Welcome to FIRE for Adventure! (Financial Independence/Retire Early)

Welcome to FIRE for Adventure 

(Financial Independence/Retire Early)

Welcome to our take on the Financial Independence/Retire Early (FIRE) community.  You've likely picked up on our themes of intentionality here at Family In The Arena and this will be no different.  We are big believers in starting with "why" and beginning with the end in mind here and to that end, have named our "why"...adventure.  In other words (as we'll unpack), the hard work and sacrifices of FIRE require you to have a great big "why" with you throughout your FIRE journey.  For us, that "why" is really focused on maximizing our quality, intentional time with our children while they're young in adventurous ways.  

In this section of the blog and website, we'll talk about the FIRE movement - its basics, nuances, systems, best practices, cautionary tales, and rewards for your family.  FIRE, at its core, is the ability to create optionality in life.  This, largely, when done right, is a handcuffed mate to the intentional living that we talk about elsewhere.  You've probably heard the old adage that "money isn't everything, but most everything costs money."  To that end, you might as well leverage the best practices in money to make the most of this resource...to ultimately make the most of your time.  

We'll explore some of our lessons learned along the way and introduce you to perhaps a new set of concepts that will expand your mindset of what is possible, or, if you've heard of FIRE before, hopefully, serve as another content-creating case study and motivator of what's possible in your own home.  

If you're brand new to the whole FIRE concept, the gist is to earn money, spend less than you earn, invest the difference, and ultimately capitalize on the margin you've generated.  The two-half concept of FI/RE, as well as the less than scientific approach to FIRE, means you can (read have to), define it for yourself.  For many on the FIRE path, they are in a breakneck-pace race to a magical number where they tell the boss to Take This Job and Shove It.  Others, in different circumstances and situations, may choose to take a more moderate pace, or even once they've crossed the magical "finish" line choose to continue working.  Somewhere between those two ends of the stick are a wide variety of examples of how to "FIRE."  

From a purely mathematical standpoint, the aim of FIRE is to save roughly 25x your annual expenses in invested assets that will in turn generate income to cover your annual expenses on a 4% withdrawal rate.  We'll unpack that overly simplified statement in detail through further posts, but suffice it to say, the financial math works and you can likely live a life full of many more options than you ever thought possible.  

We just wanted to introduce the concept and this "line of effort" or leg of our three-legged stool (Raising Adventure, Plan Family, FIRE for Adventure).  Our hope is that you'll not consume this content as a verbatim "how-to" or checklist-style guide, but rather tease out the parts that resonate with you and yours along the way to create your own path and plan for financial freedom that you translate into living your best life.  Our challenge to you is to consider stepping into the arena where you may go against the societal and your own historical norms but find a place where you may get your face "marred by dust and sweat and blood" and dare greatly...because it is worth it, that's probably the only thing we can guarantee you as you set out on this journey.  

With you in the arena, from ours to yours...Happy Trails!

Call to Action: 

• Make a list of three major outcomes you'd like to see financially in your life (debt-free, early retirement, buying a house, etc)
• 1 - ___________________
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• Write down your "net worth" by listing out everything you own, then subtract everything you owe.  Track this over the next few months and quarters.  
• Do a budget (you can see our template on our website, use an app, or grab a piece of blank paper to get started).
• Commit to taking one small action today that moves you closer to one of your above-listed outcomes (spending freeze, cutting a budget item by a certain %, etc).
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action) to get to financial freedom.  

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- Meet the Frugalwoods: Achieving Financial Independence Through Simple Living - Elizabeth Willard Thames or www.frugalwoods.com

- Anything with Dave Ramsey - www.ramseysolutions.com/ 

- The Money Guy Show - www.youtube.com/@MoneyGuyShow 

Welcome to Raising Adventure!

Welcome to Raising Adventure!

Welcome to our community on Raising Adventure where we will be talking about why it is so important (more now than ever) to stand in the arena and raise your family through adventure.  Our world is increasingly becoming "safety-fied" and sedentary, especially with the increased use of screens in our daily lives.  The move away from exploration and adventure is increasingly waning for many of us.  This is doubly true for our children as their rate of "adventure" is disappearing at an alarming clip.  

At the most basic level, "raising" is defined by Websters as "to cause or help to rise to a standing position," "to lift up," or to "awaken."  This coupled with "adventure" as "an exciting or remarkable experience."  When we combine these two concepts, particularly through the lens of our responsibility as parents we are empowered to give our children a gift that truly can change their trajectory and ultimately, our world as we know it (said in a serious, albeit dramatic fashion).  

Several of the 1,000 hours
we were blessed to be outside.

Gone are the days when "we used to drink from the garden hose, ride bikes with no helmets, hike around the neighborhood without an adult...and when we had to walk to school, uphill, both ways...in the snow."  This movement isn't a harkening back to yesteryear or cast off the conveniences and comforts of everyday life...necessarily.  This is a call to action.  As Teddy Roosevelt, whose quote and philosophy is the namesake of this movement "Stand In The Arena" serves as a call to action.  It hopefully inspires you to build a lifestyle of adventure (your Arena, so to speak) and stand in it.  That sounds deceptively simple at face value...it becomes more complicated and challenging in practicality.  We'll talk about the enemies of adventure and what you'll have to overcome to get off the screens and out the door.  

We'll also talk about many other facets of living an adventurous lifestyle - the benefits, the best practices, the how-to's, the tools, tips, tricks, and other pieces that make adventure your reality.  We will unpack doable ways that you can inject more intentional adventure into your life.  Through the posts in this series, we'll share a combination of philosophy on adventure coupled with the academia of best practices, and grounded in the boots-on-the-ground experience.  We hope to translate and distill some of our experiences into the principles and systems we've created to show you how you, too, can create an adventurous lifestyle in your own home.  

Go adventure...do it now!

As we depart this introductory conversation, keep in mind that the call from our 26th President, who stressed the values of "the strenuous life" made the "Man in the Arena" excerpt of his speech a powerful and timeless call to action.  Stand in the Arena is, at its essence a plea and a demand to do life in a way that is outside the ruts of normality and mediocrity.  So, with that, we hope you join us on our shared journey to stand in the arena that we create and raise our young ones in and through adventure.  

With you in the arena, from ours to yours...Happy Trails!

Call to Action: 

• List three adventures, big or small, that you'll put on the calendar for the coming season.
• 1 - ___________________ 
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• Sit down with your family and make a bucket list of adventures you'd like to complete in the next couple of years.  List out the ones before something big (HS graduation, retirement, etc).
• Subscribe to some adventure social media channels to help get you in the mindset of doable adventures for your family.
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action)

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- “If we were meant to stay in one place, we’d have roots instead of feet.” – Rachel Wolchin

- The Endless Adventure - https://www.youtube.com/@Theendlessadventure

- Keep Your Daydream - https://www.youtube.com/@KeepYourDaydream 

- Importance of Nature - https://childmind.org/article/why-kids-need-to-spend-time-in-nature/ 

Welcome to Plan Family (or PlanFam, for you cool/nerdy folks)!

Welcome to Plan Family (PlanFam!)

Welcome to our take on planning and the importance of proactive intentionality for your family.  So often we find ourselves swept through life on the autopilot of the currents around us.  Seldom do we take/invest the time to stop and choose the 5 Ws of what we're setting out to do.  This lack of intentional planning has many roots - lack of time, lack of know-how, lack of interest, lack of negative consequences from not planning, and lack of the perceived "cool" factor.  Perhaps the biggest reason we don't plan is simply complacency.  We get into our habitual ruts and just go with the flow that we've created in life.  This typically takes a similar form to those around us as we people are naturally herd animals.  That's well and good if you've intentionally chosen where you want to go, who you want to go with, and created a path to get there.  It can be tragic if you just get carried along and end up in a place far from where you have dreamed of throughout your life.  The good news, perhaps great news, is that with a little focused time and using a few tools/best practices you can map out your best life and get busy living it.  

Practicing planning can
never start too early...this
might've been the master 
Ninja plan to steal Santa's
cookies.

With any creative pursuit, at some point, you have to think of naming the newly created Frankenstein you're building.  When we were thinking through that, we thought we were genius with the idea of "Family Plan-it" (planet, get it...maybe the genius only lived in our heads.  Turns out, that was taken by a calendar company...dang it.  Family Planning implies a whole different birds-and-the-bees context that we're not going to spend much time on here.  That left us with the not necessarily highly original "Plan Fam" or "Plan Family."  Sexy title or not...we cannot overemphasize the importance of planning for your most valuable team (your family).  

With planning, whether it's a business, disaster, family, or whatever else in between the nature of plans ranges from strategic (50,000 foot) down to the very muddy tactical type plans.  From a family perspective, it may start with a "strategic plan" that outlines your mission/vision/values.  That may dial in with specificity and more detailed plans as we do a 5-year season plan (pre-school years, elementary years, etc) that has the "big rocks" figured out.  Again, we get more specific as we go down to perhaps an annual plan that details out some of the 5 W's to take our New Year's Resolutions to a more effective level.  We also tend to have "plans" for the season and/or month ahead that begin to look more like schedules, budgets, meal plans, and to-do lists.  With any of these, they can be verbal or written down...but we're pretty big believers in the staying power of writing down goals.  

Here at Plan Fam, we've been working (to varying degrees of success) to live an intentional life over the years.  Over our adult lives, we've had careers and vocations that have been fairly tied to the art and science of planning in a variety of contexts and situations.  To that end, we're fairly comfortable with the planning processes, plans themselves, and tools that bring efficiency to the planning "layperson."  We'll share some of the tips, tricks, tools, and stories that help you benefit from our research, mistakes, strengths, and lessons along the way to help you and your family become more intentional.  Like anything else in life, tune in/tune out as you see fit and with what resonates with what you need.  Along the way, take the pieces you like, take a chisel to them to customize, toss out what doesn't fit...and be amazed at how much more smoothly and effectively you make progress toward your desired end states.  

With you in the arena, from ours to yours...Happy Trails!

Call to Action: 

• Make a list of three areas of your life that could benefit from more intentional planning.
• 1 - ___________________
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• Consider taking an immediate planning step (meal plan/menu, monthly budget, something).
• Look for an opportunity to create a strategic level plan for your family that becomes a goal post on the horizon.
• Schedule time on your calendar to talk about planning - both near and further term with you and your family
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action) in the next 30 days.

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- Brett & Kate McKay from ArtofManliness.com 

Welcome to Stand In The Arena!

Welcome to Stand In The Arena!

Welcome to Stand In The Arena, the "blog arm" of our larger Family In The Arena efforts, a movement to bring best practices from thought leaders coupled with our experiences and lessons learned to help you live and lead (your family) to the best life possible.  Our family has spent years (and much trial-and-error, with intentional course correction) to land in a place where we are very blessed in so many ways...ways that you can create for your family.  

Choose to be a creator.  Period.

This movement has been years in the making, through studying, practicing, and refining a lot of the content creation out there into a focused effort that has benefited our family.  They say that perhaps the best form of mastery comes in teaching others and to that end, we're taking a shot at not just consuming content from others, but adding to the conversation by becoming creators.  We've sat on the sideline for years with an itch to jump in but haven't for various reasons.  As our kids have gotten a bit older it has seemed hypocritical that we give language to become "creators vs consumers" in a consumption world but not live out those values.  

We've had some fairly organized activities around getting content ready over the years but actually putting pen-to-paper (or fingers to keyboard as it were), has been an ominous next step.  As we have had many conversations leading up to this point, our family has tried to utilize some of what we preach (intentionality, the power of planning, creating systems/habits, etc) to help build the foundation of our content creation.  

Knowing what we want to share and being able to name the common denominator across the movement were two different and surprisingly difficult things.  We've talked (and we'll share with you through coming posts) about what our carefully constructed intentional life is (Raising Adventure), why we do life the way we do (Plan Family), and how we enable this lifestyle (FIRE for Adventure).  In trying to label that intersection of the Venn diagram, while tucking kids in the other night, it hit us...Family In The Arena.  We've always been Teddy Roosevelt fans in many ways and that poem/speech excerpt (Man In The Arena) has been a go-to in our home.  Our movement and associated website (www.FamilyInTheArena.com) help compile some of the tools, best practices, and content into one handy spot.  This blog, then became, in part, the call to action for your family to "Stand In The Arena."  

Sometimes you just have 
to put a helmet on and
rappel off your bunk bed. 

When we say "Stand In The Arena," it's not an accidental or casual command.  Years ago, I had the fortune to attend a military jump school where after a week or so of ground school, your first jump out of the aircraft was a solo, freefall (meaning no tandem instructor on your back or tethered static line that opens the chute when you jump).  The command of the jump master, "STAND IN THE DOOR" over the rush of the wind in the airplane makes staring at the Matchbox-sized cars below very real at that moment.  We want you to feel that same adrenaline-fueled gut punch when you say "Stand In The Arena."  

Through the coming posts, we'll try to help you shape your very own "arena" to stand within.  Our world is increasingly distracted, hectic, and for many of us, haphazard coasting where the currents of life carry us.  The premise, here at Family In The Arena, is that you can (and should) do better than that.  You create the life that you want to live.  Much like David's Michaelangelo statute where he started with a block of marble and began cutting away everything that wasn't David, you too can do the same thing with your life.  You can build your own arena that you're going to stand in.  

As you build your intentional life, it will involve planning, patience, and sacrifice.  It will require you to "have your face marred with dust and sweat and blood."  As you begin to slowly reinvent yourself (and your family) in the image you have dreamed of, you'll cast off some of the old baggage and the tethers that hold you down.  Our hope is to be able to help you organize those dreams, create those next steps, and become the best self/family you can be.  Before we (you) get started, I want to put out the disclaimer that this isn't some feel-good-Pollyanna platitude.  Frankly, Standing In The Arena isn't for everyone, if it was, we paradoxically wouldn't need something like this reminder to Stand In The Arena as a reminder and scaffold.  

Make your arena
a big one.

All of that said if you'll recall, "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat."  Teddy Roosevelt

There will be no guarantees in life, nor in your efforts to live your best life.  But, in coasting through on the proverbial couch of life, nose buried in an electronic screen, you're as much as certain to have life pass you by.  So...dare to dream...dare to live your best life...dare to lead your family how they deserve to be led...dare to join us in this continued conversation...dare to Stand In The Arena.  

With you in the arena, from ours to yours...Happy Trails!

Call to Action: 

• Define your arena - your very best life in spite of what anyone else may think.  
• What are three ways that you're standing in the arena?  
• 1 - ___________________ 
• 2 - ___________________
• 3 - ___________________
• What are some ways that you and your family can stand in your own arena? 
• Discussion: Consider what you/your family could/would/should (level of commitment) and start/stop/sustain (action)

Further Reading, Motivation, and References:

- Man In The Arena - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A311CnTjfos

- Brene Brown, Man In The Arena - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s6DQrqVHxM