Startups and Financial Super Heroes

Are startups a good path to achieve financial independence?  Should you do a startup?  Who are startups a good fit for?  Today I am happy to be answering all of these questions on the award winning What’s Up Next Podcast with DocG and Paul David Thompson.  Check out the episode HERE! 

In the past I’ve written about the hard numbers behind whether startups are a good path if financial independence is the goal…

However, on this panel we get into lessons that these 2 communities may learn from each other and we share some personal stories as well.  I am joined by Dave from herostory.org, as well as Adam from minafi.com.  Adam and I actually just shared some tasty soul food together a few days ago at the Comic-con for money known as Fincon.  He has been putting out some pretty cool interactive tools recently such as this Interactive Guide to FIRE or if you really want to geek out (and you probably do) The Periodic Table of FIRE.  Speaking of Fincon…

Fincon: a Financial Super Hero Convention

Last week I wrote about the most important thing that I took away from Fincon after hearing so many inspiring stories of interesting people on the path to FI.  However, Fincon isn’t just about learning and getting inspired.  Free thinking financial super heroes like to party too and it turns out that no one has any special powers. We are all just regular people. What a relief. 

In the spirit of this event, I flew into DC on a $156 round trip ticket with all of my clothes jammed into a “personal item” backpack to avoid paying Frontier another $55 for a carry on.  An hour later, I checked into the super luxurious Washington DC Hilton immediately blowing everything that I had just saved on travel.  Oh well, I had to see what this Fincon thing was all about.  I had a beer in my hand within 20 minutes and was listening to a blogger friend practice his best radio voice while also chatting with a couple other newfound friends about how they just put all of their possessions in storage and were about to travel Europe with no home after returning. 

Between conversation, I was able to sneak away for a run a couple of times over the conference. This was totally necessary considering that eating even one slice of pizza was enough to feed 7 people and I ate several:

There was a Tiki bar party and at some point I was even given a most excellent nickname (see badge photo at top).  Speaking of beer, remember the mythical Westvleteren XII that I wrote about awhile back?  It is a beer so rare and tasty that it deserves roman numerals.  I was lucky to actually get a second taste of this liquid velvet at this event thanks to some top secret military connections that I met on the spot (thanks S & C). At one point I thought I was seeing double but I was actually just hanging out with the finance twins:

Coincidentally, these guys went to the rival high school from the same town that I grew up in half way across the country. Crazy.

  The conference hotel was actually the same one where the White House press correspondent’s dinner is held and I’d love to make a joke about that but like Trump and the correspondent’s dinner I’m just not going to go there.  I purposefully left out most names to protect the innocent but if I missed you at the party I regret it.  Awesome to also see:

• Mr and Mrs 1500days
• Mr & Mrs Waffles On Wednesday
• Physician on Fire
• Maple Money
• A Purple Life
• Get Rich Slowly
• Miss Mazuma
• Fire Ready Aim
• Financial Tortoise
• Frugality and Freedom
• Uncommon Dream
• Saving Sherpa
• Rethink the Rat Race
• Accidental Fire
• Richer Soul

Anyone else? If we met and I missed you let me know 😉

Spending Lavishly On The Things You Love?

Ramit Sethi gave a thoughtful keynote at this conference about having a point of view and being clear on what it is.  He also brought up one of his mantras which is that you should “spend lavishly on things that are important to you and cut mercilessly on those that are not.”  He asked us to turn to the person next to us and tell them what we like to spend money on.  My answer was travel.  Now imagine what it would be like to spend 10X that on travel he offered.  He encouraged us to think bigger. Like if your favorite thing is pasta, why not fly to Italy and have a world renowned chef make you her specialty.  The room was abuzz with all the happiness that one could achieve by spending more on what they love rather than holding back.  After all, many in the room are financially independent and could probably afford to spend more. I don’t want to troll Ramit or try to start something with a big name to get attention.  Overall he gave an awesome and thought provoking speech…But

Wait a minute, this is a community where most used reduced spending and the virtues of frugality to get their financial independence.  Many are minimalists.  What happens globally if we all decide to spend 10X?  Many believe that our consumerist culture already leads to over spend.  Many in the FI community cite Mr Money Mustache as an inspiration but what would he say about spending 10X more than you already are on something?  If you love watches, does this mean you should buy a Rolex?  I am passionate about this topic.  I have a point of view.  Telling people that they can spend lavishly on what they want if only they cut back what is not important plays well.  It is an easy sell to tell me that it is ok to spend more on what I want to spend more on.  However, the research indicates that increased spend after a point does not actually lead to more happiness.  Lottery winners are less happy than non-winners mainly because:

#1 We acclimate quickly to increased spend

#2 Once spending increases, we lose appreciation for the ordinary pleasures at the previous spend level.

Continued spend just begets more spend. Even ultra wealthy households with an average net worth of $78M claim that they would need 25% more than they have to feel financially secure. I am not going to hate on the very wealthy for spending loads of disposable cash on things they like. I also think that a general message of not letting habitual frugality keep you from doing the things that you may love makes sense. However, I will dispute that spending 10X will create sustained increased happiness in one’s life. I question how fast that spend reaches vastly dimished returns of happiness. Spending 10 times as much to enjoy something say 15% more for example doesn’t seem like value to me. What do you think? I’d love to hear it in the comments.

My Point of View

Ramit’s thought provoking talk got me thinking about my point of view.  I also had the luck to be paired with the awesome Tom Drake from Maple Money as my mentor at the conference and he asked me what I am trying to do with this site.  I told him that I wanted to help people and to connect with others.  He asked me how I wanted to help.  What do I want to help readers with?  It boils down to 4 things:

–Financial Independence

–Building Happiness

–Successful Habits

–Adventure & Travel 

When I told him these he asked where that is on my site.  He showed me the clear categories and layout of his own.  As of today you may have noticed the 4 new prominent tiles at the top of the LOTM homepage. One for each of the 4 categories above.  This feature is me trying to clearly serve up what I have contributed on each of these 4 topics as quickly as possible. 

I believe that financial independence is great and worthwhile but also that money and achievement do not directly result in happiness.  I believe that living a life outside the maze is an active effort that takes work. A goal of a life of leisure is misguided and unfulfilling.  I also understand that I do not know everything and seek interaction and conversation along this journey.  Over time you can expect this point of view to become embedded.  Thanks for sharing the journey along with me and as always, I’d love to hear from you.