August 21, 2025 • 29 mins
It’s been one full year since we hit CoastFI—and we’re recording this episode from the woods, camping and reflecting on everything that’s happened since Matt stepped away from the 9-to-5 grind. In this candid conversation, we open up about the emotional shifts, role reversals, and lessons we’ve learned along the way.
Matt shares the transition into being a stay-at-home dad and the unexpected physical and emotional toll, while Yana discusses stepping up as the primary income earner. We also dig into the psychological impact of stopping aggressive savings and learning to accept slower portfolio growth—without spiraling into fear.
Plus, we chat about some big highlights from the year: being interviewed on other podcasts, speaking at events, and connecting with fellow FIRE-minded folks. We share new tools we love, talk about creativity, connection, and what we’re dreaming about for retirement now that we’ve tasted the CoastFI lifestyle.
If you're wondering what life actually looks like after reaching CoastFI, this episode is for you.
TOOLS WE LOVE AND USE:
Budgeting: Qube Money (https://bit.ly/Coast_Qube) — This is the tool that simplifies everything for us and gives us full control of our money. You will love it. Use the code “COAST” to get 2-months off the Premium or Family plan when you create an account.
Coast FIRE Calculator: BackofNapkin.co (https://bit.ly/backofnapikin_CoastFI) — Our new favorite tool for determining when you can stop saving for retirement.
Net Worth Tracking: Empower Personal Dashboard (https://bit.ly/4eI9CZs)
HSA Expense Tracker: (https://bit.ly/HSATracker) — We document our healthcare expenses so we can tap our HSA at any time without penalty. Here is the tool we use.
CONNECT WITH US:
Website: https://coastficouple.com
Instagram: @coastficouple (https://bit.ly/4dIzhB1)
Contact us: info@coastficouple.com
DISCLAIMER:
Heads up, friends! This show might include affiliate links or partnerships where we earn a little something—whether it’s cash, commissions, or cool products. Rest assured, the opinions here are 100% ours and not influenced, reviewed, or approved by advertise
TOOLS WE LOVE AND USE
Budgeting: Qube Money - Use code “COAST” to get 2-months off the Premium or Family plan when you create an account.
Net Worth Tracking: Empower Personal Dashboard
Coast FIRE Calculator: BackofNapkin.co
HSA Expense Tracking: HSA Expense Tracker
CONNECT WITH US:
Website: https://coastficouple.com
Instagram: @coastficouple
Contact us: info@coastficouple.com
DISCLAIMER:
Heads up, friends! This show might include affiliate links or partnerships where we earn a little something. Rest assured, the opinions here are 100% ours and not influenced, reviewed, or approved by advertisers. Remember, we’re here to entertain and share our journey, not to give professional advice. For the serious stuff, consult a pro!
#CoastFIRE #CoastFI #FinancialIndependenceRetireEarly #FIRECommunity...
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I will say one of the thingsabout.
(00:02):
You leaving your job this lastyear and us not saving as much
as we have been in the past iswatching our investments sort of
slow down.
They're still going up, which isgreat, but they've definitely
slowed down a lot.
So Watching that number not goup as quickly has been like a
little like, ooh, And now when Ithink about me potentially
taking a sabbatical or evengoing part-time, I do have those
(00:23):
feelings of shame and guilt whenI think about.
Future state.
Me being at a place where I'mnot at the computer all day
working and I feel guilty at theidea of maybe not being as
productive, especially in frontof you, Yeah.
But I can see how that's how youfelt last year.
Yeah.
Or last summer, you know?
Yeah.
'cause you're not only workingthrough your own emotions,
you're also working through themasks.
(00:44):
You have your corporate mask andyou have your home persona where
you wanna still feel like a goodpartner at home.
Yes.
How can we make this work?
For both of us, where we're notone person is carrying the
heavier load and one person has,more of that synergy and that
freedom.
How can we both be in thatplace, Welcome to CoastFi
(01:18):
Couple, the podcast where lovemeets financial independence.
I'm Matt.
And I'm Yana.
Join us every other week as wedive into the world of cofi and
share smart money tips forcouples.
We're gonna be talking all abouthow to strengthen your bond and
your relationship and bring youcloser to financial
independence, one episode at atime.
Welcome back coasters.
Welcome back.
We're in a new, uh, new studiotoday.
Yes.
(01:38):
We're in the middle of thewoods.
This is our remote location.
Remote location.
Yeah.
We are, we're camping today withour sun.
And today's actually a prettyspecial day.
Yeah.
So we were just looking at thecalendar and I realize it's a
year to the day that you put inyour two weeks notice from your
corporate job last year.
That's right.
That's right.
So this, episode will be, a yearof coast fi and how it's been
(02:02):
going and how we're doing and alittle catch up because we've
been a little MIA We have been.
Yeah.
Yeah.
so maybe we should start there.
Right.
So it's been, it's been a coupleweeks since we've recorded an
episode.
We just kind of been living ourlife.
We've had a lot going on.
Yes.
we still are prioritizing thepodcast, but we've been doing a
lot of traveling, both withfamily and for the show too.
(02:24):
Yes.
So we did do some FI travel.
We did CampFi Southeast.
Yeah.
So we got Chance, Florida chanceto present a CampFi together.
About our story and, and youknow, which was really fun.
Yeah.
Matt and I present differently.
We, so that was a little bit ofa learning experience for us.
So it was good.
Yeah, we need to explain that.
So for those that haven't beento a campfire event yet, it's a
(02:44):
group about 70 or or so peoplethat get together.
They're financial enthusiastsand it's like adult summer camp.
We.
Do kayaking and archery and ropecourses together.
And in the middle of thatthere's education opportunities
and, group discussions and focusgroups and, which was super
cool.
And, and we had a chance to goour first time, a year ago.
(03:05):
And then was actually asked tocome back.
'cause we, we presented a focusgroup and told them what we were
we were doing.
Yeah.
And so then we were asked tocome back and give an update.
So, that went really, reallywell.
And then, yeah, and thenimmediately after that we did
economy.
EconoMe, which was also reallyfun.
A completely different vibe.
EconoMe is like 500 plus nerdsand financial gurus that meet
(03:26):
up.
Much bigger event Had a greattime.
It was a lot of fun, You know, Ireally loved a lot about EconoMe
in that we met so many people,we got to meet a lot of other
creators, which was really greatfor us.
Yeah.
And I think we learned a lot.
It's a very, very go, go, go.
And I definitely wanna go back.
But Matt and I, we're pretty lowkey and we hermit.
(03:48):
So CampFi.
If you're new to figuring outwhat kind of, events you maybe
wanna participate in, in the FIspace, I highly recommend a
CampFi.
It changed me.
We went to our first one alittle over a year ago, and I
was already sort of On my firejourney in a new way, but it
really reinvigorated.
Yeah.
You walked out of the firstCampFi totally into this.
(04:12):
Totally.
And, and I remember driving downthere, you were very skittish
and, and like we're, we'redriving into the, the woods.
Yeah.
What are you doing?
You know, but at the end ofthat, having the community.
Was really great.
Yeah.
yeah, so that kind of helped uskickstart this whole thing.
In fact, we met a really goodfriend of ours there who gave us
his recording equipment, andthat's one of the reasons why we
started the show.
Yeah.
So it's been, a good ride.
(04:33):
let's see, what else have webeen doing?
oh.
We've also been guesting onother people's of shows.
Shows, yeah.
Lot.
So we were on Catching Up to Fi,which was great.
Yeah.
Catching Up to Fi fy for thosewho haven't had a chance to
listen, it is one of myfavorite, Financial Independence
podcasts.
bill and Jackie are amazing goodpeople.
Mindy Jensen actually co-hostedthe episode that we were on.
But I really, really loved.
(04:53):
Being on their show.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun thatthat was a, a nerd, highlight
moment for me.
That was fan girling going boy.
Uh, totally fan girling.
Yeah, that was super cool.
And we were also on gosh, ahandful of other shows too.
Yes.
You know Justin Peters show FiMinded.
Yes.
Yeah, we have a list that weshould probably put out there
just to let people know whatwe've been doing.
but it's been a, it's been agood ride.
So that said, show's going well.
(05:15):
We've gotten a lot of reallygreat positive feedback we have
from those that have beenwatching, listening, and just
really appreciate you guysfollowing us on this journey.
So let's see.
I took some notes.
You ready for some notes?
Yeah, let's see your notes.
Alright, so, we're dubbing this,a year of coast fire, right?
Yes.
And so, Let's talk a little bitabout how this year has been
going.
I think watching you decompressover this last year has been
(05:41):
really great.
I think that you're much more intune with your body and the
family and me and it's takentime.
it's not been all of a suddenyou left corporate and
automatically you're better.
Yeah.
There's been a healing processthere and it's been really
wonderful to watch.
Well, wonderful.
(06:02):
In the sense that we were herenow.
I think it was really, uh,harder than I thought leaving
the job.
So there were definitely timeswhen it was a struggle.
Yeah, yeah.
Because it wasn't that, it just,I left the job and, know, it was
some sunshine and rainbows.
There was a lot of, built upanxiety that just.
I was so used to having in themiddle of my day.
(06:22):
Yeah.
And so there'd be many timeswhere, I think we talked about
this on the show before, theremany times during the day where
it's like it's two o'clock andall of a sudden I'm just anxious
and I don't have any reason tobe, but it's because I've
trained my body to have like aspecific, very stressful meeting
at that time.
Yeah.
Tuesday afternoon was at twoo'clock.
No, it was just, it was very, itwas, it was very interesting.
Yeah.
And to have to, sit with thatand, and figure that out was,
(06:45):
um.
It was longer and a harderchallenge than I expected it to
be.
Yeah.
Uh, and I think, one thing I I,for those that have been
listening and kind of beenfollowing me on this journey,
even in the last campfire, I hadsomeone come up to me and
explain that they've also beenexperiencing a lot of these, you
know, high anxiety pops.
And, and so what I ended updoing,'cause after a couple
(07:06):
weeks of, getting out of the joband still not being back to
myself, I started going to, tothis clinic and was asking like,
Hey.
I have no reason now to befeeling the way that I'm
feeling.
What more can I be doing?
And so I tried this thing calledTMS.
transcranial magnetic stimulus.
And so you wear this reallyfunny little sailor hat and they
(07:27):
kind of like tap your head alittle bit to kind of create new
neural pathways.
And that was the whole point isbecause I'd spent 15 years of my
high stress job.
Developing new neural pathways,which was I sit down at work and
I'm instantly anxious andinstantly stressed, and I
created this highway of stressshortcut, a shortcut in my brain
to stress, and so I had torewire.
(07:49):
My brain with, with throughdifferent, to skip the shortcut,
to skip the shortcut.
Create a new highway.
Yeah.
And so that's what this whole TSprocess helped with.
And it was a lot of mindfulness.
I mean, I, I had to sit in thosefeelings and have a gratitude
journal, which I had never donebefore in my life.
And I had to find a way to feeldifferently.
(08:10):
Through it.
And so, yeah, I did that for acouple, like 30 sessions or
something.
Course, course of a coupleweeks.
Think did it for six, six toeight weeks.
Six to eight weeks.
Yeah.
And what's really interestingis, Matt is, is so, he gets so
excited about a silver bulletand I think you quitting your
job.
You thought that was gonna bethe silver bullet and then we
(08:30):
realized it wasn't.
Yeah.
And so when you started to.
Seek help to sort of help dealwith some of this anxiety.
I think you thought that TMSwould also be just like the
silver bullet, and it wasn'tthat necessarily, but it did
really help you retune yourself.
Yeah.
And there has been a change inyou from when you started and to
(08:51):
now, and I think that was alsoanother part of the reason why
we haven't been doing a wholelot of podcasting is.
We've been focused on that andwe've been focused on some other
health procedures.
Everything's fine.
Everything's great.
Yeah.
No lot everything's more than ofthat.
We're trying to to That's right.
With all the, with yourhealthcare.
We were trying to load up onthe, we got the healthcare now
all healthcare stuff was, wasloaded.
That's true.
But yeah, you're right.
(09:12):
it was helpful.
It wasn't the silver bill, itwasn't what I wanted it to be,
which was.
I show up and they, do whateverthey need to do When I'm back to
my Happy self from 15 years ago.
No, it took, it took some work.
So, I guess maybe for thoselistening who have gone through
similar experiences, right?
there isn't a, a one pill or oneprocedure you do to make
yourself better.
you actually have to sit downand work through those emotions
(09:32):
and, and take care of thecreature.
And take care of the creature,which means exercise.
Go to bed on time, eat well.
Don't be on screens all thetime.
Yeah.
which, luckily with thisdeparture from the high stress
job, I've been able to focus onmy body now a lot more.
And, and that's been really,really helpful and great.
So.
The health thing is good, andthat was a big thing that we
spent this year on.
(09:54):
We did.
Yeah.
I'm glad that we did.
It's a me too.
It feels like we've clicked somethings into place in a really
great way.
Yeah.
I'm in a much better spot andI'm so grateful to have had the
time and the partner to give methe space to figure it out
because this is stuff I hadnever experienced before.
And so it was just interestinglearning about it.
(10:14):
The more that Yana and Isimplify and automate our
finances, the happier we became,and this is the single greatest
budgeting tool that's come outin recent times.
It's called Qube Money.
It's changing the way couplesimplement financial health.
We're investors in this company.
We have exclusively been usingQube Money to do our own
(10:34):
personal budgets since 2020, andit's so simple that even our
kids are now using it.
We have not overspent from ourbudget since we started Qube,
and it's amazing.
This is the tool that helped usget a handle on our family
spending.
Made our journey to CoastFi somuch easier.
Qube has developed and patenteda technology they call Default
(10:56):
Zero, and it requires a categoryto be open from your personal
budget before you can spend withthe card.
And then once you spend it,deducts it all in real time.
This single feature has madeQube the safest card in the
world to use.
If you drop it, it always has azero balance on it unless you
(11:16):
open the budgeting app.
It's been extremely handy forus, and it saved us several
instances of fraud and we'renever gonna go back.
Qube is perfect for familiesbecause they've got shared
spending categories that allowyou to spend in real time from
them, and everyone else in thefamily can see the updated
balance.
So if you're ready to take yourbudget to the next level where
(11:38):
you truly can automate it, youtruly set it and forget it, go
to qubemoney.com.
That's QUBEmoney.com.
And at checkout, use the CodeCoast.
You can try the premium or thefamily membership for free.
And again, we highly recommendit.
It's a personal endorsement.
We know that if you use theprogram, it'll work for you.
(11:59):
Enjoy.
alright, so, outside of thehealth stuff and the fact that,
we've had the time, I've had thetime to, to work on getting back
in shape and actually pursuingnew, ventures, right?
Like I started my own businessnow and.
And I'm doing some passionprojects, which I'm super, super
excited about and, and it givesme energy back, which is
honestly everything I kind ofwanted.
(12:21):
So yeah.
You didn't take as much time offfrom work as I think that's true
either of us hoped.
Yeah.
But I'm really glad that theopportunity that you've taken on
to focus on the, something thatyou're passionate about, it's,
it fits well into the wheel ofhappiness in our lives.
Yeah.
And.
I love that we've had theflexibility and the opportunity
(12:42):
to take that risk and trysomething different to see if
this is gonna.
All work out.
Yeah.
And you know what?
It's a year later and it'sworking.
It's working.
We're doing it.
Yeah.
It is really, yeah.
It's working.
I think it's, it's working.
It's working well for me,although it's taken longer than
I thought it was gonna take.
(13:03):
Yeah.
But let's talk a little bitabout you, because I think we
learned different things aboutyou because my leaving the job
ended up putting a lot of stresson you.
more pressure.
More pressure.
My, my job is.
not super stressful, but I thinkbecause of the pressure of now I
carry the keys to the healthcareand my job is now the safety
(13:26):
net.
If for some reason your passionproject is upended, yes, we
still have plenty in savings inour emergency fund to carry us,
but that means that we really doneed my job in that way and for
our long term plan, or even likeour three to five year plan to
work.
We really needed my job in thislast year.
And so there was definitely alot of pressure in that and,
(13:47):
then I took on some new projectsat work and, had some new things
sort of infused into my job.
And so it was definitely muchmore of a juggle and I started
feeling a little bit burnt out.
Yeah.
And Matt could see it in mebefore I could see it in me.
I wanna be like, no, I'm fine.
No, everything's okay.
But you were really good aboutsort of letting me know well.
(14:11):
Yeah, because it ended up beingyour whole life, right?
Like you would, you'd go towork, you'd be super tired in
the day and you just wanted tosleep.
Yeah.
You know, so, yeah.
Luckily I knew the signs and sowe could talk openly about that.
And it did put us like in adifferent situation.
'cause we had to work throughOkay.
If neither of us have.
Jobs that can support ourlifestyle.
(14:33):
Are we ready to do the next stepin Financial Independence, which
is Barista Fi?
Yeah.
And is that a thing that we cando?
Is that a thing we can do?
Yeah.
Or if we can't do itpermanently, can we do it?
For a little while and justmaybe I take a sabbatical or
maybe I work part-time orsomething.
Yeah.
So, yeah, and I think actuallyon that, so we did spend a lot
of time using the calculatorsthat we find online and
(14:55):
spending, a good amount of ourevenings just kind of going
through all the numbers,obsessing, obsessing the numbers
over the numbers.
But in a good way.
Because this is a, this is a, Agame.
Yes.
And we're trying to figure outthe way that we wanna play it.
and I think we found a new toolthat I want to do a quick call
out for, BackofNapkin.co.
Yeah.
(15:15):
I talked with the guy from thatwebsite, his name is Brett.
He did a great job developingsome new tools and it's actually
my new favorite Coast FIcalculator.
I.
He made a CoastFi calculator andhe made a barista and a Barista
Fi calculator.
Yeah.
Which I recommend you guys checkout'cause it's my favorite one
out there.
So you know, I love mycalculators, my middle of the
night.
(15:35):
Yeah.
Plugging in those numbers, whichI still do.
Yeah.
So it's been fun.
So one thing I wanted to ask youis with my leaving my job and
with you picking up the torch.
And really bringing home thebacon for us during this
transition.
I think we experienced a littlebit of like gender norm change.
(15:58):
Yeah.
The roles were really swapped.
Yeah.
In a lot of ways I was takingcare of the house.
I was the go-to person for thekids doing all the logistics for
wasn't traveling anymore andyou, you were doing some, and so
it just ended up creating alittle bit more of this.
It was a new dynamic switch.
It was a new dynamic.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
And how have you been handlingthat?
I think is, is what I'm ask you.
You know, I think that wecollectively handled it really
(16:21):
well.
We communicate really well.
We read each other really well,which is great.
I think first and foremost, weare always on the same team.
Mm-hmm.
And so I'm never stressed about.
Being stressed and having aconversation with you about it,
which is super helpful.
But I did struggle in thebeginning with letting go of the
reins when it came to thelogistics of the house and the
(16:42):
kids, because that was such abig wheel of my attention, like
a big part of my attention forsuch a long time.
And I can be a littlecontrolling.
Yeah.
So if you're doing something, Ididn't do it the way you wanted
to do it all the time, but itgot done.
You didn't cut the sandwich.
The way I liked or whatever, butobviously like I'm not gonna
nitpick, having that in the backof your mind can sort of add to
(17:03):
your stress.
Luckily, I'm aware of it and Ithink we talk about things
pretty openly, which is helpful.
But that's been the greatestthing actually.
Yes, because I was worried,especially after the first
couple of weeks or a couplemonths of this, where I hadn't
really ramped up with my, my newside gig yet.
And there was a lot of time andI was just.
(17:24):
Hm.
Planning, but I had time athome.
Yes.
And it didn't look like I wasdoing very much, and I, I almost
felt like I was, I felt guilty.
He did.
Yeah.
He did go through some feelingsof shame and guilt about having
time off.
And it's so funny because I.
Now at the time, I remembersaying no, I, this is the point.
(17:45):
This is why we're doing this.
I want you to take the time.
I want you to heal.
I want you to reset.
You've been working full-timecorporate gigs since you were,
what, 20 so earlier?
Yeah.
you literally needed it for yourmind and your body and your
spirit and so I wanted you totake that time.
So there was definitely a littlebit of back and forth there.
And now when I think about mepotentially taking a sabbatical
(18:06):
or even going part-time, I dohave those feelings of shame and
guilt when I think about.
Future state.
Me being at a place where I'mnot at the computer all day
working and I feel guilty at theidea of maybe not being as
productive, especially in frontof you, which we've talked
about.
Yeah.
But I can see how that's how youfelt last year.
(18:27):
Yeah.
Or last summer, you know?
Yeah.
'cause you're not only workingthrough your own emotions,
you're also working through themasks.
You have your corporate mask andyou have your home persona where
you wanna still feel like a goodpartner at home.
Yes.
But you're wearing one mask forso long, and we talked about
this.
It starts getting stuck on yourface, sticks on your face.
Right.
Like, the mask, the movie withJim Carrey.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You, told me recently that yousaid some work saying or
(18:50):
something out of context at withfriends.
Let's circle back.
Let circle back.
Yeah.
You're gonna circle back with afriend.
Circle back.
And I, I said it out loud, notin a work context and I was
like, oh my God.
I feel like the mask is startingto stick.
Yeah.
A little bit.
So, I put in PTO Yeah.
Which immediately puts a PTO Andnow we're camping.
And now we're camping.
Exactly.
Yeah.
(19:10):
But I think that.
Recognizing that you werefeeling those burnout symptoms
and being as open as you arewith me about feeling like you
wanna do this also, like youwant to get to the stage where
you have the flexibility and thefreedom to, still build
together.
How can we make this work?
Yeah.
(19:31):
For both of us, where we're notone person is carrying the
heavier load and one person has,more of that synergy and that
freedom.
How can we both be in thatplace, which is something we
were talking about before youeven quit your job last year.
Sure.
So this has always sort of beenpart of the plan.
I think that plan hasaccelerated a little bit and
we're, looking at pressing thered button of maybe me going
(19:54):
part-time.
Yeah.
Or taking a sabbatical a littlebit sooner than I think either
of us thought we would.
But at the same time, we havethe option because we've planned
very diligently around it.
And.
I think as long as we staycommunicative and on the same
page, honest and honest on thesame page.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think, BaristaFi just feltlike such a big step after
(20:14):
CoastFi.
Yes.
You know, we're a year intoCoast Fi.
Yes.
And so to even be contemplatingthe idea of barista fi, which to
define BaristaFi one more timeIs.
we are able to start withdrawingfrom our nest egg, from our
portfolio or one of our savingsaccounts or something.
Yes.
Yeah, exactly.
to buoy our lifestyle becausemaybe we're not pulling in
enough income to cover ourexpenses.
(20:36):
Yeah.
So now the game is how can weget our expenses down enough to
where we take as little aspossible out of those accounts,
right?
So that way we have as much timeto do that.
And what I'm finding now is thatis a new game.
This is, this is the mini game.
It's a completely differentgame.
it's included game.
It's a game within a game.
It's a game within a game.
Because we've reached a pointwhere Coast Fi, we have enough
(20:59):
in investments now where we justhave to sit and wait until we're
in our fifties and we can startwithdrawing that.
And that's, FinancialIndependence is a huge, you
know, load off.
Now we're moving towardssomething akin to Barista FI,
where we're trying to find theright.
Hustles and the right fun thingsthat we can do that still earn
us maybe enough as we're alsopulling down from our portfolio.
(21:21):
Recreational employment.
Recreational employment,exactly.
Employment.
That is not super stressful.
Yeah.
That doesn't take up, 90% ofyour waking hours, but also is
we are spending more timefocused on the wheel of
happiness.
Yes.
And.
The wheel of happiness includesYes.
Your salary, right?
(21:42):
Yes.
Your work.
Yes.
Your, your body, your health.
what are some other ones thatare on that wheel?
Time with the kids.
Time with the kids.
Family.
Relationships with each other.
Time with each other.
Yeah.
Prioritizing relationships sothat, that's the wheel.
And we've realized that, ourjobs.
We will never really meet all ofthose things.
And it's on us to find ways toinsert the missing parts into
(22:05):
this wheel.
And so, we did a really funexercise where we sat down and
we kind of made a, a Venndiagram of sorts where we said
we made a wheel of happiness asit applies to my job.
Yeah.
Because it's got a lot of perks.
Yeah.
But at the same time.
I'm not fulfilled in the sameway that I want us to be.
(22:25):
Yeah.
And so that was, a hardconversation, but also a really
important one.
So as the salary part of yourjob becomes less weighted, less
important, then you can findgreater jobs that still meet the
other things.
Right.
In that, in that piece ofpuzzle.
So that, that's something funwe're gonna try and map out and
(22:45):
show at some point.
Definitely.
Yeah, I, I'd love to.
maybe at some point have somesort of calculator for the wheel
of happiness.
Yeah.
Like plug in.
Okay.
does this job fulfill, anyfamily benefits?
okay.
Does it give you healthcare?
Okay, great.
Does it give you free, gymmembership?
Okay, great.
And then does it give you travelpoints or free travel somehow,
or, right.
Which, which will fill up theother buckets.
Do you get to work at home soyou can spend more time with
(23:06):
your cat?
Yeah.
You know, all of those, whichmakes me really happy.
Yeah.
Yeah, so we'll probably buildsomething and, release it at
some point, uh, and maybe havelike a little mini episode about
it.
But that's been a, a fun minigame that we've been working on,
and we're just, grateful to havethat be the main focus of our,
that's the new focusdiscussions.
You know, I will say one of the,the things about.
(23:27):
You leaving your job this lastyear and us not saving as much
as we have been in the past iswatching our investments sort of
slow down.
They're still going up, which isgreat, but they've definitely
slowed down a lot.
So that's been a littlestressful because I am still
working and we are trying to getme to a place where I can take a
load off a little bit and, workpart-time and so.
Watching that number not go upas quickly has been like a
(23:50):
little like, ooh, you know?
Yeah, you're right.
We're not contributing to anyRoth IRAs.
we are contributing to my 401kmatch.
We, we just To your matchthough?
Yes.
Which is only like 3% of yoursalary.
I think it's six.
Is it that high?
I didn't think it was that high.
Well, if so, then great.
We, it's been a while since.
Looked at the numbers.
You can tell.
the happier I get, the longer mybeard gets, which is really fun.
(24:10):
so we should do a comparison ofthe last episode that we
recorded and.
Uh, true.
And now And the beard.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I think the whole point isthat we're able to, to focus on
other things outside of justmoney.
Yes.
And so you're right though, notgetting to watch our accounts
grow in, in the, growth ratesthat we're used to has been a
challenge of Yeah.
(24:31):
moving to full coast fi that we,although expected.
Maybe we're happy to see.
It's still like, uh, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
It's all right.
It's fine.
But we're still on track, soeverything, everything is okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think that's the point isjust to stay connected and, and
still stay open and communicateand, we have the freedom to
adjust now, and if, um, wedecide to do some crazy pivot
(24:54):
and move to Bali or somethinglike that, that's on the table,
we could talk about that and wecan get creative.
And so I think that's been.
That's been our year.
I mean, it's been largelyreally, really good.
Yeah.
And it's been a glimpse at whatwe want in our retirement.
And there was one, article Iremember reading, from Early
Retirement Extreme.
(25:15):
They were comparing this, thisconcept of, working to the bone
to then retire.
Mm-hmm.
And then a lot of other peoplestarted realizing, well, yeah,
but once you get to retirement,what does your life look like?
What are my hobbies?
What are my interests?
What, what fulfills me outsideof the mask?
That I've now embeddedunderneath my skin.
Yeah.
Like, okay, you've, who am Iwithout this job?
(25:35):
Who am I without the job?
Which is so interesting becauseI've only been in my current
position for three years and Ialready feel a sense of stress.
I love a lot about my job.
I love my boss, I love my team.
A lot of my clients are reallyamazing.
Yeah.
And so I do get a, little bit ofa fulfillment from that.
And when I think about.
Switching to part-time orleaving this job for a
(25:56):
sabbatical, I feel like it'salready a little bit of a loss
of sense of self.
Mm-hmm.
And I'm only three years intothis position.
Yeah.
And so I can only imagine howthat affects someone who's been
a lifer.
Yes.
Yeah.
It's their whole socialfulfillment in a lot of ways,
you know?
So I, yeah.
I can see how it's a strugglefor people who wait until
(26:17):
they're 65 or 70 to fully retireand then they don't know what to
do with themselves or, or theywork, for a single decade, and
that's all they do is they livein their van and they accrue as
many beans as possible.
And they haven't had the time tofocus on relationships or other
hobbies because they're justworking towards this fire or
goal, and then they wake up andthey hit it, but then they're
(26:39):
struggling to figure out what todo with their time now.
Right.
So what we're figuring out alongthis journey is it's okay to
slow down, smell the roses.
To, land the plane gently.
It's great to have goals.
Yeah.
And it's great.
It's great to have a startingmiddle and end point, but also
keep in mind that the journeyalso has to be fulfilling.
That is also part of the point.
(27:01):
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah, you're right.
the road should be enjoyable.
Yeah.
it doesn't always suck to takethe scenic route.
It might be longer, but it'sreally pretty.
It's pretty, it's really pretty.
Yeah.
I think that's all we have forthis episode.
You have a fun five fact.
Oh, I do Have a fun five.
Thank you for the reminder.
You're welcome.
so given the location, us in themiddle of the woods here
camping, we thought we wouldfocus a little bit on those road
(27:24):
warriors out there.
So today's fun five fact.
It is about 3.1 millionAmericans live in RVs full time
as of 2022, which was a 63%increase in the past couple
years, and a 63% increase, a 63%increase, and I think probably a
(27:45):
lot to do with COVID and peoplemoving remote.
Yes.
And, and wanting to get out ofthe rat race.
Yes.
And the feeling of being trappedbecause most jobs wouldn't allow
a remote based position.
And now all of a sudden, atleast at that time, they were.
And so there probably was a hugeuptick in, purchases of RVs and
people are going to do it.
And what I'm seeing now is thatpeople are making it work,
(28:08):
right?
they're actually leaving andbeing untethered.
And this is, correlation, maybenot causation, but I was saying
that.
Why would people continue to dothis?
Is, is obviously the costsavings.
Yes.
Right.
If you can leave your comfyhouse and rent it out and then
get an RV and travel with yourfamily and go anywhere you want
across the country, that's,that's an adventure.
That's, that fills a lot of thewheel of a wheel of happiness
(28:30):
buckets.
and also freedom.
Right.
You're not, you're not stuck inthe dark, office.
You're not tied to the desk.
The, you're not tied to thedesk.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I thought that that was anappropriate fun five fact.
No, it is, it's fitting.
Yeah.
Well, we're just a couple happycampers.
Everything is going okay.
(28:51):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's super hot here today.
Sorry, we've been away.
It's so hot.
It's, it's like in the nineties,uh, and we're, we're sweating
out here, but luckily the sun'sgoing down.
We got a fire going, and we'reat, uh, we're at Rainbow
Springs, and it's, there's somany beautiful swimming spots
here.
It's one of my favorite placesin the whole world.
and it's a super affordablevacation and a way to celebrate.
(29:12):
This past year.
Yeah.
So yeah, I think that's all.
So thanks for sticking with usand coming back and we promise
we'll have some more episodes.
We got some good ones coming.
Yes.
We got some good ones coming.
Some good guests that we'reexcited about.
Yes.
it's been a great year.
We're super excited about what'sgonna happen this upcoming year
and we'll keep you guys in theloop.
Yeah.
So thanks so much for joining.
(29:32):
Signing off.
There's a raccoon, Is good.
I will say one of the thingsabout.
(00:02):
You leaving your job this lastyear and us not saving as much
as we have been in the past iswatching our investments sort of
slow down.
They're still going up, which isgreat, but they've definitely
slowed down a lot.
So Watching that number not goup as quickly has been like a
little like, ooh, And now when Ithink about me potentially
taking a sabbatical or evengoing part-time, I do have those
(00:23):
feelings of shame and guilt whenI think about.
Future state.
Me being at a place where I'mnot at the computer all day
working and I feel guilty at theidea of maybe not being as
productive, especially in frontof you, Yeah.
But I can see how that's how youfelt last year.
Yeah.
Or last summer, you know?
Yeah.
'cause you're not only workingthrough your own emotions,
you're also working through themasks.
(00:44):
You have your corporate mask andyou have your home persona where
you wanna still feel like a goodpartner at home.
Yes.
How can we make this work?
For both of us, where we're notone person is carrying the
heavier load and one person has,more of that synergy and that
freedom.
How can we both be in thatplace, Welcome to CoastFi
(01:18):
Couple, the podcast where lovemeets financial independence.
I'm Matt.
And I'm Yana.
Join us every other week as wedive into the world of cofi and
share smart money tips forcouples.
We're gonna be talking all abouthow to strengthen your bond and
your relationship and bring youcloser to financial
independence, one episode at atime.
Welcome back coasters.
Welcome back.
We're in a new, uh, new studiotoday.
Yes.
(01:38):
We're in the middle of thewoods.
This is our remote location.
Remote location.
Yeah.
We are, we're camping today withour sun.
And today's actually a prettyspecial day.
Yeah.
So we were just looking at thecalendar and I realize it's a
year to the day that you put inyour two weeks notice from your
corporate job last year.
That's right.
That's right.
So this, episode will be, a yearof coast fi and how it's been
(02:02):
going and how we're doing and alittle catch up because we've
been a little MIA We have been.
Yeah.
Yeah.
so maybe we should start there.
Right.
So it's been, it's been a coupleweeks since we've recorded an
episode.
We just kind of been living ourlife.
We've had a lot going on.
Yes.
we still are prioritizing thepodcast, but we've been doing a
lot of traveling, both withfamily and for the show too.
(02:24):
Yes.
So we did do some FI travel.
We did CampFi Southeast.
Yeah.
So we got Chance, Florida chanceto present a CampFi together.
About our story and, and youknow, which was really fun.
Yeah.
Matt and I present differently.
We, so that was a little bit ofa learning experience for us.
So it was good.
Yeah, we need to explain that.
So for those that haven't beento a campfire event yet, it's a
(02:44):
group about 70 or or so peoplethat get together.
They're financial enthusiastsand it's like adult summer camp.
We.
Do kayaking and archery and ropecourses together.
And in the middle of thatthere's education opportunities
and, group discussions and focusgroups and, which was super
cool.
And, and we had a chance to goour first time, a year ago.
(03:05):
And then was actually asked tocome back.
'cause we, we presented a focusgroup and told them what we were
we were doing.
Yeah.
And so then we were asked tocome back and give an update.
So, that went really, reallywell.
And then, yeah, and thenimmediately after that we did
economy.
EconoMe, which was also reallyfun.
A completely different vibe.
EconoMe is like 500 plus nerdsand financial gurus that meet
(03:26):
up.
Much bigger event Had a greattime.
It was a lot of fun, You know, Ireally loved a lot about EconoMe
in that we met so many people,we got to meet a lot of other
creators, which was really greatfor us.
Yeah.
And I think we learned a lot.
It's a very, very go, go, go.
And I definitely wanna go back.
But Matt and I, we're pretty lowkey and we hermit.
(03:48):
So CampFi.
If you're new to figuring outwhat kind of, events you maybe
wanna participate in, in the FIspace, I highly recommend a
CampFi.
It changed me.
We went to our first one alittle over a year ago, and I
was already sort of On my firejourney in a new way, but it
really reinvigorated.
Yeah.
You walked out of the firstCampFi totally into this.
(04:12):
Totally.
And, and I remember driving downthere, you were very skittish
and, and like we're, we'redriving into the, the woods.
Yeah.
What are you doing?
You know, but at the end ofthat, having the community.
Was really great.
Yeah.
yeah, so that kind of helped uskickstart this whole thing.
In fact, we met a really goodfriend of ours there who gave us
his recording equipment, andthat's one of the reasons why we
started the show.
Yeah.
So it's been, a good ride.
(04:33):
let's see, what else have webeen doing?
oh.
We've also been guesting onother people's of shows.
Shows, yeah.
Lot.
So we were on Catching Up to Fi,which was great.
Yeah.
Catching Up to Fi fy for thosewho haven't had a chance to
listen, it is one of myfavorite, Financial Independence
podcasts.
bill and Jackie are amazing goodpeople.
Mindy Jensen actually co-hostedthe episode that we were on.
But I really, really loved.
(04:53):
Being on their show.
Yeah, it was a lot of fun thatthat was a, a nerd, highlight
moment for me.
That was fan girling going boy.
Uh, totally fan girling.
Yeah, that was super cool.
And we were also on gosh, ahandful of other shows too.
Yes.
You know Justin Peters show FiMinded.
Yes.
Yeah, we have a list that weshould probably put out there
just to let people know whatwe've been doing.
but it's been a, it's been agood ride.
So that said, show's going well.
(05:15):
We've gotten a lot of reallygreat positive feedback we have
from those that have beenwatching, listening, and just
really appreciate you guysfollowing us on this journey.
So let's see.
I took some notes.
You ready for some notes?
Yeah, let's see your notes.
Alright, so, we're dubbing this,a year of coast fire, right?
Yes.
And so, Let's talk a little bitabout how this year has been
going.
I think watching you decompressover this last year has been
(05:41):
really great.
I think that you're much more intune with your body and the
family and me and it's takentime.
it's not been all of a suddenyou left corporate and
automatically you're better.
Yeah.
There's been a healing processthere and it's been really
wonderful to watch.
Well, wonderful.
(06:02):
In the sense that we were herenow.
I think it was really, uh,harder than I thought leaving
the job.
So there were definitely timeswhen it was a struggle.
Yeah, yeah.
Because it wasn't that, it just,I left the job and, know, it was
some sunshine and rainbows.
There was a lot of, built upanxiety that just.
I was so used to having in themiddle of my day.
(06:22):
Yeah.
And so there'd be many timeswhere, I think we talked about
this on the show before, theremany times during the day where
it's like it's two o'clock andall of a sudden I'm just anxious
and I don't have any reason tobe, but it's because I've
trained my body to have like aspecific, very stressful meeting
at that time.
Yeah.
Tuesday afternoon was at twoo'clock.
No, it was just, it was very, itwas, it was very interesting.
Yeah.
And to have to, sit with thatand, and figure that out was,
(06:45):
um.
It was longer and a harderchallenge than I expected it to
be.
Yeah.
Uh, and I think, one thing I I,for those that have been
listening and kind of beenfollowing me on this journey,
even in the last campfire, I hadsomeone come up to me and
explain that they've also beenexperiencing a lot of these, you
know, high anxiety pops.
And, and so what I ended updoing,'cause after a couple
(07:06):
weeks of, getting out of the joband still not being back to
myself, I started going to, tothis clinic and was asking like,
Hey.
I have no reason now to befeeling the way that I'm
feeling.
What more can I be doing?
And so I tried this thing calledTMS.
transcranial magnetic stimulus.
And so you wear this reallyfunny little sailor hat and they
(07:27):
kind of like tap your head alittle bit to kind of create new
neural pathways.
And that was the whole point isbecause I'd spent 15 years of my
high stress job.
Developing new neural pathways,which was I sit down at work and
I'm instantly anxious andinstantly stressed, and I
created this highway of stressshortcut, a shortcut in my brain
to stress, and so I had torewire.
(07:49):
My brain with, with throughdifferent, to skip the shortcut,
to skip the shortcut.
Create a new highway.
Yeah.
And so that's what this whole TSprocess helped with.
And it was a lot of mindfulness.
I mean, I, I had to sit in thosefeelings and have a gratitude
journal, which I had never donebefore in my life.
And I had to find a way to feeldifferently.
(08:10):
Through it.
And so, yeah, I did that for acouple, like 30 sessions or
something.
Course, course of a coupleweeks.
Think did it for six, six toeight weeks.
Six to eight weeks.
Yeah.
And what's really interestingis, Matt is, is so, he gets so
excited about a silver bulletand I think you quitting your
job.
You thought that was gonna bethe silver bullet and then we
(08:30):
realized it wasn't.
Yeah.
And so when you started to.
Seek help to sort of help dealwith some of this anxiety.
I think you thought that TMSwould also be just like the
silver bullet, and it wasn'tthat necessarily, but it did
really help you retune yourself.
Yeah.
And there has been a change inyou from when you started and to
(08:51):
now, and I think that was alsoanother part of the reason why
we haven't been doing a wholelot of podcasting is.
We've been focused on that andwe've been focused on some other
health procedures.
Everything's fine.
Everything's great.
Yeah.
No lot everything's more than ofthat.
We're trying to to That's right.
With all the, with yourhealthcare.
We were trying to load up onthe, we got the healthcare now
all healthcare stuff was, wasloaded.
That's true.
But yeah, you're right.
(09:12):
it was helpful.
It wasn't the silver bill, itwasn't what I wanted it to be,
which was.
I show up and they, do whateverthey need to do When I'm back to
my Happy self from 15 years ago.
No, it took, it took some work.
So, I guess maybe for thoselistening who have gone through
similar experiences, right?
there isn't a, a one pill or oneprocedure you do to make
yourself better.
you actually have to sit downand work through those emotions
(09:32):
and, and take care of thecreature.
And take care of the creature,which means exercise.
Go to bed on time, eat well.
Don't be on screens all thetime.
Yeah.
which, luckily with thisdeparture from the high stress
job, I've been able to focus onmy body now a lot more.
And, and that's been really,really helpful and great.
So.
The health thing is good, andthat was a big thing that we
spent this year on.
(09:54):
We did.
Yeah.
I'm glad that we did.
It's a me too.
It feels like we've clicked somethings into place in a really
great way.
Yeah.
I'm in a much better spot andI'm so grateful to have had the
time and the partner to give methe space to figure it out
because this is stuff I hadnever experienced before.
And so it was just interestinglearning about it.
(10:14):
The more that Yana and Isimplify and automate our
finances, the happier we became,and this is the single greatest
budgeting tool that's come outin recent times.
It's called Qube Money.
It's changing the way couplesimplement financial health.
We're investors in this company.
We have exclusively been usingQube Money to do our own
(10:34):
personal budgets since 2020, andit's so simple that even our
kids are now using it.
We have not overspent from ourbudget since we started Qube,
and it's amazing.
This is the tool that helped usget a handle on our family
spending.
Made our journey to CoastFi somuch easier.
Qube has developed and patenteda technology they call Default
(10:56):
Zero, and it requires a categoryto be open from your personal
budget before you can spend withthe card.
And then once you spend it,deducts it all in real time.
This single feature has madeQube the safest card in the
world to use.
If you drop it, it always has azero balance on it unless you
(11:16):
open the budgeting app.
It's been extremely handy forus, and it saved us several
instances of fraud and we'renever gonna go back.
Qube is perfect for familiesbecause they've got shared
spending categories that allowyou to spend in real time from
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So if you're ready to take yourbudget to the next level where
(11:38):
you truly can automate it, youtruly set it and forget it, go
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That's QUBEmoney.com.
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It's a personal endorsement.
We know that if you use theprogram, it'll work for you.
(11:59):
Enjoy.
alright, so, outside of thehealth stuff and the fact that,
we've had the time, I've had thetime to, to work on getting back
in shape and actually pursuingnew, ventures, right?
Like I started my own businessnow and.
And I'm doing some passionprojects, which I'm super, super
excited about and, and it givesme energy back, which is
honestly everything I kind ofwanted.
(12:21):
So yeah.
You didn't take as much time offfrom work as I think that's true
either of us hoped.
Yeah.
But I'm really glad that theopportunity that you've taken on
to focus on the, something thatyou're passionate about, it's,
it fits well into the wheel ofhappiness in our lives.
Yeah.
And.
I love that we've had theflexibility and the opportunity
(12:42):
to take that risk and trysomething different to see if
this is gonna.
All work out.
Yeah.
And you know what?
It's a year later and it'sworking.
It's working.
We're doing it.
Yeah.
It is really, yeah.
It's working.
I think it's, it's working.
It's working well for me,although it's taken longer than
I thought it was gonna take.
(13:03):
Yeah.
But let's talk a little bitabout you, because I think we
learned different things aboutyou because my leaving the job
ended up putting a lot of stresson you.
more pressure.
More pressure.
My, my job is.
not super stressful, but I thinkbecause of the pressure of now I
carry the keys to the healthcareand my job is now the safety
(13:26):
net.
If for some reason your passionproject is upended, yes, we
still have plenty in savings inour emergency fund to carry us,
but that means that we really doneed my job in that way and for
our long term plan, or even likeour three to five year plan to
work.
We really needed my job in thislast year.
And so there was definitely alot of pressure in that and,
(13:47):
then I took on some new projectsat work and, had some new things
sort of infused into my job.
And so it was definitely muchmore of a juggle and I started
feeling a little bit burnt out.
Yeah.
And Matt could see it in mebefore I could see it in me.
I wanna be like, no, I'm fine.
No, everything's okay.
But you were really good aboutsort of letting me know well.
(14:11):
Yeah, because it ended up beingyour whole life, right?
Like you would, you'd go towork, you'd be super tired in
the day and you just wanted tosleep.
Yeah.
You know, so, yeah.
Luckily I knew the signs and sowe could talk openly about that.
And it did put us like in adifferent situation.
'cause we had to work throughOkay.
If neither of us have.
Jobs that can support ourlifestyle.
(14:33):
Are we ready to do the next stepin Financial Independence, which
is Barista Fi?
Yeah.
And is that a thing that we cando?
Is that a thing we can do?
Yeah.
Or if we can't do itpermanently, can we do it?
For a little while and justmaybe I take a sabbatical or
maybe I work part-time orsomething.
Yeah.
So, yeah, and I think actuallyon that, so we did spend a lot
of time using the calculatorsthat we find online and
(14:55):
spending, a good amount of ourevenings just kind of going
through all the numbers,obsessing, obsessing the numbers
over the numbers.
But in a good way.
Because this is a, this is a, Agame.
Yes.
And we're trying to figure outthe way that we wanna play it.
and I think we found a new toolthat I want to do a quick call
out for, BackofNapkin.co.
Yeah.
(15:15):
I talked with the guy from thatwebsite, his name is Brett.
He did a great job developingsome new tools and it's actually
my new favorite Coast FIcalculator.
I.
He made a CoastFi calculator andhe made a barista and a Barista
Fi calculator.
Yeah.
Which I recommend you guys checkout'cause it's my favorite one
out there.
So you know, I love mycalculators, my middle of the
night.
(15:35):
Yeah.
Plugging in those numbers, whichI still do.
Yeah.
So it's been fun.
So one thing I wanted to ask youis with my leaving my job and
with you picking up the torch.
And really bringing home thebacon for us during this
transition.
I think we experienced a littlebit of like gender norm change.
(15:58):
Yeah.
The roles were really swapped.
Yeah.
In a lot of ways I was takingcare of the house.
I was the go-to person for thekids doing all the logistics for
wasn't traveling anymore andyou, you were doing some, and so
it just ended up creating alittle bit more of this.
It was a new dynamic switch.
It was a new dynamic.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
And how have you been handlingthat?
I think is, is what I'm ask you.
You know, I think that wecollectively handled it really
(16:21):
well.
We communicate really well.
We read each other really well,which is great.
I think first and foremost, weare always on the same team.
Mm-hmm.
And so I'm never stressed about.
Being stressed and having aconversation with you about it,
which is super helpful.
But I did struggle in thebeginning with letting go of the
reins when it came to thelogistics of the house and the
(16:42):
kids, because that was such abig wheel of my attention, like
a big part of my attention forsuch a long time.
And I can be a littlecontrolling.
Yeah.
So if you're doing something, Ididn't do it the way you wanted
to do it all the time, but itgot done.
You didn't cut the sandwich.
The way I liked or whatever, butobviously like I'm not gonna
nitpick, having that in the backof your mind can sort of add to
(17:03):
your stress.
Luckily, I'm aware of it and Ithink we talk about things
pretty openly, which is helpful.
But that's been the greatestthing actually.
Yes, because I was worried,especially after the first
couple of weeks or a couplemonths of this, where I hadn't
really ramped up with my, my newside gig yet.
And there was a lot of time andI was just.
(17:24):
Hm.
Planning, but I had time athome.
Yes.
And it didn't look like I wasdoing very much, and I, I almost
felt like I was, I felt guilty.
He did.
Yeah.
He did go through some feelingsof shame and guilt about having
time off.
And it's so funny because I.
Now at the time, I remembersaying no, I, this is the point.
(17:45):
This is why we're doing this.
I want you to take the time.
I want you to heal.
I want you to reset.
You've been working full-timecorporate gigs since you were,
what, 20 so earlier?
Yeah.
you literally needed it for yourmind and your body and your
spirit and so I wanted you totake that time.
So there was definitely a littlebit of back and forth there.
And now when I think about mepotentially taking a sabbatical
(18:06):
or even going part-time, I dohave those feelings of shame and
guilt when I think about.
Future state.
Me being at a place where I'mnot at the computer all day
working and I feel guilty at theidea of maybe not being as
productive, especially in frontof you, which we've talked
about.
Yeah.
But I can see how that's how youfelt last year.
(18:27):
Yeah.
Or last summer, you know?
Yeah.
'cause you're not only workingthrough your own emotions,
you're also working through themasks.
You have your corporate mask andyou have your home persona where
you wanna still feel like a goodpartner at home.
Yes.
But you're wearing one mask forso long, and we talked about
this.
It starts getting stuck on yourface, sticks on your face.
Right.
Like, the mask, the movie withJim Carrey.
Yeah.
Yeah.
You, told me recently that yousaid some work saying or
(18:50):
something out of context at withfriends.
Let's circle back.
Let circle back.
Yeah.
You're gonna circle back with afriend.
Circle back.
And I, I said it out loud, notin a work context and I was
like, oh my God.
I feel like the mask is startingto stick.
Yeah.
A little bit.
So, I put in PTO Yeah.
Which immediately puts a PTO Andnow we're camping.
And now we're camping.
Exactly.
Yeah.
(19:10):
But I think that.
Recognizing that you werefeeling those burnout symptoms
and being as open as you arewith me about feeling like you
wanna do this also, like youwant to get to the stage where
you have the flexibility and thefreedom to, still build
together.
How can we make this work?
Yeah.
(19:31):
For both of us, where we're notone person is carrying the
heavier load and one person has,more of that synergy and that
freedom.
How can we both be in thatplace, which is something we
were talking about before youeven quit your job last year.
Sure.
So this has always sort of beenpart of the plan.
I think that plan hasaccelerated a little bit and
we're, looking at pressing thered button of maybe me going
(19:54):
part-time.
Yeah.
Or taking a sabbatical a littlebit sooner than I think either
of us thought we would.
But at the same time, we havethe option because we've planned
very diligently around it.
And.
I think as long as we staycommunicative and on the same
page, honest and honest on thesame page.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think, BaristaFi just feltlike such a big step after
(20:14):
CoastFi.
Yes.
You know, we're a year intoCoast Fi.
Yes.
And so to even be contemplatingthe idea of barista fi, which to
define BaristaFi one more timeIs.
we are able to start withdrawingfrom our nest egg, from our
portfolio or one of our savingsaccounts or something.
Yes.
Yeah, exactly.
to buoy our lifestyle becausemaybe we're not pulling in
enough income to cover ourexpenses.
(20:36):
Yeah.
So now the game is how can weget our expenses down enough to
where we take as little aspossible out of those accounts,
right?
So that way we have as much timeto do that.
And what I'm finding now is thatis a new game.
This is, this is the mini game.
It's a completely differentgame.
it's included game.
It's a game within a game.
It's a game within a game.
Because we've reached a pointwhere Coast Fi, we have enough
(20:59):
in investments now where we justhave to sit and wait until we're
in our fifties and we can startwithdrawing that.
And that's, FinancialIndependence is a huge, you
know, load off.
Now we're moving towardssomething akin to Barista FI,
where we're trying to find theright.
Hustles and the right fun thingsthat we can do that still earn
us maybe enough as we're alsopulling down from our portfolio.
(21:21):
Recreational employment.
Recreational employment,exactly.
Employment.
That is not super stressful.
Yeah.
That doesn't take up, 90% ofyour waking hours, but also is
we are spending more timefocused on the wheel of
happiness.
Yes.
And.
The wheel of happiness includesYes.
Your salary, right?
(21:42):
Yes.
Your work.
Yes.
Your, your body, your health.
what are some other ones thatare on that wheel?
Time with the kids.
Time with the kids.
Family.
Relationships with each other.
Time with each other.
Yeah.
Prioritizing relationships sothat, that's the wheel.
And we've realized that, ourjobs.
We will never really meet all ofthose things.
And it's on us to find ways toinsert the missing parts into
(22:05):
this wheel.
And so, we did a really funexercise where we sat down and
we kind of made a, a Venndiagram of sorts where we said
we made a wheel of happiness asit applies to my job.
Yeah.
Because it's got a lot of perks.
Yeah.
But at the same time.
I'm not fulfilled in the sameway that I want us to be.
(22:25):
Yeah.
And so that was, a hardconversation, but also a really
important one.
So as the salary part of yourjob becomes less weighted, less
important, then you can findgreater jobs that still meet the
other things.
Right.
In that, in that piece ofpuzzle.
So that, that's something funwe're gonna try and map out and
(22:45):
show at some point.
Definitely.
Yeah, I, I'd love to.
maybe at some point have somesort of calculator for the wheel
of happiness.
Yeah.
Like plug in.
Okay.
does this job fulfill, anyfamily benefits?
okay.
Does it give you healthcare?
Okay, great.
Does it give you free, gymmembership?
Okay, great.
And then does it give you travelpoints or free travel somehow,
or, right.
Which, which will fill up theother buckets.
Do you get to work at home soyou can spend more time with
(23:06):
your cat?
Yeah.
You know, all of those, whichmakes me really happy.
Yeah.
Yeah, so we'll probably buildsomething and, release it at
some point, uh, and maybe havelike a little mini episode about
it.
But that's been a, a fun minigame that we've been working on,
and we're just, grateful to havethat be the main focus of our,
that's the new focusdiscussions.
You know, I will say one of the,the things about.
(23:27):
You leaving your job this lastyear and us not saving as much
as we have been in the past iswatching our investments sort of
slow down.
They're still going up, which isgreat, but they've definitely
slowed down a lot.
So that's been a littlestressful because I am still
working and we are trying to getme to a place where I can take a
load off a little bit and, workpart-time and so.
Watching that number not go upas quickly has been like a
(23:50):
little like, ooh, you know?
Yeah, you're right.
We're not contributing to anyRoth IRAs.
we are contributing to my 401kmatch.
We, we just To your matchthough?
Yes.
Which is only like 3% of yoursalary.
I think it's six.
Is it that high?
I didn't think it was that high.
Well, if so, then great.
We, it's been a while since.
Looked at the numbers.
You can tell.
the happier I get, the longer mybeard gets, which is really fun.
(24:10):
so we should do a comparison ofthe last episode that we
recorded and.
Uh, true.
And now And the beard.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I think the whole point isthat we're able to, to focus on
other things outside of justmoney.
Yes.
And so you're right though, notgetting to watch our accounts
grow in, in the, growth ratesthat we're used to has been a
challenge of Yeah.
(24:31):
moving to full coast fi that we,although expected.
Maybe we're happy to see.
It's still like, uh, okay.
Yeah, yeah.
It's all right.
It's fine.
But we're still on track, soeverything, everything is okay.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think that's the point isjust to stay connected and, and
still stay open and communicateand, we have the freedom to
adjust now, and if, um, wedecide to do some crazy pivot
(24:54):
and move to Bali or somethinglike that, that's on the table,
we could talk about that and wecan get creative.
And so I think that's been.
That's been our year.
I mean, it's been largelyreally, really good.
Yeah.
And it's been a glimpse at whatwe want in our retirement.
And there was one, article Iremember reading, from Early
Retirement Extreme.
(25:15):
They were comparing this, thisconcept of, working to the bone
to then retire.
Mm-hmm.
And then a lot of other peoplestarted realizing, well, yeah,
but once you get to retirement,what does your life look like?
What are my hobbies?
What are my interests?
What, what fulfills me outsideof the mask?
That I've now embeddedunderneath my skin.
Yeah.
Like, okay, you've, who am Iwithout this job?
(25:35):
Who am I without the job?
Which is so interesting becauseI've only been in my current
position for three years and Ialready feel a sense of stress.
I love a lot about my job.
I love my boss, I love my team.
A lot of my clients are reallyamazing.
Yeah.
And so I do get a, little bit ofa fulfillment from that.
And when I think about.
Switching to part-time orleaving this job for a
(25:56):
sabbatical, I feel like it'salready a little bit of a loss
of sense of self.
Mm-hmm.
And I'm only three years intothis position.
Yeah.
And so I can only imagine howthat affects someone who's been
a lifer.
Yes.
Yeah.
It's their whole socialfulfillment in a lot of ways,
you know?
So I, yeah.
I can see how it's a strugglefor people who wait until
(26:17):
they're 65 or 70 to fully retireand then they don't know what to
do with themselves or, or theywork, for a single decade, and
that's all they do is they livein their van and they accrue as
many beans as possible.
And they haven't had the time tofocus on relationships or other
hobbies because they're justworking towards this fire or
goal, and then they wake up andthey hit it, but then they're
(26:39):
struggling to figure out what todo with their time now.
Right.
So what we're figuring out alongthis journey is it's okay to
slow down, smell the roses.
To, land the plane gently.
It's great to have goals.
Yeah.
And it's great.
It's great to have a startingmiddle and end point, but also
keep in mind that the journeyalso has to be fulfilling.
That is also part of the point.
(27:01):
Yeah.
You know?
Yeah, you're right.
the road should be enjoyable.
Yeah.
it doesn't always suck to takethe scenic route.
It might be longer, but it'sreally pretty.
It's pretty, it's really pretty.
Yeah.
I think that's all we have forthis episode.
You have a fun five fact.
Oh, I do Have a fun five.
Thank you for the reminder.
You're welcome.
so given the location, us in themiddle of the woods here
camping, we thought we wouldfocus a little bit on those road
(27:24):
warriors out there.
So today's fun five fact.
It is about 3.1 millionAmericans live in RVs full time
as of 2022, which was a 63%increase in the past couple
years, and a 63% increase, a 63%increase, and I think probably a
(27:45):
lot to do with COVID and peoplemoving remote.
Yes.
And, and wanting to get out ofthe rat race.
Yes.
And the feeling of being trappedbecause most jobs wouldn't allow
a remote based position.
And now all of a sudden, atleast at that time, they were.
And so there probably was a hugeuptick in, purchases of RVs and
people are going to do it.
And what I'm seeing now is thatpeople are making it work,
(28:08):
right?
they're actually leaving andbeing untethered.
And this is, correlation, maybenot causation, but I was saying
that.
Why would people continue to dothis?
Is, is obviously the costsavings.
Yes.
Right.
If you can leave your comfyhouse and rent it out and then
get an RV and travel with yourfamily and go anywhere you want
across the country, that's,that's an adventure.
That's, that fills a lot of thewheel of a wheel of happiness
(28:30):
buckets.
and also freedom.
Right.
You're not, you're not stuck inthe dark, office.
You're not tied to the desk.
The, you're not tied to thedesk.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I thought that that was anappropriate fun five fact.
No, it is, it's fitting.
Yeah.
Well, we're just a couple happycampers.
Everything is going okay.
(28:51):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's super hot here today.
Sorry, we've been away.
It's so hot.
It's, it's like in the nineties,uh, and we're, we're sweating
out here, but luckily the sun'sgoing down.
We got a fire going, and we'reat, uh, we're at Rainbow
Springs, and it's, there's somany beautiful swimming spots
here.
It's one of my favorite placesin the whole world.
and it's a super affordablevacation and a way to celebrate.
(29:12):
This past year.
Yeah.
So yeah, I think that's all.
So thanks for sticking with usand coming back and we promise
we'll have some more episodes.
We got some good ones coming.
Yes.
We got some good ones coming.
Some good guests that we'reexcited about.
Yes.
it's been a great year.
We're super excited about what'sgonna happen this upcoming year
and we'll keep you guys in theloop.
Yeah.
So thanks so much for joining.
(29:32):
Signing off.
There's a raccoon, Is good.
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