Greetings! We hope you and your loved ones are enjoying the fullness of summer! One of our favorite events of this season is the Fourth of July – aka Independence Day. From that cue, we would like to talk about Financial Freedom, or Financial Independence (FI). More commonly known by the acronym FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early), the FI movement has grown like wildfire over the past decade. Many people realize they really may not totally retire early (or ever!), so the focus of the movement is now more on the freedom or independence to perform work that you love or to not work at all.  The FI movement takes on a huge variety of forms, so there is sure to be something out there for you. 

• Listen: This is kind of a two-for-one deal. It is an episode from a podcast called Afford Anything where the host, Paula Pant, interviews Joshua Sheets of Radical Personal Finance on his Financial Independence in Seven Stages. This is one of the first resources we dug into as we learned about the Financial Independence movement. It provides us and our clients a useful framework and vocabulary for discussing where they are at in their journey towards Financial Independence. If anything, take a quick look at the list of stages and see where you fit in.
• Watch: Many people work their whole lives in the hopes of one day retiring and enjoying their ‘time’. The problem is that by the time they retire, they are often too old or infirm to really enjoy the time they have left. In this TED talk, Lacey Filipich shares her moving personal journey towards FI. If you’ve ever wondered if the traditional 9 to 5 is for you, or if the idea of a ‘mini-retirement’ sounds good, then this is a great watch. Lacey lays out the philosophy behind FI and her story is an important example of why taking some time for ourselves is probably the best thing we can do. If you are ready to trade the stuff you pay for, for assets that pay you, then take the time to watch this.  
• Read: Sounds easy, right? Save a bunch, invest, then let the market and compounding interest do the rest for you. Well, the pandemic and recession have poked a couple of holes in the FIRE movement’s sails. Namely, if you quit your job in your 40s with a plan to live off the income from your investments and real estate holdings, what do you do if the market crashes? This NY Times article takes a look at some examples of people who had started their early retirement and how they have handled it so far. 

We hope you enjoy the links and your Fourth of July!. As always, feel free to share this newsletter with your friends and family and reach out if you have any questions. Is there a topic you would like us to delve into in a future newsletter? Please let us know and we will be happy to consider including it.

Make it an amazing month!
The Bona Fide Family