ChooseFI Community Taking Action This Week
My 1% better this week: I decided to pay to have my deck renovated. As a teacher, I have the summer off, but instead of spending two months on a massive DIY project, I chose to invest in having it professionally done. I’ve saved well and had the extra funds available, and now I get to spend my summer focused on what truly matters-quality time with my wife and three boys.
My 1% better is something I’ve been doing for a few years. We have only one good gym in our town and a family membership is over $200/month. So I started teaching fitness classes once a week for a little extra cash and my employment comes with a free family membership!
This includes access to an outdoor pool in the summer and we are all more active year-round. The best part is anyone can do this – our facility is always looking for childcare help, facilities help, etc. with varying hours to fit around most schedules.
Our 1% better is a story of Surprise FI. Actually it is more like 100% better. My spouse and I were both on local government sector career paths assuming we’d retire when our pensions were maxed out at Age 66. Why retire at Age 66? Because 1) that’s what everyone else around us did and 2) we didn’t have the basic tools to think through how much we really needed to retire.
Two years ago, at Age 53, I became interested in investing podcasts, which led to retirement podcasts and then FI podcasts, including ChooseFI. After hearing so many early retirement stories and learning about basic rules of thumb, like having 25 times annual spending saved up, I determined our annual spend rate going forward. Surprise! I was shocked to find that we were already FI, a product of natural frugality, decent investing, tax avoidance strategies, plus two solid incomes over 32 years.
We had our 25X plus pensions on the horizon, so more work seemed like overkill. We were able to retire immediately rather than work another decade plus!
At first, my spouse didn’t believe me that we could retire early. How could that be true? I kept showing her the spreadsheet, but it was exposing her to various podcast episodes where other people told their stories that brought home that early retirement was feasible.
Once convinced we could do it, we debated whether we should do it. We were both lucky as we had jobs that we loved where we were making a difference, although the hours were long and stress levels were high. We had hundreds of conversations and took vacation time to “practice” retirement. Ultimately the lure of extended travel and ultimate time flexibility caused us to pull the trigger.
We figured we could try retirement out and always go back to work if we didn’t like it. We’re now six weeks in, spending a month in the South as a break from winter back home, and can’t imagine going back to work full time.
My 1 % better is eating at home. And today eating oatmeal for breakfast and a salad with chicken for lunch. Each week I am taking 1% steps to better health. I also walk at least 40 minutes per day. Since I’m at my part time fun job today, I am taking walks 5 minutes at a time. So far I’m at 15 minutes.
My goal now is to eat half of my plate vegetables for one meal every other day. And oatmeal for breakfast every other day. Gradually I will reduce my daily calories by 250 calories. And eat lean proteins , veggies, fruits, and healthier carbs. Aim is to make my diet first 30% Whole Foods and gradually to 80%.
My win for the week – my home and auto insurance was up for renewal and my new quotes were significantly higher than last year. I shopped them around and was able to find coverage for about half of what I was quoted initially.
My husband and I made our life 1% better by (FINALLY!!!) signing up for Camp FI in March 2026!