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.

I love taking our kids to the playground, walking the trails of a state park, and visiting the beach on a hot summer day. I love the beauty of this world - giant trees providing shade or changing colors, trails weaving through forests, and the fresh air outside my doorstep. I feel a peace come over me when I get outside and take in the beauty around me.

This love for nature leads me to want to live differently, to handle trash and recycling consciously. I don’t want to add to the landfills. I want to preserve what we have. When I see trash floating around at the beach or park I feel sad. When I see a garbage can overflowing I think - we can do better than this! And when I hear about plastics in our oceans I want to cry.

I want to help take care of our environment. And one way I can do this is by recycling as much as I can. The recycling pick up in our town takes cardboard, paper, food boxes, mail, beverage cans, food cans, glass bottles, glass and plastic jars, jugs, and plastic bottles & caps. We fill our recycling with these items, but I find that we have a lot of other items in our home that can’t be placed in our recycling bin - worn out flip flops, old bicycle helmets, dried up markers, small plastic toys, old paint brushes, and a lot of non-recyclable plastic packaging.

This was completely disheartening to me. In response, I told myself to avoid most of these items. If I didn’t have them coming into our home, I wouldn’t have to eventually throw them in the trash. Unfortunately, this is REALLY hard to do. My kids come home from a birthday party with small trinket toys in a favor bag. I need a paint brush to paint our walls. We need bicycle helmets for safety. And sometimes buying convenience foods makes my life less stressful. In order to truly avoid all these items, I would have to cook from scratch all the time, not allow my kids to accept gifts, and extremely limit the art supplies in my home that inspire creativity. This wasn’t going to work, but I was serious about doing what I could and finding another way to reduce our trash!

I was able to make a few changes that work for my family. I buy foods like rice, oatmeal, chocolate covered pretzels, and syrup in the bulk section of my grocery story with my personal glass jars. This greatly reduces trash (and some recycling). When I can, I’ll spend the extra money to purchase a clothing item from Patagonia because I can send those clothes back to be recycled when they wear out. These changes have helped, but I still wanted to find a solution to those flip flops, markers, plastic toys, and non-recyclable plastics?

After reading a few books and blogs, I found the answer. There is a company that will take all these items (and more) and make sure they are recycled responsibly. I couldn’t contain my excitement when I discovered this. I wanted to leap right in and send them all my stuff, but then I saw the price tag. It’s not free. It’s not even affordable. It’s expensive. I debated for a long time whether it was worth our money.

Do we want to spend our money on recycling trash? I mean, that money could go towards our financial freedom goals! Then one day I looked at my cash back from my credit card. I had enough to purchase an All-In-One Zero Waste Box. I would be able to recycle just about anything besides organics, sharps, or hazardous waste. I figured this was a good way to try it out for free (or felt like free). I filled that box up in less than a week with random plastic trash from all over our home!

I was so happy to have all those items being diverted from the landfills, parks, and oceans. I felt I was using my financial resources within my values and to help keep this world beautiful. I followed up that free investment with intentional spending on other zero waste boxes from TerraCycle. We currently have two different boxes in our kitchen collecting trash to be recycled!

While this may not be the best financial investment according to some, it’s an investment in our planet. An investment that leads to an awesome return on investment - a beautiful world that we can all enjoy!

We handled our finances differently during our Mini-Retirement. We had set an annual budget and deducted from that amount each month. Now that the mini-retirement is over and we are back to receiving a paycheck, we want to get back to a healthy monthly budget.

This kind of stresses me out. I mean, budgets can be complicated! When things get complicated I curl into a ball and have a hard time moving forward. Over time, I’ve found the best way to uncurl myself is to break the complicated into small easy tasks.

That’s what I’m going to do with our budget now. I’m not going to take it all on right away. I’m going to take on a small category (or small cluster of related categories) one at at time. I’ll dive into how we’ve spent our money in that category and how we want to adjust our spending.

The following month I’ll share how we did and any further adjustments we want to make. I’ll also add in a new category to tackle. By taking on a single category at a time and building from there, I’m hoping we’ll have a refreshed budget for 2019!

Pizza and Movie Night is an important tradition in our family. Friday nights are traditionally reserved for ordering pizza and ice cream from our favorite pizza place. Originally, this was a 16 inch pizza with one topping and 2 pints of ice cream. Then we added in a large order of breadsticks. And more recently, we added a 10 inch gluten free veggie pizza (I was trying to go gluten free). This increased our weekly Friday dinner cost from roughly $35.00 to $53.00!

When I think about it - we don’t need to consume that much food. While I like being gluten free, it’s not worth $15. Nor do I need a separate individual pizza. We also usually have leftovers. I would love to get back to the basics here. For October, we are going to try ordering the single topping 16 inch pizza and a single pint of ice cream. This will bring our weekly budget down to $27 (monthly $108).

We have also switched from renting a movie from the library to renting movies from Redbox in the hopes that we can get a more current movie we can all enjoy. We will probably continue this, but I would like us to limit it to a single movie per Friday. This will cost 1.85 (monthly $7.40)

Date Night is something that Chris and I have budgeted for in the past, but find that we usually don’t make it happen. When we do, it hasn’t always been worth the money. This past month we went out a on triple date that cost us $120 (totally worth it). Seeing as this isn’t a regular occurrence though and we don’t enjoy spending on regular dates, I don’t want a regular monthly budget for this. I would rather have a weekend getaway with Chris and a some extra wiggle room in our overall budget for the random triple date!

Eating out is something we have wanted to minimize over the years. We saw it as a waste of money when we ate out instead of making our own meals. On the flip side, we ate out a few times with friends this past month and I feel that was money well spent! With this in mind, I want to make sure that we have a budget for eating out with friends because it’s an investment in friendship. For October, I’m budgeting $100 for friendship investment!

Our Grocery budget was also way higher in September than normal. Some of this was wasteful and some was stocking up on pantry items. I want to focus on buying more non perishables in bulk so that when we are feeling tired we can gather the energy to make a quick pasta dinner instead of grabbing fast food or pizza. I’m also going to try to cut out the waste. Hopefully I can get back to a monthly budget of $800.

If we can make these changes, we will end up spending $1015.40 on these categories. This would allow us to divert over $500 towards a weekend getaway!

Do you need to refresh your food budget too? Is there a food category you spend money on that you feel is a waste or very valuable to you?

It seems like the world is buzzing these days with talk of financial independence and early retirement. Jaime and I big proponents of the power of financial freedom, but it’s healthy to recognize that for many people, it may seem like an impossible dream.

After all, here’s what the state of retirement savings looks like for people in the US:

Is that enough? Most people think they’ll need $1,000,000 to retire comfortably. If that’s the case, I highly doubt that having $172,000 at age 60 puts someone on track to comfortably retire with $1,000,000 at age 65.

For the majority of Americans, the concern isn’t retiring early. Their concern is retiring ever.
(Tweet this )

If you’re trying to answer that question, then this is the guide for you. Let’s go through how to figure out if you’ll ever be able to retire.

Will I Ever Be Able to Retire?

It’s not a simple question and there are certainly many ways to look at answering it. Below, I’ve got an approach (with embedded calculations for your situation along the way) that lets you measure what you’d need to retire and how long it’ll take you to get there.

Disclaimer: any retirement calculator out there - this one included - operates on a wide variety of assumptions. While these assumptions usually come based on some data about how things have worked out in recent history, there’s no guarantee that the future will look the same. Consider this guide an introduction to retirement calculators. I highly encourage you to look at others as well.

Ok, with that out of the way, let’s get started with the first question we need to answer.

How Much Will I Spend In Retirement?

The first thing we need to understand is what your annual expenses will look like. If you’ve ever tracked your spending, you’ll likely have an idea of what your spending would look like in retirement.

If you haven’t tracked your spending before, you might consider using the MIT living wage calculator to estimate your annual expenses. This won’t provide for a lavish retirement with cruises and getaways, but it can help answer the question of whether you could ever retire.

To use the living wage calculator, enter your location (either your zip code or your state/county).

Scroll down to the “Typical Expenses” section and find the row labeled “Required annual income before taxes” at the bottom of the table.

We’ll assume you aren’t taking care of children in retirement, so the only question is whether or not your retirement funds are for you alone or if there’s a spouse in the picture.

If you’re single, find the number under “1 Adult”. If you’re married, find the number under “2 Adults”.

Enter that number here:

How Much Do I Need to Save to Retire?

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll use the 4% rule to estimate how much money you need to retire. With this rule, you need to save up 25 times your annual expenses in order to retire.

Based on the annual expenses you entered earlier, here’s what you’d need saved up to retire today:

But unfortunately, that doesn’t tell us how much you’ll need saved in the future. You know how the cost of milk (and everything else) goes up a bit every year? That’s what we call inflation. With everything costing more next year than this year, you’ll need more saved by next year to retire than you would have needed to retire today.

We’ll assume inflation is 2.5% every year. If something cost you $10.00 to buy this year, you could expect that inflation to bring the price up to $10.25 by next year.

Here’s what inflation would do to your retirement target for next year:

Bummer, right? The good news is you can work to “beat” inflation by investing your retirement savings instead of stuffing it under a mattress.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at savings and investments.

When Will I Have Enough Saved to Retire?

Do you have anything saved for retirement already? Maybe you’ve put some money in a 401k (or 403b) or an IRA. If so, that’s great; Enter the amount you’ve got here:

With any money set aside, you’re already on the way to retire at some point; it might just be “too far” down the road to be meaningful. After all, if your nest egg won’t get big enough to retire until you’re 120, that’s not going to do much good for you, is it?

If you don’t have anything set aside for retirement, don’t fret. Keep reading and we’ll handle that situation later.

For your retirement, let’s presume you choose to invest your money instead of just putting it under a mattress (or in a low-yield savings account), you can get a return that not only beats inflation but actually grows beyond that. I won’t get into the details on why to invest in index funds, but let’s say you do and can get an average annual return of 8%.

Even without putting any more money into that account, it’s going to grow - beating inflation and then some.

In fact, that investment would eventually grow to the point of hitting your retirement number, even if you didn’t contribute another penny. This concept in personal finance is called “coasting” or, as I like to call it, retirement freedom

It’s a cool concept, but what age does that put you at when you get to retire?

Will I Get To My Retirement Target While I’m Still Alive?

Put in your current age here and see what that means for your retirement prospects:

Based on what you’ve entered so far, your investments would build up for you to retire when you are:

So now, the million dollar question - are you still going to be around at that point? There are no guarantees, but here’s your life expectancy based on your current age (courtesy of the Social Security System Actuarial Life Table):

To retire “ever”, you need to get to that point before you die. So, getting there before you hit your life expectancy is a pretty good measure. If your coast retirement age is less than your life expectancy, then you’re on track to retire at some point even if you don’t contribute another penny.

How Much Faster Can I Retire If I Invest More?

Depending on your situation, those figures may have been exciting or terrifying (or perfectly reasonable). No matter what the case, there’s one thing that should hold true - your retirement date should get better if you make regular contributions.

So, let’s build those in and see where you’re at. To keep things simple, we’ll use a “percentage of income” approach to figure out how much you’ll put toward retirement investing every year. With that in mind, go ahead and put in your household income and the percentage of that income you can save for retirement every year. If your employer includes a “401k match”, don’t forget to include their portion here as well - that money counts!

For the sake of simplicity, we’ll assume you get annual cost-of-living income increases at the same rate as inflation.

With what you put in, here’s where you end up:

If this age is less than your life expectancy (see above), then you should be on track to retire assuming you can continue to work and make the investments you entered above!

What do you think? If you’re not happy with the results, don’t worry - not all is lost. The result is based on what you entered above and you’ve got the power to adjust your path.

Adjusting Your Path

While this calculator made a lot of assumptions, you still have some flexibility. To accelerate your timeline, increase your income and/or your savings rate in the How Much Faster Can I Retire If I Invest More section. Otherwise, you could reduce your needed spending by changing your expected annual expenses in the How Much Will I Spend In Retirement? section.

What’s Next?

There you have it. Consider this an “entry-level” retirement calculator. There are plenty of others out there to explore as you dig into the details. Many of these will let you tweak the assumptions and try more complex scenarios. Here are a few I recommend you give a shot:

• When Can I Retire? When Will I Be Financially Independent? from ESI Money
• Early Retirement Calculator from Millennial Money
• Ultimate Retirement Calculator from Financial Mentor

And here are a couple retirement-related calculators I’ve worked on that might help you think differently about your path to financial freedom:

• Would You Trade $25 for an Extra Day of Freedom?
• Introducing Retirement Freedom
• Annual Savings to Walk Away Calculator
• Savings Rate to Walk Away Calculator

Happy number-crunching!

What if you were granted every conceivable luxury of life, financial freedom and even more, but it came with expectations that made your soul miserable? Would you let the money dictate your life or would you be willing to let it all go for a different type of freedom? This is the battle that Liz endured. She was forced to make a decision she never imagined. Here is her story:

Everything I Had

My childhood was one of fairy tales. I grew up in a mansion with staff attending to my every need. My every desire was granted. This was all thanks to my father’s success.

My father has a business empire that sprawls across the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, China, and Singapore. As I grew up, my father enticed me in taking an interest in helming his empire. I started traveling with him to all these exotic places, marveling first-hand at all his business acquisitions. We stayed in the fanciest hotels and enjoyed the most luxurious transportation. Nothing was off limits. I certainly saw the benefit in joining my father’s business empire!

Before I could join my father in running his business, he insisted that I go to law school and work at a top law firm for a few years. I completely understood and entered law school without hesitation. One semester in, however, I found my heart wasn’t in it. I didn’t enjoy what I was learning and I was terrified of the cut throat culture. I ended up crying myself to sleep most nights, dreaming of becoming an author, a musician, or a linguist. Although I dreamed of pursuing a different career, the thing I desired most was making my dad proud. With this as my priority, I buried my dreams and persevered. Not only was I going to join his business empire, I was also sitting on a 9-digit inheritance.

Losing It All

While I was pushing myself forward through law school, I fell in love. This relationship meant the world to me, but I was nervous to share this part of my life with my parents. I was afraid they wouldn’t be accepting of my partner - a beautiful girl with the heartiest laugh and warmest embrace.

Before telling my parents, my partner and I came out to our closest friends. I was nervous introducing my partner to my Christian friends. I even expected resistance, but there was none. Their warm response gave me the courage to talk to my parents.

My parents’ initial resistance to my relationship didn’t surprise me, but I thought they would come around to accepting us. Instead, they tried to manipulate me into ending my relationship. They took away my allowance, my credit cards, and forced me to return the $250,000 that they had previously gifted me for my 21st birthday. Then they wrote me out of their wills, leaving a nominal sum to prevent me from contesting their wills.

Related Post: The One Life Lesson I Wish I Had Learnt, Before I Lost My 9-Digit Inheritance Overnight

That was hard to endure, but it continued to get uglier. They told me I was no longer fit to helm my dad’s empire. They felt that I was now poor and would have the inclination to steal their riches. They kicked me out of their home and accused me of being a “useless f*cking daughter”. All this just because I started dating someone they didn’t approve of. All the effort I had made in trying to make them proud of me was discounted.

I became a homeless, penniless 22 year old with no future. All the love and support I once had from my parents became non-existent. The loss I felt was more than I could endure. I became depressed with anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, insomnia, and thoughts of suicide took over. My once-perfect life had vanished.

Tug-Of-War Struggle

The next two years of my life were a struggle for survival. For every step I tried taking forward, I felt like I was pushed back a step or two. I graduated from law school with dismal grades. This resulted in only 1 out of the 200 jobs I applied for taking a chance on me. Unfortunately, that employer took complete advantage of my desperation, paying me very little for my hard work.

Related Post: The Time I Was Paid $0.10 an Hour at a Corporate Job

The money I made wasn’t enough to cover all my expenses. Luckily, my partner’s father opened his house to me when I became homeless. My parents didn’t like this and insisted that I move back home. I agreed, hoping we could salvage our relationship, but it only made things worse. My relationship with my parents got so toxic that my partner told me that I needed to break up with her. She knew that I had a lot to lose, and she thought that maybe, this relationship wasn’t worth all of that. That broke my heart, but no matter how tough things got, my partner and I always found a way back to each other.

Eventually, I got to the point where I couldn’t keep living this tug-of-war. I could no longer try to salvage my relationship with my parents and find happiness. No longer could I keep trying to succeed in a career that made me miserable. If I was going to pull myself out of my depression, I needed to change my focus.

So I started focusing on what I had left, not what I had lost. I had a loving partner, the freedom to pursue something different, and the ability to change my future. I was finally ready to let go of trying to make my parents proud of me. It took me two years, but I was ready to start pursuing my own life, my own dreams.

The Blessing

My parents had taught me that a life without riches is a sad life. For a very long time, I had believed them. Until the day I became utterly broke - financially and mentally. But in the midst of all that, I realized that I had amazing friends and a partner that loved me as I was. That gave me the strength to fight for myself. So I started fighting for my own happiness. No longer was I going to look to my parents as the only source of acceptance.

I saw for the first time that I could have a wonderful life without a 9-digit inheritance. Better yet, I saw that I could have a wonderful life without much money at all! I only needed enough money to pay for shelter and food. I could find joy in spending time with the people who loved me. I found joy in writing, reading, and making music. I enjoy the sunshine and walking through the park. I started seeing joy in the very simple things in life. And I’ve come to realise that, as cliché as it sounds, some of the best things in life are absolutely free. All the money I had before had blinded me from this truth. But I’m happy to have found a life beyond power, business empires, and millions of dollars.

Related Post: How to Live a Life of Freedom – A Comprehensive 5-Step Guide

These days I’m working as a lowly analyst in a small company. I don’t get paid a lot, and I don’t love what I do, but it allows me to take care of myself and build a comfortable amount of savings. After everything I’ve gone through, I’ve learned the importance of having money set aside for the unexpected. And I’m learning to be proud of myself for accomplishing this much despite all the pain in my life.

While I don’t have the luxurious life that had been planned for me, I have a life of my own. I have a life with unconditional love and a simple joy that money could never buy. I’ve even started to focus on pursuing one of my dream careers on the side, by writing and trying to inspire others on my blog. It’s only a matter of time before I quit my job and start chasing all my dreams. I may have foolishly buried these dreams before, but no longer will they stay buried in my new life.

If there’s one thing I can say for sure, it’s this - My new life is a blessing I never could have imagined before.

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

Two weeks ago I looked at our Food Budget and this week I’m moving forward to tackle another budget category.

Our Household category needs to be overhauled! Do you have a budget category that you feel is out of control? Our household spending has been all over the place. Just to show you how bad it is, here is a look at August and September.

August: $545.35 September: $231.96

This is crazy. When I looked into what I was actually spending this money on, it began to make more sense. I listed toilet paper, toothpaste, toothbrushes, cleaning supplies, laundry detergent, etc. These were all necessary and needed to be replenished. Then I saw I that I listed a new beach bag, glass containers for the kitchen, new water bottles, etc. These items made life nicer/easier, but don’t need to be replenished from month to month. When I took these items out of this category, here is how the spending in August and September looked.

August: $185.76 September: $189.96

With this knowledge, I’ve decided to separate out those nice to have items from the consumables. The consumables will be our Hygiene Budget, while we will move those other purchases over to a Fun Category (I’ll address this in another post).

In an effort to help be a bit more conscientious of our spending, I’m making a goal to only spend $150 in October. We’ve spent $102.52 so far, but I think we are pretty set. If we can make this happen, I can save us $30 a month and hopefully a lot more by not disguising those fun purchases as necessities!

Is there a spending category you feel you need to split into two different groups? Or have you found a unique way to save on your hygiene budget?

Do you know what you want your future retirement to look like? Or where you want to be? Jen and Tom found their ideal retirement in Door County, Wisconsin. Here’s how they discovered their ideal lifestyle.

Discovering Our Ideal Vacation

We desperately needed a break from our home in southern Indiana. The sweltering heat and humidity of summer was draining our family of four. We needed a vacation, a true vacation, where we could relax, get a break from the heat, but still enjoy the summer with our boys.

I racked my brain for a good vacation idea and remembered an article I had read in Midwest Living Magazine about Door County, WI. I don’t remember what it said, but it must have reminded me of my childhood. My parents used to take my brother and I on fishing vacations when we were kids. We would stay in a cabin on a lake and spend our days swimming while my dad fished and my mom hiked/read novels. Door County sounded like a step back in time. Maybe this is where my husband, Tom, and I could create our own version of a fishing vacation with our boys who were 9 and 12 years old.

A few weeks later we were on our way to Rowley’s Bay in Door County. I had booked a cabin for four nights at The Wagon Wheel Resort. It was a long nine hour drive before we parked in front of our little rustic cabin getaway on the edge of Lake Michigan!

The drive had been long, but well worth it. The next morning I got up before anyone else and made a pot of coffee before strolling outside in the cool morning air. It was refreshing beyond belief. With my coffee in hand, I found a place to sit back and take in the beautiful scenery. I even saw newbies get an early morning kayak lesson!

When my husband and boys woke up they were ready to take to the lake. My dad had made tackle boxes for the boys and they were eager to catch their first fish. Every day, they tried, but it didn’t come easy. Then, one day a gull swooped down and grabbed the cork on my 9 year old’s line and tried to fly away with it! That story went down in family lore as the day Drew caught a gull! When the boys weren’t feverishly trying to catch a fish, they were swimming in the lake or biking with their dad along the cedar lined roads. We kept our meals simple, using the cabin’s kitchen and always ended our day with a family board game. It was exactly what our family needed.

That week was pure bliss and went by quickly. We were all sad when it was time to head back home. We had learned that this type of vacation - a simple cabin with outdoor activities - was our favorite. We didn’t need a lot of money to take a vacation, just a bit of time. With this realization, we decided to return to Door County the following Summer. It quickly became a yearly summer getaway for our family!

Creating a Vacation Home

As the years went by and the boys grew up, we continued to visit Door County. After 10 years of summer getaways we realized that this wasn’t enough. We wanted more time at our favorite place. My husband and I started dreaming of retiring here and talked about the possibility of buying a vacation home so we could return whenever we wanted.

We looked around for five years before we found a place that fit us perfectly. There was a condo for sale in Egg Harbor with water front property. At 1,250 square foot, ground level, and a deck looking over beautiful Green Bay of Lake Michigan, we knew it was exactly what we wanted. With the condo, we could come and go without worrying about yard work or snow removal and could fully enjoy the laid back vibe of Door County whenever we were here.

When we closed on the condo, Tom was still working full time and I was caring for my ailing parents. We made it back whenever we could, even bringing my Dad with several times. He loved it there and we nicknamed the second bedroom Pop’s Room. We spent a number of years driving back and forth between our home in Indiana and the condo in Door County before Tom and I started talking plans for actually retiring in Door County.

Retirement Living in Door County

About two years ago we started talking seriously about retirement. More specifically, early retirement. I had retired several years prior, but now we were both 57 years old and were considering our ability for Tom to retire early as well.

My parents had passed away and our boys had moved to Florida and Kentucky. With no family in Indiana, we figured we would sell our home and move into our condo full time. Tom announced his early retirement at work, but his company asked him to stay on as a senior adviser and work remotely. He would still need to go into the office every 6-7 weeks though. This meant that we would still need a place to live in Indiana.

We weighed our options and felt that the offer to stay with the company would work wonderfully for us. Not only would it be a great transition towards full retirement, it was less hours, offered flexibility, had a salary that would cover our expenses (no need to dip into our retirement savings yet), and included our health insurance until we are eligible for Medicare. Plus, Tom loves his job!

Since we could spend a majority of our time in Door County, we didn’t need our big family house in Indiana. We decided to sell and rent a duplex near Tom’s work. The transition has been really easy.

It’s been over 2 months since we made this change and we are enjoying the blissful lifestyle of Door Country we discovered 20 years ago! Life here is relaxing yet active. We head over to the YMCA most days and I spend Wednesday afternoons with an awesome knitting group. We’ve even found a tiny church with a big heart in Fish Creek! Tom works out on the deck during the summer while and I read. And when we feel like doing a little something special, we take an afternoon break to visit one of our favorite coffee shops for coffee and biscotti!

We love our life here, but we do take a break from the cold winter in January and February by visiting our son in Tampa!

Then, over the 4th of July our boys and their families return to Door County for a week of vacation! I love that we are keeping our little family fishing vacation alive! It’s amazing how 20 years ago, the need to find some family rejuvenation led us to where we would eventually find retirement bliss!

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

October has shaped up to be a month of consuming content. Not creating much—just a lot of consuming. This seems to be what happens whenever I travel at a fast pace, which is exactly what’s happening right now. I spent 3 days in Washington, DC followed by 5 days in New York City. Tomorrow, I fly to Edmonton for 5 more days. And the week after that, I’m travelling to Richmond, Virginia for another few days. (Then I’m done for 2018.)

With all the travel and slow living experiments I’ve done, I’ve learned there’s a simple equation for how my output is impacted by the rate at which I’m moving through the world. It goes like this:

slow pace of life = create more

fast pace of life = create less

In this instance, “create” doesn’t just apply to content. It means the way I show up altogether. When I’m settled in, I cook more, try more new recipes, spend more time maintaining my relationships and so on. And that makes sense—the same way being busy often results in letting some of those things fall by the wayside. When I move too quickly, I feel like I can only manage what’s at the surface. But when I slow down, I can dive deeper—and that’s how I prefer to live.

The reason I love doing experiments is because they teach me so much about myself. Now, I just know: when I travel a lot, I probably won’t get much deep work done. But that doesn’t mean I’m not being productive. If anything, I’ve found myself reading/listening to more books, audiobooks and podcasts this month—and I’m getting pickier about what I consume. I want to consume content that inspires me, or at least makes me think. Like the interview with Louis, the can of cola.

I was recently introduced to the new podcast Everything Is Alive. Each episode is an interview with an inanimate object. Things you would find around your house or in your neighbourhood. A bar of soap, an elevator, a lamppost. Through a series of thoughtful questions, it shares its life story, and I have never listened to anything like it. It’s a fantastic podcast for hopeful minimalists, because it makes you think about how you would treat your belongings if they were alive.

The episode with Louis has really stuck with me. Without giving much away, I will just tell you that Louis has been sitting on the shelf for a long time. He’s a generic can of cola, so it seems he’s been forgotten—continually shoved to the back of the fridge. Where things took a turn for me was when the host, Ian, began to prompt Louis to talk about what his inevitable future is: to expire and be tossed out, or to be consumed. Louis’ answer to one question hit home.

Ian: When you think about being consumed by a human, do you think about the human you want to be in?

Louis: If and when I’m finally consumed, I hope I’m consumed by someone who enjoys it.

YES! Yes yes yes. So much food for thought (no pun intended). This is what I’m talking about!

He then goes on to say: Truthfully, here’s how I expect to go. Assuming that I am consumed, I’m expecting it’s going to happen in the middle of the night. Someone’s going to open the fridge and pull me out and that’ll be that. It would be nice to be poured into a nice big pint glass, you know? A frosty mug would be a pretty good way to go. That would be pleasant. I doubt that’s going to happen though.

If that doesn’t make you think twice about how you consume things. Wow. Louis isn’t looking so generic, after all.

Since this is a month of consuming for me, I thought I would share some of the things I’ve enjoyed. :)

Books

Company of One by Paul Jarvis – It comes out on January 15th, and if you read just the description you’ll know exactly why I love it so much. I seriously can’t wait for more people to read it, so we can have conversations about it. SOON!

Subliminal by Leonard Mlodinow – A look at how our subliminal brain (or unconscious mind) influences our experiences, how we view ourselves and others, and the meaning we attach to things. The cover alone is wild (you have to see it).

The Attention Merchants by Tim Wu – This is all about how our attention is captured (often by “free” information) and sold. It’s an entire industry. Blogging is part of it. I’m obsessed with this topic + anything Tim does, right now.

The End of Absence by Michael Harris – A look at how technology (like smartphones) has created what he calls a “loss of lack”—basically, we have no opportunities to be alone with our thoughts. He encourages us to take pleasure in those moments when we find them.

To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins – This is a memoir about his 14,000-mile bike ride from Oregon to Patagonia. I’m nearly halfway through the audiobook and never want it to end. Genuinely savouring this one.

Podcasts

Everything Is Alive – Unscripted interviews with inanimate objects. Aside from Louis the can of cola, I think Dennis the pillow and Paul the tooth were the two funniest guests. Enjoy the laughs—and deep thoughts.

How to Fail – Interviews with now successful writers about their careers, including all the mistakes and failures. I resonated with Jessie Burton and Olivia Laing, and am curious how the new episode with James Frey will be.

Hurry Slowly – My favourite podcast! The new season just started! I loved the episode with Priya Parker about the art of gathering. I really want to create some intentional gatherings for us in 2019, so I will read her book. :)

The Ezra Klein Show – I’ve listened to countless episodes of this podcast, and have now found myself digging into the archives. His interview with Tim Wu (Dec 20, 2016) was great. And listen to his chat with my friend Chris Bailey about his new book, Hyperfocus.

Waking Up – I’ve known about this podcast for years, but only started listening recently. Episode 136 on “digital humanism” gave me so much food for thought. Honestly, any interview you find with Jaron Lanier will be interesting. (Actually, Ezra Klein has had him on a few times! Check those out, too.)

TV (Pure Entertainment)

Follow This: Part 2 (Netflix) – There are two episodes that touch on topics we discuss here: (1) Tech Addict and (2) Teen Boss. Teen Boss is about teen “influencers” and it is particularly scary.

Killing Eve – I watched the first 4 episodes on my flight to DC and was hooked!

To end things on a delicious note, here’s a new recipe I tried and loved: magic garlicky tofu! The name says it all.

x Cait

This was originally shared in my newsletter.

So, you’ve figured out whether you’ll ever be able to retire. Now you are itching for that next step - figuring out how to retire early. After hearing all of these amazing stories of people retiring in their 30’s and 40’s, you want to know the secrets to getting there on your own.

If you’re ready to go there, I’m ready to take you through it. The trick to retiring early is beating inflation. Today we’ll go through how to do that with a one-two punch.

A Typical Money Situation

Let’s build a baseline scenario to understand why the combination of earning and frugality are so powerful.

A 2018 college graduate can expect an average starting salary of roughly $50,000. Using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Survey, let’s say the average person making $50,000 is spending about $48,500. That’s a savings rate of about 3.5%.

Let’s call our hypothetical worker Mo Ney.

From this point on, if Mo does an adequate job, we can expect annual raises that are roughly in line with inflation - about 2.5% each year.

While those raises might look fine on paper, they aren’t really making anything better. If Mo’s income goes up at the same rate as the cost of the stuff, Mo will be stuck at that 3.5% savings rate for the rest of time.

The personal finance community lovingly refers to the distance between the earning and spending lines as “the gap”. And as the experts will tell you, minding the gap is the most important money lesson you can learn.

With this scenario, Mo hits age 65 with about $725,000 saved up for retirement, which falls well short of a 25x spending goal of $3.5 million.

So, we need to find a way for Mo to either increase earnings or decrease spending. In both cases, Mo is currently tied to inflation, so this is really about beating inflation.

Beating Inflation with a Frugality Punch

What if Mo could have a “personal” inflation rate that’s less than everyone else’s? By being smart about spending, looking for deals, and doing some things by hand (instead of hiring someone for every little job), what if Mo could keep to a personal inflation rate of just 1%?

The results are staggering. The spending and earning lines move further apart from each other every year by a bigger amount. That’s a gap that’s improving by leaps and bounds.

By the time Mo reaches retirement age, we’re seeing a savings rate of nearly 50%!

With this one simple change, Mo could retire early at age 55 - with $1.8 million in the bank.

Beating Inflation with an Earnings Punch

What about the flip side? What if Mo can be a top performer at work and get 4% annual raises instead?

Once again, the spending and earning lines are diverging - creating an even bigger gap every year. By the time Mo reaches retirement, we’re once again seeing a savings rate of nearly 50%.

With higher earnings instead, Mo could retire early at age 58 - with $3.2 million in the bank!

Beating Inflation with a One-Two Punch

When you put the two together, the gap grows big and it grows fast. In less than four years, Mo breaks a 10% savings rate. In another four, that jumps to 20%. By retirement age, Mo’s savings rate is almost 75%!

What does a 75% savings rate mean? That means in Mo’s last year of employment, one year of earnings is buying Mo three years of retirement. That’s one heck of a ratio.

And here’s the best part; increasing your earnings and decreasing your spending can be done at the same time. Getting a huge raise doesn’t mean you need to spend a whole lot more money. Pretend that raise never came and increase your spending only as you need to.

Putting these two together lets Mo retire at age 48. What do you think Mo could do with an extra 17 years of freedom?

What could you do with an extra 17 years of freedom?

Up Next - Learn to Punch

Hopefully this gave you some great motivation around beating inflation so you can improve your financial situation. Your next step? Check out our post on how exactly to beat inflation with both frugality and earnings: Earn Like a Boss, Spend Like an Intern.

Well, friends—you asked many (many, many) times and I finally listened. After three years of creating Mindful Budgeting Planners that ran for full calendar years (January 1 to December 31), I finally made them evergreen! That means you can start whenever you feel ready, not just on January 1st.

If this is your first time hearing about them though, you might be wondering what a Mindful Budgeting Planner is.

For years, I searched for this planner in bookstores. I would stand in front of the shelves, scan the titles and open every single one that looked even remotely look this—but I never found it. The daily financial planner I wanted didn’t seem to exist, so I decided to create it myself; that’s how Mindful Budgeting was born in 2015.

Inside these pages, you’ll find the things you love about a regular daily planner. There are blank calendars you can fill in. There is an area to write down your to-do list each day. There are also spaces to reflect on how you’re feeling about the changes and progress you’re noticing. (It could be a great companion to a shopping ban.)

mindful: attentive, aware, or careful

What makes this planner unique is the personal finance content. My own journey started with tracking my spending, so that’s what this planner was built around. Along with the daily spending sheets, you’ll also find spreadsheets and budget templates to track all your numbers for 12 months.

And the best part: like I said, the planner is now evergreen! That means it’s not dated (though I’ve made it easy for you to write in the dates) so you can start whenever you feel ready to change your financial life. Or pick it back up with no shame, if you’ve fallen off track. (This often happens with planners. It’s not bad. It just is.)

budget: an estimate, often itemized, of expected income and expenses for a given period of time

Unlike some other financial planning tools, you won’t find any pressure to be perfect in this planner; it doesn’t exist and that’s not the goal. But the more you use it, I think you’ll find you naturally begin to put more attention and energy into managing your money, because you’ll want to—not because I told you to.

My hope is that you’ll finish this 12-month period of your life with a new awareness of your personal finances and a vision of what you want for the future. If nothing else, I hope the planner helps you embrace the idea of being a beginner, let go of the past and start where you are. :)

So, What’s Inside?

Note: You can visit this page to see more pictures, or click to order and “preview” the whole thing!

• Daily spending sheets to track both your spending and your to-do’s (31 blank days per month)
• Monthly calendars (12 blank, so you can start whenever you’re ready, not just on Jan 1)
• Monthly budget templates (12)
• Spreadsheets to track your debt repayment, savings, bill payments and net worth
• Two pages of writing prompts to reflect at the end of each month
• Two pages of writing prompts to reflect at the 6-month mark
• Four pages of writing prompts to reflect at the end of the 12 months
• Motivational quotes to inspire you at the start of each month (12)
• Instructions on how to use the planner
• 6×9 inches, hardcover, 310 pages

Two Covers, Pick Your Favourite!

Printing, Shipping + Customer Service Info

Every copy of the Mindful Budgeting Planner is printed on demand (meaning it gets printed and bound when you place your order). You will place your order directly through the Blurb website, which is my print shop of choice. They have printers in the US, the Netherlands and Australia.

Blurb doesn’t offer wire coil binding, but their hardcovers are beautiful. That means the planners don’t lay perfectly flat, which is something I’ve been wanting since I first launched the planners in 2015. However, it does mean they are printed a little closer to home, instead of being made in China like most other planners.

When you place your order through Blurb, they handle the printing, as well as the shipping and customer service. Because they handle everything, I don’t actually receive personal information about any of the orders. If you have any issues, you can fill out this request form.

One thing to note is that some countries collect custom fees/duty on orders. In all the years I’ve sold the planner, I’ve only had two people tell me this was charged (and both were in Toronto)—but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen to you. More information about this can be found on the Blurb website.

I’ll leave it there with you, friends! Thank you for challenging me to imagine this planner could take a different shape. This exists because of YOU! And I am grateful. :)

I want to start this week’s newsletter by thanking you for being so supportive of the shift I’ve made in my work this season. Truthfully, I spent a few months’ time worrying about making this change, but your response has been overwhelmingly positive and made me excited about the future. Thank you. :)

When I first started thinking about the kinds of conversations I wanted us to have going forward, I wrote down a combination of two words over and over again in my messy notes, and realized I would have to begin by describing it—it being the term “mindful consumer”. While I don’t always like calling myself a minimalist, I will happily say “I’m a mindful consumer”. As someone who has been a binge consumer of many things, it almost feels like a gift. So, when I got an email expressing some concern that I was calling us all consumers, I knew it was time to explain what it means to me—and it started when I took back the meaning of the c-word.

By most definitions, a consumer = a person who purchases goods and services. Even if that sounds a little gross, it does describe all of us. If you’ve ever bought groceries or paid for someone to help you with anything, you are a consumer. So far, this word feels ok to me.

A consumer also = a person who eats or uses things. Again, that’s all of us! If you’ve eaten food or drank water, or worn clothes or watched/read something, you are a consumer. To that end, it’s safe to say a consumer = a living and breathing human being.

When I look at it that way, the word doesn’t bother me. Where it starts to feel dirty is when you think about how many companies out there use the word “consumer” to describe us, as they come up with strategies to make us consume things we don’t need. They study our behaviours and our insecurities. They implement strategies to see what works. And they write entire books to share their findings with others, so even more people can try to get + alter our attention. Because more than any other statement I’ve made here, that feels the truest: it’s not just that they want our money. They want our attention. They know we, as humans, are consumers, they want to make sure we are consuming them, and it starts by getting our attention.

Starting to feel icky yet? I am—or I was, until I decided to take back the meaning of the word. Instead of worrying about what companies were thinking of me as, I embraced the fact that a consumer = a living and breathing human being. And there’s something kind of beautiful about that.

I am a human with a mind + body that takes in a lot of things every day. Because of that mind + body, I am able to breathe, think, feel, touch, smell, taste, hear, talk and see what is all around me. I am consuming the world, because I am a consumer.

And not just a “conscious consumer”. That is someone who votes with their dollars, and chooses to buy things that are ethically and/or sustainably produced. This is a noble cause, and one I believe in too! But it still focuses on the goods/services aspect of being a consumer and, as you can tell, I like to go deeper. That’s why I’ve embraced the idea of being a mindful consumer. It means I use my mind + body to pay attention to what I’m consuming, why, and how it makes me feel. The key phrase being: I pay attention. I can thank my human capabilities for that. :)

So, if you’ve noticed that I’m calling us all consumers lately, that’s because I am. We are consumers! And there’s nothing dirty or wrong about it. We are consumers because we are humans. And because we are humans, we are equipped with the ability to pay attention, think and make choices.

Choices about what we buy. What we eat and drink. What we read and watch and listen to. What kinds of conversations we have and with whom. We aren’t stupid. And we aren’t just our insecurities or our behaviours. We are human beings who consume things, and those things affect us. You could even say those things can consume us.

“I am a consumer. And I want to respect my attention, energy and time.”

You can start saying this to the people + companies you think need to be reminded that you are a human being.

And then give it to yourself. :)

x Cait

This was originally shared in my newsletter.

Last week, I returned home from a retreat in California. What I thought was going to be a creativity workshop being taught by two of my favourite authors ended up being more like two days of therapy being provided by them. While I know that the work was important for many of the people in the audience, it was work I had already done for myself over the past couple of years. Acknowledging and pushing through my fears? Yep, I’m basically always doing that. Actively pursuing things I want and creating an engaged life? It was fun to write the list of ways I’d done that recently. And trusting my clarity? I’ve been doing that, too (and is what helped me quit all the projects I’d been working on).

As I wrote each of the prescribed letters to myself, and then exchanged the words with strangers, I started to feel like I shouldn’t be there. I wasn’t going to the deep, dark places other people seemed to be venturing into. I wasn’t crying or having any kind of emotional reaction at all. I was just writing facts on paper. When others opened up and shared parts of themselves with me, I felt guilty for only giving them a few facts in return. I also hated that the whole setup reminded me of the documentary I Am Not Your Guru. It felt like a gross waste of money. So, when I realized day two was going to be a repeat of a workshop I’d done in London, I decided to skip it and sit with these thoughts.

Looking back now, I can see that might have been the most important thing I did all weekend: taken a step back. It gave me time to think about why I had signed up in the first place, as well as why I was disappointed in what it had ended up being. Sitting alone with my thoughts also prevented me from bringing other people down with me. Because, yes, I was disappointed and I did feel like I wasted my money. I could have moaned or complained. I also could have taken to social media and told others how annoyed I was. Or worse yet, used the event hashtag so the attendees/organizers could have heard my opinion too. But I knew it wasn’t meant to be shared.

And the reason I knew I shouldn’t share this is because that was my experience—not theirs. And it didn’t feel fair for me to alter someone else’s experience in an attempt to match mine (especially when mine was negative).

This has been, perhaps, one of the hardest things for me to learn—and actually practice—since embracing mindfulness: the art of not complaining. And I won’t pretend I’m good at it. Honestly, I think I’m just getting started. There are stats that say we tell anywhere from 2-10x as many people about a bad experience, compared to a good experience. Why is that? I don’t know, because I truly am just starting to think about this. What I do know is that the art of constant complaining is the main reason I deleted my Facebook profile + page, and finally decided to walk away from Twitter. I used to do it too, so zero judgment from me, but I simply grew tired of being dragged down.

So, instead of dragging anyone down at the workshop, I went for a hike then sat outside by one of the fire pits and wrote in my journal. After listing all the things I was feeling about the experience (including frustration about the non-stop pitches to visit the gift shop, which I did talk about on Instagram in a way that would hopefully open reader’s eyes to how often it happens) I asked myself why I was there. Why had I bought a ticket for this event? The answer had a few layers of influence.

1. I saw one of the author’s share it on Instagram.
2. It felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity.
3. I didn’t think there would be many tickets available.
4. I was in a bad place and wanted something to look forward to.

Now, let’s really break that down:

• Influence #1: my love of the author’s work (which is why I follow her).
• Influence #2: a desire/dream.
• Influence #3: a scarcity mindset (which is behind many impulse purchases).
• Influence #4: my mental health.

Notice that none of those things are anyone else’s fault. They all had to do with me. I had no one to “blame” for wasting money but myself. I made the decision to buy the ticket. As for not enjoying the content of the workshops, I can take some of the blame for that too—and it’s not all bad blame. The reason I didn’t enjoy the workshops was because I didn’t need them. And the reason I didn’t need them was because I’d already done a lot of that work for myself. If I hadn’t gone, I might not have realized just how far I’ve come this year. So, what would I complain about? Why is that anyone else’s problem? Why is it a problem at all?

When we talk about becoming mindful consumers, we are looking at how outside things/experiences affect us on the inside. What we eat affects how we feel, what we read/watch/listen to affects how we think, what we consume affects what we create, and so on. We can talk about how all of those things influence us, and two weeks ago I did suggest you start keeping track of what you consume. But the “mindful” part means being conscious and aware of what’s happening in the present moment, and that includes recognizing your role in influencing each moment as well. We can’t blame everything on everyone else. Who we are today influences us as well.

This is one of the reasons I won’t leave negative book reviews. There are lots of books I read and don’t enjoy, but it’s not the author’s fault. It’s my fault I didn’t enjoy it. Either I already knew the advice (similar to the workshop, this is actually a good thing) or didn’t agree with the content or didn’t relate to the writing style. But it’s not the author’s fault they didn’t write the perfect book for me. They don’t know me. That’s too big of a demand! So, why would I complain about it—especially in a public forum, which could alter other people’s thoughts and stop someone from reading a book that could really help them? Who am I to think I should have any control over that?

My friend David once wrote that mindfulness is the opposite of neediness—and practicing it means “observing something without trying to immediately change it”. It’s noticing and accepting. And in the example of the workshop I attended, it was noticing that I was influencing my negative experience, and accepting ownership of that rather than blaming it on anyone else. Sometimes it seems easier to place blame or to act like a victim of circumstance. In fact, it’s a lot harder to recognize your role and take responsibility for it. But being able to see—and accept—that you are part of the equation makes you a better communicator, problem solver, and member of all your communities.

The original point of this newsletter was to get you to think about what influences you. But now I’m curious: how are you influencing yourself? And who are you influencing?

x Cait

This was originally shared in my newsletter.