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It’s New Year’s Eve! Now, I know some of you are getting the champagne ready, and we’ll be heading out to a bar tonight, but before getting the party started, we like to reflect on the past year and think about what we want to accomplish in the new year.
If you recall, around this time last year, Wanderer and I were working on a non-fiction book proposal, which eventually sold to Penguin Random House! Our first draft was accepted and Quit like a Millionaire will be published in 2019!
Since this was our 2018 New Year’s resolution, I’m pretty psyched that we’ve been able to accomplish it, but I have to admit I had my doubts (given that we have zero control over what happens in the publishing industry and how hard it is to write a book)
Despite all the self-doubt and fear, as far as New Years resolutions go, I’m happy to report we’ve had a pretty good record so far–we launched a non-profit app in 2016, became public speakers at Chautauqua in 2017, and published a book in 2018. I’m lucky and grateful that I have Wanderer by my side to share the workload and calm me down during my inevitable meltdowns/panic attacks.
If you don’t accomplish your New Years Resolution, don’t freak out. Given that 88% of New Years Resolution fail, your are not alone. Failing doesn’t make you a failure. Sometimes all you need is to surround yourself with supportive people. Or a better strategy. Or just more time.
Whenever we don’t accomplish our resolution, we figure out why (e.g. lack of time, lack of motivation, lack of specific goals, etc.) and add it to the list next year. As long as you don’t give up and continue to improve your skills/strategy each time, your time is never wasted.
Now that 2018 is coming to an end, we’ve decided to take the bold step of making the most challenging, unproven, resolution yet for 2019:
Produce a FIRE-related TV show.
Now unlike writing, we know absolutely nothing about producing TV shows. We will probably fail a lot. Face-planting, freaking out, and desperately wanting to throw in the towel are all on the table. Given that none of this is within our control and we’re completely flying blind in the TV industry, rejection is inevitable.
But that’s okay.
The beauty of FI is that you can strive for your dreams, fail over and over again, and it won’t hurt you. You won’t have to worry about finding a “regular job” if it doesn’t work out. You won’t have to figure out how to survive on cat food when all you have are 200 rejections. You won’t have to worry about how many other talented smart people you have to push past trying to get through the door. You are invincible.
Our confidence and pride will be bruised, but since we’ve developed teflon skin from writing, we’ll just pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and try again.
And when that happens, we’ll post updates on this site so you can watch us twist in the wind for your amusement.
Interesting enough, while we were working on the TV show pitch, we got a request from a director wanting to film us for a documentary. He’s even willing to fly from L.A all the way to Europe over the holidays (man, people in the film industry are workaholics)! This is super exciting because we’ll be able to get a glimpse at exact what happens during a film shoot.
Since this is happening for most of the week, we’ll be on hiatus until Jan 7, when we’ll give you a year-end report on how our finances did in 2018.
Until then, we’d love to hear what you’d like us to write about in 2018 (if you don’t see your topic in the poll, please tell us in the comments):
[totalpoll id=”11290″]
Happy New Year and see you next week!
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It’s nice to see “Guest Posts” currently polling at 0%. “I love your blog, but I want to read less of your writing”? Heh.
You two have shared some fantastic lessons, and it’s nice to see that repeated here — sharing intentions for 2019, and so giving us a glimpse at your self-doubt and yourselves a very public kick in the butt to actually make it happen. Thanks for the inspiration and happy new year!
Happy new year, Adam! And yeah, I heard the readers loud and clear. All guest posts all the time 🙂
Lots of upcoming face-planting for your amusement in 2019! My self-doubt knows no bounds.
I especially like the “case study follow up” posts :). I think those success stories are pretty motivating, or at least it’s exciting to hear stories of people who have put their lives back on track
Thanks for the feedback, Risky! We love hearing from past case study participants too. Will look into sharing more success stories going forward!
Happy New Year Firecracker and Wanderer!
I wanted to click all of the above to the topics provided.
I also wanted to suggest/request that you do some video recording/tv to explain things more for visual-auditory learners. I just watched MMM youtube channel, and love the idea. You could explain yield-shield etc., investing for poets style (slight sarcasm, my science courses required for my arts degree were called by unsympathetic science majors, “rocks for jocks” – geology, and “biology for poets”- biology!”)
Many blessings and warm wishes for happiness and joy in the new year,
love Tigermom, marshmellow dad and miracle baby
Thanks, Tigermom! Great suggestion on the video recording–we will probably head in that direction, along with the TV show pitches. It just takes time to edit, so we need to figure out how to organize our time better (so much for retirement :P). Happy new year and blessings to you and your family!
Hard to choose one. Where would you put a vote for “Math Sh*t Up” and “They Mathed Sh*t Up, See What It Got Them” (case study) segments?
As for tactics, perhaps build up in a YouTube channel. First crappy output, then not-so-crappy output, then not-at-all crappy output?
Thanks for the suggestions, Joseph! Yeah, if we do YouTube, it’ll definitely be a gradual process from crappy to content that doesn’t suck 🙂 We’ll also look into showcasing success stories from the reader cases.
Quit the rest and stick writing about smart investing. Things other guys don’t write like you do.
Noted, Danny. Thanks for the suggestion.
So excited to see what you are going to do in 2019 and would love to help in anyway I can! You guys rock! Have fun!
So excited to see what we can accomplish together! Love you guys!
I love the case studies you do, and would love to see them continued! Follow ups to some of the past studies would be awesome too!
Noted. Thanks, Darlene!
Exciting Stuff! Congrats on the book – looking forward to reading it in 2019. And seeing this documentary, I hope! Happy NYE!
Thanks, Jane! Happy new year!
OMGGG!!! YES!!! Producing a FIRE related TV show?! Best idea ever! Will it be called Math that Sh*t up? (Can it please be? haha)
What an exciting year ahead! You’ve got this, you are invincible!
Happy New Year you two badass people!
LOL. We would love to call it that, but the producers may not. Guess we’ll find out 🙂
Thanks for the vote of confidence, Cindy, and can’t wait to chat with you and Dan soon!
Would love to see a specific post about budgeting and planning for the unexpected. Like how you would manage expenses like dental care as you age – increasing health care costs in Canada as government coverage covers less and less. Not to give too much credit to Suze but she did have a point that bare bones FIRE does not consider much of the unexpected.
Gotcha, Peter. Thanks for the suggestion. We’ll add it to our topics list.
I would like to be able to point people to a post that shows the real amount of money (excluding dividends) someone had to put into their portfolio each year to achieve FIRE. I’m looking for a real example vs the “$X per week for Y years = FIRE”. Of course it does, every time; X and Y just need to be big enough, but how did it really happen?
I’m working on decompiling how we built up our Net Worth, but being in a DB pension plan it feels like a bit of a cheat.
Bob, do you mean excluding the investment grow and dividends, and only the saved amount?
Yep, that’s it.
We started off investing around $7K/year (including the employer match), inflation adjusted to today, that’s around $13K/year. Today we aim for $60-70K, which isn’t easy, but it’s the final spurt before we cross the finish line in the not too distant future. Your blog has been a massive help to us in learning the basics of index investing with a low-cost broker, and with ideas for our future travel destinations. Many thanks to both of you.
Thanks, Bob. Glad it’s been helpful and congrats on being so close to FI. To answer your question, we do breakdown which part of our assets is from saving and which is from investing in this series: https://www.millennial-revolution.com/invest/the-breakdown-part-1-god-we-were-spendy-back-then/. Hope that answers your question.
Just returned from a trip to the States to visit family. Am so happy to be back home in Mexico, cozily ensconced in my sweet home. Am excited to hear about your work on a TV show. That is more than a side-gig….that could be serious buckaroonios!
I got to FI from another route than investing but follow you avidly since I believe that the market still has a long way to fall from the present numbers. Then, armed with knowledge from you and other FI folks (thanks J.L. Collins), am going to slide some gains from my work into a couple of Vanguard ETFs.
Hope you have a great vacay!
Thanks, Sue! I think producing a show will be like book publishing–pays well only for a tiny percentage of people and only after years of failure (can you tell I’m jaded?). Money has very little motivation for me these days…it’s mostly just to see if we can do it and to spread financial literacy. And also just “why the hell not?”
Enjoy all the good deals from Mr.Market! We’d definitely be DCAing in if we were still working.
Woo hoo! I LOVE your goal for this year an will be totally rooting for you guys!! Happy New Year!!
Please keep the case studies coming. They’re fascinating because they’re from real people who have genuine challenges, i.e. divorces, sick children, more than one child, starting to save/invest in their 50s or 60s, etc… We already have so many examples of how to FI/RE where the person follows a trajectory-without-challenges that it’s wonderful to read case studies from your readers who have experienced “real life” challenges but can still hit their financial independence goals.
I second that!
Will do, Alero01! The case studies will definitely continue for 2019.
Happy New Year!! So excited about the TV show goal! And fascinated by the results of this poll – I thought for sure travel (my pick) would be closer to the top!
Yes, it’s fascinating to get into the minds of the readers. I’m shocked the guest posts aren’t higher. Thought you guys would be sick of our endless yapping by now?
I LOVE your endless yapping and your descriptive turn of phrase, e.g., “we’ll post updates on this site so you can watch us twist in the wind for your amusement.” You certainly brought a big smile to my face as I pictured that in my mind’s eye! Twisting in the wind … LOL
Awww. Thanks, Kathy.
Massive thank you to both of you! I am pleased to have stumbled into the FI community through your posts. As a fellow Canadian trying to reach FI you have given me a lot of inspiration. Keep up the posts and good luck on tackling the TV industry, loving the 2019 goals!
Thanks, Patrick! I expect a lot of face-planting in the TV industry, but at least I’ll be able to post it here for your amusement 🙂
Wow so cool. Amazing goals and achievement. Love you guys. So glad we got to catch up in Greece. Good luck with your bold 2019 goals. I love it. Looking forward to both your book and TV show. I really want to catch up. I’m sorry I couldn’t set up a time when Kristy Msg me on FB. I know you guys are busy and I appreciate your time. I’ll message you again to try to get on your calendar in the coming years to catch up and talk numbers.
Happy New Year!!!
Best,
Zoe
Feel the same way, Zoe! So glad we got to catch up in Greece at Chautauqua. I’m so blown away by all the progress you made in your career since the last time we saw each other! Message me on FB whenever you want to chat about your updated numbers and we’ll set up a time!
A FIRE TV show is an interesting idea.
I hardly ever watch TV, but I might watch something like that.
Maybe it would be better to have it as an on-demand video series on the internet.
I think regular television is to too dependent on consumer spending and advertising.
Best of luck in 2019.
Thanks, Steve! The TV industry is fickle (like the publishing industry), so we’re going to need all the luck we can get.
Bryce and Kristy on a UK TV show here: https://youtu.be/FhYbAJHFP1s
You have to go to the Channel 4 website and register to see the entire show.
Happy New Year FIRECracker & Wanderer! I hope you celebrated well.
Congrats for your accomplishment in 2018! Your hard work seems to be laying out some strong foundations for an even bigger 2019 and I can’t wait for the book. Would you let us know when pre-orders will open? 🙂
I was totally surprised to hear that you guys wanted to produce a FIRE related TV show! But look, just a couple days ago Mr Money Mustache (MMM) experimented with his own FI QnA show on his own Youtube channel and because the feedback was positive, he decided to keep doing it in the new year which is great. Do you think video we become a new trend among the FI bloggers in this new year?
Lastly, I’m looking forward to get your financial report for 2018. We just completed year end spending review and the results have been outstanding! Since we decided to sell everything to travel the world, our cost of living has been cut in half and our live happiness has been at it’s highest to date. By becoming full time nomads, we can not only travel full time (or 6 times more than while we had to commute weekly to our 9-5) but we have also the ability to spend more in the things that we care about. What do you have to say about that? You can check out our detailed 2018 spending report here: https://www.nomadnumbers.com/2018-year-end-travel-spending-report/
Have an epic 2019 and keep FIREing on all cylinders!
Congrats on your new nomadic life, Mr. NN! So cool to have a real life example vet how much travelling actually saves you. I’ve shared your awesome spending post on social media! Hope you get lots of readers–you guys deserve it!
And thanks so much for your support of our book! The pre-order link should be ready soon–I’m not exactly sure when. It’s still going through the production pipeline in Penguin but I’ll share it as soon as it’s live! Hope to see you guys in the world somewhere next year!
It would be interesting to see how your portfolio, survives the latest down turn, I have been hinting to people, after 9 years, ya, its time to take some cash off the table. But don’t think this is the big one… not yet. No timing involved here, I am 60/40 in my Retirement fund, and 50/50 in RESP, if the downturn continues and finds a bottom, a rebalance into some nice dividend funds is in the works.
cheers
Looks like the defences are holding, spaceman 🙂 We are not losing any sleep as the Yield Shield is doing exactly what we build it to do.
Glad you are planning on rebalancing and not timing the market. Here’s to an awesome 2019!
Can’t wait to read your book!
My husband and I reached fi this year and planning some travel.
I’d love to read about the nitty gritty breakdown of how you travel..
Eg: how many days on average you stay in a location and how you pack!! How much luggage do you carry when travelling long term and any travel hacks you have from travelling the world..
Thanks for your support, Jen! Congrats on reaching FI this year!
Here are posts I’ve written that answer your questions:
1) how we plan trips: https://www.millennial-revolution.com/freedom/plan-nomadic-life/
2) luggage: https://www.millennial-revolution.com/freedom/cost-travelling-world-1-year-part-2-packing/
3) travel hacks (including travel insurance and how to take out cash):
https://www.millennial-revolution.com/freedom/travel-avoid-bank-fees/
https://www.millennial-revolution.com/freedom/cost-travelling-world-1-year-part-4-travel-insurance/
https://www.millennial-revolution.com/freedom/how-to-fly-for-free-using-aeroplan-miles/
Happy New Year! Congrats on the book! I’m for sure buying it once its out. You guys will be great at the TV stuff as well!
Thanks for your support, Marc! Appreciate it! 🙂
RE: TV show? You guys have been away for a while, haven’t you?
TV is dead. It’s all about streaming now. If you seriously want a TV show just post weekly on Youtube (in with all the millenials who are sailing around the world and posting their adventures).
A group of millenial sailor wannabees actually just got a beer company sponsorship recently (Carib Beer if I remember correctly), so their yacht is full of beer and their diesel tanks are full of beer company diesel.
No one watches TV over here. We all stream. Call up Netflix and see if they’ll stream your documentary. Or Amazon prime.
Or as I said, just Youtube it.
Stopping by to wish you a happy new year 🙂
Happy New Year and thanks fir the great blog. I’d like to see more articles on FIRE for families with kid(s).
Ballers. It’s almost like you FI Armor…