ChooseFI | Financial Independence Podcast

Most people rushing to convert their traditional IRAs to Roth accounts have never stopped to ask whether they actually need to. Brad sits down with tax experts Sean Mullaney and Cody Garrett to cut through the Roth conversion hype and explain when these moves make sense—and when they're just expensive mistakes. Understanding the distinction between taxable Roth conversions and backdoor or mega bac...

Slashing $100 from your monthly budget shrinks your FI target by $30,000. Brad and Jonathan explore how small financial wins compound into life-changing freedom, and why 2026 marks a shift toward deeper community connection. The hosts kick off the year by introducing a new community app designed to help listeners share goals, celebrate frugal victories, and learn from each other's financial experi...

One conversation stopped host Ginger in her tracks: Frank Vasquez's simple rule about only traveling when there's someone meaningful at the destination. It wasn't revolutionary advice—just an offhand comment—but weeks later, she's still thinking about it, questioning her own choices. That's the hallmark of a truly sticky idea. As the year winds down, Brad and Ginger reflect on which guest insights...

Watching someone hit Coast FI mid-career changes everything about how they view work. Brad and Ginger read listener wins from the past year, celebrating community members who maxed out retirement accounts, switched careers, helped family through financial crises, and redefined what success means to them. Many share breakthroughs in simplifying their lives, using travel rewards to create memory div...

Most Americans spend thousands extra on organic food assuming it's healthier — but what if you're optimizing the wrong metric? Dr. Bobby Dubois breaks down the cost-benefit analysis showing that a family's organic grocery premium could fund an entire gym membership instead. Brad Barrett shares updates on his health journey, detailing a machine-based workout routine he calls "brutally effective" —...

A 15-year-old has produced over 1,000 personal finance videos and started investing at age seven. Rishi's story proves financial literacy doesn't require decades of experience—it requires the right mindset and early exposure. He began his finance journey at six after his parents read a book that sparked his curiosity, leading him to create Easy Peasy Finance, a YouTube channel dedicated to making...

Walking away from $147,000 a year sounds insane — unless you've built something better. Sunny Burns did exactly that, leaving his government engineering job seven months ago to spend full days with his family of seven. Now 35 and financially independent with a $3 million net worth, he's turned his New Jersey home into a cash machine: rent it out on Airbnb while traveling, pocket more than the trip...

You don't become wiser by studying what worked — you become wiser by studying what failed. Most people chase happiness by asking "What should I do?" but Bronnie Ware flipped the question: she asked the dying what they wished they had done. Ginger and Frank Vasquez walk through Ware's The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, a book that captures the raw confessions of people at life's final turn. The reg...

Most people think financial independence is about money. It isn't. Clinical psychologist Jasper Lee makes the case that 90-95% of the FI journey is psychological—the mechanics of money are just 5-10%. In this conversation with Brad Barrett, Lee unpacks the mental frameworks that either accelerate or sabotage your financial progress, focusing on two powerful tools from cognitive behavioral therapy:...

Tracking hundreds of life experiences sounds ambitious until you hear Emily W's simple system—and realize you've been overthinking adventure. Emily W and Emily C share practical frameworks for building richer friendships and more memorable experiences. They outline the "adventure list"—a flexible tool for capturing everything from weekend outings to dream trips—and reveal four distinct levels of t...

Most people achieve financial independence and feel instant relief. Maggie Tucker felt paralyzing fear instead. At 41, after leaving a lucrative career to retire early, she found herself obsessing over worst-case scenarios—what if she ran out of money, what if she regretted walking away, what if she'd made a catastrophic mistake? Her solution wasn't to ignore these fears or push through them. She...

The S&P 500 just notched its third consecutive year of double-digit gains, pushing valuations near a 25-year high — yet market veteran Brian Feroldi isn't hitting the panic button. In this deep-dive, Brad sits down with Brian to dissect where the market stands heading into the end of 2025, why sustained growth at this pace defies historical precedent, and how Brian is personally navigating the ten...

Financial independence isn't about becoming the richest person in the graveyard — it's about designing a life worth living right now. Brad Barrett sits down with Katie and Alan Donegan from Rebel Finance School to explore the often-overlooked foundation of the FI journey: your "why." The discussion ranges from monthly finance meetings and intentional spending to the vulnerability required to build...

Most people think FIRE is about cutting expenses and index funds. Paula Pant flips that script with her F-double-I-R-E framework—starting with the one thing traditional personal finance ignores: your psychological relationship with money. Paula Pant, host of Afford Anything, introduces her F-double-I-R-E framework: Financial Psychology, Increasing Your Income, Investing, Real Estate, and Entrepren...

Most financial independence seekers are winning at money but losing at life—and they don't even realize it. Chris Hutchins and Brad Barrett challenge the FI community's obsession with safety, exploring whether the real risk isn't running out of money, but running out of time to enjoy it. The conversation centers on a provocative premise: those pursuing 100% certainty in their withdrawal rates are,...

If you've mentally locked yourself into one rigid FI number and one fixed withdrawal rate for the rest of your life, you're doing it wrong. That's the realization Brad Barrett had after nine years of hosting this podcast — and it came from Aubrey Williams, a financial advisor and longtime ChooseFI community member. In his presentation at CampFI, Aubrey introduced a more dynamic approach: using his...

Most early retirees worry they'll face crushing tax bills — yet thousands are legally paying zero federal income tax in retirement. Cody Garrett and Sean Mullaney, co-authors of Tax Planning To and Through Early Retirement, walk through how understanding the drawdown process and effective tax rates can transform retirement planning from fear-driven to evidence-based. Understanding the Drawdown Pro...

Most people think saving $100 a month barely makes a dent in their retirement plans. Jackie Cummings Koski, certified financial planner and author of F.I.R.E. for Dummies, shows how that same $100 can slash your FI target by $30,000—a leverage most investors completely overlook. Jackie returns after five years to break down the fundamental principles of financial independence (FI) and early retire...

The 4% rule might be dead—but not for the reason you think. New research suggesting a 5.5% safe withdrawal rate has been making waves in the FI community, and it sounds like great news for early retirees. The problem? The math doesn't hold up when you're planning for a 50-year retirement instead of 30. Brad introduces a new ChooseFI feature where community questions get answered by financial indep...

Most people worry their retirement money is "trapped" until age 59½. It's not — and understanding why could reshape your entire FI strategy. Brad and Ginger tackle asset flexibility, breaking down how to think about taxable versus Roth versus traditional accounts and when each makes sense for your timeline. This episode emerged from listener questions after the recent middle-class trap discussion,...

Most people plan for retirement like it's an on-off switch—decades of grinding followed by one big leap into the unknown. But what if you've never practiced living without work? Jillian Johnsrud, author of Retire Often, challenges this all-or-nothing approach by introducing a framework that's gaining traction in the FI community: mini retirements. These aren't sabbaticals to binge Netflix or catch...

Marla Tanner reached financial independence in 2013 and has lived off the 4% rule ever since — through bull markets, bear markets, and a global pandemic. She recently ran the numbers on both her actual experience and a worst-case scenario retirement starting at the peak before 2008. Both outcomes? More than comfortable. Her journey challenges the anxiety many savers face when it's time to flip the...

Most people obsess over net worth. Katie and Alan Donegan calculate something entirely different: their freedom fund. Joined by Brad, the trio unpacks five and a half years of full-time travel, the psychological trap of dividend investing, and why zero-based thinking—"Knowing what I know now, would I choose this again?"—has become their most powerful decision-making tool. Katie and Alan share hard...

Tim Ferriss didn't design a card game to make money—he did it because most games today actively prevent the kind of connection that matters. Brad Barrett sits down with the author of The 4-Hour Workweek and host of The Tim Ferriss Show, exploring how the principles of financial independence intersect with something most people overlook: what you actually do with your freedom once you have it. Tim...

Congress just made early retirement cheaper—if you know which levers to pull. Tax expert Sean Mullaney joins Brad to break down the One Big Beautiful Bill and its surprisingly generous implications for the FI community. The law permanently extends current tax rates and increases the standard deduction, giving early retirees more planning certainty. Instead of facing a significant tax hike when pre...