FI Minded - Financial Independence Without the Extremes

Today we dive deep into a universal struggle that affects us all: the comparison trap. In a world fueled by social media highlights and curated success stories, it's easy to find ourselves measuring our worth against others. This happens to me all of the time. I see someone else’s life: the promotion, the new house, a fancy vacation, their business success…and start frantically wondering why I don...

The holiday season is in full swing and I’m so excited to spend the next month celebrating with friends and family. With all of the parties and get-togethers, it will be 2024 before we know it. But before we say goodbye to 2023, I have a few things I want you to check off your to-do list. In today’s episode, I’m going to give you a financial checklist of 8 tasks you may want to consider doing by D...

I love big, life changes…said absolutely no one ever. Significant life changes like moving out of your hometown, changing career paths, or ending a significant relationship are terrifying even if you know it is what you should do. It takes proper planning and a lot of courage to follow through with these major milestones. These decisions have never come easy to me. I was terrified to quit my first...

Do you currently feel like you’re stagnant in your career? Like you haven’t learned a lot lately and are living the same work day over and over? Or maybe you want to expedite your professional growth as you’re looking to take the next step? Well, this is the episode for you because we are going to be talking about how starting a side project can solve these feelings and 8 ideas for projects that y...

What kind of impact would it have on your career if you could be mentored by Tim Ferriss, Brene Brown, Cal Newport, Oprah Winfrey, Les Brown, Ryan Holliday, James Clear, and Carol Dweck? This is a handful of the top thinkers from the last decade and the great news is, we can receive their mentorship. No, unfortunately, they don’t have a special lottery program where you can enter to win a free men...

In this current series, we’ve been deep-diving into blueprints for how you can take control of and accelerate your career with various professional growth strategies. Assembling a personal board of advisors and reading books are amazing avenues for taking steps forward in your career but we also want to be playing defense and ensuring we aren’t taking any steps backward. We don’t want to be puttin...

Have you heard of this concept before? A personal board of advisors. I think it is kind of interesting. Many companies have a board of directors who help advise and guide them on key decisions. Why shouldn’t we have a similar group to rely on? Especially as early career professionals, we face many critical questions about career pivots, job opportunities, work-life balance, purpose, leadership mom...

We are kicking off a new series called “Your Map to Professional Growth.” The goal of this series is to give you ideas for how you can take ownership of your career. Each episode will center around a different blueprint for growing professionally. But all of these tools are useless, just like a map, if you don’t know where you want to go. With that in mind, it seems fitting to kick off this series...

I have to admit, this is one subject in the personal finance space that I don’t have much experience with. I’m so impressed with my friends who get free airfare and hotels through credit card points and I think it is time for you and I to do the same. I just get overwhelmed and I’m not really sure where to start. What cards should I have in my wallet? Which card should I use on what? Are cards wit...

Should my career be driven by passion and purpose or serve as a means of financial stability? At one point or another, you will face this career conundrum.  I’ve thought a lot about whether I should follow a practical career path with a stable income and obvious earning power or take a chance on a path that will be filled with passion and fulfillment but the money and stability aren’t quite a...

We often hear about 401Ks and IRAs, two incredible retirement planning tools but what if I told you there was a third, secret retirement account that trumps both of these? Today we are discussing the Health Savings Account, or HSA, and why the HSA is not only a financial game-changer for managing your medical expenses but also a powerful tool to build wealth for your future. This episode is a repl...

So far in the Mastering Money at Work Series, we’ve discussed 4 steps to setting up your 401(k), which was episode 113, and last week, Jesse Cramer taught us how to ask for a raise. These were two topics that I really wanted to cover because I believe they can be huge game changers for your career-earning power and lifetime take-home pay. This week though, we are going to get a little more…creativ...

I don’t want to steal Jesse’s thunder so I won’t tell his specific example that he shares, but negotiating a raise early in your career can lead to a 6-figure increase in your lifetime earnings. And that is just one negotiation. By developing your negotiation skills and making a habit of consistently asking for a raise throughout your career, you’re bound to outearn a peer who starts at a similar...

Starting a new job always comes with a hectic first week of paperwork. More than likely, one of the documents is about investing in your company’s 401(k) program. If you grew up in a household like mine, the importance of investing in your 401(k) account was hammered into you but let’s say you didn’t set up your 401(k) account right away. Maybe the thought of investing for your future seemed like...

Today we are concluding our series on how to level up your professional network. We’ve learned easy ways to find in-person networking events, how to host an easy yet effective networking party, the best practices for virtual networking, and how to make connections at the next business conference you attend. With all of this knowledge, you’ve been busy meeting new people. But we don’t want the payo...

With the calendar turning to fall, conference season is heating up. People are making arrangements and gearing up to attend academic, industry, and professional conferences. Some “volun-told” by their employers, but others, assuming someone like yourself that would listen to a podcast like this, are attending because they’re wanting to level up their career. I love attending conferences. I typical...

We all know at least one person that can walk into a room full of strangers and emerge with a group of new friends. They’re so good at attracting people, building trust with them, and turning others into fast friends. This is someone that is charismatic, friendly, and great at building instant rapport. Having rapport with someone means you understand each other's feelings and communicate well. Thi...

We’ve all been to one: loud music, people huddled in clicks, and little to no guidance from the host. I’m talking about poorly run networking events. The kind of events that spike the anxiety of us introverts and solo attendees. But nobody wants to throw a bad event. The host wants to make sure everyone is having a good time and leaves having made meaningful connections. The problem is that nobody...

I could make a case that any interaction with someone else could be considered networking. From your friend’s parent to the barista who handed you your coffee this morning, anyone could be someone that changes the trajectory of your career. I’m all about embracing some of the serendipity of relationship building, aka networking, but this series is bringing intentionality into this effort. We are g...

I’ve never felt like I’ve had style. Honestly, I’ve always felt a little intimidated and lost when it comes to fashion. With that in mind, I didn’t put a lot of emphasis on it. I opted for safe and affordable options versus clothes that I felt comfortable and confident in. I don’t think that’s entirely the wrong perspective. Personal style isn’t something that everyone cares about but I do want to...

To-do lists help you remember what needs to get done, they create order, they set priorities, they relieve stress, they help you delegate, and they track your work progress. I could go on and on about the benefits of to-do lists but I am confident you already know this. I’m not one to prescribe a specific method for managing your to-do list but if you are looking to implement a system or overhaul...

Do you ever feel like you’re living in Groundhog Day where the events yesterday, feel like today, and you’re probably going to have those same feelings tomorrow? The weeks are moving fast yet you don’t feel like much is changing? If this is the case you might be in a rut. If I’m being honest, I’m coming out of a period of my life where I’ve felt like I’ve been in a rut. I’ve had my head down, hard...

For all the ways we depend on them, it’s kind of amazing how little attention we tend to pay to make sure our calendars are working for us. Your calendar can set your day-to-day priorities but without intentionality, that will fall to other people’s priorities. This has been really evident for me in 2023. It crept up on me but meetings started to take over my day. I was jumping in and out of meeti...

I remember being on fire for the first few years of my career. I was learning so much and every day brought a novel problem to solve. Boredom wasn’t even a thought. I didn’t quite understand why people felt stale in their careers. And then things started to slow. What was once a unique puzzle to solve, turned into an ongoing job responsibility. My job was filled with less learning and more…work. F...

Between reading through messages, crafting the right responses, and keeping tabs on the emails that require follow-up, staying on top of your inbox can feel like a job in itself. Email can be a pain but it is a critical component to most knowledge-based roles that many of us college graduates step into after graduation. Until I started working in the “real world,” I didn’t know this though. And th...