Travel Builds Connections and Unlocks Rewards | Ep 525

26:35And I wonder if it's something related to just like your eyes seeing something new and that it does something in your brain, sort of like the sunlight does something in your brain that just actually seeing a different landscape or seeing, just seeing different colors, if that in somehow inspires a different kind of thinking. But I really don't know. I'm really just curious about it. Yeah, I think, I mean, it certainly could be that. I think our brains are incredibly powerful. And actually, it's funny, you mentioned the sunlight. I got an email or Dr. Andrew Huberman, who has the popular Huberman Lab podcast, he sent out an email to his list about jet lag.

27:12And he is big on morning and evening sunlight. So actually, this is one of those life hacks just for everybody out there. Just a little nugget is just in general, but especially with jet lag, like to set your circadian rhythm, try to get outside for even two to three minutes. five minutes in the morning, if you can, with low angle sunlight. And then in the evening, again, with low angle sunlight and, you know, just plus or minus 30 minutes around sunset or sunrise. And it actually does really help. Like it helps if sleeping is a problem for you. Like that's just one of those things I picked up over the last couple of years that is massive.

27:46And I didn't, I didn't take this to heart when I got back with the jet lag, but I started doing that. And then lo and behold, it actually started working. So again, total random aside, but But that's what we do here at Chizavaya, obviously, right? So I think, Ginger, it opens your aperture. I think that's how I frame it. And I was a little imprecise or maybe stumbling over my words before about this. But when I was saying about just like people are people, and I think to me, it's just getting out into the world. It's both seeing things that are extremely different, but also recognizing patterns from your own life and seeing people just going about their lives.

28:23and you're realizing there is this common humanity. And I think to me, that is extremely powerful lesson from travel. So it's this interesting, I don't know, dichotomy, juxtaposition. I don't know what the exact word would be, but of just seeing both things that are extremely different and foreign and extremely similar, if that makes any sense. And I think there's just something about that in my own brain that just, it just lights things up and emboldens me to travel more, to see more of the world, to meet more people. but then also to realize like, hey, we're all living this kind of same path as human beings.

28:59And there's just something oddly comforting about it. Thanks for listening to Chooseify and for all your support of our mission here. The absolute best way to support Chooseify is when you sign up for your next rewards credit card to use our cards page at chooseify.com slash cards. I keep this page constantly updated so it should always be the top resource for you. Thanks for being part of our community and for your support. should we transition to a less fun travel topic yeah what do you got okay i want to talk about so you know i got the upgraded southwest card so that i could get my mini companion pass yeah and i wanted to share a mistake that i made in case anyone else is at risk making the mistake i love it ginger i think people are going to start wondering like man they talk about southwest a lot but they're not really experts they're like we messed up the companion pass now you must have so hopefully everyone is learning through our own foibles here yes and i i feel i should be embarrassed to share this story but i'm not i'm just gonna nothing to be embarrassed about we're all learning right okay so with my new card i want to use all my benefits.

30:12And one of the benefits is four free upgraded passes. Okay. So I've got this trip planned. I've got my companion. I go in to do the upgrade. Now, as I recall, there was one button to push. I could be wrong about this, but I pushed the one button and it says, you cannot change your mind about this. We're not going to give you a refund no matter what. You better be sure. so I panic because they're expensive and the whole deal is like you pay for it and then you get reimbursed on your credit card so it's gonna be two hundred dollars if I don't get reimbursed so I panic I call I can't remember if I called Southwest or Chase I called someone and I was like I'm really nervous is this actually gonna work she says it's gonna work do it so I did it And then the refund isn't coming.

31:05So I call and they're like, oh, no, it takes a while. A couple of weeks pass. I'm like two days or one day before the trip. I'm like, this is getting weird that I haven't been refunded. Oh, no, it'll happen. Then I try checking in and there's an annoying issue that makes me realize something has gone wrong. Something has gone wrong. So I call back and what I learn is there's a difference between the upgrade and the early bird upgrade, the early bird seating. And I have chosen the wrong one. I have chosen the cheaper one. So I'm like, well, can you just change it? Can I? Nope. Nope. You've paid for it.

31:49And it's a worse upgrade. And there's no getting your$200 back. So now I'm so shy about like, I'm going on another trip. Am I going to upgrade? Like, no, I'm too scared. And, and I think I know how to do it now, but it was just such a terrible experience. And so I guess I'm sharing it because it's like, okay, the upgrade, there's special language around it. And so you want to make sure that you're getting the correct upgrade. Okay. Yeah, that is very good to know. So okay, right. Everyone needs to be cognizant that there are two different types of upgrades, you need to you need to be aware what you're actually going for.

32:27So, okay. So we can add this to our long list of Southwest, maybe minor fails, but you know, in fairness, we do love, we love Southwest for travel rewards. That's why we talk about it so much. Like you said, the companion pass is incredible. I think to me, the two easiest programs that I go for are Southwest and then Hyatt hotels. I almost exclusively stay in Hyatt hotels now because I can transfer my chase points over there. So they're just incredibly easy to use. I mean, they don't have the footprint that a Marriott or Hilton has, but nevertheless, at this point, it's funny, all these rollercoaster trips that I take with my daughter, Anna, we just stay at Hyatt houses and Hyatt places every single time.

33:07It's a lot of fun. So yeah, that's why we, as you know, at Choose a Vi, we love travel rewards. And yeah, I think Hyatt and Southwest are two of the easiest programs. And Ginger, you did not realize this when you started talking about Southwest. And this is actually one of the changes or one of the really cool things that are going to happen at choose if I in 2025. So let me talk about it real quick, but this ties directly into Southwest. So Jonathan has been doing a lot of work behind the scenes on our website, and we're trying to make it a lot more functional in the sense that I think right now when people send in questions and wins and different things like that, but specifically questions, I'm the constraint in the system.

33:49So they all come to me, which is ridiculous because I'm usually either not qualified to answer everything or certainly if it's on some wide ranging topic or B, I just quickly jot off an answer and it only helps that one person. And I just, I'm essentially just trying to get it out of my inbox. Well, what Jonathan and I have been brainstorming behind the scenes is, okay, what would it look like if we had a submission for all these questions and they were essentially by category. And when that question was submitted, it got sent directly to a world-class expert and our friend on one of these topics.

34:27So I'm at the new choose of I.com slash feedback page. And I'm just seeing, for instance, drawdown strategies. So what if that got sent to Fritz from retirement manifesto or entrepreneurship goes to Alan Donegan or health and fitness goes to Dr. Bobby or Dean Turner and taxes go to Sean Mulaney and safe withdrawal rates, go to Big Earn, something like that. What if every single question that came in, and this is for you in the community who's listening to this, what if now, if you had a question, we at Truesify, because one of the nice things is we have this massive platform and when these experts can answer questions and they could show up on our website or on this podcast, it helps everybody, right?

35:10Because they know they're getting in front of tens or hundreds of thousands of people, you are asking a question that's broadly applicable to the community or maybe specifically to you or thereabouts, you get an answer and we can help have this platform and hopefully help the whole community. So to me, I see it as this win, win, win. And so Ginger, that is a very long way of saying, I think this is the most exciting thing that we're changing at Choose of I in a very, very long time, even though it sounds subtle, I think it's going to be massive because now again, these experts who now I can route all these questions to automatically, thanks to the beauty of technology, they can answer every single one and we can turn them into this audio file plus a whole post on our website.

35:54And then a lot of them can end up on this podcast. So I think, I think this is going to be massive. And actually today is really maybe the beginning of it in a sense that I actually have a clip here that we're going to play from my friend, Lynn Mettler, who has been on the podcast a couple of times. She's a longtime travel journalist. She created a website called Families Fly Free, where she basically teaches this membership community how to use travel rewards points, but very specifically on Southwest, which is her absolute favorite. So she sent in this audio file that I'm going to play now. And it's actually talking about a lot of the changes that are coming to Southwest.

36:32And Ginger, interestingly, Unfortunately, Southwest starting in 2026, according to Lynn, is going to have this assigned seating. So this was a big deal. And I think that's going to change the entire check-in process. So maybe just maybe you won't have to get that early bird to be there or otherwise like you have to be there exactly 24 hours to the minute or you get into the C group. So this is a bit of a longer voicemail that she sent in. But I think because so many of us really do rely on Southwest just for our regular flights, not to mention travel rewards flights, that this is going to be valuable.

37:05And the cool thing is, again, we can follow up with Lynn. As things change, she's going to send in more voicemails. Or if you have a question about something specific, just go to chooseify.com slash feedback. That should really be, if you're going to chooseify.com, if you're ever thinking about chooseify and you have a question, send it in there. You're going to be shocked at the answers that come back from these amazing people who are friends and colleagues. And Ginger, I'm really excited about it. All right. And here's Lynn Mettler from Families Fly Free. Hey, Choose FI community. I know that Southwest is a favorite airline for many of you, and it's definitely a favorite of mine because it's a key way that I teach people to fly for free as much as they want, simply and easily.

37:50It's the best airline to fly for free, in my opinion. But boy, has Southwest announced a lot of changes recently. And I wanted to fill you in on a couple of these key changes and how they may impact those of us who fly Southwest for free using points. So first of all, you may have heard that Southwest will be moving to assigned seating. They've had no assigned seats for the last 50 years. So that's a huge change. Now I know some Southwest loyalists are not excited about this change because we've all gotten used to the current system and we know how to work it. But I got to say, I personally am excited to not have to worry about checking in exactly 24 hours ahead of time, which I'm really good at forgetting by like a minute or two, or the other option being basically to have to pay a fee in order to be automatically checked in.

38:46So it's going to be great, I think, to just eliminate that unknown and potential anxiety of where am I going to be able to sit on the plane, particularly if you're looking for the emergency row and you don't know if you're going to get there, or I know a lot of families worry about if they're going to be able to sit together. So this is going to eliminate all of that. You're just going to know where you'll be sitting. So here's what we know about how this is going to work. Assigned seats will not actually start until 2026, but they will start selling these assigned seats in the middle of 2025.

39:21We don't have an exact date yet. They are also adding seating options with extra legroom. So that could be nice too for again, those of you who are looking for that emergency row seating to get a little extra legroom. So these are going to have an additional three to five inches of pitch or space, and that's going to be approximately a third of the seats on each plane. And then the rest of the seats are going to maintain their standard pitch of 31 inches, which is still one of the best in the industry, one of the most generous amounts of legroom. So they're going to keep the same boarding process that we're used to.

40:02So that's good. You're still going to be standing by the pylons. You're going to have a boarding order and you're going to board in that order. So we'll keep that, which we're used to. And they're going to give you both a seat assignment and a boarding order. So you'll have both. And then if you hold elite status with Southwest, which is A-list or A-list preferred, you would board the plane first. You'd get an earlier boarding order. And then if you pay a higher fare, you would board earlier than everyone else as well. Now, if you hold the amazing Southwest companion pass, which I recommend everyone always hold one.

40:40I always have one. And And this allows one person in your family or your group to always fly for free with you on as many flights as you want to take while you hold the pass. So if you hold a companion pass, your companion is going to be able to have a seat selection next to you, next to the pass holder. So that's a great benefit. And if you hold Southwest elite status, again, A-list or A-list preferred, which I, side note, just figured out a clever way to get that quickly and for pretty cheap, your companion will sit next to you. And depending on which elite status level you hold, you'll either get an extra legroom seat automatically, or if an extra legroom seat is available within 48 hours of your flight, you'll be able to choose it.

41:31and then your companion will get right next to you. So they get whatever perks in terms of seat selection that you do. So companion pass is already a two for one. You literally pay points for you and your companion gets added for free. And it's going to be the same when it comes to seating selections. Now, they haven't exactly laid out the cost of these or what fare types are going to get which seating selection. But what they have said is that the cheapest one to get away fare, and that's the one I typically recommend booking with points, that one's going to have no seat selection. So instead, a seat will be assigned to you by them around check-in time.

42:14Now, this is where I see it impacting how we use points. So unless you're flying solo, you're probably going to want to have a seating assignment because this is really going to be worse than just having a boarding order and no seating assignment and getting to pick your seat. At least you can try not to pick a middle seat between two people. That middle seat is always the last one to fill up on a Southwest flight. So I think you're going to need a seat selection in order to ensure that your group isn't entirely separated and not just that but relegated to middle seats and you're probably going to be in middle seats throughout the back of the plane.

42:56So that wouldn't be fun to be traveling with the family and everybody's all separated and in a middle seat between two people they don't know. So I think to ensure that you can at least sit, you know, we typically as a family of four will fly two and two, one parent, one child, and one parent, one child. So depending on the size of your family, you're probably going to want to fly two and two or two and three or whatever the size. So I think to ensure that you can at least do that, you're going to need to have a seating assignment. And so again, we'll have to see exactly the details once they release them on how this will all work.

43:32But what I think is we're going to need to book the next fair up from Want to Get Away, which is Want to Get Away Plus. And that one they have said will come with a seat selection. It's probably not going to be a premium seat selection, but at least you're going to be able to pick where you sit. And that's going to cost us a few more points to be able to buy that fare instead of the cheapest. But if you follow my system the way I teach it, and we show you lots of different ways to pay fewer points for every Southwest flight, this shouldn't be a problem because we tend to have more than enough points to do with what we want to fly wherever we want.

44:08So I think paying a few more points to get a seat selection is not going to be a problem. And I think that's going to be the main strategy shift when it comes to assigned seats and flying with points. Now, the second change I wanted to mention that I am super excited about is the ability to fly to Europe using Southwest points. This is going to be so great. So Southwest has announced that they will be partnering with different airlines to allow Southwest customers to use their points, their rapid rewards points, to fly these other airlines. So far, they've announced Iceland Air with another partnership announcement, they say, coming later this year.

44:47But just with Iceland Air, they've completely opened up Europe to Southwest flyers. That's somewhere we've never been able to access before on Southwest. And that's going to be fantastic. So Iceland Air does fly throughout Europe to all the major cities in Europe, but there is a stop in Iceland on the way over. However, I would love, I haven't been to Iceland and I would absolutely love to stop in Iceland and maybe see if there's a way you can get, you know, 24 hours or something and just kind of quickly see the highlights on your way over to Europe. So again, we don't have exactly the details on how this all is going to work, but if we get the same value out of our Southwest points to fly Icelandair that we do right now to fly Southwest, if you look at their current flight and their fare prices right now to places like London and Paris and Rome, we could be looking at about 33 ,000 points round trip to Europe, which would be awesome, I think.

45:46And then imagine if you could use your Southwest Companion Pass to add a family member or another traveler for no more points. You could both go for 33 ,000 points. That would be beyond amazing, but we don't know if they're going to allow that quite yet, but we can hope. What they have said about this partnership is that you'll be able to begin flying Icelandair using your Southwest points in mid-2025, and it'll be out of Baltimore, Washington, but they are going to be adding more airports throughout the year that you'll be able to fly out of on Icelandair. Now, during a presentation that executives gave in September, they showed a map with destinations you'd soon be able to fly to on Southwest.

46:37And they didn't have any names on these destinations. And it was a very small map with just kind of like arrows pointing places. But the arrows, in addition to pointing to Europe, appeared to point to islands in the South Pacific, like Fiji. So I think that's probably going to be the next announcement coming, some airline that flies into the South Pacific. And I know that would be thrilling for me. Fiji has definitely been on our bucket list and it's probably on many of your bucket lists as well. Now, when it comes to changes on the Southwest cards, they said more information will be coming early in 2025 about how benefits will be changing, but I don't expect anything detrimental here.

47:20I think we're just going to see a shift from these credits for early bird, which allows you to check in ahead of everyone else on Southwest and get an earlier boarding order. And then some of the cards have credits that give you an automatic A1 through 15 boarding order. I think those are just going to shift to becoming a certain number of assigned seat selections you get, or maybe even a certain number of credits to upgrade to extra legroom seats. I think that's going to be the main shift we see there. And they're also keeping their policy of no fees to check two bags per person. So that is great news that that is not going away.

47:58And lastly, one little other addition to share. If you like to cruise, they've added a way that you can book your cruises through Southwest and earn Southwest points when you do so. And you can do that. That site is southwestcruises.com. You just need to be logged into your Southwest account when you would book a cruise to earn points. All the major cruise lines, including Disney, appear to be on there, and they also say they will price match, and if you find a lower price on another website within 48 hours of booking with them, they'll refund you 110 % of the difference. So this could be a great way to add to your Southwest points balance if you like to cruise regularly.

48:39So that's it. That's a quick overview of some of the changes Southwest has coming soon. I personally am super excited about these changes, as I think it's going to make for a more enjoyable flying experience. And it's going to expand what we're able to do with our Southwest points flying beyond their current US and Caribbean destinations. Yeah, Ginger, that was cool. So assigned seating starting in 2026, maybe the ability to use Southwest miles to fly to Europe on Iceland air. That is incredibly intriguing. Lynn was saying something about seeing 33 ,000 miles round trip to Europe. And maybe you could use the companion pass.

49:18So stay tuned on that. And yeah, it sounds pretty awesome. So it looks like mid 2025, we'll be able to use that an Iceland air out of BWI Baltimore airport, and then maybe, maybe some other airports beyond that. So I'm pretty excited about that. Yeah. Okay. So I've got a whole bunch of topics. This is one of the fun and daunting things about these episodes, Ginger, is I feel like we can talk forever and I have 50 things that I want to talk about. So real quick, this is a public service announcement. I think I had already talked about this on a prior episode, but there is this new beneficial ownership information report, B-O-I-R, that is a requirement for anybody who has any type of legal entity.

50:00And unless this gets pushed back, this is due by December 31st. So if you have any type of legal entity, if you have an LLC, if you have S-Corp, C-Corp, whatever it is, you have to file this. It's really, really, really important. There are some massive penalties for not filing. Obviously, I'm not your accountant. I'm not your lawyer. You need to chuck yada, yada, yada. But I did this for all the entities that I have. It took me about three minutes per entity. It was incredibly, incredibly easy. And we're talking like$500 plus penalty per day for non-filing. Just please file a thing. Okay. So it's really easy.

50:34You just Google B-O-I and FinCEN, F-I-N-C-E-N. So you could essentially Google anything. It was B-O-I e-filing.fincent.gov. And we'll put that in the show notes. But please, please, please heed my warning. This is really, really important. So just do this. Ginger, travel rewards. We talked a little bit about it, obviously, but I'm just struck again by just how amazing having lounge access is. I I know you and I have talked about this at length. I love my Capital One Venture X card. Because of this, I get the top tier priority pass access that I use to great effect on my trip. I also get access to the Capital One lounges, which I was able to use at a Dulles airport in DC.

51:20So I'm a big fan of that. I know there's a significant annual fee on this, but it does kind of net out because you get that annual travel credit and such. And it's kind of hard to lay out that kind of annual fee. but I love this card because of the Priority Pass access and the Capital One Lounge. So I'm stuck on that. I know a buddy of mine, Andy, who I met up with in Barcelona, messaged me the other day saying, hey, I'm sitting in a Priority Pass lounge in a London airport. And I just wanted to thank you for reminding me. No joke, have that in WhatsApp from the last seven days. And I just wanted to remind everybody.

51:53Lounge access is really, really, really nice. This is my favorite card. Again, high annual fee, so let the buyer beware. But there are other ways to get a lounge access. And yeah, this is a real good one. Yeah, I did a unoptimized thing with my travel rewards that might be worth sharing. And it was based on something that you had said, where I was saying, oh, we did this cruise. And of course, we couldn't use our points for the cruise. And you had said, well, of course, you could have done a racing thing for any travel expense on your Capital One. And so we actually just booked a trip to Costa Rica in January using Southwest points.

52:31So great. And we've done so much travel this year for a couple different reasons, but it's not really our, our usual amount of travel. So it's a little bit, um, we've spent more than usual. So then I booked 10 nights in different Airbnbs and I was pretty frugal. I want someone to be impressed that it was like a thousand dollars for 10 nights. Are you impressed? I'm impressed. Okay. Very impressed. And then I was like, I still don't really want to spend that because we spent so much on travel this year. But I had all these Capital One points. I have no plans for any more travel in the near future.

53:08I was like, the thing that's going to feel best is to use these points to pay for our accommodation. So I knew it wasn't the optimal. I knew we could do better if we were getting a flight somewhere. But I have no plans for a flight anywhere. And it felt amazing to just wipe those clears. So our entire trip is going to be paid for with points. Amazing. For three people. Damn. Yeah. That's incredible, Ginger. Congrats. I mean, that is what travel rewards are all about, right? Yeah. It's actually traveling. It doesn't have to be optimized. I think this is what a lot of people get bogged down in is it has to be perfect.

53:43It has to be optimized. It really doesn't. I promise. It really, really doesn't. Yeah. And I just want to say like, it might not sound that impressive, but the reason that it's impressive that I want people to get if they haven't gone down this road is that my family, like we are not big spenders. We are just never going to meet the minimums for like these cars that have the super big, you know, spend 10 ,000 in two months spent, like we're never going to do that. And so to me, it's incredible because we're pretty frugal. Like I think we spend less than most people or most people would expect.

54:16And so to have that lifestyle and to still be able to have taken so many trips for free is incredible. So even if you're in that category of people where you're like, well, I don't think these bonuses are really going to work for me because I don't spend 10 grand a month on a credit card. It can still work. Yeah. I love that. What a great message because yeah, it's not about perfection. It's not about having to do this in some crazy manner. It's just, you can use your normal spending habits and get these incredible signup bonuses and turn them into real travel. And I think you're the perfect example of that family a three going on a 10 day trip for essentially free.

54:53I mean, goodness, that's, that's incredible. And yeah, I had some fun redemptions on this trip to Asia. So I wound up in interestingly. So one of the experts that we're going to get involved here on that feedback page is my friend, Noah, who actually lives like a mile from me, who is incredible at travel rewards, redemptions. He's maybe the best I've ever seen and he just loves it. So he, he helped me a lot. I went up using jet blue points of all things to fly on a cutter Qatar airways, however you want to pronounce it from DC to Doha. And I think if memory serves, it was only 40 ,000 points one way for that 13 hour flight in business class in the queue suites.

55:36I mean, Ginger, it was amazing. It was the best business class I could imagine. It was like as good of a business class as possible. And then you had a sliding door on your little pod. And it just, it afforded you so much privacy. It was a 13 hour flight. And I kid you not, I slept more on that one flight than all my prior flights combined in my entire lifetime. I slept for nine or 10 hours. I just, it was the most relaxing thing in the world. It was, it was astonishing. So I missed some of the incredible food and service and all that stuff, but I made up for it when I woke up. I had, I basically ordered all the breakfast.

56:12So they came out, they put this like white linen on your table and like, and they served me two separate breakfasts. And because they have like a script with how it goes, I got two sets of silverware. And it was like, it was so funny. I was like, oh my goodness, something. I'm like a big pig right now, but it was so great. It was so, so great. And then I think speaking to maybe not getting an optimized, but still just saying, hey, you know I want to travel and I want to use my points. I flew Singapore Airlines on the longest flight in the world, the 17 and a half hour flight from Singapore back to New York City.

56:46And I didn't even get the saver level ticket. I just paid like the standard level, which was, it was something crazy, like 140 ,000 Singapore miles, which is a lot. But frankly, I was in business class on Singapore airlines for 17 and a half hours. And it was heavenly. It was really, really great. So yeah, I liked it. I have to say I like the Q suite better just because of that door, but I think Singapore might be going to that something similar with those pods in their next version of their business class. But I mean, listen, I'm, I'm a, this is splitting hairs here. They both were just lovely.

57:20And that's something that no matter how wealthy you are, or no matter how far you long you've been on the five path. Like there's no world where I would have spent$10 ,000 or whatever it is on that business class flight. There's simply no world. So it enabled me a level of luxury that, that just felt awesome. And it was, it's fun. Incredible. So Ginger, we've talked a lot, obviously the path to five is not just about money, but of course it is about money. So I, uh, I had an interesting conversation with my mom a couple of months ago, probably at this point because of the trip, but it was about automating your finances.

57:54And I think this to me is one of the things that I've done that has lowered my stress level so much when it comes to personal finance. And even though she's heard me on the show so many times, I think she'd done some of it, but not all of it. And even just down to putting your credit card on auto pay, putting all of your utility bills, like not the old school, certainly not writing checks. I hope most or zero people are doing that, but even just logging in to your credit card statement online and manually paying it when, Hey, I have extra money sitting in my checking account. I'm never worried about going down to zero.

58:33Why don't I just set this thing up and auto pay? Like, why am I worried? Am I going to get the bill this month? Do I have to check my actual old school snail mail? Like none of that makes any sense. It's so easy to set everything up on autopay, even down to setting transfers to your investment account on automatic. And I think this is, again, just a little public service announcement of if you're doing anything manual with your finances, please stop and just try to find a way to do it automatically. In this day and age, there's almost no need, unless you have some extenuating circumstance, or you just frankly love getting into the granular detail.

59:10Like, Ginger, I don't know about you, but that's not me. I like just having all of this work. I could go away for essentially six months, more or less, plus or minus. And my personal finance life would just keep on trucking without me, which is pretty awesome, I think. Yeah, I have also, I mean, I have definitely done that. But I will share that I haven't done that for my investments, because it feels good to do it manually. Even though when I look back, like I've put the same amount in every single month for a year. Interesting. But there's some part of it, I guess it's also kind of my like financial check-in, you know, at the beginning of the month where I send that money over, but everything else, yes, I do have automated and it's been a huge help.

59:52Yeah. Ginger, I like that. So, and now it is funny because when I was talking about like extenuating circumstances, I think some people do get great satisfaction from doing some aspect of this manually. So just like anything that I say, there's no dogma. I genuinely believe in my heart of hearts that it would make everybody's life easier if they did as much as possible automated. But frankly, sometimes there's just things you like to do that, hey, this makes your life better to do it manually. And that's fine. I know Paula Pant and I have talked about this previously about how sure we could track our net worths with automated spreadsheets and things like this, but we actually like a couple of times a year logging into every account and manually writing down the numbers.

1:00:34I do that quarterly. It only takes me sub 30 minutes at this point, but there is something about it that feels really nice. So I definitely understand that. And just real quick, this reminded me of an email that I got a couple of months back from Santia who said, Hey, Brad, I was thinking about the main point of your newsletter. So this was back in June and not trying to make it more complicated about automating, but sometimes I noticed that cash builds up in accounts because the reinvest in the security box is not checked for the dividends. So you can choose to have dividends and earnings go to cash or to reinvest.

1:01:08And I thought this is kind of closely tied to this, Ginger, is while you can put things on autopilot, I think sometimes you can maybe make a mistake, especially with investment, of not realizing that it's a two-step process. So I know I talked about this with Tori Dunlap on a recent episode on her most recent feature on Choose a Vi, where when I asked her what was the biggest mistake that you see people making with their personal finances. And this was either her number one or number two answer, I believe from recollection that investing is a two-step process. So this ties into this email tangentially, but specifically in a broader sense, Hey, a lot of us have these accounts.

1:01:50You have an umbrella account of a 401k or an IRA, or maybe it's even just a regular brokerage account, a taxable brokerage account, and you transfer money over there. Well, that doesn't mean you're invested. It doesn't mean you're in an S &P 500 or total stock market fund or even individual stocks or whatever it is you want to buy. It just means you have cash sitting in that account. And maybe it's in a money market account or so, or maybe whatever the general cash account just earns a couple percent in this day and age, but that's not really what you want for the longterm. You want to actually invest it.

1:02:22So just keep in mind, investing is a two-step process. It's transferring money and then investing. There are some firms and brokers that allow you to do this in one step, but in most cases, there is a chance that that money is going to pile up. So Ginger, like you logging in and seeing, oh, wow, I have this cash that's unexpected or per this email, it might just be, oh, I forgot to check reinvest dividends. So I get a cash payment, whatever it is, every quarter or once a year from these securities. And now it's just sitting there building up. Now, of course, you can go in and check that box, which is what I would personally recommend or what I do.

1:03:00But if the cash is there, you got to invest it. You can't let it sit there. So maybe a public service announcement three for the episode here. Yeah. I mean, you kind of hit on what can be dangerous about automation is that it can remove us so much from the actual process that it's easy to miss things if we can get kind of too comfortable. So set it and forget it. But first, like really make sure you've done all the parts. Agreed. Agreed. Agreed. So last thing that I've got before we have one more voice message from our good friend, Sean Mullaney that I'm going to play to close the episode out, uh, things I'm experimenting with.

1:03:37So I often have some kind of random little health experiment going on and I didn't tell you this, but I have a continuous glucose monitor on my arm now, which has been on my mind for years. So I've wanted to do this. My dad has type two diabetes. So it's, it's something that's always been on my mind. And health is really, really critical to me. Obviously my phone, this is embarrassing. My phone has been the constraint for a very long time. Uh, there's a company called levels that I was, I wanted to buy this CGM years ago, but my phone didn't have the near field communication. So I couldn't do it, yada, yada, yada.

1:04:14Long story short, Dexcom, which is one of the major CGM manufacturers now has an over-the-counter version called Stelo, S-T-E-L-O. I just found this randomly about a month ago, right before I went on my trip and I just bought it and I'm on day three of this thing. And it's only like a hundred dollars for a month worth. So you get two different sensors. I'm really, really excited about this. I've already seen some insights that I would not have expected. And I think that's what's fascinating about life is just exploring and just trying to find out like, hey, what works for me? Because I think a lot of us have a sense that there are foods that are like monolithically good or bad, right?

1:04:58And like, we've all been led to believe that this is a superfood, whatever, fill in the blank, blueberries or whatever. But you know what? Like for some people, blueberries give them a blood sugar spike. Well, that might be on On the whole, and I'm generalizing here, but using a specific example, like on the whole, blueberries might be a superfood for most people, but for you, it might spike your blood sugar to 180 or something. Well, that doesn't sound like a superfood for you then, right? And I think that's one of the interesting things. Even just in my third day now, I'm finding when I exercise that my blood sugar then when it returns to a normal state, it's about 10 or 20 points below where the normal baseline is and at a very comfortable, healthy level.

1:05:40It's wonderful. So that gives me add-on effects for six to 12 hours from one workout. So I was staggered by that. And that suggests to me, okay, you have this family history, like blood sugar control is really important to you. Maybe some type of seven day a week workout might be better than three days a week. If it's going to have that kind of add-on effect, just little things like that. I'm finding I had a blood sugar spike from eating rice, but not something like tortilla chips, which was shocking to me. So it's not to say you can't ever have a blood sugar rise, but I think a lot of modern cutting edge medicine is saying like, Hey, we really need to limit these things if we can.

1:06:18So I think for me, this is a fun experiment. And for a hundred bucks and a month worth, I'm having a ball with this. Yeah. I imagine this means that you're tracking every single thing that you eat? I am. So I'm loosely checking, let's say. So whether good or bad, I eat very similar stuff a lot of times. So it's actually pretty easy for me to say, okay, breakfast is this, lunch is that. So it's more just when I eat something unexpected or slightly out of the norm, then I can get a sense of, hey, how did that impact me? So I am actually going to try to branch out a little bit and not to mention we're recording this right before Thanksgiving.

1:06:56So that's going to be an interesting one to see. But also when you follow a company like Levels, you see, hey, one of the things you should really be doing is taking a little walk after you eat. And then you can see how that helps mitigate the blood sugar spike. So long way of saying, this is a really fun experiment. And for that price, I couldn't pass it up. I love the tracking stuff. I'm obsessed. Yeah, it's fun. It is fun. So Ginger, this has been great. We're going to close this out with a clip. So Sean Mulaney, our good friend, and he blogs over at fitaxguy.com. He sent in this voice message because we got some follow-ups.

1:07:35So we did a couple of really incredible episodes. So episode 475, which I think is one of the best that we've ever done here. It was essentially how to access your money before 59 and a half. There was a revelation on the 72T. So if anybody hasn't heard of that, go back and listen to episode 475. We also did a follow-up on that on episode 491. And then this voice message is a follow-up to that follow-up actually. So again, that's one of the cool things about what we can do here at Choose of Eyes. We can make this a living document. We can, hey, if people have questions, if they have follow-ups, if they don't agree with something, like let's play it and let's all get smarter together.

1:08:14So really appreciate Sean sending this in. Hi, everyone. This is Sean Mullaney. I wanted to check in about a question and answer that Brad and I talked about in episode 491 on accessing retirement accounts early. In that episode, a correspondent asked about combining a solo 401k and the so-called rule of 55. And in that answer, I said, look, there's ambiguity here. But my impression at that time was that those with a solo 401k probably could not qualify for the so-called rule of 55. That's where we separate from service, but are able to take from that particular employer plan, in this case, a solo 401k distributions prior to age 59 and a half and not pay that 10 % early withdrawal penalty.

1:09:07And at the time, I was quite concerned because I said, wait a minute, we're mixing a separation from service with a solo 401k, and the solo 401k requires an employer. So it'd be a little odd to claim, all right, I separated from service, but the employer can maintain the solo 401k. By separating from service, I've essentially eliminated the employer, right? Well, after that episode, I did a little digging, and that digging became a research project. And that research project became a self-published 27-page article. So I went back and I went to when the first self-employed retirement plans were passed by Congress.

1:09:49That dates back all the way to the year 1962. And there was some interesting history back then because what they said back then was, well, okay, you can have a retirement plan for a self-employed person. But there was a very specific lockup back then. The rules back then said a self-employed person cannot take any distribution unless they're disabled from a self-employed retirement plan unless and until they turn age 59 and a half. And that has a very interesting implication for today's law. In today's law, as back then, there was these rules that said, well, somebody who's previously been self-employed can be considered self-employed in the future.

1:10:33But it's very sort of cryptic. And so you say, well, what does that even mean? How do you apply that? Well, when you go back to the original enactment for 20 years, basically from 62 to about 82, the rules said that some or all of a self-employed retirement plan had to remain inside that retirement account until the person turned age 59 and a half. What that meant was if that person retired between putting the money in and turning age 59 and a half, they're considered an employer, right? Because the money had to stay in there. The only way the money that can stay in there is that they're considered an employer.

1:11:13And the rules didn't change in that regard. Now, they took out that lockout. They said, well, you can take it out prior to 59 and a half. They took that out in an act in 1982. But it's very instructive to show, wait a minute, the rules back then considered a retired solopreneur to be an employer prior to age 59 and a half, even though they were retired. So based on that research and the article I wrote, I now think the better view is that a solopreneur can qualify to use the rule of 55 for a solo 401k. However, a few notes, right? Just because my opinion about that has changed, that doesn't necessarily mean too much planning has changed, although I think some planning has changed.

1:12:02One, you always have to look at the plan rules whenever you're looking at a solo 401k. The solo 401k does not have to allow for user-friendly rule of 55 distributions, okay? So that just has to be in the plan and you got to talk to your plan provider before you start even thinking about going down the road of using the solo 401k and the rule of 55. Second thing is my views are not gospel, right? And my views change. I reserve the right to change my views and to refine and improve my views. I believe I've done that. I think that's part of the financial independence journeys. We can always get a little bit better and a little bit more knowledgeable.

1:12:42And in this case, I believe I've gotten a little bit better, but I'm not your advisor. And you could read my article and see if you agree or disagree with the arguments presented. And then the third thing is, I think we got to be very careful around things like, hey, you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to do a side hustle for three months, and I'll start a solo 401k for it at age 56. And I'll put my half million traditional IRA in that solo 401k, and then I'll stop the side hustle. I think we got to be very, very careful with that stuff. Because it could be that the IRS says, well, that three-month side hustle was never a trader business.

1:13:20It was born to die to facilitate a solo 401k. So it never rose to the level of a trader business that could sponsor a solo 401k. And now we got a world of hurt because we rolled a traditional IRA into an invalid solo 401k. But for those of us who are solopreneurs, who for years report, schedule C income, have a robust solo 401k. I do think that if you work with your plan provider, this is an option. And I'll invite you to go to my fitaxguy.com blog. You can look at my article. It's a little dense. So you might have to read it more than once. But for those of us who are solopreneurs, who have solo 401ks with substantial balances, it might be worth considering if we're thinking about leaving between the 55th birthday year and age 59 and a half, might be worth thinking about.

1:14:13I think this is an area where I hope the IRS and Treasury clarify the rules, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll see you next time. Yeah, Ginger, I totally agree. A, I love what Sean said. And like you said, we can always get a little bit better. And I think that is just something that we all need to keep in mind just in every aspect of our life. It's just these 1 % changes. And this is an example of, hey, he changed his thinking a little bit after doing some research. And I just found that really cool. Yeah. What a perfect note to close on. Nice. Ginger, as always, I love chatting with you.

1:14:46I love these episodes. And so Ginger, on your nonfiction books, I think what we actually decided was we're going to put that in the newsletter. So that's going to go out the day after this episode goes live. So mid-December, should be December 17th, if I have my math right. If you're listening to this and you're not on the newsletter, just go to chooseof.com slash subscribe, or just go to our website and go in the top right corner. You can't miss it and get on the newsletter. And maybe just maybe we'll, we'll, we'll each compare notes on an episode in the future. But I think that was a great idea by you.

1:15:21So I'm really excited about that. And yeah, until next time, this is fun. 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. So 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.

1:15:56It'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 choose a by local groups in 300 plus cities all around the world. So head to choose a by dot com slash local and you'll find a list of all of those cities in 20 plus countries all across the world. And 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.

1:16:32Choose a FI 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. Just head to choosefi.com slash fi101. And again, thanks for listening.