November 2022 – Two Sides of FI

Answering your financial independence, retire early (FIRE) questions, including the one we’re asked most often. This special Ask Us Anything format commemorates the 50th episode of Two Sides of FI. THANK YOU to all who submitted questions and for your continued support of the show!

Show notes may be found below the video

Show Notes

First, THANK YOU so much again for all your support of Two Sides of FI. We’d never have achieved this 50 episode milestone without all the engagement and encouragement we receive from you, our community. We truly appreciate you and are thankful for your constant support.

We are often asked how to support + promote the show. Here are three simple ideas which we humbly suggest: 1) Share a link to our channel with people who you think can benefit – via social media, 1:1, or however works for you. 2) Use the ‘like’ feature on videos and subscribe (click here!) to the channel. The YouTube algorithm sees these signals as indications of merit, and they play a vital role in helping to promote our content. 3) Consider rating + reviewing the podcast – even if you always watch it on YouTube. Apple Podcasts is the most important tool out there to drive visibility on the audio format. We get thousands of podcast downloads each month yet have <80 total reviews at the time this episode went live. Thank you!

Essential Background:

Our first episode, “Our Financial Past and our FIRE Present – Two Sides of FI“ is where it all began for the show. 50 episodes later, there certainly have been plenty of changes – and improvements (particularly on Jason’s side of the screen, as he likes to point out). This episode is the best place to learn about our financial backgrounds a bit better.
“So, What’s Your Financial Independence (FI) Number?“ was one of our early popular – and controversial videos. We’ve got a long history with this question, and you won’t want to miss the end of today’s episode to hear our current thoughts on it. But this earlier installment sets the stage for this essential question + many FIRE fundamentals.
We’ve actually done another Q&A episode: “Answering Your Financial Independence Questions”. In this video, we tackled topics including changing withdrawal rates, our FI numbers, redefining identity in early retirement, rental real estate, and more.
In today’s episode we referenced a fun experiment, captured in “We Each Hired a Flat Fee Financial Advisor. Was it Worth It?”. Prior to this video, we each hired the same fee-only, advice-only advisor to evaluate our portfolios and answer our questions. We then shared how we found this advisor, what the process was like, the specific questions + answers we had, and who we believe could benefit from such a service.
Safe Withdrawal Rate has been an ongoing topic for us on 2SFI, and naturally it came up here as well. Did you know we spoke with SWR expert, Karsten Jeske? To see that episode, our follow-up conversation, and get the best collection of all the resources we have on this topic (including the free SWR Toolbox), you’ll want to see this show notes page.

As a complement to Two Sides of FI, Jason’s milestones blog posts are perhaps the easiest way to understand what his journey has been like since retiring early. In these articles, he discusses candidly what he’s felt, experienced, and achieved in the 2+ years since he left his career behind. If there’s a specific topic you’re seeking, don’t miss this list of all his blog posts to date.

Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing is a book by Bronnie Ware that we mentioned in this episode. It originally started as a blog post, outlining the most common regrets that the people she had supported through palliative care had expressed. The post quickly blew up and was viewed by more than three million readers worldwide in its first year. Bronnie subsequently wrote this fascinating and meaningful book capturing all that she learned.

CoastFI came up in a question we addressed in this video. This is a term used to describe someone who isn’t yet FI but has already put in the necessary effort to mathematically achieve that goal without further contributions. Did you know we talked with someone on this topic in an podcast-only episode last year? If you missed it then, you’ll definitely want to check out A CoastFI Path to Financial Security: An Interview with Catherine.

Eric has talked about his “Possible Futures” Notion page in several episodes to date. Here is a screenshot of the kind of information he and Laura track here

In today’s episode, we shared footage of what Eric’s filming setup looks like. For the full details on the equipment he uses, check out this page.

By his own description, Jason’s filming setup is more “bespoke”. They say a picture is worth a thousand words:

You can find information on the tools we mention in each episode along with additional information in the Resources section of this site.

The bear market has forced many to revise their FI goals and retirement plans. In this episode, Eric talks with Jason about pushing back his FI date, options he’s considering, whether BaristaFIRE could be the answer, the possibility of redefining work, and advice for others in a similar position. See the link below for the show notes.

Show notes may be found below the video

Show Notes

Essential Background:

If you’re newer to the show, you’ll want to catch up on Eric’s story. We’ve listed some of the key episodes below that set the foundations in his life, business, and his recent financial thoughts + decisions. This is all relevant information to the conversation we had in the current episode.

Our very first episode of Two Sides of FI lays out a good deal of important background for our respective paths to FI. You won’t want to miss “Our Financial Past and our FIRE Present” to get all the details.
In “Two Careers, Two Paths to Financial Independence”, Eric talks about his journey to starting his own business. Given the essential role that this has played on his FI path, it’s must-see content.
The two episodes describing Eric’s building of his business which yields 90% passive income are an important follow-up to the prior video. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 here to learn from his example.
Our two-part series where we invited our spouses to the show is some of our most popular content. Learn more about Eric + Laura’s FIRE journey in Part 1 and Part 2 of this conversation.
Asset allocation has been a key topic on Two Sides of FI over the course of our series. While our portfolios have changed a bit over time, if you haven’t watched our first two episodes on the topic (part 1 and part 2), this is relevant background. However, perhaps more important is the two-part series where Eric + Laura decide to move to a more conservative 70/30 portfolio. Here is Part 1 and Part 2 of that series, as well as some behind the scenes footage of how they made this decision.
We’ve discussed the current market downturn several times this year. Our first discussion took place in “Our FIRE Portfolios are Down 20%, Now What?”, with the follow up episode, “Stock Market on FIRE – What We’re Doing in a Downturn”.
We spoke with Safe Withdrawal Rate expert Karsten Jeske several months ago, and Eric references this in this episode. As we talked about in “Karsten Spoke, We Listened. Here’s What We Learned”, Eric later unwound some of his bond position moving to an 80/20 allocation.

You can find information on the tools we mention in each episode along with additional information in the Resources section of this site.

Month: November 2022

You Asked, We Answered. FIRE Q&A

My Plan to Retire Early is ON HOLD