The Only Expert You Need

KBR:

Lakewood Brewing IPA - This sweetheart of an IPA is billed as a balanced American India pale ale bursting with grapefruit, papaya, and tangerine, with hints of bravo (no idea what that is), citra, mosaic, and mandarina hops. According to the folks at Lakewood beer, this serves as an everyday IPA that’s “bold without being brash.” This is a smooth IPA but I enjoy a little more punch out of my IPAs. Maybe give this one a whirl if you’re in TX and let us know your thoughts. Rating 7/10.

Throughout each step on our path towards financial independence we learn something. We learn about 401Ks and Roth IRAs. We learn a lot about debt and the ways it can hold us down, getting in the way of our ambitions. We learn about kick ass travel hacking and the ways to grab free flights across the world. We even learn about which grocery store in our area meets our needs in the most cost efficient ways. Let’s talk about none of those topics for a bit.

There have been really great books written on the topic of money. I recently read the Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley. It’s a data-driven book about what the people around you choose to do with their income. I found it to be a good read and think it might be worth your time. There are plenty of other solid books out there and we will post our thoughts about them as we read them, no doubt. There is also no shortage of gurus who talk us through some great ways to get out of debt and empower us from a personal development standpoint. Through youtube videos, work seminars, etc. we can hear from successful people and obtain their insight for free. Information is so readily available these days, we can teach ourselves just about anything. But there is one subject that only you are the expert on. It’s you, how you operate, and why. There have been exactly zero books written about you and how you want to build your life.

FI is going to challenge you in a lot of different ways so it’s important to know yourself and what you value. Don’t feel discouraged if you make a change to your life and you find that change doesn’t work for you in the long run. That’s a good thing! You’re going to be exposed to tons of different tips and tools that people in the FI community are using but they are not all going to work for you so don’t expect them to. What’s much more important than the specific action you take, is that you take any action at all. I’ll give you an example. Once I learned about the concept of FI, I spoke to a couple buddies of mine about it. Turns out, they found value in it too, so we decided to meet monthly to chat about our journey and learn from each other. We discuss podcasts we have come across, financial successes and pitfalls we have encountered, and shortly after that we launched Dadbodfi.com. This formula clicked for me. Every time we meet up I get value out of our conversations and the whole setup fits who I am as a person. But your journey could look completely different than mine. Maybe you rock better researching FI concepts on your own. Maybe a group of three isn’t big enough for you. It just doesn’t matter. What matters is that you take some action. Download one Podcast, explore your local library, make a budget. Do something that feels right to you. Do something that makes you tick. This journey isn’t all about following step-by-step directions that have been written by others, it’s personal. Every day, you wake up and take some sort of action. It’s all up to you. You are the expert on what gets you fired up and no one else.

If you think your friends might dig FI, bring it up and see where you guys land on it. If you enjoy researching topics and going down rabbit holes on your own, research FI and tweak your financial habits accordingly. Don’t get frustrated or discouraged if concepts you research don’t work for the way you operate, just understand that you are the expert on your financial life. Take action and make some changes to your ways or blow up the whole blueprint and start over. All of this is up to you but the time to take action is now. What are you waiting for?

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