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Today’s episode is a very special one; an extended fireside chat with the legendary personal finance author and blogger Erin Lowry, from Broke Millennial.
There are VERY few people making huge, mega, ginormous dents in the personal finance space right now, but Erin might be the sole exception. The veteran blogger released her first book this year, and has been making a phenomenal name for herself as a legit personal finance expert and influencer (and not the “I just play one on TV” experts, but someone who people routinely trust and look to for guidance).
Oh, and she’s also just incredibly fun to hang out with.
In this bonus Christmas episode, we chat about…
- The uphill battle of rebranding retirement
- Problems/issues with the FIRE community (this is legit)
- Why we should stop using the word “poor” so much in PF
- Ancestry tests
- How Erin will reach millionaire status by age 35
- Alcohol.
- A lot more…
Erin is a brilliant writer, and completely unafraid to step into personal finance discussions and hit us with wise (and sometimes hard) truths.
Enjoy this episode, and we hope you have a lovely holiday! Come share your Christmas-related FIRE spending stories in the private Facebook group 🙂
Show notes and links from today’s episode
- Erin’s site: Broke Millennial
- Her incredible book: Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together
- Southern Comfort Eggnog
- Urban Outfitters
- 23 and Me – DNA Genetic testing & analysis
- Frugal Woods – killer FI blog
- 1500 Days – Same.
- Ecuador Chautauqua
- Europe Chautauqua
Key takeaways from our chat with Erin Lowry
1 – This quote from J’s grandmother…
“The point of life isn’t to be happy, but to be useful and helpful.”
First, we understand this might feel a little controversial in some circles. Second, we still like it.
Focusing on our own happiness is pretty much our bread and butter every day. It’s what we think about constantly. I want this. I need that.
While it’s important to take care of yourself and optimize your life for happiness…USUALLY what that actually looks like is optimizing for freedom, options, flexibility, and contribution. That last one is just as important for happiness and fulfillment.
Plus, don’t feel good when we help people?
Doesn’t it feel good to help someone for free? Or volunteer? It can often feel like a burden when we try to work it in our busy schedules…but when all is said and done…doesn’t adding value to other people’s live feel really really good for us to?
Fantastic advice Grandma Boss 🙂
2 – Take time to celebrate
This was another piece of excellent advice given to Erin before her book launch. A fellow author lamented that he hadn’t taken the time to celebrate his own book launch until after the business finally settled down (something like 6 months later).
Erin took his advice to heart and scheduled a one-night celebration the day her book came out. Celebration is actually a very healthy activity for those of us who are constantly driving and driving to the next goal.
Hit one goal?
Set the next goal, sure, but maybe take a a night to feel gratitude, thankfulness, and accomplishment. Celebrate.
If you can’t celebrate and be gracious for the small wins, you’ll never celebrate the big wins as well.
(That was actually a paraphrase from advice Tim Ferriss routinely gives. We trust that.)
3 – FIRE control: External factors for happiness and fulfillment.
This is super important for those of us seeking FIRE and writing about FIRE, specifically:
Do not count on reaching financial independence and retiring early to bring you happiness and fulfillment.
Read that again.
Upon retiring, you will not immediately become overwhelmed with great life satisfaction. It doesn’t work like that. Mad Fientist said the same thing on this interview.
This was one of Erin’s huge concerns for the current FIRE movement: putting so much excitement and emphasis on the end goal (early retirement), that we start to treat is as a catch-all solution for all our life’s problems.
Would retiring early be awesome? Of course. That’s why we podcast, and why you listen…
But we must be careful to start living for happiness now. Start finding fulfillment in our current jobs. Keep remembering FIRE for what it actually is: a lifestyle change, nothing more.
It won’t necessarily bring you more happiness.
4 – If you say “no” enough times, people will stop asking.
One of Erin’s regrets in recent years was turning down invitations from friends her first year in NYC.
Rather than going out for a nice dinner and/or drinks, Erin would opt to remain frugal, even opting for side-hustle gigs like babysitting to earn money, rather than spending it on a night out with friends.
It may not have been worth it.
Yes. Frugality and saving is still about short-term pain and sacrifice for long-term gain…but there are definitely non-monetary opportunity costs as well.
When it comes to friends…if you say ‘no’ enough times…people will stop asking.
Life is short. FIRE should be treated with balance.
5 – Give.
What is the point of earning and saving money if you cannot be generous with your money? We’re not talking about tithing or giving money to the homeless (although those are amazing as well by the way), but even kind gestures for family and friends.
J’s parents have been using tube televisions (click here to see what those look like millennials), so she’s getting them shiny new TVs for Christmas. Isn’t this a worthy use of a few hundred bucks?
Giving rocks, and quite frankly, it’s a mandatory part of FIRE. Maybe we don’t talk about this enough in this community.
Charities. Local families. Homeless shelters. Churches. Siblings. Best friends. Only friends.
Bosses. Coworkers. Employees. Interns. Frenemies.
Don’t forget to give, and don’t be stingy. That’s different than being frugal.
Did you enjoy our fireside chat with Erin? Please leave us a comment below!
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Lisa M. says
You guys mentioned 2018 Chautauqua’s in the podcast. Do you have dates for either and a link to where we can sign up? I’m dying to go but I need a date to see if it will fit into my work schedule. Love the podcast, especially this drunk episode.
firedrillpodcast@gmail.com says
Just added the links to the Ecuador and the UK Chautauqua. Hope that you can attend sometime. The Ecuador one was magical : ) and I’ve heard great things about the UK one, which is the only one next year as the Ecuador host takes a break. Thanks for listening to the podcast and for the kind words!