Weekend Reading (May 20-21) 2022
Exclusive Coast FI interview starring yours truly—how to spend more time with your kids—3 habits to crush retirement at any age—cutting through financial BS—is the housing bubble about to burst?
It was another bumpy week in the stock market and crypto markets, but all is well—we’re in it for the long haul, right my friends?
Here’s what’s in store for this week’s roll-up:
I was interviewed by Jess from The Fioneers this week. We talk a lot about my journey to financial independence, specifically my decision to pursue coast FI when my daughter was born.
The Daily Dad shares a take on how to spend more time with your kids and I highlight what I believe to be universally true: your kids don’t want your money, they want you.
My take on how to live well in retirement, specifically three habits you need to crush your retirement at any age.
An interesting article on financial BS—who’s most susceptible to it and what we can do about it.
Lastly, an article from Policygenius about whether or not the housing bubble is ready to burst—spoiler alert: nobody knows, but likely not.
On My Coast FI Interview With The Fioneers
Working (A LOT) Less After Reaching Coast FI
By Jessica from the Fioneers featuring Anders Skagerberg, CFP®
This week I was featured on one of my favorite financial independence blogs—The Fioneers.
Jessica from the Fioneers is a big proponent of the FIRE movement, specifically Slow FI, which she describes as “enjoying the journey just as much as the destination.” Here are some of my favorite snippets from the interview:
How has the decision to work less impacted your quality of life?
Downshifting from my aggressive pursuit of FI to coasting is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
I get to be an involved dad. I have the opportunity to hang out with my wife and daughter almost every day. I’m so lucky to have found this path at a young age, especially while my daughter is young and we have so much time left together.
In your opinion, what things in your life contribute most to your happiness and contentment?
I have a few different thoughts when it comes to happiness and contentment.
First, the single most significant predictor of happiness and contentment in my life is the ability to control my time. In his book, The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel has this quote that I love and try to live by:
“Happiness is a complicated subject because everyone’s different. But if there’s a common denominator in happiness—a universal fuel of joy—it’s that people want to control their lives. The ability to do what you want, when you want, with whom you want, for as long as you want, is priceless. It is the highest dividend money pays.”
What advice do you have for someone considering a similar decision?
My advice for someone considering a similar decision is to give it a shot. You can plan, wonder, and analyze all day long, but the rubber meets the road when you decide to start coasting or downshift to a slower path to FI. I chose to quit my job and transition to seasonal and freelance work, but that doesn’t have to be your path. Downshifting for you might look like working one less day per week at your current job, or it could mean finding seasonal work that allows you to work six months on and take six months off.
Don’t be afraid to use your imagination, and remember that there is no limit or boundaries to the work-life arrangement you can create. The worst case is you go back to where you started. One of the most freeing thoughts is: If coasting doesn’t work out, I can always go back to what I was doing before. No harm, no foul.
I’m really pleased with how the interview turned out and I hope that I’m able to help others realize what type of lifestyle is possible with the right amount of intention.
You can read the full interview here:
On Parenting
Here’s how to spend more time with them.
By the Daily Dad
Your kids don’t want your money—they want you.
More specifically: time with you.
And I know you want more time with them too. You just don’t always know how to make it happen.
“Every parent wishes they could have more time with their kids. But work gets in the way. Responsibilities get in the way. We envy the parents that get more time with their kids, that don’t work the same hours we do, that have the flexibility.
If only we could be so lucky…”
I am here to burst your bubble: you could. You just have to be comfortable making less money.
We could have more flexibility if we wanted. We could choose a different job. We could choose to put family over career advancement.
Remember—you cast votes about what’s important to you by how you spend your time. So, if you want to show your kids how important they are to you—if you want to show them that they’re the most important thing in your life, it’s simple: spend time with them.
You could spend the rest of your life making excuses about why you can’t make it home in time for dinner or be there for their sports games, or you could make them a priority.
It’s really up to you.
On Living Well in Retirement
Want to Crush Retirement? Here Are 3 Habits Every New Retiree Needs, No Matter Their Age.
By Anders Skagerberg, CFP®
Imagine this:
👇 👇 👇 👇
You’ve saved diligently, got your ducks in a row, and now it’s time to retire — goodbye 9-to-5, hello work-free years. It doesn’t matter if you’re in your mid 30’s or mid 70’s; life is about to change. Retirement is a game you’ve never played before.
Here Are 3 Habits Every New Retiree Needs, No Matter Their Age.
1. Beef up that social calendar.
2. Shift your mindset from saver to spender.
3. Stay open to change by adopting a white-belt mentality.
Retirement may be a game you've never played, but that doesn't mean you can't succeed.
On Financial Bullshit
Individual differences in susceptibility to financial bullshit.
By Mario Kienzlera, Daniel Västfjäll, and Gustav Tinghög
Imagine an article aimed at answering this question: why are some people more susceptible to financial bullshit?
This is about as interesting as it gets folks, I’m nerding out right now.
“Finance is often portrayed as a complex and difficult area of decision making, where interactions commonly are characterized by jargon, acronyms, and slogans. This provides a hotbed for bullshitting to thrive and obscure the view of consumers.”
Here are some takeaways:
Consumers most vulnerable to financial bullshit are “young, male, high income, and overconfident with regards to their own financial knowledge.”
Consumers who are better at detecting financial bullshit actually feel more insecure with their finances. That’s because those who fail to detect bullshit exhibit an ignorance-is-bliss effect when it came to their financial well-being.
The key takeaway from the study:
“Being able to detect and distinguish bullshit from genuine financial statements is neither unequivocally a good nor a bad thing. On the good side, people who were less susceptible to financial bullshit displayed a greater ability on a number of financially relevant competencies (e.g., greater objective financial knowledge). On the bad side, susceptible to bullshit was also related to a decrease in perceived financial security about their own future financial situation.”
On Real Estate
Is the housing bubble about to burst?
By Myles Ma
Is the housing bubble about to burst—Wouldn’t we all love to know?
Here are the key takeaways:
Home prices have been increasing aggressively.
Interest rates are rising—which means rates for new mortgages are going up.
Higher mortgage rates mean higher monthly payments. In other words, people can’t afford to pay as much as they could before.
Ultimately:
“Although a bust in housing does not appear likely with the evidence we have seen so far, it is not out of the realm of possibilities either,” Martinez-Garcia says.
I think we are going to see the real estate market settle down significantly as rates continue to rise. That’s simply because as rates go up, buyer’s purchasing power goes down, as detailed below: