Fired to FIRE

Once again, this book changed my life!

More personal thoughts will be in bold below in the outline. For those that want to listen to The Brothers on Books Podcast discussion with Jacob Lund Fisker I’m attaching the link directly below:

BOBP 17: Early Retirement Extreme

Chapter 2: The Lock In

• We’ve been taught that spending money translates, or is viewed, as success
• We work more -> little time to develop skills other than spending money -> become helpless and deadly afraid to lose your income
• Is being busy a good measure of wealth?
  • I used to think that the busier I was, the more success would come my way
  • Some people, it at least comes off this way to me, brag about working 80+ hours per week
  • It’s also common to mix up activities that are urgent and activities that are important
    • When I reflect on where my wealth comes from it’s ironic how large a percentage came from a very small percentage of time. I’m thinking of cold calling for real estate property. That was an incredibly important activity that took very little time relative to how much I was working at my day job, and now makes up a large percentage of my monthly cash flow and wealth
• Education and Training
  • Wrong things matter
  • Colleges have become more of places for talent discovery as opposed to adding value
    • I believe there are skills outside of the classroom that I developed by being at college and during the podcast Jacob seems to acknowledge that college isn’t all bad
      • Social skills
      • There are externalities to being around very different people, creates better overall understanding of societies and culture
• Career
  • Survival of “fittest” not “best”
    • “Fittest” meaning fit for the current environment
  • Promotions are subject to demographics
    • If you feel like your not getting promoting maybe there are just too many old people ahead of you that don’t want to retire/give up their jobs
  • As you spend more time on your job you become more dependent on that job
  • Specialists are more at risk from changing environment
    • It’s interesting that we’re always taught to diversify our investments but rarely do we talk about diversifying our monthly income from an early age
• The Pursuit of Stuff, Status, and Happiness
  • Our culture was founded on the idea that maximizing production equals maximizing happiness
  • Focus has changed from better to more
  • If you relate to your possessions, you’re owned by your stuff
  • Economic growth seems to be like digging holes and filling them
    • What is ignored is wasted effort and natural resources
• Breaking Out
  • “It is impossible to solve the problem with the same kind of thinking that created it.”
  • This is eluding to how to break out of the consumer cycle
  • 3 pillars
    1. Reduce waste, increase efficiency (really think about what you’re doing and is it an important activity that will help you move your needle)
    2. Invest in businesses
    3. Find meaningful hobbies