518 | FI + Choose: Aligning Financial Independence with Your Values

ChooseFI | Financial Independence Podcast

Jonathan Mendonsa & Brad Barrett | Choose FI Media, Inc

Investing, Business, Careers

4.8 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2024

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Most people chase FI to stop working—Clint Murphy's doing the opposite. Brad sits down with Clint, who's recently coined a term that flips the conventional FI playbook: "FI and Choose." Instead of racing to quit, Clint's using his growing independence to double down on work he loves while shedding everything else. The conversation grew out of their recent five-day retreat in Breckenridge—the kind of event where late-night talks about money morph into something deeper. Connection Through FI [00:02:20] FI gatherings create space for conversations that go far beyond spreadsheets and savings rates Shared values around money open doors to discussions about purpose, relationships, and personal growth Community events foster bonds that extend into real friendship The Power of Vulnerability [00:06:00] Opening up about struggles and uncertainties strengthens connections Your quirks and eccentricities make you interesting—lean into them Authentic conversation requires dropping the performance "It's those little eccentricities that make people interesting." [00:06:00] Simplicity and Enjoyment [00:10:30] Joy doesn't scale with spending—pickleball costs almost nothing and delivers outsized happiness The realization that a fulfilling life can be inexpensive changes the FI math entirely Being present in low-cost activities often beats expensive distractions "The simple life can be enjoyable; we don't need all this money to do all these things." [00:10:34] FI and Choose Philosophy [00:46:00] Financial independence isn't an endpoint—it's a gateway to choosing how you spend your time The real power is selecting what to pursue, not just what to quit Aligning ambition with simplicity creates room for what actually matters "When you get to some degree of FI you have choice and you have almost unlimited choice." [00:00:00] "When you pursue FI, you're actually pursuing freedom and choice." [00:47:43] Related Resources The Growth Guide Podcast: thegrowth.guide [01:02:09] ▶ Listen Next: Ep. 521 — Mailbag: Backdoor Roth IRA, 4% Rule, and 401(k) Strategies | Essential Listening

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Choose A V. Today on the show we have my good friend Clint Murphy back for another episode here on Choose of I he joined us previously in a book club episode and him and I have become really great friends in the intervening time and we just have these
0:16.3	amazing conversations in real life and offline and I wanted to bring one of those conversations
0:21.7	here to the podcast.
0:23.4	He's recently undergone some significant changes in his real life and he termed it five plus pivot.
0:30.7	That was originally what we were going to talk about, but interestingly, we coined a new phrase on this
0:36.3	podcast, which is FIE and Choose, or 5 plus Choose. And I think that is going to be an enduring legacy of this podcast episode.
0:45.8	I think not only are we choosing FI, but when you get to some degree of FI, you have choice,
0:52.9	and you have almost unlimited choice.
0:54.8	And yeah, we talk about that, we talk about simplicity,
0:57.6	we talk about whether you actually retire or not
1:00.9	and what a life looks like. This is really, really a wonderful in-depth conversation.
1:05.6	I think you're going to enjoy this.
1:07.1	And with that, welcome to Choose Up-Fi. Clint, it is so good to see you. It's been a couple months, so we spent five plus days together in Breckinridge, Colorado at a retreat, which was just an absolutely amazing time.
1:26.7	And it was just so cool that I knew you from the online world and you flew in from British Columbia.
1:32.7	I fly in from Richmond.
1:34.2	And I think we both maybe struggled a little bit
1:36.9	with the altitude, but man, that was a darn good time.
1:39.7	Amazing trip, good people, the conversations, the activities, it was all an absolute blast and to be able to follow that up and jump on a recording with you today.
1:49.0	I really excited to have this conversation.
1:51.0	Yeah, you and me both, my friend.
1:52.0	And yeah, I think for everybody out there, why we've talked about five events, and this wasn't a five event, obviously this was a group of friends getting together, but it was all people who knew each other through, in essence, through me and through financial independence.
2:08.5	And what's cool about five events generally is when you have this one big thing in common you have so many
	...

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