A few months ago I booked tickets to EconoMe on a whim and I’m glad that I did. 2 weeks ago we showed up at Econome, the “Party about money.” It is designed for those on the path to Financial Independence, Retire Early, or FIRE. After 8 years on our FI journey and this was the first event Brad and I have ever attended.
It was a great opportunity to make new friends, hear inspirational talks, and have some time where cancer wasn’t at the front of my mind. I knew that cancer took so much from us last year. This event was a way to re-focus back on our original dreams. We have dreamed of retiring early, of making work optional and living life while we are still young.
For the first time on this journey we had the opportunity to really meet others who are like minded and just as frugal as us! It ranged from young 20 somethings with their own businesses, to people still on the path to financial independence, to those who retired by 40 or even younger. All from different walks of life with a shared goal to have financial stability.
We had dinner to meet new friends, sat in the front row of a 2 hour lecture about safe withdrawal strategy, and even had a taco night with a wonderful set of introverts! [Shout out to The Fioneers and FI Ventures] All because we were willing to put ourselves out there.
So how was it? Eye opening to say the least. One of the common themes from the weekend that stood out to us was SlowFI…
Find your way around:
SlowFI (Slower path to Financial Independence)
For a while now we have been drawn to the SlowFI movement. Where you save and invest, but don’t really worry about when you will retire. Instead you focus on building a life that you love and doing it in a way that is more financially stable than the standard path.
SlowFI is about enjoying the now, mixing in some YOLO, but also planning for the future.
My experience with cancer had motivated us to start traveling while we are still young. There is no guarantee that we will be able to do it in our “golden years,” so why not start now? Over a span of 7 years, we took 5 International vacations, each for 2 weeks at a time.
However, this was just that, a vacation, it wasn’t our actual lives. The last few times we traveled got us thinking…
“How do we do more of this in our everyday lives?”
Up until now, we have front-loaded the sacrifice so to speak and gotten our investments going. And in true SlowFI fashion, I left my working career to go back to school and learn an entirely new set of skills. However, with graduation right around the corner we are quickly approaching the time to make a pivot. Maybe this time we could actually make adventure more a part of our lives.
Thought provoking workshops
One of my favorite parts of the weekend was a workshop by my friend and coach, Jess from The Fioneers. She is as wonderful in person as she is online and her workshop was about building a life you don’t want to retire from!
Now for anyone outside of the FIRE movement, you might be thinking “Isn’t that the traditional path“? Well, the answer is Yes and No. Yes, the traditional path has you working till 65 or 67, but No, it doesn’t prioritize getting the most out of life while you are young.
There are the lucky few whose work doesn’t feel like work. Although for the rest of us, it’s living for the weekend. Just waiting for that 2 weeks of sweet sweet vacation time each year. Trying to ration it between time for you and time with your extended family. (Unless you are in Europe, then please be thankful you get a month off plus holidays!)
The crazy thing is that in the states, some people don’t even use the little time off they have. Or if they do, they often work while on vacation (Which I never understood!). All just to come back to work. Still exhausted and with the delusion that working during your time off will somehow make your life better!?
What makes this different?
Building a life you love is about having a financial cushion. Having the space so you can make a shift towards work that isn’t entirely soul crushing. That you can take that pay cut, with less stress and still be able to pay the bills. That you can take some time off for physical and mental health. That you can build that passion project that you have been putting off for years.
Big Life Question #1
There were two breakout sessions during this workshop and the first one was:
“If you didn’t have to work for money, what would you do?”
Yes, this is a hypothetical situation, but the point is to get at your true life’s work. Where you feel called or are excited. Where you feel you could make a difference in the world no matter what the scale.
Of course my response was “If I didn’t have to worry about money, I’d help people as a Nutrition Coach. Help cancer survivors and others create a healthy lifestyle as a form of prevention.” This stems from my experience of being a 2x cancer survivor. How I learned how to create a lifestyle that supported my health on my own.
I was already on this track, I’ve done the exercise before and it led me to starting my coaching. To helping others end their suffering, whether it’s with GI issues, diabetes, or navigating choices around cancer treatment. These past 2 years I’ve been living that vision and I plan to continue that after I graduate.
I have designed my life such that I can work part-time remotely in research and the other part-time for myself and my business. It’s not the path that’s guaranteed to provide the highest income. However, it lets me help people now and not put that off till “someday, maybe.”
Choosing another path for your life
Some attendees at the workshop had come to the realization that the path they were on was taking them in a entirely different direction than the one they would choose if they didn’t need to worry about money. Like a fork in the road, we all had the opportunity to re-evaluate and choose a different path.
Acknowledging that there is another way is easy, the hard part is implementation. Everything in life is risky though. We often think about the new thing being “risky”, the path uncharted. Thinking that the thing that we know is “safe” and without “risk”.
But the truth is, what we know isn’t always the best for us. The path we know might led us to loosing our health. I know my higher paying, high stress job led to my second cancer diagnosis.
So how do you know if your on the wrong path?
Ask yourself the following questions:
1) Are you waking up in the middle of the night with anxiety or panic attacks because of your work?
2) Are you missing out on events with friends and family because of work?
3) Are you avoiding going to the doctor because you can’t afford that half-day to take care of your health?
…If one or more of these is a “Yes” then maybe it’s time to question if this is the direction you want your life to go. Typically, these situations don’t just resolve themselves with out major action. Maybe a change in position, or company, switching to part-time or taking a 6 month sabbatical. Trust me, your physical and mental health will thank you!
Big Life Question #2:
This brings me to breakout session 2 of the workshop:
“What is stopping you from doing that now?”
Maybe it’s money, maybe it’s time. Maybe it takes all your energy just to get to the weekend, and then you spend it doing chores and attempting to de-stress from the week.
Maybe it’s your own thoughts that are stopping you. The idea that “This is what I deserve” or “But my family is relying on me.” Well, while you may be the primary bread-winner, I’m here to tell you that you do deserve more!
Use your imagination
Think about this: I’m sure your family would be okay with reducing their budget for eating out, or cut some subscription services if it meant that you could be a tiny bit happier by freeing up some time and money to take a peak at your dreams. Like one of the main stage speakers, Dr. Michael Thomas Jr said “Try Life on!”
Trying Life on could be as simple as volunteering at a local park, zoo, or garden just a few hours a week to get back in touch with nature. It could be getting up early (or staying up late) to write a blog post or record a YouTube video once or twice a month. It could be planting some vegetables on your apartment balcony to give you a sense of connection to your food.
Regardless of what your brain is telling you about all the potential down-sides….
Think about this: What would be worse? Trying something new and finding out you don’t like it OR watching your life pass by having never even tried?
Something else to think about…
How did we get here in the first place?
When as a society did we go from money as a tool to money as being the end all be all?
Why do we spend more of our lives working than living?
Why can’t we start living into the life that we are dreaming of now?
Life lessons from a Cancer Survivor
After the weekend, when we got home we had some hard conversations. I was even brought to tears at one moment thinking about that expiration date given to me last year after a breast cancer diagnosis.
WARNING: You have a 17% chance of making it to 5 year survival.
…Even if this is 35%, or 55%, or 75%, it’s sobering to hear that your chances of survival are anything less than 100%!
We live our lives as if we will always have more time, but what if that’s not the case?
I cried to my husband, “If there is even a small chance that I only had 5 years left, and one of those has already passed, I want to really live in the time I have left.” I paused and added “I know that my treatment has gone well and things look good, but what is the downside of living life to the fullest in these next few years? I want to travel, I want to start a family, I want to give my business a fair shot, and I want you to start following your passions too.”
He reassured me that it will be more than 5 years, but that we should act now! Take the steps necessary to move towards that life where we aren’t living for the weekend. Slow traveling and squeezing every little bit out of life that we can.
Wouldn’t it be a shame to just work for the next 4 years without really living? Don’t we just need enough money to support our lifestyle?
Making the shift
Again, we are looking forward to the future, thankful for this fresh perspective. We may make some choices that others wouldn’t, but Life is Precious and Nothing is guaranteed.
The interesting part is that a common thread among cancer survivors who beat the odds is that they practiced radical acceptance of their mortality. They started living life like they were dying, and in turn they not only survived, but they thrived! Some have made it to 20-30 years out after a 2 year death sentence. That’s going to be me!
What do I have to loose right? I either live and get the most our of my time left, or I get to live and have the gift of many more years on this earth. Seems like a win-win to me.
If you’d like to hear more about my cancer journey, check out the YouTube video called “What I’d Do Differently After Cancer.”
I challenge you to look at things differently:
I hope this provides a little bit of insight for you. I hope you stop to question, “Do I really need to spend more of my waking hours earning than I do living?” Maybe we can learn to live on a little bit less. Take a risk, and bet on ourselves. Start giving back to our communities and not just our companies. Because at the end of the day, when your health is on the line, you won’t look back and say “Boy, I was glad I worked all those years”. We’ll look back at the adventures we had, the memories made, and the relationships that were the most important to us. Life is for living, and we just need enough money to help that happen!
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