Five-Minute Win
This week’s Five-Minute Win: Sit on the floor for five minutes today.
That’s it.
Watch TV. Read a book. Talk to your family. Just spend a few minutes sitting on the floor instead of the couch.
One of the easiest ways to maintain mobility isn’t adding another workout—it’s simply spending more time in positions your body gradually forgets how to get into.
I have no idea whether this tiny habit will add years to my life, but I do know I’d like to be the 80-year-old who can still get down to the floor…and get back up again.
Take five minutes today. Future You will thank you.
When was the last time you sat on the floor?
The First Person to Figure It Out
I was visiting my friend Keith in New Jersey recently, and we were talking about his business. He imports aluminum, so over the years he’s lived through tariffs, supply chain disruptions, price spikes, and just about every kind of market upheaval you can imagine.
He told me something that really stuck with me. Earlier in his career, every one of those events terrified him. Now, his mindset is completely different. His goal isn’t to predict the next disruption or complain about it after it happens. It’s simply to be among the first people to figure out how to adapt.
A few days later, Erin’s mom was talking about how much the price of corn and other farm inputs had increased. Farmers were understandably frustrated, and my mind immediately went back to Keith.
Every farmer is dealing with the same higher prices. Every aluminum importer is dealing with the same tariffs. The circumstances aren’t necessarily fair, but they’re shared.
That changes the question.
Instead of asking whether things should be this way, the more useful question becomes: Who’s going to figure it out first?
Some businesses will struggle. Others will find new suppliers, raise prices, improve efficiency, or discover opportunities their competitors miss because they’re still wishing things were the way they used to be.
I’ve started noticing that this pattern shows up almost everywhere in life. The market doesn’t reward the person who complains first. It rewards the person who adapts first.
That doesn’t mean you have to like reality. It doesn’t even mean you have to agree with it.
But the sooner you stop arguing with reality, the sooner you can start benefiting from it.
A Few Things…
A few things I found interesting this week…
🏔️ Utah
Erin and I are headed to Utah today for some medical testing, and we’re turning it into a six-day trip around the greater Salt Lake City area. It’ll be my first time there.
My natural inclination was to try to hit as many national parks as possible. But I’m realizing I’m no longer optimizing for checklists. Instead, we’re planning to spend our time hiking and exploring state parks within an hour or so of Salt Lake City. It may not sound as exciting as saying we visited three national parks, but I suspect it’ll make for a much more enjoyable trip.
✈️ Travel Rewards
I’ve been getting excited about redeeming travel rewards again and recently spent some time playing around with the PointsYeah Explorer, one of my favorite free tools. You simply enter your home airport and it shows available award flights all over the world, including premium cabins.
Coincidentally, my brother sent me an incredible redemption to Helsinki. He and his wife are moving to Riga, Latvia this week to teach internationally, and we’re already making plans to visit them (and explore that part of the world) next year.
👨👧 The Tail End
My daughter Anna heads off to college next month, which means I’m preparing to take the first distribution from her 529 plan. That’s a meaningful financial milestone, but it reminded me of something much bigger.
After my conversation with Chris Hutchins this week about Bill Perkins’ Die With Zero, I found myself rereading Tim Urban’s incredible Wait But Why article, The Tail End. One of its central ideas is that by the time your child turns 18, you’ve already spent roughly 90% of the time you’ll ever spend with them.
It’s one of those articles that changes how you think.
🥗 Whole Foods
Erin and I take a walk every morning around our neighborhood, and on the way home we stop by Whole Foods. One of the employees is usually putting 50% off stickers on prepared meals that are nearing their sell-by date but are still perfectly good.
It’s become our own little treasure hunt. At full price, I usually keep walking. At half price? Suddenly we’re much more interested.
👓 Reading Glasses
Apparently turning 47 means I’ve officially entered the reading glasses stage of life.
Rather than constantly wondering where they are, I bought a six-pack and left them all over the condo. One on my desk, one in the kitchen, one by the couch, one on my nightstand, one in the car, and one that lives in my pocket whenever I leave the house.
I don’t love owning more stuff than I need, but this has been one of those tiny quality-of-life upgrades that’s absolutely worth it.
The “Retirement Accounts Are Trapped” Myth
This week I went back and listened to ChooseFI Episode 475 with Sean Mullaney after talking with my friend Nathan about the 72(t) rule.
I don’t say this lightly, but I think it may be the most important piece of financial independence information I’ve learned in the last decade.
That probably sounds like an outrageous claim for an obscure section of the tax code. Here’s why I think it matters.
One of the biggest objections I hear to maximizing traditional retirement accounts is that the money is “trapped” until age 59½. The conclusion is that anyone hoping to retire in their 40s should avoid putting too much into a 401(k) or traditional IRA.
I think that’s one of the most expensive misconceptions in personal finance.
The tax code contains multiple ways to access retirement money before age 59½. Most people in the FI community are familiar with Roth conversion ladders, but 72(t) is another option that deserves much more attention.
In short, 72(t) allows you to begin taking a predetermined stream of withdrawals from an IRA before age 59½ without paying the 10% early withdrawal penalty.
The detail that completely changed my understanding is this: you don’t have to place your entire retirement portfolio into a 72(t) plan all at one time.
Imagine you’ve accumulated $2 million across your retirement accounts, but you only need $50,000 per year to live. You could transfer only the amount necessary to support that annual income into a separate IRA, establish a 72(t) distribution from that account, and leave the rest of your retirement savings untouched.
That one detail transforms 72(t) from an obscure IRS rule into an incredibly practical tool for early retirees.
But I actually think the broader lesson is even more important.
Traditional retirement accounts aren’t valuable simply because they reduce your taxes while you’re working. They’re valuable because financial independence gives you control over your taxable income.
You receive the deduction during your highest-earning years. Then, after reaching FI, you often have years—or decades—where you can decide how much income to recognize, when to perform Roth conversions, and which accounts to spend from.
For many people, that means receiving a tax deduction at a relatively high marginal tax rate while ultimately withdrawing the money over many years at a much lower effective tax rate.
That’s not a trap.
That’s one of the biggest advantages of reaching financial independence.
If you’ve ever dismissed traditional retirement accounts because you thought the money was inaccessible, I highly recommend giving Episode 475 another listen. I did, and I came away thinking this is one of those ideas that can permanently change how you think about retirement planning.
Around ChooseFI
A few things happening around the ChooseFI community…
🎉 Community Wins
One of the most-loved parts of the newsletter is the Taking Action section, and it only exists because you share your wins. If you’ve made progress, I’d love to celebrate it. Hit reply to this email and send in your win.
📍 Local Groups
If you haven’t already, take 30 seconds to join your local ChooseFI group. You’ll automatically receive email notifications about meetups and events in your area, making it easy to connect with other people on the path to FI.
🎙️ Continue the Conversation
Have thoughts or questions about this week’s podcast? I’d love to hear them. Join the discussion on Episode 608, where Chris Hutchins and I revisit the book ‘Die With Zero’ and our lasting takeaways nearly four years after Chris had the author on his podcast.
📚 Book Club
Our next book is Happy Money: The Japanese Art of Making Peace with Your Money by Ken Honda. Ginger will be discussing it with Jillian Johnsrud next month, so now’s a great time to grab a copy from your library. I’ll share details on how to submit questions and join the conversation in an upcoming newsletter.
✈️ Travel Rewards
My Top Ten Recommended Travel Rewards Cards page is always up to date, including current welcome offers. If you’re thinking about your next travel rewards card, that’s the first place I’d look. Right now, my #1 recommended card has a 100k welcome bonus (and we were just told that this is an “Offer Ending Soon”), making this one of the best times we’ve ever seen to get started.
If you apply using our links, ChooseFI earns a commission at no additional cost to you. That support helps keep the podcast and newsletter free, and we’re incredibly grateful.