How To Interview Your Next Employer
Throughout an entire interview process, it’s important to remember that you are an equal partner in the decision. Yes, the employer is assessing your skills for the position and your match with the team’s personality. You are also assessing whether this is the right role and environment for you. Here’s how you can interview your next employer.
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Slowing Down for a Better Life
The main narrative in the financial independence space says work as hard as you can now to achieve financial independence or early retirement as soon as possible. This narrative implies that upon reaching that goal, we will then be free to live our ideal lives. Some people are trying to push against the narrative.
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Book Review: Work Optional
Tanya Hester recently published her book “Work Optional.” After appreciating all of Tanya’s work at OurNextLife.com, I knew that I needed to read her book. I was not disappointed. The book provided a lot of helpful insights, made me think more deeply about my ideal life and the various options for how to get there. While there were a number of unique insights, I’m confident that this book would also be accessible to someone not familiar with personal finance or financial independence.
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We Live in a 1,000-Square-Foot Mansion
Since discovering financial independence, I have begun to redefine my life’s priorities, including expectations around the size of our home. Adjusting your perspective is never easy, and my expectation around our home size is no exception. A big part of this transformation has been applying the financial independence concept of “enough” to these deep-rooted expectations around our home. As part of this change, I have gone from always wanting more to now understanding our home as a mansion. We have more than enough.
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Panama: What to See and What to Skip
We spent eight days in Panama for vacation. We really enjoyed our trip, and it helped us better understand our long-term goals for financial independence. Here are things we recommend seeing and others we recommend skipping if you are planning a trip to Panama.
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How We Escaped College Debt Free
In high school, I had a choice to make. Go to an expensive university and be forced to work throughout the year (including summers), OR go to a less expensive university and have more freedom. This decision and the determination to avoid student loans helped us tremendously. In this post, I detail how we both avoided taking out student loans, and how it has fast-tracked our path to financial independence.
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Busyness is Not a Virtue
Less than a year ago, I worked 50+ hour weeks, commuted 45-55 minutes each way, volunteered on a board of a nonprofit organization (and became the vice-chair), was part of a book club, started a blog, tried to exercise regularly and cook healthy meals, and invested time in building relationships with family and friends. I felt constantly frazzled.
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Overcoming Severe Anxiety
The last six months have been the most challenging in my life as I have dealt with severe anxiety. While this situation was extremely challenging for me, I can now look back and realize that this was also a tremendous period of personal growth. I learned a lot and made significant life changes that I will carry forward with me for the rest of my life. I hope my story can serve as an inspiration and provide advice or hope for anyone experiencing something similar.
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Why You Don’t Need an MBA
Over the past few years, my organization has grown rapidly and it has forced me to consider getting a Master of Business Administration (MBA). It originated out of a feeling of insecurity that I couldn’t be successful without a related degree. Many of my peers in similar nonprofits have either an MBA or MPA, so maybe it was time for me to do the same. Here’s what I was able to figure out.
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