Have you ever felt your financial future seemed hopeless, that you were destined to struggle? Bailey felt that way, but she was determined to change her future! Here’s how she did it!

My Financial Family Tree

As I looked towards my financial future, I felt hopeless. I came from a family that had made poor financial choices for generations and I felt myself slipping down that same path. At just 21 years old, I was $25,000 in debt due to student loans, a car loan, a personal loan, and one maxed-out credit card. Would I be stuck in debt, following in my family’s poor financial footsteps as well?

I didn’t want financial hardship to shape my story or continue to be a branch in my family tree. I dreamed of getting married someday, of meeting my person, and creating an amazing life together. I didn’t want to bring “financial baggage” into that life. I wanted to change my family’s story, eliminate my debt, and create a new path for a brighter future.

Making Changes

My dream gave me hope and a vision. It gave me the motivation I needed to work towards eliminating my debt, but it wasn’t easy.

My first full-time job in Human Resources barely paid above minimum wage. There was no way I would be able to get out of debt, let alone pay my rent at my current income. I knew that if I wanted to change my financial future I needed to change my circumstances. So I set out to change course!

I gave up a lot in order to pay off my loans:

• My Independence: I moved in with my mom to save on rent.
• My Fun: I cut out extras like entertainment and travel.
• My Time: I took on a part-time job working at a bookstore on evenings and weekends.

It was hard - super hard. I was working a total of 55-65 hours a week and found myself completely exhausted. I remember arriving home from a 12 hour day in tears from pure exhaustion. The only thing that kept me going was reminding myself that it would all be worth it when I was debt-free.

I wasn’t perfect about being frugal (it’s not easy) either. Some months I would get distracted from my goal and go over budget. This would cause setbacks. I could have beat myself up over it, but I accepted that I wasn’t perfect and gave myself the grace I needed to move forward in paying off my debts.

Each month I was able to pay off my debt little by little. After a year of this I had paid off $14,000! I was making progress towards my debt freedom dream. I figured it would take me another year to rid myself of this baggage and then I would then be ready for the next phase of my life!

Gaining A Partner

Plans never go the way you expect - the way you plan them to go. I had wanted to become financially successful on my own, before meeting my future husband, and definitely before getting married. But that wasn’t God’s plan for me. I started this journey on my own, but I was meant to continue down this path with a partner.

Andy entered my life a year and a half into my debt freedom journey. We clicked perfectly and planned to say “I DO” a year after we met! I wasn’t going to be debt-free by June 2016, but we were ready to start our life together.

Beyond still having debt, we didn’t have the cash for our wedding and decided to take out a loan for our big day. I don’t recommend this and I agree that this isn’t a good financial decision, but we were considering a lot of other factors than finances (namely, Andy’s military career.) As we became husband and wife, we walked into more debt, but we were going to tackle it as a team.

We worked hard together. Since I struggled with finding full-time, professional employment after our wedding, I worked two part-time jobs for 4 months. At times, I worked as many as 80 hours per week. (Talk about exhausting!) In addition to his busy work schedule with the military, my husband took care of things on the homefront so that I could focus solely on work. Our teamwork paid off, literally - haha. Less than eighteen months into married life, we made our last debt payment in November 2017.

My New Family Branch

When I started this journey, I felt hopeless in following my family tree in financial struggles. It took a total of three and a half years to change my branch in the tree, but the journey has been totally worth it. I sleep better at night, no longer worrying about bills or debt. Andy and I are living in a lovely little cottage in Iowa with our dog and cat. We are building up a six month emergency savings fund, have the financial freedom to freely give to those in need, and start traveling - things I never imagined possible!

No longer do I feel hopeless or destined for financial distress. Andy and I have created a new family branch together. One that is bright and full of hope. We are currently dreaming of taking an international trip to Europe or the Caribbean (we haven’t quite decided yet where we’ll travel). And who knows what will be next for us! All I do know is that debt no longer has a hold on me, my future, or my family tree. There is hope, there is light, and there is success in this branch!

Thank you to Bailey for sharing her story! We love that she she persevered through the tears and that her and her husband were able to take on their debt as a team and create a brighter future for their family! We can’t wait to see what they pick - Europe or Caribbean?!

Do you have a freedom story you would like to share? We would love to hear from you! Submit your story here!

It’s time for another spending report! We spent a lot this month on getting from point A to point B - gas for our road trip to Florida, maintenance and insurance for our car, and two bikes (one for Jaime and one for our oldest daughter).

I’ll give some personal updates first and then we can dive into our full spending report.

Personal Updates

We had another action-packed month. The girls finished up the school year and within an hour of leaving class, we were on the road to Florida for our summer road trip.

With summer in full swing, we’ve been busy with water balloons, soccer balls, and science experiments. Add in summer school (the fun kind) for the kids and afternoon camp and we’ve been even busier than the school year.

That said, it’s been a good kind of busy - the kind that leaves you tired at the end of the day and a smile on your face.

One of the really fun things we picked up this month was a fully-functioning air hockey table that a neighbor put by the curb. The girls are becoming air hockey experts and Jaime and I are trying to keep up :)

My job search is progressing - I’ve had conversations with a number of companies and am making progress on a few promising positions. I anticipate we’ll have clarity within the next 1-2 months on where I’ll be headed for my work day and what our finances will look like going forward.

How We Track Our Spending

We’ve been manually tracking our spending for the last 2.5 years and it’s helped us make a big improvement in our spending habits.

I couldn’t talk Jaime into loving spreadsheets, so I created a web app for us instead. Once we had it for ourselves, it was a logical next step to put it online for anyone to access.

In the spending summary below, you’ll see screenshots straight out of our Thrifty account.

If you’d like to learn more, check out Thrifty and sign up for a free 7-day trial.

How We Manage our Money

We’ve been using Capital One 360 for our checking and savings accounts for years. We’ve been really happy with their ease-of-use and interest rates.

For travel rewards, we’ve been using a Capital One Venture Card and we just hit our spending threshold to get 50,000 bonus points - that’s $500 in travel!

Spending Summary - $8,749.27

In June, we spent a total of $8,749.27 - quite a bit more than our monthly target of $5,000. Almost all of this was travel-related (both our family road trip in June and paying ahead for parts of our 10-year anniversary trip in July).

Here’s how we’ve been trending on our spending:

Next, let’s take a look at how we spent by category this month:

And here’s a breakdown of each category:

Side-Hustle Income Summary - $250.00

Jaime and I made a bit this month from the blog (and the connections its made for us). Our $250.00 is a combination of income from our Freedom Series sponsor and from freelance writing. You can see our Work With Us page for the full list of opportunities we have.

How Was Your June?

How was your spending this June? We had a lot of seasonal expenses hit this month and some big investments in our health and travel. Everything was in alignment with our values, so we feel good about it even though it was a higher-spend month!

Don’t forget to check out Thrifty, the app behind all the pretty screenshots in these reports. You can get your own tracking started for free with a 7-day trial!

I’m so excited to have Ellen from Uncommon Dream share her family’s Financial Independence story! It’s amazing the dreams you can accomplish when you live frugally!

Our Frugal Beginning

Michael and I have always lived on the frugal side of life. We chose to buy a low cost home close to work, paying off our mortgage in two years. We even sold one of our vehicles (keeping a single old paid off car) and traveled by foot or bike as much as possible.

We’ve always worked hard and found ways to have fun without spending a lot of money. We would take our sweet dog for hikes, have friends over for game night, travel to visit family a few times a year, and stay up too late binge watching shows like The Wire or Breaking Bad.

Living frugally allowed us to live off my teacher salary (even after fully investing in my 403b) and invest Michael’s salary into index funds at Vanguard. Michael was really excited to see our projected retirement date as we saved his income. He would spend hours working on a spreadsheet he created and then pull me over to update me on our progress. This helped me get on board with the financial independence thing and showed me how high spending months impacted our projected date.

After seven years of marriage and living frugally, we achieved financial independence. We were both happy with our jobs, and had a baby on the way; so we decided to keep working and saving. Once we welcomed our son into our arms, our focus started to shift more toward parenthood. We found ourselves questioning our current lifestyle and talking about how we wanted to raise our family.

To Move Or Not To Move

We were living in the suburbs of Dallas, Texas. While it’s a great place for many people, it just wasn’t for us. We had moved there from Olympia, Washington for Michael’s work with the plan to stay 2-3 years. We would often talk about where we wanted to move to next, where to put down roots. We’d be out walking our dog at 10pm, sweating in the summer heat, and go back and forth between moving back to Washington (where Michael wanted to go) and Baltimore (close to my brother). We just couldn’t come to an agreement.

One weekend we took a little getaway to a cabin overlooking the Palo Duro Canyon in West Texas. We worked together on our five year plan and had something of an epiphany. COLORADO!

If we moved to Colorado, we could be in a beautiful area with a lot of other family perks:

• Close to Michael’s extended family (Michael’s aunts, uncles, cousins, and his grandfather).
• A short flight from Michael’s parents in Texas.
• Within driving distance of my dad and stepmom in Arkansas.
• A reasonable flight away from Baltimore!

It’s one thing to make a decision, it’s another to make the move. Despite settling on Colorado as our destination sometime in 2012, we didn’t get there until 2016. I became pregnant with our second child and we realized that moving would need to happen now or not for a few years.

While a good friend of ours was visiting over Thanksgiving, we took my one year old to the park and brainstormed over our lives. She was looking to move from New York out west for a change of pace. Michael and I were hesitant to leave Texas and our support system right before having our second child. Our talk resulted in a whirlwind of a plan:

Michael and I would buy a house in Colorado a couple months before my due date, and she would move in with us for a few months, helping us make the transition to a two kid household.

I drove home pretty giddy to share our thinking with Michael, but we didn’t take the leap right away. There were a lot of back and forth moments. One week we’d tell ourselves no, that’s crazy! Other weeks we’d decide we were going to do it no matter what. Ultimately, we felt very strongly about moving before our daughter was born.

We flew out to Colorado in January 2016 and bought a house that weekend (we were very lucky). Our house in Texas sold within 24 hours and above our asking price. By the first week in March we were moved into our new home in Colorado. Our daughter was born exactly two months later!

Leaving our life in Texas came with another change. We decided to take advantage of the financial independence we had gained before our kids were born. We started co-parenting full time while working on passion projects on the side (such as FI Clubs).

Michael finds himself working about 70 hours a month (this happens to cover our expenses and allows us to continue saving). This allowed us a lot of flexibility in our life and we started talking about the things we wanted to do when we both “retired”. We had always dreamed of traveling abroad again.

But, yikes, we now have two very young kids! Who travels with little kids? As it turns out, we do.

Ecuador & Beyond

Michael and I met at a language school in Mexico back in 2004. We both speak Spanish and would love for our children to acquire some authentic bilingual skills as well. With that in mind, we spent a lot of time deliberating on where to travel.

Michael had used a site called TheEarthAwaits.com to find the safest, cleanest, most affordable Spanish-speaking locations to choose from. We eventually decided on Cuenca, Ecuador.

We put our house up on AirBnB, and spent an awesome three months in Ecuador during the winter of 2017. We met some really wonderful people during that time and decided to return to Cuenca for the winter for 2018. Our lifestyle there was really pretty normal. We walked everywhere, drank beer with friends, and took short trips to beautiful parts of the country. We enrolled both of our kids in a local preschool where they were immersed with native Spanish speakers for 3-4 hours a day.

We’ve been back in Colorado for about two months now and are enjoying time in our community, working on house projects, and spending time with friends and family. Along with enjoying our time back home, we are talking about taking a longer international trip. Our friends Chad & Kari have inspired us to take a bigger leap!

This time, we are looking at a longer stretch of time. We’re talking about slow traveling Latin America (starting in Costa Rica or maybe Colombia) for a full year and a half beginning in January. We may stay in one spot if we fall in love with it or we may try out a few different cities and countries. We’ll then return home to Colorado in time for our son to start kindergarten, enrolling him in a local bilingual elementary school that has a great reputation.

Life is still busy with balancing parenthood, doing work that fulfills us, taking care of our home, building our life in Colorado and traveling. These past two years have been full and crazy, but we wouldn’t change it for the world.

Thank you to Ellen & Michael for sharing their story with us! We love how frugality enabled you to save, become financially independent, and raise your little ones in your values! We wish you the best and can’t wait to hear more about your slow travels in the future!

Do you have a freedom story you would like to share? We would love to hear from you! Submit your story here!

In the personal finance space, the phrase 9-to-5 often gets treated as a four-letter word. Everyone seems to be looking to escape the 9 to 5, whether that be through early retirement or a leap to entrepreneurship.

I’ve been lured by that thinking as well, but through a year of mini-retirement, I’ve come to recognize and appreciate some of the things that a 9-to-5 provides.

Before the internet police come in and fill up the comment section, I’m not saying you can only get these things through a 9-to-5. There are lots of ways to get these; for some a 9-to-5 is a great way to get them.

Community

When I was growing up in the suburbs of Minnesota, we had a high concentration of families in our neighborhood and the kids spent a lot of time hanging together in the backyards. The parents would get together, play cards, talk about parenting, and support each other when they needed help.

Our neighborhoods used to be our communities.

One of my good friends and I were talking about this recently and he remarked how much more of that community is now found through the workplace.

I certainly found this to be true. My coworkers were the people I spent the most time interacting with every day. We came to know one another on a personal basis, supporting each other and developing real friendships.

While peoples’ connections with their companies seem to be decreasing, their connections with their co-workers seem to be on the rise.

When you leave the 9-to-5 for entrepreneurship or retirement, you’ll find life is a whole lot quieter. That may sound idyllic for some, but even introverts like me need socialization for a healthy life.

Team-based Learning

I consider learning to be one of the most enjoyable parts of life.

Being in a 9-to-5 provides a great opportunity to learn from the community around you. You may have the benefit of learning from the 40-year-veteran of the industry. You may be able to develop new and creative approaches with your peer. Or you may have your perspective changed by an insightful intern.

Being around people with a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences puts you in a position to learn things you’ll have trouble doing through blog posts, tutorials, and courses. The powerful dynamic of direct personal interaction can’t be oversold.

Impact

As an entrepreneur and blogger, I’ve had the honor to reach a number of people. But there’s only so much you can accomplish as an individual or a small team. When you’re a part of a bigger team (with a bigger vision), you can take advantage of the compounding effect of diverse talents to reach a larger audience in bigger ways.

In my old career, I contributed to the development of safe and effective medical devices - ones my own family members have relied on. There’s a great feeling that comes from being a part of a business or project that makes the world around you a better place.

In the last year, I’ve worked hard to spread the word about our app, Thrifty, but have come to realize that sales and marketing isn’t my strong suit. Without that skillset, my ability to help people get their finances in order has been limited.

As I’m applying for jobs now, one of the biggest areas I’m looking at is the impact of the work I’d be doing based on the team I’d be with. Will my work be directly benefiting my friends and family? Will I be helping to enable others who do great work? Or will I be pouring my time and energy into developing luxuries and splurges?

I think you can guess where I want to head :)

9-to-5 Has Its Benefits

While the good ol’ “day job” gets a bad rap, it’s important to remember that there are a lot of non-financial benefits of working a standard job.

As you consider your future career and what you want your retirement to look like, keep these items in mind. If they are important to you, make sure to find a way ahead of time to ensure you can still achieve them no matter what path you take.

Chris and I have a goal to eventually travel to Europe (after we visit all 50 states - 3 more to go!). So when I heard that Millionaire Mob found a way to travel to Europe twice a year with his wife, I had to hear more! Here’s his story!

Discovering Our Love Of Europe

When my wife (girlfriend at the time) and I were in college, we studied abroad in Florence, Italy. This is where we fell in love with Europe’s culture and history! Walking along those ancient cobblestone streets were unbeatable. After spending all that time in Italy, we knew we wanted to return to Europe as often as possible.

When I graduated from college, I landed a job in investment banking. This allowed me to make a healthy income and support our love of travel, but after five years, the job was taking a toll on my spirit - the long hours and high pressure environment was burning me out. Realizing I needed a change of pace, I hung up my suit and left my job to pursue my passion in a more relaxed environment.

I took a steep pay cut to work in a more engaging, small team environment where I’m focused on energy investing. I love it. I don’t feel like I’m at work. My hours are much more manageable and I get to meet other energy professionals around the U.S. Work can still be stressful, but if it didn’t have some stress it wouldn’t be exciting.

While I took the pay cut, my wife has been working her way through law school to avoid student loans. Our monthly bills and expenses add up fast on my income, leaving little cash available for travel. We didn’t want my lower income to hold us back from the travel we love. So we decided to look into travel hacking and found a way to travel to Europe twice a year on our small income.

Travel Hacking To Europe & Beyond

We recently traveled to France, taking the opportunity to trace both of our family’s heritage. We had so much fun and learned that my wife’s family was from all over France. We even got to visit some of her long lost relatives! It was an amazing experience and I definitely recommend exploring one’s family roots! You never know what you will discover!

While this trip could have cost of thousands of dollars, we were able to stay in Paris and the South of France for free via credit card hacking. We used our Chase Sapphire Reserve and Delta Skymiles credit cards.

Discovering our own history in France was amazing, but we love taking in all the different cultures that traveling to Europe offers. That’s was makes Europe such an exciting place to travel - so many different cultures in close proximity to each other!

When my wife and I said “I Do” a year ago, we knew we would travel to Europe for our honeymoon. We took advantage of Europe’s diversity and easily hopped from one country to another! Naturally, we returned to Italy, sharpening our Italian communication skills. Then flew to the Netherlands and tried to learn Dutch. It was a crazy experience. Let’s just say the culture of Italians is a lot different than the Dutch. Luckily, one similarity is that they both have amazing cheese… We love cheese, haha.

For our next trip, we are stretching beyond Europe and flying to Japan. I racked up enough points through credit card hacking and manufactured spending that our round trip tickets only cost $3.20!

I love how travel hacking has allowed us to continue to travel. While travel hacking can be complicated, it doesn’t have to be. Credit card hacking can be simple - try opening one credit card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred and earn the bonus with the minimum spend. This card is great for starters. Manufactured spending is even easier - you can fund a new bank account with a credit card and hit your minimum spending requirement instantly.

Our Retirement Dream: Living In Europe

While we love that we are able to travel twice a year, we would love to be able to extend our travels in the future. Living a carefree life in Europe is at the top of our list every time we talk about our dreams and goals.

Right now, work and school take up most of our time, but we are hoping that this investment up front will allow us to retire early (in our 40’s). We are hoping that when that happens we can split our time between the U.S. and Europe!

Retirement, let alone early retirement, is hard to work towards when you don’t have a large gap between your income and expenses. In order to help with that, I’ve started focusing on a few side hustles: freelance consulting, blogging, ecommerce, and travel photography. With these side incomes, I’m able to invest in saving for our dream.

How I’m Investing For Our Dream

There are a lot of options for investing, but I’ve found dividend growth investments to be the most rewarding. I focus on investing in undervalued stocks. This way I’m able to receive additional income (yearly payouts) while also seeing stock values increase over time. You can see my portfolio and follow our investing journey here. I also created a guide to help others build a successful dividend portfolio!

My wife and I are a long way from reaching early retirement, but I’m glad that we’ve started the journey now. So far, I’m happy with our investing success and bi-annual travels!

Thank you to Millionaire Mob for sharing his journey! I’m officially interested in manufactured spending and intrigued by Dividend Investing! We wish you and your wife the best as you work towards early retirement and traveling the world!

Do you have a freedom story you would like to share? We would love to hear from you! Submit your story here!

“I think you should take some time off from sharing your life with the world.” Those are the words my new friend Saima said to me on my final day in London, and they were followed by a question. “What would it look like if you just wrote for yourself, for a little while?” I didn’t have an answer. We were sitting in her living room, relaxing while waiting for the sun to go down, so we could go out and she could break her fast during Ramadan. I couldn’t think of an answer to her question. The only thing I knew was that I was tired.

Earlier that morning, I had sent Saima a few text messages to warn her I wasn’t in my usual good spirits. I had also sent similar messages to my friend Bianca, before we met up with our mutual friend Laura that morning. After confessing to spending the previous night crying in my hotel bed, I told them I wanted to see them, but that I couldn’t promise I would be the best company. What I was really doing was forewarning them there was a good chance I would cry in front of them, and to please prepare now and forgive me for it then.

Both Bianca and Saima took care of me that day in a way I didn’t even know I needed. They picked the restaurants. Bianca got a better table. And then Saima did something I believe she’s skilled at, but which felt like the greatest gift of all: she ordered food for me. Food for us to share. This was something she’d done every time we’d gone out together, but it felt bigger that night. Like she could physically see the weight on my shoulders, and lifted just a little bit of it off by making a decision for me. I was beyond grateful.

The next day, I was stuck at Calgary International Airport for a lengthy six-hour layover. After finishing the second of the two books I’d started reading on my first flight, I popped my Canadian SIM card back into my phone and called a few friends to tell them I was almost home. The first call was to Azalea, who had been staying at my place in Squamish while I was away. I shared a few stories from my trip, then reiterated to her what I had said to Bianca and Saima—and told her about the question Saima had asked me.

What would it look like if you just wrote for yourself, for a little while?

As we talked about it, I realized it wasn’t that I didn’t have an answer to the question. It was that I didn’t like my answer. I have shared the details of my life on this blog for close to eight years. It started as a hobby, but has since become a part of me—and is now part of my job. And the thought of not writing and hitting publish made me feel really uncomfortable, not just because I worried about what people would think if I disappeared (although that was a concern) but because I literally didn’t know what it would look like if I just wrote for myself.

Azalea listened to this and let me ramble about all the different thoughts and ideas that had come up on my trip. Ideas for book #2, ideas for ways to make money (because writing books isn’t a get rich quick scheme), and thoughts about where I could travel to or live next. One of Azalea’s many gifts is making people feel seen and heard, so she listened and made me feel seen and heard. And then she gave me a different challenge. “Try not to make any big decisions for the next two weeks.” This also made me uncomfortable.

The reason those questions/challenges felt difficult was because I knew they would require me to sit with myself. To exercise the muscle I’ve been working on for the past five-and-a-half years: the one that usually twitches, reacts impulsively and wants to solve problems right away. I knew I would essentially have to do nothing, which felt impossible. There was external pressure to do more, more, more and to capitalize on the success of The Year of Less. There was also pressure to keep up with everything else I’d been doing before the book came out. And then there was the pressure I was putting on myself. How could I opt out for two weeks!?

Fortunately, jet lag forced me to slow down and take care of myself. It took a full week for me to properly recover and get a good night of sleep, so the first of those two weeks off was easy. After that, I realized I wasn’t feeling any clearer about what I was supposed to do next. I tried to write but couldn’t finish so much as a paragraph. I talked about things with friends but never found solutions. I needed some real space. So, I combined Saima + Azalea’s challenges and decided not to blog/post to Instagram/make any big decisions for two more weeks.

I committed to that idea on June 18th. As you can see from the date of this post, it’s been almost a month—and I still don’t feel ready to “return”. The same way opting out of buying stuff for two years taught me a lot about myself as a consumer, temporarily opting out of publishing content is giving me time to think about myself as a creator. Having that space has also allowed an incredible number of ideas to surface—some I had never thought of before, others I had pushed off for various reasons. They aren’t all good. But my home + my phone are cluttered with notes, and that feels like a step in the right direction.

So, at the moment, I think this is going to be the only blog post I publish this summer. I wanted to say hi + thanks to those of you who have reached out, as well as share a little bit of what I’ve been up to. :)

First of all, my trip to the UK was even better than I could have imagined. I visited England (it felt like home), Scotland and Ireland (rented a car and did a road trip!). The weather was unbelievable. Honestly, it felt like the sunshine followed me wherever I went. (If you’re not on Instagram, just pop over and see all the blue sky in my pictures. It was unreal.) And the amount of beauty and history I took in was overwhelming. But the best part of my trip—and most trips—was the people. I’m so grateful to everyone who made time for me and helped me have the best experience possible. You all know who you are, and I can’t wait to see you again.

Since coming home, I’ve been soaking up all the beauty in Squamish and thinking about something that’s been on my mind since I was in the UK: what if I didn’t have a home base? How could I take what I know about myself and combine it into an experience where I travel (slowly) full-time? Could I be a citizen of the world? I made one big decision and decided the answer is: it’s worth trying. People keep asking where I’m moving to next or what I’m going to do, and I have been avoiding the questions. I’m not trying to be vague or rude, I just don’t have the answers yet. All I know is that I will be leaving Squamish sometime in 2018 and heading out into the world.

(To go along with this, I have started the process of decluttering/selling my belongings.)

Another thing I don’t have answers about yet is what’s next for me work-wise—at least in terms of big projects. In late-June, I finished an optional proposal for book #2 and there are still a lot of question marks around how my publisher wants to move forward. The Year of Less has sold more than 47,000 copies (print, ebook + audiobook) around the world, which is unbelievable and has truly exceeded even my wildest dreams. But that still doesn’t mean anyone will want your next book idea. As I’ve been waiting to hear, my anxiety has been ultra-high, but I’ve been trying to accept that I can’t control what happens on this front.

So, on the topic of work I can control, I do have some fun news. I’m currently revising Mindful Budgeting and finally creating what so many of you have asked for: an evergreen planner so you can start using it anytime of the year! It feels amazing to be refreshing the content so it represents what I know today (compared to when I first launched it in 2015). If everything goes as planned, it should be available by the end of the summer.

I also started doing a content audit, where I’m going through every single one of the posts on this site and updating them in some way or simply deleting them. I started with more than 550 posts and currently have just 404—and I’ve only gone from 2011 through to mid-2014! I’ve made sure that anyone who is new to the site could still go back, read from the beginning and understand exactly how I got to where I am today. Nothing about my story is missing. I’m just clearing out all the posts that don’t add to it or help people. (This feels good, especially when you think about how much changes from age 25 to age 33!)

And on that note: I quietly celebrated my 33rd birthday on July 7th. :)

There’s so much more I could say and share, but this post is already way longer than I intended—and I really want to honour my original idea for it, which was to talk about the value of living through (and not always publicly sharing) the messiness of life. I still don’t know exactly why I was sad at the end of my trip. I think it probably had something to do with the fact that I’d been living on the edge of my comfort zone all year—mostly with work, but also with some of my travels. But I’m not going to force myself to find the answer. Instead, I’m giving myself some grace and accepting the fact that we simply can’t be happy all the time (even on vacation).

However, in saying that, I’ve also had a number of conversations with friends since I’ve been home, and I can’t help but notice that a similar theme keeps coming up over and over again. Those of us who have been publicly documenting our life/work/progress for many years are feeling like something has to change. Either we need to take more time off for ourselves, change the way/amount/frequency we share, or quit certain projects altogether. Because it’s starting to feel like it’s all becoming a bit too much, and that it would be nice to live a little more—and perhaps share a little less (or just share in a different way).

What does that mean for me? I still don’t know! Hence wanting to take more time off this summer, so I can keep thinking about this. So far, I can tell you that it’s still “scary” to think about disappearing for a few months. But it feels so much better than pressuring myself to stick to my old schedule or write insightful content. As I said in an interview with my friend Fiona, I don’t want to have all the answers right now. I just want to be honest. And if I’m honest, creating space for myself for the past month has felt like such a gift. I’ve cooked a ton of healthy food. Gone for lots of walks. Read a handful of books and listened to countless podcasts. And I’ve been writing for myself—and not sharing it with anyone. This space is where new insight/ideas have started to flourish. It’s costing me money and time to give it to myself, but putting pressure on myself would’ve cost me more.

The one thought I do want to share right now is more of a note for all content creators: we have an immense responsibility. There is so much “noise” online right now (and so much content, in general). The book has made me realize that the things we share can and will have an impact, and we are so lucky to be taking up any amount of time our audience is willing to give us. I want to take that seriously. I took book #1 seriously, in that I knew exactly what my intention was and the message I wanted people to take from it—and based on responses, I feel like I did my job. I want to bring that same intentionality into everything I do. That might mean I share less content for a while, but I’m hoping that will result in sharing better content later.

As for my personal life: I’m going to keep some of that to myself for a while, too. Because even though this year has been filled with some amazing events and milestones so far, it’s also been really mentally taxing. Penny recently wrote a post that took the scrambled thoughts I’ve had about this out of my mind and put them in the right order. She said: “When you are really in the midst of making progress, it is all-consuming. It is stressful, of course, but it is exhilarating. And it is virtually impossible to stop the process long enough to reflect on what is happening, let alone write or even call home about it. We don’t write in the mess. We live it.”

I don’t think I am a mess right now, but I am definitely making progress. Life is changing. Work is changing. Home is changing. Each one of those things is changing in a really big way, so combined it feels absolutely massive—and I’m not ready to share it all yet. I’m going to keep living through it, and talking it out with my closest friends/family, until I get a little clearer and find my way back to myself (or perhaps my new self). What I can tell you right now is that I don’t think I’ve cried since I’ve been home. In fact, for the past week, I’ve been putting headphones in, cranking up music, and dancing around my kitchen a couple times a day.

One of the last things Saima said to me in London was, “I don’t think your pain is a bad thing. I think it’s showing you that something you’re doing isn’t working.” Those two short sentences instantly calmed my anxiety and quite literally felt like they brought me back down to earth. It was like a reminder that I didn’t need to be sad about being sad (aka slip into depression). It was just time to pay attention and make some changes.

It’s a good thing I have lots of experience doing that. :)

Today we’ve got something new at Keep Thrifty - our first reader case study! One of our readers, Alex, reached out with the situation below. I’ll provide my response and some commentary. I encourage all of you to provide your thoughts in the comments section as well. Our collective wisdom can certainly provide Alex with some direction and hopefully help him make a thrifty decision!

Here’s Alex’s situation:

I inherited a house, sold it, and netted 338,000. I maxed my Roth IRA out at 5500. And stashed enough away into emergency reserves. Now I have 300,000 to invest. But I am grappling with using half of that to purchase a 300k house. I don’t have the income to finance 80%. Typically houses don’t yield as much as long-term stock investments. I own 2 vehicles outright and I am debt free. I’d be interested in your perspective.

After talking with Alex further, I got clarification that the home purchase would be for personal use, not for rental income.

My Analysis

First off, kudos to Alex for maxing out his Roth IRA and topping off his emergency fund. The tax benefits of a Roth IRA are definitely worth taking advantage of if he wasn’t already getting there. Ensuring he’s got a healthy emergency fund is a wise move before any major investing.

That leaves us with the big question of buying half of a house (financing the rest) versus investing the amount (presumably in something like passive index funds).

Let’s take the home purchase on first.

The Case For Buying a House

If Alex’s goal has been to get into personal home-ownership, I certainly see the allure of putting a portion of the inheritance toward home ownership.

In Alex’s part of the country, $300k can easily get him a 1700-square-foot home (or more) with a pool and a great location.

Financing $150k with 30-year mortgage rates in the low 4% range would give a monthly payment of about $700-$750, which is a fraction of comparable rents in his area for similar houses.

Getting into a situation where he’s building equity and having a nice living situation for low monthly cost certainly has its appeal.

But having some appeal doesn’t necessarily make it the right move. Let’s check the flip side.

The Case Against Buying a House

Alex is currently renting and it seems to be working ok for him. Putting his money into a personal home has a number of limitations that are worth considering.

First, there’s liquidity. While Alex has built up his emergency fund (which is a big help here), homes aren’t very liquid. If Alex finds himself in a situation where he needs to move or needs to free up more money, he’s going to be in the position of selling his home under pressure.

In the case he needs to sell, Alex may not get the price he wants in the timeline he’s looking for and could risk getting a lower sale price and/or being unable to sell in time for his needs altogether.

Second, there’s return on investment. Typically, people comparing real estate investing with stock investing are in the business of real estate rentals. Rental properties have monthly cash flow and the chance for value appreciation over time.

A personal home doesn’t have true monthly cash flow, so the investment upside is limited to value appreciation. As the experts will tell you, most home value appreciation is due to inflation anyway, so as an investment strategy, home-buying is a pretty poor choice.

Another Option

One of the items Alex highlighted in his scenario was the fact that he’s debt-free. The fact he took the time to mention this lets me know that this is something he’s proud of and is valuable to him. It sounds like Alex wants to get into home ownership at some point, but his $300k home idea would be a step in the wrong direction.

Whenever presented with two options that you don’t love, it’s always worth exploring if there are other options available. Fortunately, there’s another option here that I think is worth considering.

My big question to Alex was, why a $300k house?

As I mentioned earlier, $300k would buy a 1700-square foot house in Alex’s area. With 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and a pool, Alex would be living the high life.

With just a minute of searching, I was able to find an 1100-square foot home with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms (but no pool) listed for $150k. By sacrificing a small amount of space (and his own personal pool), Alex could buy the house outright, still invest $150k into index funds, and get the best of both worlds.

He’d have no rent payment, no mortgage payment, and know that he should be getting a good return on investment from stocks over his 40+ year time horizon.

With his reduced monthly costs, he’s in a better position in case of job loss or other financial hardship and having $150k in passive investments working for him should ensure he’s got a liquid secondary emergency fund.

My Recommendation

Were I in Alex’s situation, that’s the route I’d go - buying a smaller place outright and putting the rest into investments.

That said, a lot of this has to do with my personality. I’m not a fan of debt but want to be a homeowner as a part of my pathway to complete payment freedom.

If Alex is open to taking on more debt or is comfortable renting for the long-haul, putting a higher share of the $300k (or all of it) in passive index funds is the strategy that is most likely to bring higher returns.

What Do You Think?

What would you do if you were in Alex’s situation? Do you have an Option D that I didn’t think of? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below!

P.S. I’d like to give a big thanks to Alex for reaching out with his scenario. If you have a scenario you’d like to hear our thoughts on, sign up for our newsletter below and let us know!

Going to college and getting a degree doesn’t guarantee you to a job offer. What do you do if you find yourself in this position? Amanda found herself jobless after college, here’s how she found her own path to success!

My Pathway to Success Disappeared

All my life, I had a simple formula, a simple direction to follow. I was told to go to college, get a job, make money. Simple, right? I followed this path somewhat blindly. I didn’t really think about the future, I just did what I was told to do.

When I graduated, I faced a different reality. It was 2010, the economy was suffering. No one was hiring. I found myself with no money, no prospects for gaining an income, and no skills (or so I thought).

I found myself in the middle of an existential crisis. My pathway literally disappeared. Everything I had been told to do in order to be a successful adult no longer applied. I started suffering from panic attacks and a total lack of direction and purpose.

I spent my first six months after graduation in a dark place, unsure of how to move forward. Luckily, during this time, a friend handed me The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau. It was this book that helped me realize that there is more than one path in life. I didn’t have to live the way it had been prescribed to me. I could make my own decisions, including working for myself or traveling the world. I could design my own life.

I had no idea what I wanted my life to look like or what I wanted to do, but for the first time I realized that I had the power to create my own path.

Creating My Own Financial Path

After reading that book, I took a chance and looked into freelance writing. I had always wanted to be a writer, maybe I could get paid a little to write while I look for a full time job. One of the writing gigs I landed was looking for personal finance articles. Unfortunately, I knew nothing about money, but I told myself:

“Whatever dream life I come up with in the future - it’s going to cost money, so I better figure it out. If I get paid for these articles, then I’m getting paid to research personal finance topics and teach myself.”

And so began my obsession with learning about money! As I wrote articles from my research, I shared my own financial journey on my blog and eventually landed a full time job as a recruiter.

During my day job I interviewed people for jobs within Fortune 500 companies. I was literally spending my days with people who’d been laid off and had no money. To top it off, the companies were also in a financial bind because they were trying to recover from the economy. This opened my eyes to the reality that working for someone else doesn’t mean you have financial security. I stayed in this job for two years while my blog and freelance gigs were growing.

While I was thankful for my full time work, I was becoming burnt out. I wanted to quit my job and turn my blog into my full time income. I just wasn’t sure how to make this happen! In December of 2013, I hired a business coach to help me monetize the brand I had worked so hard to build. I think I literally paid her my entire emergency fund at the time to take this risk!

This was a really hard leap to take. I feared that I wouldn’t make the money back, but I pushed myself to get over my fear and change my mindset so I could move forward. The risk paid off and I quit my job six months later!

That success was followed by writing a bestselling book, rebranding my business, coaching others, landing corporate writing gigs, and then landing influencer campaigns. It’s been five years; I love what I do and am earning four times more than when I was a recruiter.

How I did it without being frugal

The idea of scrimping, saving, and living frugally never inspired me. I tried it, and it only got me so far. I want to have fun and own nice things. I also like paying for convenience. For me, gaining financial security is all about my income. If I want something I can’t afford, I just figure out how to make more money to pay for it! This is how:

First, Be Intentional: I’ve always been clear about what things matter to me and what don’t. I don’t care about owning a car; but I love healthy food, fitness classes, and getting a massage once in a while. I don’t spend my money on the things I don’t care about.

Second, Grow Your Potential: Once I landed my job, I was still living with my parents. This allowed me to dump the money I made into my business, allowing it to grow and earn more money.

Third, Take Risks: If I wanted something - like to visit a friend in Mexico (which I did) - then I would force myself to find the money. I’d take small risks (book the plane ticket, put something on a credit card) to force myself to find the money.

With time, I started to realize I can earn whatever I want because there is no limit to my earning potential whereas there is only so much I can save before life starts to suck. I’ve also used credit card points (haven’t paid for a flight in years) and would AirBnB or crash with friends.

I’m loving my life in Miami. Every day I get to wake up to a view of Biscayne Bay and do work that I love. Running my own business has been a dream come true - a dream I never realized I had. And I’m excited to continue down this path. My next goal is to become a seven figure business, helping others create their dream life, and booking a trip to London to visit a friend!

Thank you to Amanda for sharing her story! I love that she took small risks and found the money to be able to follow through on her dreams. I look forward to watching Amanda continue to thrive in entrepreneurship and taking that trip to London!

Do you have a freedom story you would like to share? We would love to hear from you! Submit your story here!

Young & Full Of Fear

I’ve been dreaming of traveling internationally for a long time. When Chris and I got married we traveled to the Dominican Republic for our honeymoon. We stayed at an all inclusive resort and never left the premises. That was 2008 (I was 23 years old) and I was terrified of going out on excursions or walking off the resort to explore the rest of the island. I guess it didn’t help that when we took the bus to our resort we passed men in the trees and on the streets with rifles in hand. That scared the shit out of me (excuse my language).

I had read many stories of people leaving their resorts in foreign countries only to end up with life threatening illnesses or disappearing. To say that fear ruled my decision making at the time is an understatement. I even refused to step in the ocean! (Do we look young in this picture, or what! That’s me after half a bottle of wine! haha)

I loved our honeymoon, but living in fear is no way to live. There is so much more to life! As I’ve grown up, I realize that so much of life is out of my hands, that I have to live my best life without regrets. I have to smile, laugh, do silly things, and take risks. I don’t want to refuse to get on a plane because I’m afraid it’s going to crash. I don’t want to be afraid of visiting Europe because there may be a bomb on a train. And I don’t want to refuse to eat fresh fruit in a third world country because I may ingest something that will make me sick. That doesn’t mean I want to be reckless. I want to research, learn, explore, and have faith that everything will be an amazing!

Picking Costa Rica

When Chris took his one year mini-retirement, we decided to stay in our town and live life, but when we talked about possibly extending the retirement a second year I wanted our family to take an adventure! I talked Chris into living in Costa Rica for nine months!

Why Costa Rica? Honestly, I don’t know. I wanted to go somewhere tropical with warm winters. Costa Rica just stuck out in my mind. I was determined to figure out all the logistics. I researched towns, schools, homeschooling, cost of living, border runs, health insurance, and even signed up for Trusted Housesitters to see if we could house sit instead of renting!

In the end, Chris wasn’t ready to take such a big leap. He needed to get his feet wet first. We canceled our idea of living in Costa Rica for nine months but agreed to travel to Costa Rica for our ten year wedding anniversary!!!!

I had no idea where in Costa Rica to go. I did a random google search for a small resort near the beach. Google directed me to The Harmony Hotel. I instantly fell in love with the small boutique hotel located in Nosara, CR. After further research, I learned that Nosara is a small surfer/yoga beach town with dirt roads far from any major city! It was perfect! I told Chris and we booked it right away!

Ten Years Older & Throwing My Fear To The Wind

Getting off the plane in Costa Rica was surreal for me. I was so excited to be exploring a new country with my husband! After navigating customs, we took a 2.5 hour shuttle ride to Nosara, walked up to our hotel with our 2 backpacks (I love being a minimalist!) and were greeted with mint lemonade (so yummy). Chris even surprised me with a bottle of red wine and a plate of brownies waiting for us in our room (My husband knows me well!).

Our Lazy Days: The next four days were spent wandering the dirt streets, walking the beach, lounging by the pool, and playing a board game each evening in our room while snacking on the most delicious homemade chocolate peanut butter treats from the mini bar! We loved soaking up the sun and enjoying the slow pace of Costa Rica together!

Our Excursion: I told Chris I wanted to go zip-lining while in Costa Rica and toss my fear to the wind! That is something my 23 year old self never would have done! It was a crazy adrenaline inducing adventure that bonded Chris and I with the other people on the tour with whom we are now blessed to call friends! When we returned to our resort my adrenaline crashed and I passed out hard on a lounge chair by the pool!

Amazing Eats: We loved the food in Nosara! We ventured out on the dirt roads and stopped at different restaurants. We grabbed awesome pizza at Pura Pizza run by a true Italian, had an amazing salad at Cafe de Paris, and ate the yummiest vegan friendly dishes at Robin’s Cafe. Chris even fell in love with the local dish - Casado (rice, beans, chicken, and fried plantain, ordering it for dinner three different nights.

Exploring Beyond: One day we tracked down a Tuk Tuk so we could explore Central Nosara. Our driver happily dropped us off and agreed to pick us back up in an hour. We visited the local supermarket where we had to leave our bag in a locker outside, walked the food isles on the main level and wandered the upstairs filled with shoes and household supplies! Our driver picked us up an hour and a half later right where he had dropped us off!

Before we knew it, it was our last day in Costa Rica. The rain came and we relaxed in the open air lobby listening to the rain while drinking coffee and sketching up designs of our little white shack. It was the perfect way to end our stay in Nosara - relaxing and dreaming of our future!

Slowing Down In Order To Dream Together

Traveling to Costa Rica started as my dream. I wanted an adventure. I wanted to explore and face my fears.

But when you are married your partner may not share your dream. Chris didn’t want to navigate a nine month trip in another country like I did.

This was really frustrating. I even questioned if we could keep moving forward together. We had been married for nine and a half years! Were we starting to want different things out of life? This question made me sad. The thing I wanted most out of life was my husband.

Knowing that, I gave up on a nine month trip to Costa Rica. I was devastated, but I didn’t want to push us to do something that we didn’t both want! When I let go of that dream, Chris offered the idea of going to Costa Rica for our ten year wedding anniversary! I was ecstatic about this and had our hotel picked out and booked within 24 hours! (Yes, I’m super spontaneous!)

We entered this adventure and ten year celebration really thankful. I was thankful that Chris was willing to explore Costa Rica. Chris was thankful that I made the trip a reality! This only strengthened our love for each other!

To make things even more exciting, Chris fell in love with Costa Rica just as much as I did. Now we both want to return for a longer period of time with our girls! What started as my dream is slowly becoming our dream - which is way better! I just had to wait for Chris’s vision to catch up to my own so that we could create an even better vision together!

Traveling to Nosara, Costa Rica was about celebrating our marriage. A marriage where we put each other first and slow down for each other. In doing so, we found ourselves wandering the beautiful dirt roads, overcoming fears, and looking forward to a future that includes a family adventure to Costa Rica in the near future!

We fell in love with Nosara because it warmed our hearts, forced us to slow down and face our fears, and reminded us that an adventure is best taken when Chris and I are a team!

We’ve got an awesome freedom story today from Claudia at Two Cup House. They found their way to debt freedom and are now on their way to achieving the financial freedom they dreamed about back in 2015!

Building Normal Debt

When you graduate from college, you find yourself eager to live a grown-up life. You start your career and start spending all your money to create that picture of what you think life is supposed to be like. The student loans you have - you can just pay the minimums. No need to sacrifice your ability to make that perfect picture a reality! Bring on the home mortgage, new cars, and awesome furniture.

That’s what we did! We financed our college education, landed jobs in stable fields, bought new cars, a house (1,500 square feet & remodeled it), furniture, and ate out all the time. We were living the normal American life with over $200,000 of “normal” debt.

• Credit Card Debt: $16,515
• Mortgage: $156,013
• Student Loans: $36,079

Realizing We Didn’t Want Normal Debt

About ten years later in April of 2015, we found two blogs that got us thinking differently. John and David of the Debt Free Guys paid off a ton of debt and Carl of 1500 Days was pursuing financial independence so he could quit his job – both were (and continue to be) inspiring for us.

We had dreamed about getting out of debt. Then our eyes opened to the possibility of downsizing to a lower-maintenance home and traveling the US to visit all the national parks.

While we had the inspiration, we weren’t on a fast track to change. We experienced some health troubles that made us realize how short life could be. Fortunately, the health issues dissipated, but our desire for financial freedom didn’t. We didn’t want to wait around to see if our health issues resurfaced. We would have to make change happen NOW!

Achieving Debt Freedom

Inspired by 1500 Days, we decided we were going to pay off all of our debt and achieve financial freedom in 1,500 days. If this plan sounds half-baked, that’s because it was. At the time we made this decision, it was April 2015 and we had more than $200,000 in debt!

We forged ahead with our half-baked plan. We needed to get out of debt fast! Our first step was to eliminate our mortgage. We put our house on the market and planned to pay for a tiny home with the equity from the sale. Our second step was to pay off the rest of our debt. In order to do this, I applied for a full-time job and Garrett spent a lot more time on his commission-based sales job. We also cut expenses, including food and utilities. Every little bit helped us save more money to pay off our debt faster.

We listed our house and while we waited for the sale to go through, we worked on paying off our credit card debt. After six months, we were credit card debt free, but hadn’t been able to sell our house. This was frustrating as we were excited to move on. So the next month, we took out a small mortgage and moved. It was another six months before the house sold and an additional six months before we were completely mortgage free. With a lot of dedication, in March of 2017 we paid the last of our student loans and became officially debt free two years after we started this journey (about 730 days).

Tackling Complete Financial Freedom

The second half of our dream is to become financially free. Since paying off all of our debt, this dream has evolved. Instead of focusing on retiring early, we are focusing more on doing work that matters and spending more time outdoors. Right now we are trying to balance enjoying this life and creating the flexibility that financial freedom affords.

For now, we are loving our tiny home and have adapted to it quite quickly. Sure, it has its challenges, but every housing situation does. Living in a “tiny” house is a dream come true because it’s low-cost, low-maintenance, and affords us tons of time to spend outdoors hiking and kayaking.

As we look to the future, financial freedom or having enough money to make a change in our lifestyle is still the goal. We’re constantly trying to make smarter decisions on how we spend our money and time so that we can work less, earn more, and travel in a location-independent fashion. I know that we’ll get there, maybe even within our half-baked 1,500 day goal (about 300 days left to go).

Once we reach financial freedom we’ll be free to focus more on our passion projects and then who knows what will happen!

Advice For Others Jumping Into Lifestyle Changes

Enjoy The Journey: One thing I wish we had done differently is focus more on enjoying the journey. We’ve had a blast so far, but there were times that we worked tons of extra hours to get to debt freedom faster. Sometimes it’s OK to slow down and enjoy the view.

Find Your Tribe: Personal finance bloggers inspired us to dream big and pushed us to take action, so without them, I don’t think we would have made the progress we’ve made. An added benefit is that bloggers who were our accountability partners throughout this journey have become good friends.

Thank you to Claudia for sharing their journey with us. It’s amazing how much you can change your life when you find the inspiration, create a plan, and start making the necessary changes right away! We’re looking forward to seeing you accomplish complete financial freedom and checking off the rest of your national parks list!

Do you have a freedom story you would like to share? We would love to hear from you! Submit your story here!

Our mini-retirement was an incredible year of travel, family time, and personal growth. Beyond the amazing experiences we had, we learned so much about ourselves, our dreams, and where we hope to direct our lives in the future.

But taking a year off of work doesn’t come without a cost. Was it worth it?

Let’s take a look at the numbers and you can be the judge.

Planned Mini-Retirement Budget

Before we started our mini-retirement, we analyzed our spending in Thrifty to get an idea of what we’d be spending. We used the data from two years of spending, along with our projections about how our spending in Mini-Retirement would be different to come up with a detailed budget for the full year.

Our mini-retirement budget totaled up to just over $60k ($60,206.88 to be exact).

Changes In Course

A proper budget reinforces your priorities through a financial plan (Tweet this )

Our original budget captured our intentions and priorities for the year. As the year progressed, we had two opportunities arise that fit our goals and were worth deviating from the budget.

Had we known of these ahead of time, we would have built them in :)

First, we bought land in our town. A low-cost piece of land (roughly 40% the cost of most other lots) was listed in our area with the benefit of no deed restrictions. That meant we could build a small, cozy home of our dreams in the community we love. We jumped on the opportunity and happily got the land at the listing price.

Second, we decided to travel to Hawaii. This was one of 4 states we hadn’t visited yet as a family and we were looking for a way to break out of winter in the midwest. We loved the aloha spirit we found there and the trip gave us clarity on the life of travel we wanted to create.

Actual Mini-Retirement Spending

Because our land purchase is a non-depreciating purchase and helps us toward payment freedom, we don’t include it in our actual spending. We think the same way about principal payments on a mortgage.

Here’s the detailed comparison of what we planned to spend with what we actually did, excluding our land and Hawaii trip spending.

Excluding our Hawaii trip and land purchase, we were about $900 over budget. Adding in our Hawaii spending and our total spend for the year was $69,966.48.

A couple notable lessons from our spending and budget:

• We forgot to include the pro-rated property tax from the sale of our home in our original budget - that was about $3,000 of expense.
• We didn’t realize how much less we’d spend on transportation. Without a daily commute (even though it was only 8 miles), we saved a bunch on gas. This also led to savings on maintenance as well!
• We put $2,000 in an unassigned category in our budget - this gave us flexibility for unexpected purchases, like buying Jaime and our oldest daughter bicycles, etc.

Total Mini-Retirement Cost (Cash and Net Worth Impact)

So, the total cost for one year of mini-retirement for our family was $69,966.48.

Or was it?

One way to look at the cost of the mini-retirement is to look at the total spending for our year. But another way would be to look at the impact on our net worth.

After all, during this year, we did earn some freelance income, received a payout from my old employer, and our investments continued to grow.

Our net worth actually increased by 1.55% during our mini-retirement! (Tweet this )

So, in one way of looking at it, we actually made money during our mini-retirement.

That’s the power of investing, friends. All those years of savings are paying off with financial momentum!

Our net worth certainly would have been much higher if I had continued working and making contributions to our investments, but it’s amazing to think that we made it through the year with our net worth increasing!

Was It Worth It?

Through the mini-retirement, I got a chance to try my hand at entrepreneurship, which had been a lifelong dream. I discovered what parts worked (and which parts didn’t) for me and ultimately decided that heading back into the workforce was the right fit.

As a family, I got to take my kids to school and home almost every day, volunteer more in the classroom, and do a bunch of travel (a road trip to the northeastern US, two weeks in Hawaii, a trip to Florida, and our 10-year anniversary trip to Costa Rica).

Now, I’ve landed a remote software developer job that I’m super excited about. This job should give us work-life balance and flexibility to travel, all while letting me pursue a career path that I’ve been excited about for a long time.

As one of my good friends coached me (during one of my more stressful moments in the job search), “If you spent the last year and figured out what you really want in life, you’ve gained something that most people will never achieve. That’s worth every penny.”

We plan to stay in our community in Wisconsin, build our tiny white shack and focus on building a life focused on faith, positive family routines, and lots of adventure.

So yes, this year was absolutely worth it. We’ve got an exciting vision for the future and are so excited for the next chapter in our life!

I wanted to publicly share my love for Podia and why I think it's so special. ❤️

TLDR: If you don't know what Podia is, it's an all-in-one digital storefront for creating and selling online courses, downloads, and memberships. That's what it does today, but we'll do whatever we need to do to help creators make money.

#1: Our product is fluid, but our mission remains the same

We realized very early on that creators sign up for Podia for a variety of reasons, but the most common one is to make money.

Selling online courses, downloads, or a membership is a means of making money, but it's only a delivery mechanism for people teaching what they know and getting paid for it.

Infrastructure constantly changes and being an all-in-one digital storefront allows us to stay fluid and adapt to the changing environment of how creators sell online.

This is why we're not only an online course platform.

Even if a creator only intends to sell online courses today, he or she may want to expand his or her business or change it completely a year from now.

With Podia, creators are never pigeon-holed into a rigid online course platform, as we provide a fluid platform for them to sell online, both today, and wherever the future takes them.

How will creators sell in 2020? 2025?

We're actively studying the market and thinking about how it will happen. Because of how we're set up to support creators, we are in a unique position to be there for them as the tides shift.

And they will shift, it's only a matter of time.

#2: We genuinely care about the success of our creators

Any company can state that they care about their customers, but with us, it’s not BS.

Most companies have one or two KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) that they track over time to see how well things are going. For us, our two KPIs are both directly linked to how well our creators (new and existing) are selling.

For those who are not selling well, we personally reach out to them to see how we can help them. Want to jump on a call with us to review your products to see if we can help? We'll do that.

Our customers aren't just dollar signs in our bank account. We even celebrate their success in our Slack channel. When a creator does really well, we'll send them a personal video congratulating them.

As we see it: their success is our success.

#3: Our team is truly exceptional

Over the past fifteen years, I've been fortunate to found four startups, but the Podia team is by far the best I've ever worked with. The people are amazing and they're so talented at their jobs.

The success of a startup is directly tied to the team more than anything else. At Podia, I've never had a doubt in my mind that we'd be successful because of the great people who I work with every day.

People are often amazed that our team is just under ten people (nine as of this writing) and that we were only a team of six at the end of 2017.

They ask: "How have you accomplished so much as such a small team?"

Some of our investors have told us that we get more done than other teams they've invested in who are five times our size.

#4: We're all having fun

An under appreciated characteristic of a startup is how much fun everyone is having. The happiness that we all have working on Podia shines through in the work we do.

For us, there’s nothing better than helping a first-time creator achieve success selling online.

#5: We're building for the long run

We started working on Podia in 2014 and we're not going anywhere.

Some startups are built to sell themselves or they take huge risks that will either pay off or they'll fizzle out and die. That's the opposite of our approach.

We've built Podia to be an enduring company that will be here for as long as creators still love us. 😉

Revenue is important for the health of the company, but we don't make any decisions that are only tied to revenue. Everything we do is to build a better company, a better product, and to help our creators be successful. That will never change.

If I'm lucky, Podia will be the last startup I ever work on because I love it that much.

There's a lot of advice out there for startups.

Here are seven ways to think about your startup that will have greater impact on you and your business than any of the typical BS being passed around.

#1: Don't take yourself so seriously

This is such a terrible problem with startups these days.

Many startups take themselves so seriously that they won’t take a stand for anything and therefore, have no personality. All they stand for is not looking unprofessional and it makes me gag every time I see it.

It's like walking up to the investment banker or a lawyer at a party who’s wearing a light blue button up, dark slacks, and brown loafers -- just like every other investment banker I've ever met.

It's 2018, the world is changing, and customers aren't looking for a startup with a personality that’s as interesting as dry paint. They want to sign up for a product that elicits an emotional response, not a dressed up cardboard box.

As an example of this, you can spot it by looking at the homepage of any startup that looks like it was built with a Wordpress template, stock photography, bland, robotic copy, and a bunch of features spewed on the screen.

Maybe you're not at a point of being able to afford to do anything custom, that's fine. A good jumping off place is to start using conversational copy rather than rattling off statements with no meaning at all.

It's not just on the marketing site that I see startups taking themselves too seriously, but it's also in social media, marketing, and the way they interact with their customers.

You'll have a lot more fun building your startup and your co-workers will, too, if you drop the whole “holier-than-thou” brand and loosen the belt on your dark slacks.

#2: Don't be deceitful

For a startup to succeed, it needs to stop misleading its customers.

A common example of this is when a customer writes in with a feature request and the startup responds by telling them that “it's on their Roadmap” or that they'll “share the feedback with the team.”

Sometimes the above example might be true, and in that case, go ahead, but more often than not, it's lip service to try and convince the customer to sign up or to stay on the platform.

You may get away with telling a lie, you might not. What's more important is to always tell the truth to your customers, whether it's a feature request or a statement on your marketing site.

If not, lies and deceit will filter into your startup and it'll become acceptable to bend the truth in all things.

#3: Face the bad times head on

When the bad times come (and they will, multiple times during the life of your startup) you can't shy away. It's far easier to ignore what's right in front of you than to face it head on. I've tried -- many times -- without success.

Every time I've ignored a problem hoping that it will fix itself in time, it never did -- and I've regretted it.

This applies to people I should have let go far sooner than I did because they weren't working out, slow customer growth that I shrugged off as just an "off" month, product features not getting adapted and taking too long to pull the plug on them, and many more.

You have to listen to your gut, and if anything feels unsettling, you need to address it immediately.

It doesn't mean that there's an immediate solution, but you have to talk it out with your team or with whomever the appropriate person is. If you wait, it'll fester like a bad cut.

And if you have too many bad cuts at one time, you're going to get an infection and die.

#4: Only hire people who are excited to work with you

We've done a lot of hiring over the past year and every person we've ended up hiring has really wanted to work at Podia.

Some have been wanting to work with us for years before applying. I feel very fortunate that we've built a product, a brand, and a team that people want to work for.

If someone's excitement for the job doesn't shine through immediately in their application and extend through their interviews, all their professional accomplishments don't mean anything to me.

Let's hope they have those too, but I'd trade an enthusiastic developer for an apathetic developer who was a little more qualified for the technical aspects of a role in a heartbeat.

Your team can feel the enthusiasm of their co-workers and that will have such a great impact on everyone's lives than any other characteristic.

Nobody wants to work with someone who is just there to punch a clock. It will show in their work, too.

#5: Trust your team to do their jobs

If you don't feel as if you can trust anyone on your team, then don't hire that person in the first place (or let them go now). The best teams completely trust everyone they work with.

Trust can extend to various aspects of the startup. Anything from openly sharing your numbers and financials to handing off a project to a co-worker knowing that it'll be in good hands.

When everyone trusts everyone else, your job becomes so much easier.

An example from Podia is that all of our developers trust each other to release code without going through a massive review process. Yes, we do review "mission critical" code, but for the most part, we don't.

Trust is earned and being able to rely on your co-workers to perform their jobs well is critical to being able to focus on your own work rather than having to worry about if other people are competent at theirs.

#6: Do your own thing

My eyes roll every time I see a competitor sign up for our product or attend our live demos -- it happens every few days. At this point, I just laugh it off, but I have some advice for you: stop looking at what we're doing or anyone else is doing, and do your own thing.

Everything you need to know is right in front of you: the answers are in how your product is being used and in the thoughts and intentions of your customers.

If you have to look elsewhere for inspiration, you're doing it wrong.

You might think opening up Google and searching for the answer will get you what you need, but it won't. No number of articles written by entrepreneurs will get you the answers you need.

Emulating Slack or other fast-growing startups won't have the same results for you. The only thing that will work is if you focus on doing your own thing by looking at how your product is being used by your customers, and in turn, talking to those same customers.

That's one reason why I'm such a believer in having live chat throughout your product, because nothing beats a direct communication line while your customer is using your product.

#7: Don't have a big ego

Too often, I see a startup get a taste of success, and they change the way they act and forget just how they got there.

They start taking longer to respond to customers, they disrespect their partners and other companies they work with, and they generally act as if they're better than everyone.

A big ego can (and often does) lead directly to your downfall. When you think you're the best and that nobody can touch you, you'll start to lose your edge and everything with it.

There's no room for big egos at a startup.

Note: I wrote this post June 6, 2018 sitting at my computer in the kitchen while my husband was in bed in the middle of a nervous breakdown about our financial future. I needed to put my thoughts to paper. I needed to write down my lack of fear so that I could share it with my husband in the hopes that my faith would lift him up. At the time, we didn’t know what our life would look like on September 4, 2018 - life is good, everything worked out. But first - the prequel, the hardship, the darkness before the light:

A Naive Little Girl’s Dream

When I was a little girl, I never thought about money. I thought about things I wanted, things I enjoyed, but I never related it to money. Maybe I was naive. Actually, I know I was. I always have been - looking at the world and seeing potential without seeing the struggles that may lie beneath those amazing visions.

When I was about 6 years old, my family rented the lower level of a home. It was a modest house that my parents turned into their home. I remember dancing in the living room with my mom to an Amy Grant song and holding barbie fashion competitions with my family. I remember cuddling up to watch Full House and the coziness of the comforter my mom made for my bed. It was a wonderful home full of love. It never dawned on me that we might be poor.

My parents were struggling financially. My dad had dreamed of running his own grocery store and he was finally granted his wish. We moved into this little white home and my dad opened his grocery store! I remember being at the grand opening and seeing the excitement on everyone’s faces, but the joy of a dream fulfilled didn’t last. The business struggled and before long, the reality that this career path was falling apart hit hard. With three little girls to care for, rent to pay, and food to put on the table, I can’t imagine the fear my dad felt when he closed the doors to what was supposed to be the answer to his success.

At some point during this season in my family’s life, I remember turning to my mom and saying, “Someday, I want to live in a little white house with the love of my life.” I meant it with all my heart and my mom’s response didn’t make sense to me. She said, “Ok, Jaime. Just know that having some money makes life a lot easier.”

I tossed my mom’s response to the wind. Who needs money! All I need is love! That was the smartest and most naive thought I’ve probably ever had. My dream was simple and filled with all that is truly important in life. If only life were that simple. As I’ve grown-up I still hold true to my statement, but I’m starting to understand what my mom was trying to tell me twenty-six years ago.

Still Naively Confident

A year ago my husband had a stable job while I was home with our three daughters. We had a nice house and more than enough money to live on. We had a comfortable life, but we wanted the dream.

We dreamed of Chris working on his own business from home and having more time for family adventures. Summer of 2017 we made the leap to make our dreams a reality - Chris left his job, we sold our home, and moved into an apartment. I couldn’t have been more excited for our future. We even found land where we could build my dream little home, nicknamed The Little White Shack.

Money wasn’t a concern when Chris left his job. We had more than enough cash from selling our home. Our finances weren’t a concern for me. Making our dreams come true had taken center stage and I was ready to forge ahead.

While my naive self has been able to stay positive, my husband has found himself consumed with worry. Losing his stable paycheck hit him harder than he thought it would. In order to combat his concern, he started working around the clock to make his business successful. His hard work hasn’t created the outcome he had wished. He is feeling defeated and questioning if this year was a mistake. With three little girls to care for, rent to pay, and food to put on the table, his fear of failure has completely overtaken him.

I try to comfort my husband. I tell him, “We are OK. Everything will work out. Good things are coming.” I wish my words had more impact, that they would allow him to catch his breath and relax. Instead, he responds, “I wish I felt that way, but I feel like our money is disappearing. I need a job. I want a career I will find success and purpose in.”

I sit here, in this moment, and my mom’s words come back to me - that money makes life easier. I think back to the struggles my parents went through and I look at the struggle my husband is going through. And I think - Yes, having money (an active income) does make life easier. And while my heart is breaking for my husband, my naive self is still strong.

Filled With Faith

I may be naive, blind to the realities and struggles of this life, but I still believe in our dreams, even as they are crumbling. I still believe that love (not money) is the answer. I have faith that everything will work out, that we will still accomplish an amazing work/life balance and have amazing family adventures. I am confident that everything will come together.

How can I be so confident in our future? How am I able to move forward and not worry?

To be honest, I feel completely helpless in moving forward in our future. I have no answers. I don’t know which way to go. I’ve tried to plan a nine-month adventure in Central America. That path crumbled. I’ve tried to embrace our cold winters. I’ve crumbled. Chris tried entrepreneurship and crumbled. Chris tried to go back to his old work to find out that his old path no longer existed. I’ve tried to move our family to Florida, but I couldn’t make it happen. We’ve wanted to build a home, but a lack of a W-2 form prevents us from getting a mortgage. Everywhere we turn we hit a dead end.

I don’t know where our family is supposed to go. I don’t know what my husband is supposed to do or how to make him feel better. I literally don’t know where to turn. The paths we’ve tried to walk down don’t take us anywhere. I’m tired and don’t have the energy to try another path. The only thing I seem to be able to do is be still.

And in this stillness, I am finding comfort and hope. I’m realizing that I’m not naive, but full of faith. I have faith that everything will work out, that God is using this struggle, this fear of our money fading away, to strengthen us and lead us toward an even better path.

Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes!
1 Samuel 12:16

I have faith in God’s love and in His plan for our life. I may not know what He wants for us, but I know it’s going to be great. And with this knowledge, I’m able to persevere and patiently await the path that will lead to our dreams coming true.

It has been exactly 50 days since my last update; 127 days since I left for my adventure in the UK; 232 days since my first book came out. This year has been so different from what I expected, filled with decisions I didn’t know I would make. Yesterday, I woke up and deleted the 2,522-word post I had written for today. In it, I shared all the details that went into making this decision. I talked about the slow steps I took toward it, the mini adventures in opting out, and everything I was feeling about saying “goodbye” to this blog as a whole. Even though it’s all true, the thought of hitting publish on that post didn’t feel right. I woke up this morning knowing that the truest thing I could say is that it just feels like it’s time. I knew it when I shared my last update, and I still know it today, so that’s what I’m here to say. It’s time to let go of this blog. I’m ready to move on and start something new.

The “start something new” part of that sentence is what excites me most—and that’s why I’m moving towards it. It feels exciting. For most of this year, blogging has felt stale—and the internet, as a whole, hasn’t felt like the fun place to hangout with friends it once did. That’s not to say it doesn’t feel safe (though we could discuss that argument, and I have thoughts for both sides). It’s just not as fun anymore. I used to open up new browser tabs and visit people’s blogs like I was walking into their dorm rooms and sitting on their beds. Then we’d share life updates, what little bits of advice we had, and both walk away feeling like we’d had a great conversation with a friend. Now, it feels like every platform (blogs, social, etc.) is a place for people to shout and be heard. We have been told we need to build, grow, make money and have all the answers. We need to be experts.

I don’t want to be an expert. I just want to be a human.

I want to wake up and enjoy my slow mornings, with coffee in one hand and my journal in the other. I want to sit down and work, and not feel like it needs to be a productivity experiment that I should document. I want to go for long walks and spend time in nature, and not take pictures as proof. I want to get a good night of sleep and a bad night of sleep, and not turn it into a discussion on the internet. I want to date and celebrate milestones with the people in my life, and not share it with the world. I want to make big financial decisions and small financial decisions, and not have to justify them or worry what people will think. I want to have regular days and big days and happy days and sad days. I want to go through an experience and not wonder which parts would fit best into a blog post. I want to live and not share every detail anymore. I just want to be a human in this world.

Whether you’re a new reader who signed up after reading The Year of Less, or you’ve been with me since the beginning, you all know it’s taken a long time for me to get to this place. Eight years ago, I was 25 years old, maxed out with nearly $30,000 of debt, felt like a failure and cried myself to sleep at night. I relied on drinking, eating, and spending money to get me through most things. I wasn’t happy. I was lost. Today, I’m 33 years old, have some money in the bank, work for myself and sleep better. I’ve learned how to pay attention to what I’m doing, ask myself how I feel about it, and try new things until it feels like I’m on a better path. I’ve made so many changes and done so much hard work that I now trust myself to do what’s right for me. That comes with a certain level of confidence I didn’t have before. I’m not the same person I was 2,896 days ago. I have changed.

So, it makes sense that a different person would want to work on different things.

At the beginning of the year, I shared an idea that felt crazy at the time with my good friend J$: “I want to burn everything to the ground and start fresh.” We had just wrapped up three years of working together on Rockstar Finance, and he asked what I was going to do next. That was my response. I didn’t know what “everything” included or how I would burn it all down. I just had this feeling that it was time to let things go. Similar to the way you outgrow a job, because you are no longer being challenged or learning, I was ready for a new position. And ever so slowly, I have burned it all down and moved in that direction: my role at Rockstar, the blog’s Facebook page, my involvement with Simple Year, my podcast with Carrie, my Twitter profile. It’s all gone—and so far, none of my fears about letting each one go have actualized.

The blog is the final piece of the puzzle. It’s the biggest piece and the scariest one to remove, because it’s the first one I laid down and eventually built everything else around. When I first started writing anonymously as “blonde on a budget,” I never could’ve imagined my last post would read like this one. Thanks to this blog, and to all of you for reading, I have received opportunities I never could’ve dreamed of: freelance writing gigs, a full-time job, a chance to work for myself; fun collaborations with friends and mentors, ways to make money on the internet, opportunities to speak to people in-person—and a book deal. Every other publisher wanted TYOL to be a how-to book, but Hay House let me write it exactly how I wanted to. And then my old weekly spending reports somehow evolved into a deeply personal memoir that quickly became a bestseller—that still blows my mind.

This blog was an outlet that ultimately changed my career and my entire life. I don’t know if I will ever be able to find words to express my gratitude other than a simple “thank you”. Thank you to everyone who read the blog. Thank you to everyone who took the time to write a comment or email. Thank you to everyone who replied to other people’s comments, started conversations and built this community. Thank you to all my friends who wrote guest posts for me when I needed time off. And thank you to the friends who have collaborated with me during these past eight years. You have all helped me in more ways than I can list here, and I am so grateful for your time, energy, and attention. Now, I believe that the best thing I can do is continue to model what it means to live an intentional life. In this case, that means trusting my gut and letting go of my blog, even if it feels scary.

Because make no mistake: the idea of walking away from this blog does scare me. I’ve “lived here” for 2,896 days. That’s 2,896 days of checking blog stats, working on new posts and replying to comments. And 2,896 days of having at least one task related to maintaining this website. I spent the summer checking in with my fears and realized they weren’t much different than what comes up when we decide to let go of anything. Similar to the way we have to detach ourselves from our belongings in order to declutter, I’ve had to let go of whatever attachment my ego had to being a long-time blogger. I’ve had to remind myself that this blog doesn’t define me. I am not my pageviews or other stats. I am a human first, and a writer second. And it’s ok for the ways in which I share my words to change—that’s what we’ve been working on for the past eight years, right? Change. :)

Letting go isn’t easy. It’s a continual practice. Fortunately, when we intentionally create space in our lives, we can intentionally decide what to fill it with. I haven’t decided what I will fill all of my time with, because I want to remain open. But here’s what you can expect from me in 2018:

• a new newsletter that will not be about my life! I’ll be writing in seasons and taking chunks of time off, to honour myself + also to model what it means to listen to yourself and create boundaries in your life.
• the release of the Mindful Budgeting evergreen planner that will live on the site year-round and be available when you need it most. :)
• and then I’ll finish my proposal for book #2. After all that, I ended up telling my agent I needed time (and pressure) off from that too. Another decision that felt more “right” than scary.

Taking time off this summer created space for a growing list of ideas to enter my mind. Some of them include: a solo podcast, a collab with a group of women, and anything where I can make sure all contributors are paid equally. I don’t know which ideas I’ll work on yet, but I would be excited about any of them! The one thing I do know is that my personal life will no longer be at the centre of what I’m sharing. Now, I want to show up for all of you and help the best way I can. Also, aside from the newsletter, I’ll continue to spend a little time on Instagram. That’s the one online space I’ve really been enjoying in 2018, and I have a few ideas for ways we can connect more and build some community there. If you haven’t already, please say hi. :)

As for this website, it will always be my home base. But consider the blog to be nothing more than a place you can find simple updates, like product releases, book tour info, other events, etc. And with that, I think we’re done here, friends! My final post. Before I sign off, there are two messages I want to leave you with.

The first is a call for mindful creators. I’ve spent most of this year thinking about how we consume information, and believe more of us could stand to take a step back and look at the bigger picture. A shift is coming. If it hasn’t happened already, we are getting close to reaching what feels like a critical mass. There are too many blogs, websites, podcasts, videos, streaming services, etc. to keep up with. We, as consumers, are starting to feel overwhelmed by the amount of options out there. When it gets to be too much, I think we’re going to see people opt out altogether. They’ll unsubscribe, hit delete, and walk away. I say this because I’ve been doing it all year. As a collective, we are beginning to realize how limited our time, energy, and attention are—and creators need to respect that. If you don’t believe me, liken it to how much physical stuff we used to accumulate, and now how big the movement to declutter/simplify is. I truly believe a shift is coming. People want less but better.

What does this mean for creators? I obviously can’t predict the future, but I do think it’s time to start asking big questions and setting intentions for the work we do. For me, that starts with reminding myself that having an audience is both a gift and a responsibility. It’s incredible that people want to read/watch/listen to what you have to say. But don’t let the number of followers or pageviews or comments fool you. Your audience/platform is not your self-worth; it is a gift and a responsibility. Always remember that people are human beings first, and the content you share has the power to shift the way they think/feel. Be helpful. Be hopeful. Create the content you would want to consume. And really think about the messaging you’re putting out into the world. (Also, if you’re a new blogger, I still stand by all the tips I shared about how I slowly grew mine my own way.)

For that last point, I’ve found myself experiencing a growing frustration with some content in the minimalism/simple living space. In short: the solutions we are offering are way too simple. We can’t keep telling people that simplifying is going to solve all of their problems. The real work comes next and it is hard. Let’s have more conversations about that. And finally, the last thing I want to do is challenge creators in this space to see one huge disconnect in the work we do. We encourage people to do things like log off social media, yet we force ourselves to actively maintain profiles on every single platform. It’s like we’re offering “you don’t have to keep up” as good advice for others, but we can’t seem to give it to ourselves. Talk about mixed messaging. If you need someone to write you a permission slip to take a step back, I’ll do it and offer you something to think about: How do you consume content? What would your life/your work look like if you only created content in those spaces, instead?

Finally, a note for all the mindful consumers (which is basically a note to all humans). If you read those last three paragraphs in full, I would love to hear your thoughts on the overload of information out there. But more importantly, I just want to say this: you don’t have to keep up with it all. It is exhausting and anxiety-inducing—and it is physically impossible. You literally cannot read, watch and do everything. And also, remember that what consumes your mind controls your life and finances. So don’t buy into any of the messages that dig at your insecurities and make you feel less than. You are more than a consumer. If you feel overwhelmed but don’t know what to consume less of, start by paying attention to the content you consume, the way you consume it, and how it makes you feel. If something doesn’t feel right, don’t be afraid to make a change. Play around. Experiment. Create boundaries. Do what feels good to you. You have more control over this than you might think.

Ok, that’s it. For real this time—a new 2,500-word post, haha. I love you all. Thank you, forever.

I’ll see you on the next adventure.

xx Cait

We want to thank FRANK for sponsoring and sharing this awesome story!

We’ve got a great story from C.M. in Arizona. He found a company that helped him get more funding for his son’s college education! If you’ve got a child in high school, you will want to read this!

My College Education Debt

When I got out of the Marine Corps, I knew I wanted two things. One, I wanted to live somewhere warm. Two, I wanted to go to college. I had grown up in the Northeast schlepping through the snow every winter with a wind-chill factor of about a million below zero. Knowing I didn’t want to go back to that, I looked for a good college far from the Northeast. With a little research and a map in hand, I decided to move to Phoenix, Arizona and attend Arizona State University!

Coming out of the military, my tuition was covered and thanks to the GI Bill I was receiving a monthly stipend. However, the money I was receiving barely covered rent and utilities. I needed a part time job, but didn’t have much work experience coming out of the military. This made it really difficult to find a part-time job that worked with my school schedule. I had to take out student loans to supplement my income. By the time I finished college I was about $25,000 in debt!

That was over twenty years ago! Now, as a father, my son is gearing up for college and I don’t want him to be in debt like I was. I’d like to say I have a college fund set aside - but let’s be realistic. Life happens and boys eat. A LOT.

If I was going to be able to help my son out with his college tuition, I was going need to find another way!

My Son’s College Tuition Covered

My son is smart; and with those smarts come expensive colleges. His top choices made me proud, but also kept me up at night. I would crunch numbers. How on earth was I going to provide my son with an education and set him up to achieve his dreams?

We started with filing FAFSA (no easy task). When we got it back I was no more prepared to send him to college than before. FAFSA seemed to think I had some secret money hiding in the Caymans. He was offered a small grant, but mostly LOANS. This is where my nightmare begins.

I call the college financial aid office for help, advice, anything… I’m jumping through hoops trying to get someone to talk to me - long hold times, phone cutting out, being told to simply look at the website. I felt defeated and was considering driving for Uber on the weekends to make some extra money.

Then, on one of my sleepless nights I was scrolling through Facebook and saw an ad for a company called Frank. There was a tagline about being able to afford the college of your dreams. So obviously, I clicked. I scheduled an appointment with an advisor, and the rest as they say, was history.

I received a call from Stefanie later that week. She let me ask all the questions I had and really helped me understand the financial aid process. Turns out, I had filed my son’s FAFSA incorrectly (she assured me this was common, which made me feel a little better). After fixing my FAFSA, she also walked me through applying for scholarships and more grants!

With Frank’s help, we received significantly more aid! In fact, we received enough to the point where I am able to cover the rest of the cost of his dream school (No Uber job needed!). My son is now entering his sophomore year and I’m proud to say, he will not be held back by mountains of financial debt!

We are so happy for C.M. and his son! What an awesome resource! Are you or a a child of your heading off to college soon? How are you preparing for the financial mountain that a college education tends to create? Maybe FRANK can help you too!

Do you have a freedom story you would like to share? We would love to hear from you! Submit your story here!

This blog post is part of the 3rd Annual Suicide Prevention Awareness Month blog tour. If you are feeling suicidal, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to 741741.

Last week, Jaime shared how she felt during the toughest part of our mini-retirement - my mental breakdown. This week, I’d like to give you my story, what I learned, and a peek into where our life is at now.

Getting Lost

By mid-Spring of this year, I had developed a routine for my day. Not a healthy one, mind you, but a routine nonetheless.

I woke every morning at 5:30 am with my mind racing with worry.

Where will we live?

Where will I work?

What if I can’t get a job somewhere meaningful?

What if I can’t get a job at all?

How am I going to provide for my family?

As the questions repeated in my head, the tension built until it boiled over as a full-on panic attack. I hadn’t ever experienced one before this spring, but now they were a fixture of my day. My leg would shake like Thumper, but it wasn’t out of excitement - it was the only outlet for boundless anxiety built up in my body.

Jaime would hear, see, or sense my panic and would jump into action. She’d calmly ask what I was thinking about - what was worrying me - and then take me through the steps to get myself calm enough to stay still.

The first few weeks, I spent these days in bed, but as time went on, I began to learn that I needed to get up and do something or I would spiral all day. Despite having been awake for hours, I’d only finally get out of bed around noon. As I got moving and interacted with Jaime and the girls, things would slowly improve. By dinnertime, I was back to my normal self, but I knew every night that I had but a few hours of rest before the whole process started over.

A year before, I had been a well-regarded engineering manager at a medical device company. I loved the people I worked with and the products I worked on. I was paid a very healthy salary - more than enough to provide for our family of five and allow my wife to be home with the girls. By every outside measure, I was a huge success.

But it wasn’t enough for me. I had always craved a chance to run my own business. Thus, the mini-retirement was born. I parted ways with my employer and struck out on my own.

After a year of strategizing, testing, executing, and pivoting, I came to a realization. It wasn’t going to work.

The things I needed to do in order to successfully create a full-time income on my own came into conflict with my priorities, my values, or my talents. Every day, I learned more about how hard entrepreneurship is and how, at least for now, it’s not a great fit for me.

Where a year ago, I had been a success in the eyes of my family and friends, I now felt like a complete and utter failure.

As we tried to figure out the next steps in our life, things only got worse. I started my job search and met resistance at every turn. Doors were closing left and right and I saw my ability to provide for my family slipping out of reach. We had enough money to buy us time, but I became convinced that the problem was me.

And so, I slipped deeper into anxiety, panic attacks, and depression.

At my worst points, I saw my wife and children as being held back by me. The lies in my head told me that Jaime and the girls would be happier without me - that I was dragging them down and would be better off if I weren’t alive.

I never had plans for suicide, but the thought that they’d be better off if I were killed in a freak accident crossed my mind more than once.

I had lost all logical thinking. I had lost all hope. I had lost myself.

Getting Help

I cannot thank God enough for my wife. Jaime has had her own struggles with depression. Those experiences have equipped her with the tools and knowledge to support me in ways I’ve never been able to do for her.

She tapped on every shoulder in my support system to give me the reassurance, faith, and validation I needed to get through.

She helped me call friends to have lunch with me and give me support and encouragement about my job search.

She helped me meet with my doctor to get on anti-anxiety medication and start talking with a therapist.

She reached out to one of our Pastors to remind me that my value doesn’t lie in the paycheck I bring home - it lies in the love God has for me. God has measured my worth and nothing can redefine what God has determined.

Through prayer, friendship, medication, therapy, and most of all, my wife, I was slowly able to pick up the broken pieces of my confidence and rebuild my psyche.

God’s Hand Working

As I continued in the job search, there was one job opportunity that kept progressing. One opening that kept putting me to the next interview round and getting closer to an offer.

There was just one problem. The job was going to require relocation to Florida (or one of a dozen other states not named Wisconsin).

That requirement was a blessing and a curse. Jaime’s been struggling with winter here in the Midwest and moving to Florida was an opportunity that could help with her mental state.

But on the flip side, I was so reliant on the support structure here that the thought of moving spiked my anxiety any time it came up. And I love our town. I love our friends, our church, and even our favorite pizza place. I love our schools and the bike trail and the fact that we can be close to family.

The details of the job sounded incredible - a chance to get back to my technical roots and code in the language I used to make Thrifty. The team members I met during the interview process were both kind and technically savvy. I knew I’d enjoy working with them and would learn a ton. And the job was for a Christian non-profit company - a great way for me to achieve my personal goal of focusing on Jesus more in all parts of my day.

So, I kept interviewing and praying. I prayed for faith and trust in God’s plan for our family. I prayed for the ability to give up my thirst for control of the situation. I even prayed for the best of all worlds - to have a great job but maintain the lifestyle here that we have come to love.

It took time. Lots of time. When you’re searching for a job, it seems like time moves so slowly.

But at the right time, God revealed His plan and answered our prayers.

The company in Florida gave me an offer, and they decided to add Wisconsin as a state in their system so I could join the company while staying here.

The Present, The Future

So, our story of mini-retirement had a happy ending after all. I’m now four weeks into my new job and am loving it. I’m learning a ton, laughing a ton (seriously, my co-workers are hilarious), and I get up every weekday excited for work.

The job is remote, giving us the flexibility we’ve enjoyed over the last year and have dreamt of keeping for the future. I can bike with our oldest daughter to and from school every day (in true Mustachian style). I can sit at the kitchen table and drink coffee with my wife while reviewing some code. And this November, I can work remotely from Costa Rica so we can visit (all five of us this time) without using any vacation days.

But beyond the details of my exciting new job, my mental breakdown helped me learn more about myself, life, and faith.

I learned that I have more people that care about me than I had imagined.

I’ve gained perspective on where my value lies and what is valuable to me.

I’m better about giving up my need for control and leaning into God’s plans. Letting go and trusting in Him has only ever brought me great things. It’s hard to do in the moment, but awesome to see in action.

The mental breakdown was a brutal experience, but I’m coming out the other side much stronger. I have more clarity on what’s important to me and what I want out of life than I’ve ever had before. I’m finding more joy in the day-to-day things. I know our future won’t be without bumps, but I’ve got a strong sense that God has us covered; we’re going to be ok - great even.

As winter approaches, Jaime and I are talking about our travel plans and layouts for our little white shack. We can see a beautiful life ahead of us and have found our faith strengthened so much after one of the hardest times in our lives. We don’t know what God has in store for us, but we’re ready to lean into His plans and see where He takes our family.

We’ll continue to share our story here, and are so thankful for all of you for joining us in this crazy adventure!

If You’re Struggling

Some of my words here may have struck a chord with you because you are struggling with your own situation. It may be debt, relationships, job loss, family struggles, or something completely different.

If that’s you, I encourage you: Please reach out for help.

• If you are feeling suicidal, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or text HOME to 741741.
• Talk with a friend or loved one and share what you’re feeling.
• Tell your doctor and discuss options for medication and/or therapy.
• If you attend church, talk with your pastor. If you don’t, give one nearby a call and ask if you can talk with someone about struggles you’re having. You might be surprised.

You are loved. God loves you and there are people in your life that love you - even if you can’t see it right now.

I love you. I want healing for you and I want to pray for you. Even though we may never have met, you are God’s child the same as me. Reach out - I’m here for you.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

Three years ago, almost to this day, I went on my first Adventure Tuesday. I was newly self-employed and realized that, while I had bitten off more than I could chew and was still working too much, I really wanted to make spending time with friends in the outdoors a priority. After years of working full-time for a startup + blogging and freelancing on the side, I was done hustling. I wanted to spend more time with the people I loved doing the things we loved. And since one of the benefits of self-employment is that you’re able to set your own hours, that’s exactly what I did. I made my friends + the outdoors a priority, and pencilled in a standing date to explore a new town or trail with someone every Tuesday.

Approximately 156 Tuesday’s have passed, since then, and I can’t say I’ve gone on an adventure for each one. However, the intention behind Adventure Tuesday has stuck with me. To this day, I make sure there is breathing room in my calendar so I can say yes to walk/hike requests. This summer, I also made a bucket list of things I wanted to do and see in and around Squamish, and crossed most things off. I explored new areas, stepped on new trails, swam in new lakes. I made my friends + the outdoors a priority.

I’m not telling you this so you will lace up your shoes and head out. And this newsletter isn’t going to be filled with hiking tips or recaps of mine. Adventure Tuesday isn’t really about the outdoors at all. It’s about paying attention to your thoughts about how you want to be spending your time, and figuring out how you can turn them into realities. It’s also about setting healthier boundaries in your life, so you can show up for yourself and for others. I’ve made a lot of big changes in my life, over the past eight years. But putting Adventure Tuesday in the calendar felt like the first (tiny) step towards actively creating the life I wanted, rather than passively consuming the one I thought I should have.

That’s what I want to talk about in this season of Adventure Tuesday: the idea of creating vs. consuming. I want to talk about how we, as humans, are consumers. We consume non-stop around the clock, and it impacts our mindsets, our health, our money and our relationships. But we, as humans, are also creators. You might not think you create anything physical (and maybe you don’t really, aside from the meals you eat). However, you are a creative problem-solving human being, and that means you have a little more control over your life than you might currently believe.

This won’t be a how-to kind of newsletter. I’m not an expert, and I don’t have many answers about how or why we do things. What I am is a human with a lot of questions and ideas, and a writer who wants to share what she observes. (That’s what a writer’s job is, by the way: to observe and report back. It’s so simple. I won’t overcomplicate it.) I will do this by sharing stories: some mine, some others, and some things I research. I may also suggest the occasional “mini adventure” or “slow adventure” to dip your toes into the topics we discuss. But overall, the purpose of this newsletter is to share my thoughts, and hopefully have some great conversations with you each week. :)

Here’s what you can expect:

• a weekly email delivered every Tuesday from now until the end of November,
• we’ll take December off, and I’ll think about what the next season could look like,
• and when we reconnect in January, I may switch things up and write less frequently (bi-weekly instead of weekly) or change anything else so it feels like it’s working for all of us.

I meant what I said last week about not only respecting my own boundaries as a creator but also yours as a consumer, which is why I will always be questioning how I can best show up (including giving us all space). But if it ever gets to a point where you find yourself deleting the emails rather than reading them, exercise your ability to hit the unsubscribe button (which is always at the bottom). It is my hope that we will all develop and practice healthier consumption habits together, and I’m not afraid to say that might mean you eventually don’t need my emails. Pay attention to how the things you consume make you think and feel, and let go of anything that isn’t serving you. If I’m one of the things you let go of, that means our work together is done. :)

x Cait

With previous startups of mine, you could rely on a few channels -- maybe even one -- to grow effectively. But in 2018, startups are having to do more, and better, than ever before.

Channels take longer to figure out. Channels don’t return as much as they once did. Channels don’t scale up as fast. Channels dry up.

In 2018, you must take on a lot of simultaneous projects to grow.

In any given week, you and your team will need to test, improve, and launch new things -- and it’s going to take a lot of resources (people and money) to do so.

(Side note: This is why I wrote this article back in 2017: raising money is almost a requirement for startups looking to grow quickly.)

Let’s look at an example from Podia

On any given week, we’re simultaneously tweaking and improving the marketing channels that are working for us and taking on new projects on both sides of the funnel (top and bottom).

Whether it’s launching our new YouTube channel to see how YouTube plays out for us, A/B testing our homepage with a video testimonial, working on new top of the funnel projects, or tweaking our onboarding sequence.

None of these efforts will single-handedly grow customers fast enough for us, but when you add them up, we’ll see growth. That’s one reason why you should credit all touch points of your funnel rather than just the last point.

We use Trello to manage this process, and in our Podia Marketing board, we’ve divided it into several buckets:

• Quick Wins
• Bigger Experiments
• Backlog
• This Week (our ongoing tasks)

If everything goes according to plan for that week, we’ll work on a few from every bucket and together they’ll compound to grow Podia.

But to do this effectively, you need to have a tremendous team of people all working together to drive growth and you can’t half-ass anything. It’s not enough to just do the tasks, you need to do them well, based on metrics and customer interviews, and you need to do a lot of them all at once.

Takeaways for your startup

The best advice I can give you is to stop thinking about growth by channel and think of it more as a collective whole where everything feeds everything else. Focusing on only Social or only SEM isn’t going to get you long-term growth for most of us.

That’s why I don’t even like talking about marketing without talking about all of the marketing we’re doing as a collective whole, because it’s so intertwined.

Once you’re more established and growing faster, you will see certain channels outperform others and you can put more resources into those channels, but remember to continue to diversify and that you need to do 100 small things to be successful in 2018.

Last week, I opened up about my mental breakdown from late in my mini-retirement. Recounting the most challenging and painful period in my life left a big question unanswered:

Do you regret it?

You may have been wondering the same as you read about where my head was at over the spring and summer. Was the mini-retirement a mistake?

A Financial Failure

Looking at the mini-retirement from a purely financial perspective, there’s little to be excited about:

• We spent over $60,000 covering our living and travel expenses
• We brought in only a few thousand dollars of income to offset those expenses
• We haven’t established any real passive income from our work over the year
• We made no additional investment in our retirement accounts
• My salary after the mini-retirement is roughly 25% less than my salary before

By almost every standard measure, my mini-retirement was a miserable failure. (Tweet this )

But I don’t look at this year as a failure at all. Despite all the heartache and pain, the challenge and struggle, I have no regrets about the leap we took this year. On the contrary - I think this year was one of the most important and successful years of my life.

A Personal Success

Sure, the finances didn’t turn out great. But, on the flip side, I take stock of these victories:

• I enjoyed over 5 weeks of travel with Jaime and the girls
• I participated as a more active parent in our daughters’ classrooms and in their daily lives
• I gained a newfound appreciation for the love and support of the people around me - friends, family, even people I hadn’t talked with in years
• I found clarity on what I really wanted in a career and found a job I love in a team that I can grow and learn
• I built a stronger faith in God than I’ve had in my whole life, now trusting I can lean on Him in any situation

Because of the mini-retirement, I’m becoming a better husband, a better father, a better friend, a better engineer, and most importantly, a better child of God.

By every measure that actually matters, my mini-retirement was an incredible success. (Tweet this )

Would I do it again? In a heartbeat.

The financial and psychological cost of the mini-retirement was worth every cent and every panic attack because of where we are now.

Success is How You Choose to Define It

Too often, we view ourselves as failures because we’re using the wrong measures of success.

Success isn’t a big house, a fancy car, or an overflowing 401k account. Success isn’t financial independence, early retirement, or winning the lottery.

Real success is growth - becoming a better version of yourself. Success is learning what’s really important in life so you have the confidence to pursue it. Success is seeing the love you have around you and the opportunities for love you’re not taking advantage of.

That kind of success means more. That kind of success is always within your grasp. That kind of success doesn’t depend on luck, personality or privilege.

Success is how you choose to define it. (Tweet this )

Don’t conform to the way the world measures success - with money, celebrity, and appearance. Choose a better set of measures - growth, learning, and love.

Go. Redefine success. You’ll be surprised to find that you already have it all around you.