I grew up in a middle-class family with hard-working parents. Neither of my parents graduated from college with a four-year degree. Since my parents did not come from money, they worked hard to provide for the family and made the most of what they earned. This often meant strategizing on how to spend less on everyday activities. But they were strategic in how they spent their time. My parents were never the ones who committed time to clipping coupons. Instead, they spent time buying items in bulk to save money. Growing up, my family lived in Costco, a popular wholesaler. As a child, I would s ..read more

I’m excited to bring you a Slow FI Interview with Liana, the blogger behind DINKs on a Bus, whose Slow FI journey has focused on making work WORK for her.  To do this Liana has done a variety of things including: Quitting a highly prestigious job that wasn’t working for her Changing careers  Deciding to stay in an individual contributor role rather than pursuing management Setting clear boundaries  Liana is a great example of the fact that you don’t have to become an entrepreneur to design your life. I’ve been so lucky to have a front-row seat to Liana’s progress since workin ..read more

I met Raina at Camp FI earlier this year. When she introduced herself to the group, the first thing she said was that she was interested in Coast FI.  Since she led with this, I knew I needed to seek her out to learn more. As I got to know her, I learned that she was currently doing part-time contract work doing research and data analysis in the public health space. Plus, she had recently planned a month-long trip to Colombia to learn Spanish.   I was incredibly curious to hear how she had created this life for herself. As I learned more, I knew I needed to feature her story in ..read more

I met Ingrid this spring when we were traveling through Albuquerque, New Mexico in our campervan. We met up for a fun evening with the Choose FI ABQ Crew.   Ingrid retired early about eight years ago. As we got chatting, she said, “I wish there had been more info about Slow FI when I was coming up.”   Of course, I wanted to learn more, and that conversation turned into this interview.   Periodically, I feature people in the Slow FI interview series who have retired early. I love hearing their learnings and sharing their wisdom about what they’d do differently.&nb ..read more

I’ve been an entrepreneur with a variable income for three years now. In some months, I make 5 figures in revenue. In other months, I make as little as $500. It can be difficult to manage your money as an entrepreneur with a variable income. For the first two years as an entrepreneur, it wasn’t so difficult. My spouse, Corey was continuing to work full-time at a traditional job. His income was consistent and cushioned the impacts of my variable income. But, things changed earlier this year. Corey quit his job in February. We are now relying on the variable income from the business cushioned b ..read more

I wrote a blog post in early 2022 about how to travel as much as you want without retiring early. Most people assume that you need to retire early or be self-employed to do this, and I wanted to bust that myth.   I got to learn a bit about Megan’s story when she commented on the post. She shared that she and her husband had been taking 6 weeks off every winter for the last 20 years.   When I heard that I knew I needed to learn more! How did they actually do this?  Were they self-employed the entire time? Or did they have to negotiate the time off with their employers ..read more

Since buying and building out our campervan in 2022, people have been consistently asking us, “How much does it actually cost to travel in a campervan?”   To be clear, buying and building out a campervan was expensive! All in, we spent over $150,000. But, we knew this was an investment in ourselves. We hoped that this upfront investment would allow us to travel frequently and live an adventurous lifestyle in an affordable way. But, we weren’t ready to answer this question until now. In 2022, we took a few weekend trips, a week-long trip to Vermont, and a 3-week trip to Maritime Cana ..read more

I’m excited to bring you this next Slow FI interview with Kathy, who recently scaled back work after reaching her Coast FI number.   In this interview series, I’ve interviewed many people with nursing or other healthcare backgrounds. In a field that’s so rife with burnout, it’s amazing to see the ways that people are shaping their work to fit their life. I also truly believe that so many of these career structures could be available in other fields as well, so I’m excited to dive into this interview with Kathy.   1. Tell me a little bit about you.  My name is Kathy Ka ..read more

I’m so excited to bring you the next Slow FI Interview with Meg Lyman, a woman I met in the Slow FI Facebook group. When Meg shared her story, I was fascinated.   For Meg, financial independence was never about not working. She’s always had so many hobbies and things that she wanted to explore. Instead, building financial freedom would provide her with the ability to explore all of these options.   In 2020, Meg had some mental health struggles (who didn’t in 2020?). While working through them, she decided to go part-time at her engineering job. This decision has opened up ..read more

We’ve been on the road now for 8 weeks in our converted camper van. We are just over halfway through our 3 ½ month road trip. It’s wild to reflect on this time and realize how much this just feels like our life now!   We left our home in Boston in mid-March, and after a few stops in the mid-west, we made our way to New Mexico. We spent the first leg of our trip (about 3 ½ weeks) in New Mexico and Northern Arizona (with a loop into SE Utah near Monument Valley).   Note: You don’t need to take this long of a road trip to visit and enjoy these places!  As someone who’s n ..read more