490 | The Ultimate Random Show | Ginger

26:31So yeah, Chad Carson wound up coming as well as JD Roth and David Boyer and Paula Pant. So it wound up just being this amazing group of friends that I've known for basically a decade now. And yeah, I mean, I think what cul-de-sac is doing is really laudable. I think it's still early on in what they're developing. So it's kind of hard to get it like a true sense of like, is this viably a walkable community? But I think it gives like a blueprint for maybe how to rethink like what is, like I was very myopically focused on walkable, like the, that, that word being the operative word and the only one that mattered in the sense of like, Hey, there's no grocery store within a 10th of a mile or two 10ths of a mile.

27:19So is this really walkable? And, you know, I kept getting caught up and I wasn't being like a stick in the mud about it. I was just, but, but I kept getting caught up. And I think what the CEO and founder of, uh, or co-founder, I guess, of cul-de-sac told me in response to the question was it's more thinking of it as, as car free and like an array of transportation options. So they're right across the street from Phoenix, just built a light rail line all throughout the metro area. And it's literally right across the street from cul-de-sac and every resident of cul-de-sac gets it for free, which is awesome.

27:55Obviously there's walkability. They have e-bikes, which, uh, I rode kind of going back to what I said before about economy and, and Kevin from the financial Panther and his talk on e-bikes. I rode an e-bike for the first time. It was amazing. It was so cool. I mean, it's funny because I've read Pete talk about bikes like for 10 plus years now. And Ginger, I rode a bike with Mr. Money Mustache through a city. It was crazy. Random tangent, but I don't want to forget. I just saw that if you live in Colorado, you can get a$450 subsidy on an e-bike. Really? Anyone, any Colorado resident. And you get it at the bike shop.

28:36Oh my God. That's wild. I had never heard of them before. That's incredible. I mean, those things, and even, again, it's much smaller instances, like that light rail thing of them getting it for free and it being right across the street. People are going to use that. It's getting rid of the friction, right? So how can you get rid of friction? And the other cool thing, and this is kind of the last word on the Phoenix trip here, is Waymo is operating in Phoenix. Has that ever crossed your plane? No. What's Waymo? Okay. So Waymo is Google's autonomous vehicle project. Oh, okay. So this is not like Tesla's kind of joke of an autonomous vehicle that's seven years late and doesn't look like it's happening.

29:20This is actually real. So basically you arrive in Phoenix, you can download the Waymo One app and just call as if it were Uber or Lyft, an autonomous vehicle. And Ginger, I kid you not, it was the most amazing thing I've ever done. It was so cool. It was like seeing into the future. It was wild. Absolutely wild. Were you scared? I have to say, I wasn't scared. I really wasn't. I mean, it was crazy. So Paula Pant and I took a Waymo back from cul-de-sac to the airport. We both had flights around the same time. and yeah i mean it was like a 20 probably 20 to 25 minute ride and i mean the car was as good or better i mean it basically has to be in 99th percentile human driver or better really it was as good as any human driver i've ever seen but it was crazy i mean like the wheel was turning because it still has like the you know vestigial wheel of like old school like it has to be a car but literally turning and there's no driver there and the darn thing is just moving but i actually took like a 45 second video of it stopping at a red light and attempting to make a right on red.

30:31And I mean, this is a driverless car knowing enough to make a right hand turn on red. And it treated it as again, as well as a 99th percentile human driver would like it stopped. It then inched up, it saw cars coming. And then I could see out of the corner of my eye that the light was turning the other way. So that's when you start making the decision, Oh, am I going to turn or not. Like if everybody's stopping, then I can think about turning. And it clearly was quote unquote thinking about it. But then three cars kind of ran the late yellow, early red, and it just kind of stopped on its brakes.

31:07Our Waymo waited a beat. Those three cars passed by. Our light turned green and it just went on its merry way. And it was amazing. At that moment, I'm like, this is the future of everything. This is remarkable. What a cool experience. It was really cool. Okay. Well, Brad, did you do any worky type things on this trip or was it just about hanging out with each other? It was mostly hanging out. We did record a podcast with the founder of cul-de-sac. So you can find that on the Mile High Five podcast feed. I think Paula Pan actually did a separate interview with him as well. But I personally, so I sat in on the first podcast and asked some questions.

31:52But yeah, I mean, for me, I don't know. Ginger, I'm very low-key. Like, I just wanted it to be like a fun weekend. And so, yeah, it was very minimal work, which is good. Okay. Speaking of podcasts, have you been listening to any new podcasts lately? Yeah, Ginger, that's a good question. So new podcasts. I am mortified by how many podcasts I actually listen to. So I don't, I don't have a ton of space because it's so high or so many. Oh, it's so many. It's so, so many. It's ridiculous. Like I've gotten better at just kind of like ruthlessly deleting episodes when I just simply don't have time because otherwise I get stressed of, Oh no, I've got to listen to all these things.

32:32But so you asked new. Yeah, actually two of our friends recently started podcasts. So I mentioned David Boyer earlier. So he's actually the brother of Stephen Boyer, who's the founder of Camp Fi. So David was a military officer for years. I've known him for a long time. He has a podcast called Forget About Money, and it's actually quite good. He had an episode on the 72T. So this was something that I thought was an absolute revelation when I talked about it with Sean Mulaney in episode 475. So I highly recommend, if you guys haven't listened to episode 475, check it out for Choose a Fi. Total game changer for basically how you access your money before 59 and a half.

33:14And yeah, David had a real deep dive into that recently. And he also had a, an episode with JL Collins and Paul Merriman debating wealth strategies, which was a pretty, pretty wild for a new podcast to get a, to get that kind of level of guests. And then our good friends, uh, Carl and Mindy. So Mindy from bigger pockets money, Carl 1500 days, they're married, obviously, uh, they have Mindy on money. So it's Mindy and Carl on money as a new podcast. So those are the ones I'm listening to. But what about you? Okay. The new one I've been really enjoying is called Retire Often, I think. And that's Jillian Johnsrud.

33:51And she is interviewing different people about their experiences with mini retirements. And it is so fun to listen to other people's experiences on how they make it work and people who are doing a month-long adventure to years long. And so it's really interesting just to hear not just the practical things, but the whys of why people do it and what their takeaways are. So I love it. You should check it out if you haven't listened to it. That's very cool. Are you contemplating a mini retirement? Is that something that would have crossed your plate before that? Great question. I think it's one of those things that once it's kind of been planted, you know, when I first heard about it, it's like, oh, this is so unavailable to me because of my job.

34:41I can't just take a month off. And then you keep hearing about people doing it and here's all the obstacles that they overcame. So it's something that I'm thinking about and it's still in those stages of like, I'm not quite sure how I would make it happen, but I'm really compelled by the idea for sure. Yeah. Okay. Interesting. How about you? Yeah. It's funny you brought that up. So first, and I probably should have listed Jillian's podcast. I went to my like 10 most recently subscribed podcasts and that's where I picked Forget About Money and Mini on Money. Jillian's is probably five before that on my list.

35:20So yes, I'm actually deeply thinking about this. Yeah. Jillian has this really great workbook called retire often. So if you just retire often.com slash workbook, and she actually sent one to me and she has a group coaching. So I've actually been like deeply involved with thinking about this over the last, the last couple of months. And, you know, I think the honest answer is I I'm like, I've burned myself out when it comes to, to working and it sounds ridiculous for someone who's financially independent, but like, you know, I've given a lot of myself to choose a fi and I think a lot of it was self-imposed and frankly, stupid and needless.

36:04And it was just like all these things that like I do in the background that are like micromanaging things that are like making me burn out. It's not, it's not this, I mean, Ginger, I could record a podcast like this with you every day, you know? And it's not the podcast that has done that to me. It's certainly, it's not even my newsletter. I think those are the two things I get the most energy from. And yet, interestingly, those are the highest value also. That's the real irony of this. It's like the things that are most valuable for me to create and most valuable for people to receive are the things that I get the most energy from.

36:40But it's all the other stuff I've been doing behind the scenes that are killing me, basically. So long story short is, yeah, I am planning this year, if all goes well, or that's a terrible caveat, that's a pathetic cop-out caveat, I am planning this year to take a mini retirement. And what does that mean to you? It means that I am basically for what I'm imagining as three months right now, I'm thinking a three month mini retirement is where my brain is, that I will effectively be detoxing from work. I will not be at my computer. I will be living life basically. And I don't know what that looks like right now.

37:25I know part of it is I'm going to Bali for the five freedom retreat. that Amy Minkley's running. Yes. Cool. So that'll be awesome. So that'll be, there'll be a big trip in there. Probably a, you know, you're going all the way to Bali. It's probably going to be a two to three week trip after all is said and done. So I'm doing that and yeah, I don't know what else, but I know it looks like not sitting in front of the computer, opening my email or responding to posts in the Facebook group or doing things like that. I think there will be no interruption in the podcast schedule or the podcast publication because again, I love podcasting.

38:02This is my favorite part. I love this. And it's actually really easy for me to get ahead. So it doesn't feel like cheating on the mini retirement that like, I'm just going to record those 12 episodes basically ahead of time because again, that's easy. The newsletter is going to be a little harder. I don't know to write 12 episodes of a newsletter ahead of time, that's highly unlikely. So maybe I do like a best of the last four years or something like that. You want to do it? Yeah. Wow. Okay. You heard it here first. That's super cool. We'll do a takeover. Nice. Okay. So here's my question for you.

38:37Okay. Talking about doing this big thing. You probably haven't done anything quite like this before. What is your primary emotion right now as you're talking about it. Primary emotion. So now I'm getting the therapist and ginger coming out. I like this. There is some, there's a little nervousness. I think nervousness, if that's an emotion, I'm not sure if it is or not, but it's that, but there's this excitement. I can't say which one's primary and sorry to not give you a real answer, but it's like both of them are just competing. Like I'm so excited about it, but I'm, I am a little nervous. Yeah.

39:11Well, those have the same physiological response. So that can just be how you frame it and how you tell yourself what it is that you're experiencing. But that was what I was getting at is like, is this mostly exciting or is this mostly like bringing up any fears or anxieties? Yeah. No, it's super exciting. I mean, I think it's funny. You just saw me physically lean in. Like, you know, nobody listening to this can see that. But like, I'm definitely excited. I think I've, in a lot of senses, I built myself like a, like a, this is going to sound terrible and way overdramatic, but like a prison when it comes to a lot of aspects of choose a vie, because I've held onto things.

39:52And it's like the exact opposite of what I should be doing. Like I should have built systems. I should have empowered people who want to help. I should have hired people to do a lot of these random things. And I think this now is like a forcing function for making it happen. And I think the way that I'm viewing this, and I think why I'm spending so much time talking about this is because I think hopefully this can help a lot of other people who are thinking about how do I make a change in life? And for me, it's there's a pre-mini retirement life and a post-mini retirement life because I cannot imagine a scenario where when I come back that I'm just going to fall into my old habits because I'll have already built systems.

40:31Like that's, that's the whole thing. I've got probably five months from the day we're recording this to the date this allegedly will start or hopefully will start. And I have to get all this stuff off my plate. So like that hopefully will be enduring. And like I said, I'm not just going to slip back three months later and do all that nonsense because like my highest value and what I get the most energy from are the newsletter and the podcast. And those I could do indefinitely. I think from an energetic standpoint, if I let all this other minutia bog me down, there's no way that I could do this for the next 5, 10, 20 years.

41:08You know? I think there's so many people who listen to this show who are entrepreneurs. And so it is really helpful just to hear someone else who has sort of struggled with that overwhelm and then recognizing, oh, wait, like, I am also the one who can change this. And there's that resistance, like that point of it's so hard to change things. And so I think it can be inspiring to hear how someone's doing that and how they're getting over their anxieties about doing it. Yeah. And then you spoke to something that I always think about, which is like, if I did something like this, and I'm thinking of like a month or a year.

41:43Sometimes I think about a year. But one concern I have is like, oh, man, what if I just I can't stand going back after I do that? But I like how you're talking about it, which is, no, of course it won't be the same. And so the goal isn't, oh, I'm going to step back exactly into my life. And so if you already have that expectation of, no, it's going to be different when I come back, that seems like a healthy and realistic and exciting way to think about it. Yeah, no, that's cool. I think to me, it's almost like how we've described for years now, and choose if I like about like FU money. So bear with me here.

42:24This is kind of a random, a random merging of a couple of thoughts, but FU money was always not that you're literally going to walk in and be a jerk, nothing like that, but, but that it gives you power that you can say, hey, this part of my job, I just, I hate it. I can't put up with it anymore. I can't do this. But look at how much value I add to this organization. And you go into your boss and say like, hey, look, something's got to change or I'm going to have to walk. And when that power dynamic shifts, I think you'll be surprised at how people, if not bend over backwards, then at least are willing to be flexible.

43:02And I think I'm viewing this as like a similar, similar way for my own business. And like you said, so many people are entrepreneurs in our community. So, so hopefully there's value here and that I have built this thing, this job, if you will, of which many of the aspects of it, I really don't like. And I think once in essence, I've, flex those, that F you money, if you will, to my own job, right. Or, or really this mini retirement. I believe, I truly believe that it's, it'll be gone for good. And what will be left is the parts that I love and I absolutely love. And I think, I think that's the takeaway for people is find the parts of your job and your life that like you really love.

43:47And how do you lean into that? And how do you maybe work to make your life better? Even just like, we always talk about ginger, like these 1 % changes. Right. And it's like, sometimes you don't even think because it's always, Oh, it's just easier to do something like do it in the moment. Oh, that only takes me two minutes or whatever. Instead of finding like a permanent solution for something, or in my case, like creating when I'm writing my newsletter and like literally putting it into our emails system, convert kit. Like I create, I'm creating loom videos now to document everything, to have like standard operating procedures for things.

44:24And like, even something as simple as every Friday in the Facebook group, I asked this one question of like, what did you do this last week to make your life better in essence? And we get all these amazing comments. And for years, Facebook only allowed you to post to schedule like eight of them at once. So every two months, in essence, I had to, I have a to do this task, you know, schedule the 1 % wins. And I just learned because I asked someone, they just added new functionality to make that a permanent thing. So now that's gone. That's off my to-do list, which is awesome. And so it's like, what are these little points of friction that you can find in your life that you can make a permanent solution for?

45:05I think that's the takeaway. And we can all do that, whether we're contemplating a mini retirement or not, how do you find points of friction and just make them easier or eliminate them forever. Okay. Well, I'm really glad I asked you about what podcasts you were listening to. Yeah, that was unexpected. Yeah, but it's so exciting and people are going to be so excited to hear about your progress on this and what it's like for you to actually take that break. So is there anything else we need to talk about? Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, we have a whole list of things that we certainly could to talk about.

45:38One other thing, I know we talked about travel rewards before. I actually came across a really cool travel rewards tool that I think our community especially will like. So Chris Hutchins from the All the Hacks podcast recently had Greg the Freaker Miler on his show. And that episode was fantastic. If you're really looking to dive into very granular, specific search tools and things, I think you can take a lot from that episode. But But one in particular jumped out to me. So the website is called Points Yeah. So it's points, plural, Y-E-A-H.com. And then if you type in, so pointsyeah.com slash explorer, or just go to their website and then just click Daydream Explorer up in the top nav bar.

46:25Ginger, this is like the thing I've been waiting for for 10 years, basically. So it more or less shows all like the hot deals they've found using rewards points. So basically what that means in practical terms is, Hey, you plug in your local airports and then they show you essentially everything that hits there. Okay. This is a hot deal. So I'm seeing like just on the homepage of this, like San Francisco to Glasgow for 30 ,000 points. points i'm seeing oklahoma city to new york for 7500 points like you can put in your local airports and then you can really specify like hey i want to go to europe so hey i want to go to europe in the next six months for people with flexibility ginger i think this is awesome it's like the question has always been hey i've got all these points and i just want to travel i can be flexible i just want to go places and i want to get a good deal i think those are the things that hold people up is like, I don't know if I'm getting a good deal on these points or not.

47:27Like I can never find anything, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff. This company has found it for you. So they, they let you like really dive into this of like, you could just do United States to anywhere. And then there are like thousands of these things where you put the five closest airports to you and you say, Hey, I want to go to Europe or I want to go to Asia. And it just shows you everything they've found that they specify as like a really good deal. And I'm, I'm just shocked at how many things, like I'm seeing Philadelphia to Nassau, Bahamas for 7 ,500 points, which is insane.

48:00I mean, that's an international flight for 7 ,500 points. Like I would never think of that, but like, you know, frankly, Philadelphia is just a short little drive for me. Like, you know, am I going to do that? Probably not. But like, if I wanted to, there's a flight on May the 14th from Philly to Nassau for 7 ,500 points. Like that is really, really cool. So hopefully I'm doing a decent job explaining this, Ginger, but this is the thing I've been waiting for for a very long time. Okay, crucial thing you haven't mentioned here. Is it free? Ooh, good question. I did not mention that. It is certainly free from what I'm saying.

48:31They do have an upgrade in the upper right here. So it looks like there's a premium plan for like$8 a month. But everything I just described to you is free. That Explorer is free. And I think even when you click on them, they show you like how and where to book, where to find them, et cetera. So that seems free. I think this point, yeah, allows you to do like much more specific things, like search very specific routes and try to find availability and such. There are a bunch of these tools that I've checked out recently. So there's a seats dot arrow, a E R O. So seats dot arrow. And then there's point dot me.

49:09So yeah, there's a lot of these tools that are like allowing you to search for very specific availability. And from what I've seen, they're usually somewhere in that vicinity of$8 to$10 a month. So I think this point, yeah, is that. But yeah, this Explorer is totally free from what I can tell. Very cool. I can't wait to try it. Yeah, it should be fun. It's just fun to play around with. It really is. Oh, and so that reminds me, we were going to put a call out for travel wins from the community. Ooh, yes. Yeah, this is your idea. Yeah, well, we like talking about travel rewards. And I think people, it's really inspiring to hear other people's wins.

49:48And so we want to hear, let's say the last year and a half, what are the big travel reward wins that you've got? And we are hoping you will call in and give us the details and then we'll do an episode about it. Yes. I think it sounds awesome. You know, I love getting the community involved. I'm really trying to do this much more often now. So just in the newsletter, I put out a call for fun date nights that you might have like frugal or just fun, inexpensive date nights. In essence, we I'm trying to do more of these follow up episodes. So like I had Dean Turner, my trainer on. We're going to do a follow up episode on that.

50:28We're going to do one on Social Security and the military, all these things. So, yeah, I'm so glad you thought of this. And yeah, you can always, I guess, really, like you said, the best way is via voicemail. so just go to choose of at a com slash voicemail or if you really don't want to send a voicemail in just hit respond hit reply to any of my newsletters and just send in your travel rewards win and say hey you want it for for that episode but really ginger you and i want to hear people's excitement in their voices right and tell us about the points that you used how you got there and then tell us a little bit about the trip i think we all just want to hear about it it's fun And then if you have any advice for anyone who might be trying to do something similar, maybe.

51:10Yeah, that's a great idea. And yeah, I mean, I think for years, a lot of us have really been good at earning points, but it's spending. Obviously, that's the fun part. And yeah, a couple of those tools that I just mentioned are making it a whole lot easier. And yeah, I mean, just seeing that other people are doing this. and again, like with some flexibility, and this is not to say that everyone listening to this is retired early and sitting around just waiting to travel. That's not the kind of flexibility we're talking about. It's just an open mind, I think. If you just say, hey, I wanna travel, I've got these points and I have an open mind, you're gonna use them incredibly well.

51:49So yeah, let's hear your story. So again, chooseofi.com slash voicemail. All right, well, Brad, thank you so much for inviting me back. That was so fun. and I look forward to hearing what the listeners bring to us for our next episode. Nice. Yeah, this is great. We'll definitely, I want to do more of these Ultimate Random Shows. So we'll have to, you know, I feel like our format, that's what's fun again about creating something just generally. It's like our format's always changing. Like you and I, we've done a couple book club episodes. We obviously did those, the month end, I guess, roundup type episodes.

52:24and yeah, maybe we'll bring some roundups back. Maybe we'll do more of these ultimate shows, but that's what's cool is we're just having fun. And hopefully these are things that are really of interest to the community. And as always, just keep your comments coming. Keep your recommendations, any kind of life hacks, things you've found. Like you, the community are the lifeblood of the show and we want to bring you into it as much as possible. So yeah, Ginger's idea was awesome about the Traveler Wars and that's gonna be fun. So stay tuned. And Ginger, you and I are going to record that date night episode.

52:58So I mentioned that in the newsletter and we got a whole bunch of feedback. We got a bunch of voicemails. So that's going to be a good time. Stay tuned. Stay tuned indeed. All right. Thanks for listening to Chooseify and we will see you next time. Thank you for listening to today's show and for being part of the Chooseify community. If you haven't already, the best ways to get involved are first subscribe to the podcast. So you're listening to this on a podcast player and just hit subscribe. and then subscribe to my weekly newsletter. I actually sit down every Monday and write this by hand and I send it out Tuesday morning.

53:31So just head over to choosefi.com slash subscribe. And it's really, really easy to get on the newsletter list right there. And I would greatly appreciate it. It's the best way to get in touch with me. You can actually just hit reply to any of those emails and it comes directly to my inbox. So that's the way that I keep a pulse of the community and how we keep this the ultimate crowdsourced personal finance show. And finally, if you're looking to join an in-real-life community, we have Chooseify local groups in 300-plus cities all around the world. So head to chooseify.com slash local, and you'll find a list of all of those cities in 20-plus countries all across the world.

54:09And if you're just getting started with FI, or you have a family member or a friend who you think would be interested, two easy ways. Choose a Vi episode 100 is kind of our welcome to the Fi community. And even though it's a couple years old at this point, it still stands up. And it's a really great just starting point to get an understanding of what is financial independence? What are we doing here? Why are we looking to live a more intentional life where we save money and use it as a springboard to live a better life? And then Choose a Vi created a financial independence 101 course that's entirely free.

54:44just head to choosefi.com slash fi101. And again, thanks for listening.