The Friday Feast ~ the 1st of May

I love learning. Always have. So when I find a blog or writer that interests me I devour everything I can find. Every day I move countless amazing articles from an array of  frugal, simple living, FI-minded writers into my Amazing Reads folder to be read at my leisure. These articles inspire me and the Mr. to think about things in different ways, to keep open minds and to constantly keep learning so we can be the best possible us.

In this episode of Friday Feast: White Collar Freedom, And Then We Saved, Retire by 40, Go Curry Cracker, Done by Forty, and a Wealth of Common Sense.

Here are my picks for this week's Feast. I hope they inspire you to set financial goals and take control over your heart, mind and - yes, your pocketbook.  There is a fire lit within each and every one of us, and the sooner we find that flame, the quicker we can use it for the energy we need to master our own happiness.

Financial Fitness:

As many of you know, Steve and I (though mostly Steve) are fitness fanatics. We go to the gym every day of the week (Steve often goes 2x a day). Why? Because it makes us feel good and keeps up healthy, which is probably our number one priority. It doesn't matter how early we retire from full-time jobs if our bodies/health aren't there to allow us to enjoy it. Anyway, we've talked about how financial fitness to us follows a lot of the same guidelines as physical fitness. Two other bloggers made that connection this week.

White Collar Freedom went in depth into similarities between physical fitness and financial fitness in Staying Financially Fit 365 days a Year. Some of my favorites are Making Time, not Finding Time and Embracing it as a Lifestyle not goals. I truly believe if you really want something these are two of the big things you have to do to achieve it. And Then We Saved posted a Suze Orman quote that "Nobody's ever achieved financial fitness with a January resolution, abandoned by February." Sound familiar? She asked people to comment on how they achieve long-term financial fitness. I also liked how she related financial fitness to a journey in which we need to enjoy the trip as much as the destination. Lifestyle anyone?

Defining Retirement & How Bad Can it Get?:

Retired by 40 wrote a very interesting article about how retirement is not an extended vacation. In fact you should look at it more as a career change. You need to have goals, a purpose and steps to get you there. This is too true. You hear about traditional retirees who end up depressed after leaving their jobs. My dad is one of them. He doesn't know what to do with himself and is struggling with self worth issues and keeping himself busy. Steve and I won't have that problem. We have LOTS of plans for retirement that includes more time to do the things we love to do now.

Go Curry Cracker did an amazingly detailed post where he researched the absolute worse time to retire in the manner that he did and mapped out what would have happened. I loved it. Steve loved it in theory but it had a few too many numbers for him to be engrossed like me. What did we get out of it? Reassurance that our plans have good historical backing. Reassurance is a wonderful thing.

Being Ourselves:

While I believe Financial Independence is for EVERYONE, I know that Early Retirement is not. I also know that those of us on the ER path are quite awesome and are very different people who have different plans and interests. One of the things that seems almost necessary if you are striving for ER are side hustles. Everyone talks about their side hustles, how they earn extra money now, how they plan to earn extra money later. Well not everyone. Done by Forty has decided they're side stepping the side hustle. And good for them. Everyone needs to stay true to what makes them happy and what makes the most sense for them.

Have you ever heard about something that you wish would turn out to be amazingly helpful, but knew it probably would turn out useless? What did you do? Me, I'd probably just shrug it off with a bit of regret, but ultimately, I probably wouldn't care much or let myself get disappointed when it happened.  A Wealth of Common Sense took a different approach. Apparently, Vice News is planning a Personal Finance Show for Millennials. Instead of saying "that's a great idea, but it's mainstream media so they're going to do it wrong, why bother caring?" he wrote an open letter to Vice News with advice coming from a Millennial Finance blogger. And it is amazing advice. If this advice made it into a TV program, it would make me so very happy. Way to stay true to who you are and try to enact change in the world even when it seems unlikely.

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Did you read something inspiring this week? If so let us know in the comments below!

They have been at a great feast of learning, and stolen the scraps.
- William Shakespeare