's the first path of this
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train of thought let's go to a second
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path of today's thought the Fire or the
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financial Independence and retiring
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early movement strikes me as some sort
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of frosti and bargain now the basics of
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fire are pretty straightforward if you
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earn more and you spend less you can
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become financially independent no longer
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tied to for example your employer
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mandates and then you can retire much
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earlier than traditional Western
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retirement dates fire folks they
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generally take Frost's path they take
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the path lest traveled they isue the
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common 9 to-5 for 40 years style of
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career by striving for higher incomes
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more investing and less spending that
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combination it makes all the difference
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for them but just like those who misread
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Frost's poem the fire movement
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occasionally conflates different with
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better it makes all the difference
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to take the fire path but is it always
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better those two are not the same thing
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and and below here are five headlines
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from the financial Independence
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subreddit forum and I want to ask you
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can you spot the Common Thread amongst
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these five headlines number one I
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retired early at 36 it's been 2 years
00:14:49
and I'm feeling lost number two your
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fire Obsession may be a symptom of
00:14:55
stress number three I fired at 30 and
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now I'm lost depressed and don't know
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what to do number four living in the
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future or why Fire won't make you happy
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and number five is the pursuit of fire
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just a temporary distraction from
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happiness now of course I cherry-picked
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these headlines there are also many
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stories of terrific Financial
00:15:19
Independence success and The Road Less
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Traveled as we talked about before it
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can make all the difference in both
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directions good and bad fire is a Road
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Less Traveled but it's not necessarily a
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better Road my personal story is another
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example fire was a big part probably the
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biggest part of my initial interest in
00:15:40
personal finance and investing that
00:15:43
interest led to the creation of the best
00:15:45
interest this podcast and the blog that
00:15:48
you're listening to right now and and
00:15:49
that's huge in my life and and it's a
00:15:52
small part of your life so thank you to
00:15:54
the fire movement and I still plan on
00:15:56
getting financially independent we'll
00:15:57
talk about that in a a second I was full
00:15:59
steam ahead on the fire path in my old
00:16:02
engineering career I was on basically as
00:16:05
fast a path to fire as I could muster I
00:16:08
was eating cheaply I was doing coffee at
00:16:10
home and brown bag lunches I was saving
00:16:12
every dollar I could but just like the
00:16:14
headlines that I read you before
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something in my life wasn't quite right
00:16:19
I was asking myself I'm on a I'm on a
00:16:21
better path right now right like that
00:16:23
that's that's what I'm doing fire must
00:16:25
be a better path but if it's a better
00:16:27
path why doesn't it exact feel better
00:16:29
for years I couldn't really put my
00:16:31
finger on the problem now coincidentally
00:16:34
the work I'm doing here on the best
00:16:35
interest it helped me discovered my
00:16:37
issue simply put I didn't enjoy the
00:16:40
day-to-day work of my former engineering
00:16:43
career rather than running towards early
00:16:46
retirement I was using fire to run away
00:16:48
from an unfulfilling job the Mind Rebels
00:16:51
I discovered when you force it to be
00:16:53
passionate about
00:16:55
escapism but I did love the work of
00:16:57
writing of podcasting helping my readers
00:17:00
and listeners achieve their financial
00:17:01
goals I wasn't looking to escape from
00:17:05
that part of my life I wanted more time
00:17:07
if anything more writing time more
00:17:09
helping time more podcasting time to
00:17:11
talk to you guys and now that I've been
00:17:13
working for what a year and a half 20
00:17:15
months full-time in wealth management
00:17:17
I'm no longer focused on fire sure
00:17:20
Financial Independence might come but I
00:17:22
love what I do I'm not looking to retire
00:17:24
early so yes I'm still maintaining a
00:17:27
budget I'm still investing money wisely
00:17:29
I'm still following those personal
00:17:31
finance principles but I've separated
00:17:33
the FI from the re Financial
00:17:36
Independence is something that I think
00:17:38
we all should strive for but early
00:17:41
retirement I'm certainly no longer
00:17:43
racing toward it instead I'm on the slow
00:17:46
fi path right now I'm saving a little
00:17:49
bit less and I'm spending a little bit
00:17:50
more I'm enjoying the present rather
00:17:53
than just wishing it away rather than
00:17:55
straining towards this supposedly better
00:17:57
future and that makes me an outlier
00:18:00
compared to other Finance bloggers that
00:18:02
I read or some of my fire heroes and
00:18:04
spreadsheet nerds I'm on the road less
00:18:06
taken but for me it's making all the
00:18:10
difference here's a quick ad and then
00:18:12
we'll get back to the show serious
00:18:14
question why do podcasters constantly
00:18:16
ask for ratings and reviews yes they do
00:18:19
help highlight our shows to new
00:18:21
listeners they help strangers find us on
00:18:23
Apple podcast and Spotify it's totally
00:18:25
true and a good reason to ask for
00:18:27
ratings and reviews but
00:18:28
I have something more important at least
00:18:30
more important to me I want to know if
00:18:33
you like this stuff I want to know if
00:18:35
you like my podcast episodes my
00:18:36
monologues my guests the information I
00:18:38
share with you and the stories I tell I
00:18:40
want to improve and make your listening
00:18:42
more enjoyable in the process so yeah I
00:18:45
would love to read your reviews and sure
00:18:47
if you throw a rating in there too
00:18:49
that's great if you like what I'm doing
00:18:51
please share it with me it's such a
00:18:53
great feeling to read your feedback I'd
00:18:55
love to read your review or see a rating
00:18:58
on Apple podcast or Spotify thank you
00:19:01
all right Carl Jensen is now gonna hop
00:19:03
on the podcast with me as I mentioned
00:19:05
before I first crossed paths with Carl
00:19:08
via his blog 1500 days to Freedom he
00:19:11
started the blog in 2013 to Chronicle
00:19:13
his journey to financial Independence
00:19:15
sharing the wins and losses along the
00:19:17
way I then wrote a guest post and an
00:19:20
interview for Carl published on 1500
00:19:22
days that was in September 2020 exactly
00:19:25
one year later I got to meet Carl in
00:19:27
person in Austin Texas at fincon I also
00:19:30
met a gentleman named Doug cunnington
00:19:32
there Carl and Doug are co-hosts of the
00:19:34
highly acclaimed Mile High fi podcast
00:19:38
then last September I appeared on Bigger
00:19:41
Pockets money hosted by Mindy Jensen who
00:19:43
I mentioned before and her guest host on
00:19:46
that particular day was none other than
00:19:48
her husband Carl Carl and Mindy they're
00:19:50
a power couple in the financial
00:19:52
independence movement and they recently
00:19:53
appeared on an episode of RIT sa's
00:19:55
podcast I will teach you to be rich and
00:19:58
that brings us to today Carl and Mindy's
00:20:01
episode with RIT it made headlines all
00:20:03
over on Yahoo Fortune they wrote
00:20:05
articles about it tens of thousands of
00:20:07
people listen to it but most of the
00:20:09
headlines missed some important Nuance
00:20:12
an example of the headlines quote a
00:20:14
couple who retired early with $4.3
00:20:16
million say the fire lifestyle is
00:20:19
wearing thin we don't want to just keep
00:20:21
throwing money on the pile and keep
00:20:23
being cheap end quote so yes that is
00:20:27
part of the conversation they had and
00:20:29
remit plays the role of financial
00:20:31
therapist Carl and Mindy they went to
00:20:33
remit and they said hey we'd love to
00:20:35
hear your thoughts on our life situation
00:20:36
we're in a great place financially but
00:20:38
we feel some anxiety and some hesitation
00:20:40
over actually spending our hard-earned
00:20:43
money the full podcast link is down in
00:20:46
the show notes go ahead and listen to it
00:20:48
I think it might be valuable and I think
00:20:50
especially as you listen to Carl and I
00:20:52
talk today you might be inspired to go
00:20:54
back and listen to the original podcast
00:20:56
episode but as I alluded to way back at
00:20:59
the beginning there are some things some
00:21:01
important aspects that remit skipped
00:21:04
over or ended up editing out that Carl
00:21:06
thought were important to talk about so
00:21:08
let's bring Carl on the Pod to chat a
00:21:11
bit about his conversation with RIT and
00:21:14
to dive deeper into some of the Nuance
00:21:18
[Music]
00:21:25
aspects all right Carl wel welcome to
00:21:28
the best interest podcast and I was
00:21:30
thinking we could start off with a quick
00:21:32
little game of Peaks and valleys maybe
00:21:35
in honor of you out there in the in the
00:21:36
Mountain West so going back to your
00:21:39
conversation with RIT what were some of
00:21:41
the highlights of the conversation and
00:21:43
maybe what were some of the the the the
00:21:45
low points the pain points the less than
00:21:47
ideal moments from from your point of
00:21:50
view wow wa a start big nothing like
00:21:53
how's your day going or anything like
00:21:55
that I would say and
00:21:58
I'll qualify this in a second but I
00:22:00
think the whole conversation was pretty
00:22:02
much a low point and very difficult yeah
00:22:05
but but it was really good I'm not
00:22:07
saying that in a negative way so when we
00:22:09
approached ramit Mindy had already
00:22:11
talked to him she had interviewed him a
00:22:13
couple times on the Bigger Pockets
00:22:15
podcast so I thought hey this is going
00:22:17
to be easy it'll be like talking to a
00:22:19
friend he'll go easy on us if you heard
00:22:22
it that's not how it turned out he was
00:22:24
like a therapist he would ask a
00:22:26
difficult question and then stare at us
00:22:28
for as long as it took for us to open
00:22:29
our mouths but I'm trying to think of
00:22:32
what was specifically great
00:22:35
or maybe a low point of the whole thing
00:22:38
I guess the the low point is
00:22:42
juicier yeah so now I feel like I'm
00:22:44
talking to REM again because I'm trying
00:22:46
to uh it's a difficult question I can
00:22:49
certainly I can certainly I mean I'm
00:22:51
just curious I mean were any of the
00:22:52
questions was it the overly personal
00:22:56
nature was it you know kind of asking
00:22:57
you to to really dig down deep into
00:23:00
yourself and and to expose these
00:23:02
personal stories was it more I mean r
00:23:06
has an interesting style as you've
00:23:07
alluded to he doesn't really pull
00:23:09
punches I mean was any of it just like
00:23:11
kind of like in your face like whoa that
00:23:13
that is a pretty intense question for
00:23:15
this kind of conversation I mean what
00:23:17
any thoughts along those lines yeah he
00:23:19
did say in the middle of it or towards
00:23:21
the end and I'll I'll say before I I
00:23:24
State this like the conversation was
00:23:26
almost three and half hours long and I
00:23:28
think the edited version was under an
00:23:30
hour and a half but I know this part
00:23:32
made it I haven't listened to it but at
00:23:34
one point he's like I don't think you
00:23:35
two want to change I'm like no we
00:23:37
actually do I realize we've probably
00:23:40
been defending ourselves the whole time
00:23:41
so maybe it sounds like we don't want
00:23:43
to we do want to change and that's why
00:23:46
we volunteered and even requested to
00:23:48
come on here in the first place I guess
00:23:52
the difficult thing and maybe the main
00:23:54
realization I had was I'm an Optimizer
00:23:56
and you can definitely take it too far
00:24:00
the thing about financial Independence
00:24:02
is the qualities that will make you
00:24:03
financially independent aren't
00:24:05
necessarily the qualities that are going
00:24:07
to lead to a happy life and they're they
00:24:10
might not serve you after you've made it
00:24:14
I've got a lot of thoughts about that
00:24:15
maybe if you have to Pivot once you
00:24:18
become fi you did it wrong in the first
00:24:20
place you should have not optimized so
00:24:23
much but yeah if I had to say one thing
00:24:25
Jesse it was him calling me out on all
00:24:27
my optimization BS can I swear on this I
00:24:31
don't want to swear you're it out
00:24:33
totally swear okay my optimization
00:24:37
one thing you just mentioned
00:24:39
there Carl that anyone who's listened to
00:24:42
the podcast with RIT will remember this
00:24:44
but maybe those who haven't listened to
00:24:46
it aren't aware of it I mean he does
00:24:48
call you out maybe two-thirds of the way
00:24:50
through the episode as published he
00:24:51
calls you and Mindy out and he says
00:24:53
listen guys I don't think you want to
00:24:55
change and I'll I'll just not to defend
00:24:59
you simply because you're here but one
00:25:02
thing that I think got lost in the
00:25:03
shuffle maybe from rit's point of view
00:25:05
was he was asking you lots of questions
00:25:08
about your past how you got here this
00:25:11
financial decisions you've made along
00:25:13
the way Frugal decisions you've made
00:25:14
along the way and I thought you and
00:25:16
Mindy kind of explained oh here's what
00:25:18
we were thinking when we made that
00:25:19
decision here's why we chose to live a
00:25:21
life of frugality in these ways and then
00:25:24
at least from my point of view as a
00:25:25
listener RIT took your stories of kind
00:25:28
of maybe defending your actions or at
00:25:30
the very least explaining your past
00:25:32
actions and then he kind of pivoted that
00:25:34
into a hey I don't think you want to
00:25:36
change which I'm not sure that's how I
00:25:39
would have interpreted your and Mindy's
00:25:41
stories but I am
00:25:43
curious maybe you can dive into in a
00:25:46
couple minutes for our listeners I mean
00:25:49
from your and Mindy's Point what is your
00:25:51
core thesis of maybe how you've looked
00:25:54
at money in the past and at least how
00:25:56
you'd like to change your money Outlook
00:25:58
in the future oh yeah we have to go way
00:26:02
back down memory lane and I don't know
00:26:03
if this came up in the podcast but at
00:26:05
the very end rid looked at me and he's
00:26:07
like you know what I'm like no what's
00:26:09
going on rid he's like I think you need
00:26:10
therapy did that come up in the podcast
00:26:13
I didn't actually I don't think it I
00:26:14
don't think it came up in rit's episode
00:26:16
but I heard in your follow-up episode on
00:26:18
the mile high fi podcast you you
00:26:20
mentioned that yeah so my money
00:26:23
situation and I think the way I am is
00:26:25
yeah I had some trauma in my childhood
00:26:28
my dad I think he was a really good
00:26:30
person at his core but he himself had a
00:26:33
difficult childhood and he struggled
00:26:36
with alcohol and mental disease
00:26:38
specifically
00:26:39
bipolar and yeah there's some really
00:26:42
there were some really tough spots some
00:26:43
some bad memories and I hesitate to say
00:26:46
that my parents weren't good with money
00:26:48
they just didn't have the knowledge like
00:26:50
we do now like they didn't know what an
00:26:52
index fund was and so you group all the
00:26:56
stuff together by D alcohol issues is
00:26:58
bipolar and the lack of money and it led
00:27:00
to some pretty uh difficult times and my
00:27:04
solution to that is I need to I need to
00:27:06
go to school I need to educate myself so
00:27:08
I can get a well-paying job and money
00:27:11
became my security blanket of that way I
00:27:13
thought
00:27:14
money was an escape out of this life I
00:27:17
told myself when I was young I remember
00:27:19
having these difficult conversations
00:27:21
even when I was like eight how my dad
00:27:23
would lose his job and it wasn't
00:27:24
anything to do with his issues he was
00:27:26
just an construction worker and there'd
00:27:30
be high times and low times and then my
00:27:32
family would struggle and yeah the thing
00:27:34
I told myself was I never want to have
00:27:36
these struggles when I'm older I'm GNA
00:27:37
get a good job and when I do finally
00:27:40
have money I'm going to Sock it away so
00:27:42
I think I was I might have been the
00:27:44
first one in my entire family to go to
00:27:46
school there might have been one other
00:27:48
and when I did I I specifically chose a
00:27:50
job that I didn't know if I would like I
00:27:53
chose one because I knew it would pay me
00:27:55
a lot of money which I don't think is a
00:27:57
healthy way to go about it and then it
00:27:59
turned out I did enjoy the job so that
00:28:01
part magically worked out and one of the
00:28:03
best decisions of my life but when I did
00:28:05
get that money I just hoarded it I
00:28:07
sucked it away so one thing that I
00:28:10
always have to remind people is people
00:28:12
will say oh it's so cool how you saved
00:28:14
all that money tell me how you've done
00:28:15
it because our net worth is substantial
00:28:17
I'm like
00:28:18
well I don't think you should admire me
00:28:21
for that it should be quite the opposite
00:28:22
because this was a reaction to a bad
00:28:24
situation and if I was better adjust Ed
00:28:27
I probably wouldn't have had all the
00:28:29
money because it was my security blanket
00:28:31
and it was what I needed to make me feel
00:28:33
good and safe in life Jesse I don't
00:28:37
remember what your original question was
00:28:39
or if if I even answered it no I I I
00:28:41
think you have I think you have and and
00:28:43
I want to pry into that a little bit
00:28:45
more Carl you wrote a blog post after
00:28:48
the publication of the episode and the
00:28:49
blog post is called why RIT and we'll
00:28:52
throw a link in the show notes for
00:28:53
anyone who wants to listen to that but
00:28:54
I'm going to quote you here you said
00:28:57
I've never had a good relationship with
00:28:58
money parts of my childhood were chaotic
00:29:00
money always felt like a security
00:29:02
blanket it's not a resource to be spent
00:29:04
on happiness but one to defend against
00:29:07
problems and so I I want to dive into
00:29:09
that last statement money is not a
00:29:11
resource to be spent on happiness but
00:29:13
one to defend against problems I'm
00:29:16
curious I mean you you mentioned maybe
00:29:18
where some of that comes from in your
00:29:20
childhood thoughts even when you were a
00:29:22
young
00:29:23
boy is that still an active thought in
00:29:25
your mind do you think today or does it
00:29:27
live kind of under the surface or is it
00:29:29
is it a combination of of the of the two
00:29:32
yeah I'm getting over it and that was
00:29:34
probably the main reason I wanted to be
00:29:36
on RIT I'll back up a second some person
00:29:38
who was kind of nasty left a comment
00:29:40
someone else said I try not to read any
00:29:42
comments or any stuff about myself
00:29:44
online but I got sucked into one and
00:29:46
someone's like ah these people are fools
00:29:48
I can't relate to them and my response
00:29:51
was I think you're right I can't really
00:29:53
relate to myself either this feels weird
00:29:56
I feel like I'm here and I've got this
00:29:58
big chunk of money over here on the
00:29:59
other side that I don't know what to do
00:30:02
with or even know how to process because
00:30:04
I accumulated this but I did it for the
00:30:07
wrong reasons you asked me about I
00:30:09
accumulated this to it's not to be spent
00:30:12
it's to right it's not a resource to be
00:30:14
spent on happiness but one to defend
00:30:16
against problems so that you know you're
00:30:18
viewing this this money as essentially
00:30:20
as a wall against some problems as
00:30:24
opposed to maybe something that you can
00:30:25
actually utilize for productive happy
00:30:28
things yeah yeah and money's a safeguard
00:30:30
if you've got a big chunk of money
00:30:32
you're not going to lose your house if
00:30:33
you've got a health issue you can deal
00:30:35
with that it's going to do a lot for you
00:30:39
but the thing is most of those things
00:30:42
are never going to come up and if you
00:30:45
think that's the only use for money I
00:30:47
think you have an unhealthy relationship
00:30:49
with it there there's a Mark Twain quote
00:30:51
I really like but I apparently I don't
00:30:52
like so much that I can't quoted
00:30:54
verbatim but it's it goes something like
00:30:56
I have worried about many things in my
00:30:57
life none of which ever happened or
00:30:59
something like that and I I think that's
00:31:01
the case with me too I accumulated all
00:31:03
this because I was afraid I'd lose my
00:31:05
job and there goes my security and then
00:31:08
all the bad things I had in my head
00:31:09
never showed up so we wanted to go on
00:31:11
REM meet to improve our relationship and
00:31:14
have a better relationship with it in my
00:31:18
mind Carl I feel like that it's possible
00:31:21
to look at money in a very binary black
00:31:24
and white way I'm not saying that this
00:31:26
is the way you were looking at it but it
00:31:27
is very possible to say it's either a
00:31:30
zero or a one it's either to be used for
00:31:33
defense or used for happiness and I know
00:31:36
that from the fire mindset one thing we
00:31:39
worry about is this kind of chronic
00:31:41
overspending or the fact that we won't
00:31:43
have safety nets in place the fact that
00:31:44
we won't be able to retire early we're
00:31:46
going to outspend our 4% Rule and then
00:31:49
we're going to end up at 75 years old
00:31:50
pennes and and in in trouble so I I
00:31:53
understand protecting against that but
00:31:55
I'm just wondering after the episode
00:31:57
with RIT after that conversation are you
00:32:02
and I don't want you to have to speak
00:32:03
for Mindy I'll just ask you like are you
00:32:05
finding yourself kind of moving back
00:32:06
towards maybe the center in between
00:32:09
these two opposing thoughts of using
00:32:11
money as defense versus using it for
00:32:14
some fun productive day-to-day use yeah
00:32:18
oh geez we could talk forever about this
00:32:20
I've oh I've thought about money like
00:32:22
constantly ever since the REM show and
00:32:24
one thing I thought of like as a kid I
00:32:26
always lost after these sports cars I
00:32:28
was a kid who had posters of them on my
00:32:31
walls and I actually did have one had
00:32:32
one I had an Acura NSX for a while which
00:32:34
is a fancy Japanese sports car but then
00:32:38
you get the money and it's kind of
00:32:39
interesting how maybe you don't want
00:32:41
those things anymore it was a lot more
00:32:43
the object was a lot more desirable when
00:32:45
you couldn't have it and once you can
00:32:47
have it it's not as desirable as it
00:32:49
was so yes I have moved to the center
00:32:53
and some very and I've recently bought
00:32:56
some experience experiences with it we
00:32:58
went on a helicopter ride in Hawaii
00:33:00
which set us back about $1,300 this
00:33:02
weekend this past Saturday Taylor Swift
00:33:05
was in Denver and my kid had a ticket to
00:33:07
her show and she could only get one
00:33:08
ticket she was like a verified fan or
00:33:10
something like that and by the time she
00:33:12
got through the queue she could only buy
00:33:14
one ticket and I'm not a huge Taylor
00:33:15
Swift fan I would say I'm a casual fan I
00:33:18
can recognize maybe 10 or 20 of her
00:33:20
songs so anyway I went to the stadium
00:33:22
and dropped her off I walked the two
00:33:24
miles back to our our hotel and like man
00:33:27
I I kind of feel like I'm missing out on
00:33:29
that I'm going to go online and see how
00:33:30
much a ticket cost and I I had been
00:33:32
checking them before and they were super
00:33:34
expensive like $2 to $10,000 and I went
00:33:38
online and because the opening band was
00:33:40
already there I saw I could get a ticket
00:33:42
for a, which is still a lot and
00:33:44
something I probably would have never
00:33:46
ever done before REM I'm like you know
00:33:48
what if I don't go to this I'm going to
00:33:52
regret going so I should just do it so I
00:33:54
did it I paid a th000 bucks for the
00:33:55
ticket hustled my ass back to the show
00:33:57
and got to my seat 10 seconds before she
00:33:59
went on and it was great another thing
00:34:02
we're going to do I was going to rent a
00:34:04
car and I went on turo and I probably
00:34:06
won't ever own a fancy car again but for
00:34:08
just a little bit more instead of 500
00:34:10
for 800 I could have a brand new
00:34:12
Corvette so a fan of Mage and sports
00:34:15
cars I did that and then the other one
00:34:17
we're going to do is we're going to see
00:34:19
you two in Las Vegas you might have
00:34:21
heard about this new spherical theater
00:34:23
thing they've got going yeah that
00:34:25
experience will probably cost us at
00:34:26
least $1,000 so like four experiences
00:34:29
that cost us about $1,000 each so we're
00:34:32
definitely learning to let go but the
00:34:34
other thing I think about this is $1,000
00:34:38
sounds like a lot but it's not going to
00:34:41
break our bank it's nothing compared to
00:34:43
having a huge house or an $800 a month
00:34:46
car payment which I know some people
00:34:48
have these are random things that we'll
00:34:50
spend money on once in a while the main
00:34:52
thought I've come to is I'm really
00:34:54
satisfied with our daily life our daily
00:34:57
life is great we have a nice house our
00:34:58
neighbors are great the cars are fine
00:35:01
although I might get a Tesla at some
00:35:02
point so where can I deploy money for
00:35:05
happiness and that's on these random
00:35:07
maybe once in a while experiences
00:35:09
something I would have not considered
00:35:11
before but why not a thousand bucks
00:35:12
ain't gonna break the bank I oversaved
00:35:15
tremendously so why not go on a
00:35:17
helicopter every once in a while and by
00:35:19
the way that helicopter ride was a first
00:35:21
one I ever went out of my life and it
00:35:23
was kind of terrifying but spectacular I
00:35:25
would do it again in a second
00:35:28
I think when you're telling these
00:35:29
stories Carl one thought I had going
00:35:31
through my head kind of preparing for
00:35:32
this interview is this idea of exposure
00:35:34
therapy where say someone's afraid of
00:35:36
spiders so they they gradually they
00:35:38
choose to interact with a spider from
00:35:40
like 10 feet away there's a spider in
00:35:42
the corner and and it's a little
00:35:43
stressful for them it's a little
00:35:44
anxiety-provoking but eventually their
00:35:47
brain and their body become attuned or
00:35:50
they get used to that and it helps them
00:35:52
get over some of that anxiety I don't
00:35:54
want to play armchair psychologist here
00:35:56
but I'm just curious I me did you feel
00:35:58
any sort of anxiety from these various
00:36:00
expenditures over the past month since
00:36:02
the podcast and and and whether you did
00:36:05
or didn't do you plan on kind of slowly
00:36:08
dialing yourself up to a place of
00:36:12
spending that maybe you and Mindy had in
00:36:14
mind before you sat down with remat some
00:36:17
sort of goal that you had set for
00:36:18
yourself o first of all I really really
00:36:21
like the exposure therapy but first I
00:36:23
want to answer your other question and
00:36:25
then I'll have something to say about
00:36:26
this and I'll say yeah I think every
00:36:28
single time I had a little bit of
00:36:30
anxiety like you put your credit card
00:36:31
number in the computer I'm like ah this
00:36:34
feels a little bit weird about to blow
00:36:36
a$ thousand dollar on three hours with
00:36:38
Taylor Swift or on the
00:36:40
helicopter and then pretty much the
00:36:43
second after I clicked the submit button
00:36:45
I was good with it I'm like oh this
00:36:46
feels really good I'm really happy I did
00:36:49
it and none of those experiences I
00:36:51
regret but I want to talk a little bit
00:36:53
about your exposure
00:36:55
therapy even if I would have regretted
00:36:58
it I think it's worthwhile because you
00:37:00
have to fail sometimes and maybe not all
00:37:03
of these experiences are going to be a
00:37:05
winner like maybe you two will sucker
00:37:07
renting the Corvette won't be all I
00:37:09
thought it would be but I would have had
00:37:13
something more powerful I if I hadn't
00:37:16
done it and that would have been the
00:37:17
regret of not doing it and the learnings
00:37:20
from the experiment like I think it'll
00:37:23
actually be pretty great if I rent the
00:37:24
Corvette and I hate it cuz then I'll
00:37:26
never have the urge to buy another fancy
00:37:30
car again I think as much as I like cars
00:37:32
I think they're kind of silly
00:37:33
expenditures if if you sucks at this
00:37:36
sphere Stadium great I won't ever have
00:37:38
to see him again but I won't regret not
00:37:40
doing it so I think you have to push
00:37:43
yourself out of these Comfort zones and
00:37:46
do things for the heck of it even if you
00:37:48
think it might not be perfect and that
00:37:50
again that's getting away from the
00:37:52
optimization I can't optimize for
00:37:54
happiness with every single experience
00:37:57
but how am I going to know what makes me
00:37:58
happy if I don't do these
00:38:00
experiments I just took a note on that
00:38:03
and the note I took I called it
00:38:04
optimizing experiences I know optimize
00:38:06
is now the O word that that we're not
00:38:08
allowed to quite say it but you could
00:38:10
almost reframe the scenario that you
00:38:12
find yourself in as you know what am I
00:38:15
going to enjoy going to these Elite
00:38:17
Musical shows I'm not really sure but
00:38:20
I'll try Taylor Swift I'll try You2
00:38:22
maybe I'll give it a third shot and if I
00:38:24
look back on those three and say eh that
00:38:26
wasn't quite worth it maybe you now have
00:38:28
your answer whereas taking helicopter
00:38:31
rides or doing other I know you're kind
00:38:33
of a big aeronautical fan engineering
00:38:35
fan you're a big Tesla fan but maybe
00:38:37
things like the Corvette a Tesla a
00:38:39
helicopter ride maybe you'll be three
00:38:41
for three on those were so cool and now
00:38:44
you have more Direction on how to
00:38:46
optimize your future spending yeah I
00:38:48
didn't answer part of your question and
00:38:50
I'll answer that now one of the things
00:38:52
with REM was you should spend money on
00:38:54
things you enjoy so I started thinking
00:38:56
about like what kind of things do I
00:38:58
really enjoy in life and I think
00:38:59
everyone should ask themselves is like
00:39:01
what are just do a whole retrospective
00:39:05
over your whole life and consider what
00:39:07
the happiest moments you ever had in
00:39:09
life and I started thinking about that
00:39:11
and my happiest moments are probably
00:39:13
just simple ones like spending time with
00:39:15
friends and family so another thing I
00:39:17
did is I bought a cruise for my family
00:39:20
and that that sent me back 10,000 so my
00:39:23
mom has always wanted to go on a cruise
00:39:24
to Alaska so I'm going to take my mom
00:39:27
and my two sisters and their Partners on
00:39:29
this cruise to Alaska because it'll be
00:39:32
quality time with family and the other
00:39:34
thing I'm gonna do which will be big and
00:39:36
this might benefit you too Jesse because
00:39:38
I consider you a friend of mine is the
00:39:40
thought I had was I really like all this
00:39:42
time I spent with friends but how could
00:39:44
I possibly make that experience a little
00:39:47
bit better maybe a little bit happier
00:39:49
and the thing I came to is why don't I
00:39:51
rent like a mansion or a castle in a
00:39:54
really cool part of the world and I
00:39:57
think Pete Mr Money mustach originally
00:39:59
had this idea but why don't I do this
00:40:01
and just have an open invitation to all
00:40:03
my friends like the one rule is they
00:40:05
can't give me any money and they have to
00:40:07
get themselves there so I guess two
00:40:08
roles but after that you're just going
00:40:10
to come and hang out it'll be a fun
00:40:12
place there will be stuff to do there it
00:40:14
might be a castle in Scotland or a a
00:40:16
mansion on the beach in Florida if you
00:40:18
have ideas for location I'm still trying
00:40:19
to figure this out but this will
00:40:21
probably be a summer of 2024 thinking
00:40:24
how cool would that be or maybe even
00:40:26
rent like a block get a block of rooms
00:40:27
on a cruise ship and just invite a bunch
00:40:29
of people and that's it just just come
00:40:31
hang out with me for a week or two and
00:40:33
here's the Excel spreadsheet tell me
00:40:34
what times you're going to be there so
00:40:36
we don't over allocate and that'll be it
00:40:39
so that might be the that might be the
00:40:41
Pinnacle of my spending so look for that
00:40:43
in summer of 2024 probably that's
00:40:46
awesome that is awesome and a pattern
00:40:49
I've noticed Carl just in this
00:40:50
conversation with you is that a lot of
00:40:53
these bigger expenditures that you're
00:40:55
talking about things you've now decided
00:40:57
to do over the last couple months they
00:40:59
all involve other people it's probably
00:41:02
something you knew even before going
00:41:03
into the conversation with RIT but it
00:41:06
seems like you get a lot of joy out of
00:41:09
making experiences sure for yourself but
00:41:12
for the other people around you and and
00:41:15
you get some sort of secondhand benefit
00:41:17
of of internal happiness just from
00:41:19
seeing Mindy and your daughters happy in
00:41:22
this trip in Hawaii seeing your your
00:41:24
sisters their spouses your mother
00:41:26
they're happy on this future cruise to
00:41:28
Alaska and and so I mean is that
00:41:30
something that you've actively thought
00:41:31
about is is that nature of your spending
00:41:34
it's something I totally think about
00:41:36
just not for myself I think it's human
00:41:38
nature because I would consider myself a
00:41:40
pretty severe introvert but even me and
00:41:43
most humans even if you consider
00:41:44
yourself that we're tribal animals so if
00:41:46
you think about going to a football game
00:41:50
you're going to watch the football game
00:41:51
but you're probably going to go with
00:41:52
friends and that's what really makes the
00:41:55
experience great you're going to drive
00:41:56
down with him you're going to tailgate
00:41:58
you're going to sit there and give him
00:41:59
high fives when your team
00:42:01
scores and I think that's what most of
00:42:04
life is about it's not so much the
00:42:05
experience it's about sharing these
00:42:07
experiences with friends I even changed
00:42:10
the way I travel after I thought about
00:42:12
this so like for example we went to
00:42:14
Edinburgh which I thought would be great
00:42:16
but the main reason I went there was to
00:42:17
visit the uh mad scientist Brandon who
00:42:20
is a friend of mine and that made the
00:42:21
trip so much better because we got to
00:42:23
see all the stuff but we got to have
00:42:25
drinks and dinner and hang out with
00:42:27
people who we really enjoyed and I'm
00:42:30
trying to think of other examples of of
00:42:32
fun with friends but I think yeah that's
00:42:34
where most of life's great experiences
00:42:37
come from Carl let's take a step back
00:42:40
actually and go back to that that idea
00:42:41
of exposure therapy I wanted to pry into
00:42:43
your brain a little bit more just in
00:42:45
terms of kind of how is that going how
00:42:47
has some of the anxiety of spending felt
00:42:50
and now as you're doing it a bit more
00:42:52
and a bit more and maybe exposing
00:42:54
yourself more in terms of I don't know
00:42:56
some some bigger spending or some more
00:42:59
outof the-box spending compared to what
00:43:00
you used to do how have your feelings
00:43:04
evolved yeah I'm going to back up a
00:43:06
second and say if there's anything you
00:43:08
fear in life you should approach that
00:43:10
thing head on and try to overcome it one
00:43:12
big one for me was public speaking as a
00:43:15
kid I used to have speech impediments I
00:43:16
had years of speech therapy because I
00:43:18
stuttered and I couldn't pronounce words
00:43:19
for some reason I couldn't pronounce any
00:43:21
word that had sh in it so I couldn't say
00:43:23
the word shirt and now I can't say that
00:43:26
so I can swear freely if you see where
00:43:28
I'm going with that and uh but anyway
00:43:31
what I did was I took on public speaking
00:43:33
which scared the out of me see
00:43:34
there's the word I could say it now and
00:43:37
now I'm a much better person it's great
00:43:39
to be able to speak well in public but
00:43:41
what I found is it made me a more
00:43:43
confident better adjusted person I do
00:43:45
better in social
00:43:46
situations so now I'm trying to do a
00:43:49
similar thing with money and how
00:43:51
fortunate am I to be able to say I get
00:43:54
to spend money is an experiment
00:43:56
so it it's difficult like with the
00:43:58
Taylor Swift thing my my first response
00:44:00
to that was oh no there's no way I'm
00:44:02
going to pay this I'm like no nope you
00:44:04
have to catch yourself like this is what
00:44:07
you should do because you don't want to
00:44:09
do it and you should consider how you
00:44:13
felt I need to consider how I felt
00:44:15
buying the ticket and then how I felt
00:44:17
afterwards so I think by modus operan
00:44:20
going forward is whenever there's an
00:44:22
opportunity to spend money on something
00:44:25
fun that'll enhance Our Lives I need to
00:44:27
just pull the triger and do it one
00:44:29
example is and this came out of remet 2
00:44:32
we gave each of our children a trip so
00:44:36
we said hey up to like $5,000 you could
00:44:38
go anywhere and do anything and I think
00:44:41
we actually made the limit 10,000 after
00:44:43
after we're meet so our younger kid is
00:44:46
like yeah I'd love to do all these shows
00:44:47
in New York I'm like okay great we'll do
00:44:49
them and they're not cheap they're more
00:44:51
expensive than I thought they would be
00:44:53
but still cheaper than a for Taylor
00:44:54
Swift tickets
00:44:56
so we're doing that and you had asked me
00:44:58
previously about the RIT show and and
00:45:01
one thing that really stuck out about
00:45:02
this is this came more from Mindy but I
00:45:05
was thinking it when REM had asked us
00:45:07
about the trip to Germany Mindy opened
00:45:09
up with well we had to pay like 6,000
00:45:12
bucks for plane tickets and I was
00:45:13
thinking the same thing and then raid is
00:45:16
like why did you open with that did you
00:45:17
have a good time I'm like yeah it was
00:45:19
great our kid talks about it all the
00:45:21
time he's like why didn't you open up
00:45:23
with that then and he's so damn right
00:45:26
like why aren we prioritizing these
00:45:29
things that we could have these
00:45:30
experiences with our kids our kids are
00:45:32
13 and 16 our time with them is almost
00:45:34
done so why aren't we just if we can to
00:45:38
spend money on some experience that
00:45:40
they're going to remember forever why
00:45:42
aren't we doing that so yeah Jesse
00:45:44
whenever I have an opportunity now I
00:45:46
pull the trigger and spend some money
00:45:48
maybe there's a little bit of
00:45:49
apprehension there maybe I should do
00:45:51
something on the blog or with you like
00:45:53
someone will tell me some really silly
00:45:54
thing to spend money on and I'll see if
00:45:56
I can make myself do it and one other
00:45:59
thing I have to say is this all this
00:46:01
conversation I always feel a little
00:46:03
weird about talking about these things
00:46:05
because they sound kind of selfish but
00:46:06
one thing you can also do which we've
00:46:08
done is give money away too A lot of
00:46:11
people put it in their will but why wait
00:46:13
till you're dead to give all the money
00:46:14
away why not do it when you're alive and
00:46:16
can see your money in action and doing
00:46:18
good things so I don't want to die with
00:46:20
zero like the book but I want to die
00:46:23
with a lot less than I had previously
00:46:25
planned totally true I
00:46:27
mean something I end up talking about a
00:46:30
lot at work or through the blog to
00:46:32
readers is it is that there's a fine
00:46:34
balance there is a balance between
00:46:37
saving for the long run but enjoying the
00:46:40
money while you can while you're young
00:46:42
enough one of my best friends he was the
00:46:44
efficient in my wedding he had a
00:46:46
opportunity around the age 28 he could
00:46:48
either kind of commit to this career
00:46:50
path and he would have had to buy a car
00:46:53
to help with some of the commute to his
00:46:55
job and so he had like $25,000 earmarked
00:46:58
for the car or one thing he'd always
00:47:00
wanted to do was take a serious hiking
00:47:03
journey and so one night he sat down he
00:47:06
did the math and his serious hiking
00:47:08
Journey which was going to last about a
00:47:10
year would have cost him right around
00:47:12
that
00:47:12
$25,000 price tag and so he said I'm
00:47:16
only young once I don't want to look
00:47:18
back at age 50 and and regret not going
00:47:20
on this hike so he did the hike it
00:47:22
really fundamentally changed his life
00:47:24
path and for those wondering he did the
00:47:27
Pacific Crest Trail the T AOA in New
00:47:30
Zealand which is north to south in New
00:47:32
Zealand and the Appalachian Trail all in
00:47:34
13 months it was about 8,000 miles in 13
00:47:37
months he just did it because he said
00:47:40
kind of like you said Carl like you know
00:47:41
I might as well do it while I'm here on
00:47:43
Earth while I'm young enough to do it
00:47:44
young enough to enjoy it to see the
00:47:46
benefits and I think that's an important
00:47:48
money spending mindset heck yeah Jesse
00:47:51
your friend is my hero someone had asked
00:47:54
me at a conference at the campf I went
00:47:56
to recently like what was your biggest
00:47:58
money mistake and I said mine was I have
00:48:00
too much I wish I would have let it go a
00:48:03
little bit earlier your body is decline
00:48:05
after about age 30 like you don't see
00:48:07
any 42y old professional tennis players
00:48:09
or maybe you do but they're ranked like
00:48:11
200 in the world and we might not notice
00:48:13
it because we're not Peak Olympic
00:48:16
athletes or whatever but it's happening
00:48:18
and one day you won't be able to do
00:48:20
these things your window is going to
00:48:22
close and if you don't do it now you
00:48:24
might never be able to do it how about
00:48:26
you Jesse do you struggle with any of
00:48:28
these issues is it okay if I uh ask you
00:48:30
some of these same questions or by all
00:48:33
means by all means I I would say Carl I
00:48:36
struggle I was thinking about this this
00:48:38
morning as I was thinking about how this
00:48:40
conversation would go I have found
00:48:42
myself struggling at times on both sides
00:48:44
of the Ledger and what I mean by that is
00:48:47
there are sometimes where I I should
00:48:49
have spent more on some sort of
00:48:52
experience or I should have what does
00:48:54
RIT even say I think I think it's one of
00:48:55
her's quotes is like spend lavishly on
00:48:58
the things that bring you Joy and cut
00:49:00
mercilessly on the things that don't and
00:49:03
I I've struggled spending lavishly on
00:49:06
the things I really enjoy and then also
00:49:08
sometimes I look back and I realize I
00:49:10
didn't cut mercilessly enough on the
00:49:12
things that didn't bring me joy so yeah
00:49:15
it it is a struggle and even despite
00:49:17
kind of what I know despite reading all
00:49:20
the blogs and listening to the podcasts
00:49:22
and reading the
00:49:23
books that
00:49:26
understanding isn't always enough to
00:49:28
kind of internalize it and turn that
00:49:31
understanding into
00:49:33
practice yes so I have a friend I'd be
00:49:35
curious to know what you think about
00:49:36
this you might have met him his name is
00:49:38
Mark Troutman he has a Blog I think at
00:49:40
marks money mind.com and what he does is
00:49:44
he created this concept of a fun bucket
00:49:46
where he puts like x amount of money in
00:49:48
this bucket and he has to have fun with
00:49:51
that money he has to go on a cruise or a
00:49:52
vacation he cannot like use it to pay
00:49:55
pay a utility bill and I think that's a
00:49:58
great way to maybe Mind Trick yourself
00:50:00
into letting go of money a little bit
00:50:03
more hey I I've got this money it's
00:50:05
compartmentalized I can't use it for
00:50:07
anything else and it's there for
00:50:08
whatever I want to do I might do
00:50:10
something like that in the future just
00:50:12
put a bucket of money in some investment
00:50:14
or some I think he does a high yield
00:50:16
savings account and say you know I've
00:50:18
got like a year or four years or
00:50:20
whatever timeline you want and I need to
00:50:21
spend this money on something fun or at
00:50:23
the end I'll I'll give it away to
00:50:25
worthwhile organization is that what
00:50:27
some of us need to do trick ourselves to
00:50:29
spend our money or give it
00:50:31
away yeah I I could probably benefit
00:50:34
from that and I I think on the budgeting
00:50:36
side I do a reasonable job but yeah I
00:50:39
think one thing one place where maybe I
00:50:40
struggle is that longer term fun
00:50:44
spending like planning that out you know
00:50:46
if I said my wife and I are hoping to go
00:50:48
to Ireland in September and the fact
00:50:51
that we actually haven't planned the
00:50:52
trip or bought plane tickets yet might
00:50:54
be a bit of an issue but I think that
00:50:56
one place where I struggle is that idea
00:50:58
of okay we we've been talking about this
00:50:59
trip for months but it's out in the
00:51:02
future it's going to involve a few
00:51:03
thousand dollar worth of spending and
00:51:05
sometimes I struggle sitting down and
00:51:07
really planning that out and committing
00:51:09
to that spending it might be for
00:51:11
financial reasons it might just be some
00:51:14
sort of mental block when it comes to
00:51:17
planning for today versus planning for a
00:51:20
100 days from now maybe I I struggle in
00:51:22
some way there it's definitely
00:51:24
interesting to kind of learn your own
00:51:26
brain and try to uncover why you're
00:51:28
thinking what you're thinking it it
00:51:30
really is this common thread of this
00:51:31
conversation
00:51:33
today yeah so I'm kind of curious what
00:51:35
could we make you do to go buy the
00:51:37
Ireland SHP because I'm sure it'll be
00:51:39
great I've been through there once it
00:51:40
was it was so beautiful like that whole
00:51:42
part of the world is just fantastic and
00:51:45
you'd have the time of your life I don't
00:51:46
think you would regret a thing and you
00:51:49
you don't have any kids right like no
00:51:51
obligations with that not yet y okay
00:51:54
yeah and once you if I I don't know if
00:51:55
you're planning to have kids I don't
00:51:56
need to pry there or anything like that
00:51:58
but once you do all that stuff becomes
00:52:01
much much more difficult and it's great
00:52:03
but your life will change so yeah you've
00:52:06
got a limited window there Jesse and I I
00:52:08
would I would encourage you to uh do the
00:52:11
same as me become uncomfortable every
00:52:13
once in a while spend a little thanks
00:52:15
Carl I I hope I am I certainly can
00:52:19
relate to what you said earlier about
00:52:21
you know your body starts to get a
00:52:22
little bit more sore and you're breaking
00:52:24
down and and and some things aren't as
00:52:26
easy as they once were I'm I'm 33 but I
00:52:29
already kind of look in the mirror and
00:52:32
think to myself that if I don't actively
00:52:34
try to maintain my strength and
00:52:36
athleticism then then I'm going to fade
00:52:39
into a middle-aged body that I'm not
00:52:41
happy with but similarly I I think to
00:52:43
myself that if I don't take advantage of
00:52:45
this time in some way that I'm going to
00:52:48
look back with some sort of regret in
00:52:50
the future and I I don't really want to
00:52:51
do that so it really is just about
00:52:54
translating that that that knowledge
00:52:56
right it's easy to sit here and think I
00:52:59
should be in better shape it's easier to
00:53:01
think I should be taking advantage of my
00:53:02
time more but then I need to really turn
00:53:04
around and and apply that into practice
00:53:07
and and do the things that I'm thinking
00:53:09
which you know is is a different skill
00:53:10
set yeah and one of the great gifts of
00:53:13
time is getting your ass in shape I'm in
00:53:15
I'm 49 and I'm in better shape now than
00:53:17
I was at 39 which is great and the only
00:53:20
reason I am is because I don't sit
00:53:21
behind a computer for eight hours a day
00:53:23
I can get my ass out I try to watch
00:53:25
25,000 steps a day and oh amazing that
00:53:28
doesn't cost anything except the
00:53:30
opportunity cost of not doing something
00:53:32
to earn money but super worthwhile
00:53:34
there's nothing more worthwhile than
00:53:35
your health totally and that that in
00:53:38
itself is an amazing takeaway I should
00:53:40
probably devote more episodes here to
00:53:41
health recently I'm trying to remember
00:53:44
who I was speaking to I think it was
00:53:46
Nick mauli who you might be familiar
00:53:48
with Nick muli y but we were uh Peter AA
00:53:51
came up in our conversation because Nick
00:53:53
had something very similar to say which
00:53:55
is that really Nick used his statistic
00:53:59
that every hour that you work out
00:54:02
earlier in life correlates roughly to
00:54:04
six to eight hours of extended LIF span
00:54:08
at the end of life now of course it has
00:54:10
its limits because you can't just work
00:54:12
out four hours a day to gain a Day of
00:54:15
Future life otherwise you could work out
00:54:17
four hours a day and live forever right
00:54:19
if you expand that out but but in
00:54:21
essence if you are the kind of person
00:54:23
who works out for an hour a day just
00:54:25
you're dedicated you are absolutely
00:54:28
going to live longer zero doubts about
00:54:30
it and you just have to sit down and
00:54:32
decide to get your ass in shape and
00:54:34
that's the hard part yeah and this isn't
00:54:36
a fitness blog but you Jesse like it's
00:54:38
much easier to gain strength when you're
00:54:40
young and that strength will serve you
00:54:42
for the rest of your life if you listen
00:54:43
to petera you know how terrible it is to
00:54:46
break a hip I think if you do it after
00:54:48
65 there's like a 50% chance you'll be
00:54:51
dead in 18 months it's something severe
00:54:53
like that but if you get your strength
00:54:54
up while you're you're young and you
00:54:56
have better balance you're much less
00:54:58
likely to have a catastrophic accident
00:55:01
when you're older but you have to do it
00:55:02
now right right here's a quick ad and
00:55:06
then we'll get back to the show did you
00:55:08
know my written Blog the best interest
00:55:11
was nominated for 2022 personal finance
00:55:13
blog of the year and it's been
00:55:15
highlighted in the Wall Street Journal
00:55:16
yahooo finance and on CNBC I love
00:55:19
writing especially when that writing is
00:55:21
to share financial education and I
00:55:23
usually write one or two articles per
00:55:25
week you can read them all at bestter
00:55:28
interest. blog again the web address is
00:55:31
bestter interest. blog check it out I I
00:55:35
would love to hear your thoughts on
00:55:37
going back to one of the earlier topics
00:55:39
and digging in a little bit more to like
00:55:41
your childhood sure we definitely talked
00:55:43
about it before were there more things
00:55:46
you wanted to talk about do you want to
00:55:47
talk about your dad your father anymore
00:55:50
because you know you mentioned him more
00:55:52
here than maybe you did on Mile High fi
00:55:54
or with meet but is is there more there
00:55:58
that you think listeners would benefit
00:56:00
from kind of understanding your your
00:56:02
story and your background yeah I mean we
00:56:04
would have these sad conversations
00:56:06
around the dinner table where my dad
00:56:07
would lose his job and we had to to
00:56:09
buckle down and I would notice my
00:56:11
parents spending was directly related to
00:56:13
if my dad had a job or not like they'd
00:56:15
be going crazy buying all the stuff when
00:56:17
my dad at work and then as soon as he
00:56:19
didn't they'd cut back instantly so even
00:56:22
as a kid I remember thinking like well
00:56:24
why don't they just
00:56:25
save a little bit to try to even out
00:56:28
these rough patches and the the other
00:56:31
thing about myself is I would say I was
00:56:33
a born saver and that's probably because
00:56:35
of insecurity but like my sisters used
00:56:37
to call me Mr Cheapo as a kid because I
00:56:40
like to save the money and put it away
00:56:42
where they would like to spend it I mean
00:56:44
even a subtle thing is like that
00:56:47
nickname Mr Cheapo I mean maybe it was
00:56:49
made in Jess but it's not necessarily
00:56:51
the nicest nickname and like it's
00:56:53
interesting that even then there's a
00:56:56
there at at all ages there there can be
00:56:59
stigmas against being cheap or there can
00:57:01
also be stigmas against being wasteful
00:57:04
but one thing in particular that I did
00:57:06
want to touch on Carl I was listening to
00:57:09
a rich role interview this morning and
00:57:12
Rich R mentioned that he in his past he
00:57:15
had dealt with severe alcoholism in his
00:57:18
20s and 30s and he talked about how even
00:57:21
though his parents were loving and and
00:57:24
in his case they were loving parents
00:57:26
they were supportive parents but he
00:57:29
still had some serious childhood trauma
00:57:32
that he needed to work out it's not like
00:57:33
he was abused anything like that but
00:57:35
just like things happened to him as a
00:57:37
kid that really affected the way he
00:57:39
acted in his 20s and 30s and his Outlet
00:57:42
happened to be alcohol and one thing I
00:57:44
thought was interesting was you talked
00:57:45
about how your parents were absolutely
00:57:47
loving that your father was a good man
00:57:49
but still there were things out of their
00:57:52
control to some extent whether it's a
00:57:54
mental health issue with bipolar
00:57:56
disorder whether it's an employment
00:57:58
issue with being in the construction
00:57:59
industry that ended up having these
00:58:01
Ripple effects on you as a child and
00:58:05
then eventually into you as an adult
00:58:07
yeah so Jesse one thing I think it's
00:58:09
interesting I ask people all the time
00:58:11
about their childhood experiences with
00:58:14
money and then how that
00:58:16
manifested itself as an adult like I've
00:58:20
got a couple friends who grew up in
00:58:22
similar situations and what happened to
00:58:25
them is they just blew all the money as
00:58:27
soon as they could because they thought
00:58:28
it was this great thing they thought it
00:58:29
was fleeting and it was more of a
00:58:32
reaction against a tough upbringing like
00:58:35
I didn't have this when I was young so
00:58:37
now I'm going to have everything now in
00:58:40
my case we would have these and I
00:58:42
remember these they would happen every
00:58:43
year we'd have a a sad conversation
00:58:45
around the dinner table it would happen
00:58:48
like in the winter time because that's
00:58:49
when construction slowed down so we'd
00:58:52
all sit down and after a couple of these
00:58:54
I knew it was coming my mom would say
00:58:55
hey your dad's out of work again we're
00:58:57
going to buckle down and there was one
00:58:59
point where my sister's like oh no are
00:59:02
we going to lose our house and in my
00:59:04
head I thought to myself I'm like oh no
00:59:06
this happens every year that there's no
00:59:08
way that's that's going to happen this
00:59:10
happens like the past five years and
00:59:12
we're still in the same house and my
00:59:13
mom's like well no I I don't think
00:59:15
that's going to happen and I'm like
00:59:17
these alarm belts go off in my head like
00:59:19
she said I don't think it's going to
00:59:21
happen that is not 100% certainty like
00:59:24
holy sh like this could be the end
00:59:26
of our life as we know it and I don't
00:59:29
think it affected my sisters in the same
00:59:31
way it affected me but yeah my reaction
00:59:34
to that was man I I don't ever want to
00:59:37
have to go through this stuff as an
00:59:40
adult I'm gonna get a job I'm gonna get
00:59:41
a stable job and not have have to do it
00:59:44
but then on the other hand my sisters
00:59:46
didn't have the same reaction maybe it
00:59:48
was shorter memory like later on when I
00:59:50
was a bit older and things were a bit
00:59:52
more stable I still had my saving ways I
00:59:55
would love to save money and if there
00:59:57
was anything I would want to buy I would
00:59:59
sit there and think about it for like
01:00:01
months on end like I remember I wanted
01:00:03
like a a disc man the Sony like CD
01:00:06
player I think it took me like six
01:00:08
months to buy it and I was talking to my
01:00:11
sisters one day about that they're like
01:00:12
oh just buy it I'm like yeah you know
01:00:14
what I gotta make sure I really want
01:00:17
this and this is a good use of my money
01:00:19
and then both of them started going Mr
01:00:21
Cheapo Mr Cheapo and that became name
01:00:24
their nickname for me for a certain
01:00:27
period of time so I I don't begrudge
01:00:29
them everyone has a different reaction
01:00:31
to trauma and what happened I think
01:00:34
perhaps I just had a bit of a longer
01:00:36
memory than they did that also shares an
01:00:40
interesting point as you know when you
01:00:42
have two children you said 16 and 13
01:00:44
Carl I don't have any kids but my wife
01:00:47
and I are planning on starting a family
01:00:49
soon tons of people in my life right now
01:00:52
and and many listeners of the podcast
01:00:53
have young children children our our
01:00:55
listeners tend to be maybe in that 25 to
01:00:57
40 range is where most of the listeners
01:00:59
of the podcast are and it's so
01:01:01
interesting and challenging to think
01:01:04
about how different scenarios can impact
01:01:07
your children in really different ways
01:01:09
and and so this is kind of again this is
01:01:11
just a weird tangent but being a parent
01:01:13
is really hard and you never know that
01:01:15
you know one of your kids gets stung by
01:01:17
a bee and they Shake It Off and never
01:01:19
think about it again the other one gets
01:01:21
stung by a bee and they develop a phobia
01:01:24
of bees that's hard yeah that's a great
01:01:27
point there is no one right answer to
01:01:29
teaching kids about money because every
01:01:30
human is so different the favorite
01:01:32
example I like to give about my kids was
01:01:34
my older one is a lot like me she's very
01:01:37
conservative so she would get money for
01:01:39
her birthday and then we'd go to Target
01:01:42
and she decides she wanted to buy
01:01:43
something and I would say hey Claire you
01:01:45
can buy that but if you buy it like that
01:01:47
$10 has gone forever and you'll never be
01:01:49
able to buy anything else with the $10
01:01:51
because you bought the thing and and
01:01:53
usually she would put the thing back in
01:01:54
the cart I think like almost every time
01:01:56
and then I would do the same trick with
01:01:58
my younger kid and she'd be like okay
01:02:00
Dad that's nice let's go to the cash
01:02:02
register and buy this thing and not that
01:02:05
she won't be good with money or the
01:02:06
older one will be great it's just that
01:02:08
like you said the thing that resonates
01:02:10
with one human is gonna bounce off the
01:02:12
other one and not work I think the only
01:02:15
thing we can do is set a really good
01:02:16
example let them know how hard we work
01:02:19
for our money and the appreciation we
01:02:21
have for it not spend on silly things
01:02:23
and that's it that at some point we have
01:02:26
to let go and hope for the best but
01:02:29
Jesse I've tried to bribe my children
01:02:31
have you read die with zero yet or I
01:02:33
have not I have not it's on my list
01:02:35
though yeah one real quick tangent is in
01:02:37
that book he makes the case for giving
01:02:40
your kids substantial sums of money when
01:02:43
they're in their 30s instead of waiting
01:02:45
till you die because well I I hope when
01:02:47
I die my kids are old and by that point
01:02:51
if everything has gone well they'll be
01:02:53
set any money I could leave them is
01:02:54
going to be a diminishing return because
01:02:57
hopefully they've already made it but if
01:02:59
your kids are on solid Financial footing
01:03:01
when they're like 30 or 32 or 34 and if
01:03:04
you've got substantial wealth maybe buy
01:03:06
them a house because that is gonna
01:03:09
absolutely change their life so I've
01:03:12
bribed my kids I'm like you know what I
01:03:13
listened to this dial with zero book and
01:03:14
I told them what I just told you like if
01:03:17
I feel you're doing really well and
01:03:18
you're smart with money I might give you
01:03:20
a lot more but you have to prove
01:03:23
yourself to me and straight so I hope
01:03:26
that motivates them a little bit that'll
01:03:28
probably backfire on me somehow and
01:03:30
we'll be in some reality TV show or
01:03:33
something and everything will blow up no
01:03:35
I think it'll be fine but I don't know
01:03:37
there's no good answers for I think
01:03:39
there are good answers for how to teach
01:03:42
kids about money but there's not one
01:03:44
good formula right right and that's a
01:03:47
really interesting concept I've I've
01:03:48
heard people talk about that concept
01:03:50
from die with zero before as someone in
01:03:52
his young to mid-30s right now hey I I
01:03:55
support that idea but it is actually
01:03:57
interesting I I do feel like this is
01:03:59
that point of life where life gets
01:04:02
pretty expensive between you know you're
01:04:05
still kind of earlier in your career so
01:04:07
maybe you're not at your Peak earning
01:04:08
Years yet but you're looking for maybe a
01:04:12
first home or a forever home so like
01:04:15
there's a big real estate purchase maybe
01:04:16
on the horizon you're either already
01:04:18
have young kids or you're looking to
01:04:20
start a family children are very
01:04:22
expensive and meanwhile while you're
01:04:25
being taught that you need to put money
01:04:26
away for the long run and you still want
01:04:28
to have fun with friends and so life
01:04:31
gets expensive and pretty quickly I I
01:04:33
can tell you from my experience I have
01:04:36
cut my savings rate pretty significantly
01:04:39
in the last 12 months because of all
01:04:42
those things I just talked about I I
01:04:44
hope that two or three years from now
01:04:46
it'll bounce back to where it was before
01:04:48
but a little cash injection would go a
01:04:51
long way right now so anyway I support
01:04:53
it maybe you should buy your parents die
01:04:55
with zero or interview Bill Perkins hey
01:04:58
hey parents listen to this
01:05:01
right Carl thank you so much for sitting
01:05:04
down with us if anyone wants to reach
01:05:06
out to you or maybe they want to stay in
01:05:08
touch and and hear your follow-ups as
01:05:10
you spend more money and and as your
01:05:13
attitude towards spending kind of
01:05:15
evolves in the future how can they
01:05:17
follow along yeah my blog is 1500
01:05:21
days.com that's the amount of time I
01:05:23
thought it would take me to to
01:05:24
accumulate enough money to retire and I
01:05:26
also have a podcast at Mile
01:05:29
high.com just fi.com
01:05:32
Carl Jensen Mr 1500 thank you for
01:05:35
sitting down with us on the best
01:05:37
interest podcast yeah thank you so much
01:05:39
for having me Jesse fun
01:05:41
[Music]
01:05:44
conversation thanks for tuning in to
01:05:46
this episode of the best interest
01:05:48
podcast if you have a question for Jesse
01:05:50
to answer on a future episode send him
01:05:52
an email at Jesse best bestter interest.
01:05:55
blog again that's Jesse at bestter
01:05:58
interest. blog did you enjoy the show
01:06:00
subscribe rate and review the podcast
01:06:03
wherever you listen this helps others
01:06:05
find the show and invest in knowledge
01:06:07
themselves and we really appreciate it
01:06:10
we'll catch you on the next episode of
01:06:11
the best interest
01:06:13
[Music]
01:06:15
podcast the best interest podcast is a
01:06:18
personal podcast meant for education and
01:06:20
entertainment it should not be taken as
01:06:22
Financial advice and is not prescriptive
01:06:25
of your financial
01:06:27
situation

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 60
    Most heartwarming

Episode Highlights

  • The Impact of Childhood on Financial Habits
    A study shows how parents influence Millennials' financial behaviors.
    “The most significant influence on Millennials is the way their parents handled their money”
    @ 03m 00s
    January 29, 2024
  • The Fire Movement: A Double-Edged Sword
    Exploring the pros and cons of the Financial Independence, Retire Early movement.
    “Fire is a Road Less Traveled but it’s not necessarily a better Road”
    @ 15m 29s
    January 29, 2024
  • Carl and Mindy's Financial Journey
    Carl and Mindy discuss their financial independence journey and the challenges they face.
    “We feel some anxiety and some hesitation over actually spending our hard-earned money.”
    @ 20m 36s
    January 29, 2024
  • The Role of Money in Happiness
    Carl shares insights on how his childhood shaped his views on money and happiness.
    “Money always felt like a security blanket, not a resource to be spent on happiness.”
    @ 29m 02s
    January 29, 2024
  • Embracing New Experiences
    Carl talks about his shift towards spending money on experiences rather than hoarding it.
    “I’m really satisfied with our daily life... where can I deploy money for happiness?”
    @ 34m 54s
    January 29, 2024
  • Investing in Experiences
    Investing in experiences with friends and family brings joy and fulfillment.
    “It’s not so much the experience, it’s about sharing these experiences with friends.”
    @ 42m 05s
    January 29, 2024
  • Giving While Living
    Consider giving money away while you're alive to see the impact it makes.
    “Why wait till you’re dead to give all the money away?”
    @ 46m 13s
    January 29, 2024
  • The Importance of Spending
    Spending money on experiences can lead to lasting happiness and memories.
    “If you don’t do it now, you might never be able to do it.”
    @ 48m 24s
    January 29, 2024
  • Childhood Financial Lessons
    Exploring how childhood experiences shape adult financial behaviors.
    “I would notice my parents' spending was directly related to if my dad had a job or not.”
    @ 56m 02s
    January 29, 2024
  • Different Reactions to Trauma
    Discussing how siblings can react differently to financial instability in childhood.
    “Everyone has a different reaction to trauma and what happened.”
    @ 01h 00m 31s
    January 29, 2024
  • Teaching Kids About Money
    Navigating the challenges of instilling financial wisdom in children.
    “There is no one right answer to teaching kids about money.”
    @ 01h 01m 29s
    January 29, 2024

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Financial Independence00:57
  • Childhood Influence03:00
  • Fire Movement15:29
  • Childhood Trauma26:25
  • Experiential Spending34:54
  • Future Spending40:41
  • Public Speaking43:15
  • Childhood Reflections55:41

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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