A Personal Story

Today I am going to talk to you about FIRE, the Power of Moments, and hear a personal story about someone close to me.

PERSONAL FINANCE

I wanted to introduce you to the FIRE movement – Financial Independence/Retire Early (FIRE)

FIRE is about making extreme life decisions that put you and your family in a financial situation where you can retire early compared to the norm. Most people retire in their 60’s or 70’s (if they retire at all) but FIRE is about doing it much earlier than this, usually in your 40s, 30s, and sometimes even in your 20s.  Here’s a FIRE BASICS blog post from Lifehacker to get you started.

I don’t think the FIRE phenomena is for everyone, but the basic tenants of lowering your expenses and increasing your overall savings rate are something EVERYONE can benefit from.

RELATIONSHIP BUILDING

Book recommendation time. — “The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact” by Chip and Dan Heath. The Heath brothers explore why certain brief experiences can jolt us and elevate us and change us – and how we can learn to create such extraordinary moments in our life and work.I personally LOVED this book. The stories and examples are great, and it’s so awesome how some small changes we make in our own lives can truly IMPACT others’ lives. Some of the examples will pull at your heartstrings, others will show you how going out of your way just a little bit can make a huge difference. A MUST READ.

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Earlier this year I lost a friend. Tim was a co-worker, a client, but most of all a great friend to me. We dreamed big dreams together; I’d talk about my businesses and helping others and he talked about wanting to start a semi-professional soccer team here in Northern Virginia to increase people’s growing love of soccer and start a non-profit. We had open text conversation that has been going for well over three years.

Tim was also a father to three little children and an incredible husband to his wife Mary Beth. But unfortunately, Tim’s life was cut short due to a perfect storm of health issues hitting all at once and he was taken from his family and friends far too soon and far too quickly.  Tim’s death put a ton of things in perspective for me and was emotionally devastating. His passing caused me to have to think about my own mortality and shoring up things in my life that I had been ignoring for a long time.  Here are the four practical things I’ve done, and I recommend that you look into doing them as well:

1. Review ALL your beneficiaries on various accounts (insurance, retirement, mutual funds, banking, etc)
2. Create a list of accounts with user name and passwords, and tell those close to you where to find it
3. Update or create a will, a living will, and a medical/general power of attorney (these are ALL different things), and go over it with your significant other and close family/friends.
4. Get a yearly physical (I hadn’t been to a doctor for over a decade)

Thanks,

PS

P.S. Tim was amazing at creating moments. Whether it be sporting events with his kids, event running with Mary Beth, or his famous cul-de-sac movie nights for his friends and neighbors. Memory making is important and you have a responsibility to try and make a few positive ones for others.