In recent years, the Personal Finance (PF) community has grown at exponential rates. Rockstar Finance, PT Money and Modest Money list hundreds of websites dedicated to spreading the message around Financial Independence and Early Retirement (FIRE). Saving and investing are core elements for achieving FI; however, sites like ChooseFI have elevated the message to one that is centered around intentionality and building community.

But finding community remains a challenge, especially for those of us that decide to remain anonymous. Finding like-minded individuals with whom to share ideas and debate optimization strategies hasn’t been easy; however, I remain hopeful, especially with recent events that have caught me off guard.

A Work Meeting About Personal Finance

So a buddy of mine who was on an expat assignment for a few years is now back and assigned to a common project. In an effort to bring him up to speed I set up a meeting to give him enough background and context before sessions that we supposed to take place the following week. He steps into my office and before talking business he asks me about the family.

Even though we were friends, we didn’t stay connected very well so he was happy to hear the family got bigger and now included two boys. After sharing other updates about moves and career path, I felt intrigued by his time as an expat. Initially, I was under the impression he living overseas but to my surprise, he was actually rotating on a 28/28 schedule which means 28 days straight on the job and then 28 days off.

I had a lot of questions in my head but for obvious reasons, the first that came out was around his quality of life and the challenge of being away from family for 28 days. He wasn’t married for the most part of his assignment so work was manageable but once married he said his perspective changed. He then covered other aspects about the job but quickly transitioned to compensation and how he felt this experience helped him get ahead on his journey toward achieving Financial Independence.

An alarm went off in my head and immediately I realized I had found community

Next thing I know we are talking about frugality and how he was able to save and invest nearly 75% of his take-home pay for almost 4 years. He and his now wife were intentional about money and decided to avoid lifestyle inflation despite the high-income he had as a rotator. He shared his thoughts around Financial Independence in the context of having options to do what you love in life but not necessarily to retire early (FIOR).

After realizing we shared the same perspective, our conversation transitioned to discussions around more technical topics which included: mega backdoor Roth, backdoor Roth, Roth conversion ladder, investing strategies and real estate. We also shared resources, but as anticipated, they overlapped almost 100%. The simple path to wealth, your money or your life and a random walk down wall street to name a few, were in both our bookshelves. Blogs and podcasts included MadFIentist, ESImoney and Rockstar Finance.

Do you remember the purpose of our meeting? Looking back, I don’t think we talked about work at all. Instead, we use that time to reconnect as friends and members of the FI community.

A Meeting Invite that Opened A Door For Collaboration

Opening the door for having conversations around PF is not easy for everyone. I have several hypotheses but based on my experiences it boils down to discomfort in sharing personal information and unwillingness to have money be the center of a discussion. For me, it has never been about money … it has been about the freedom and optionality it can provide. The reason I’m telling you this is because sharing information and building community is great but respecting where others stand is of equal importance.

I’ve had very soft discussions with individuals within my team about PF but based on our interactions I’ve remained passive and share my thoughts only when I feel it is “save” to do so. Recently, one of my peers sent me a meeting invite to attend a workshop about personal finance. This event was sponsored by her Financial Advisor (FA).

The meeting invite included topics such as backdoor Roth, HSA accounts, asset allocation, mortgage pre-payment, 529 and others. These are all things I’ve written about in the past so as you can imagine I was looking forward to attending the event. Unfortunately, after checking my calendar I realized I was going to be out of the office attending an out of state event.

Given the opportunity, I sent a note back to my peer saying that I appreciated the invite but that I couldn’t attend; however, my reply included questions and comments on the topics in the agenda to spark discussion and get feedback upon my return. Little did I know, she would forward my email to her FA. The next day I received an email with comments and answers that started with an awesome intro.

Good morning JJ, thanks for your comments on the list of topics. I can tell you are passionate about optimizing your personal finance situation, and I get you may be a MadFIentist fan! You clearly have a great understanding of these matters and are likely not looking for profesional help. That is totally fine as I just enjoy talking to someone who enjoys this stuff as much as I do.

We exchanged emails back and forth and actually had coffee the day before the event. Setting the stage and leading with intent translated into a great conversation that actually brought actionable insights I hadn’t thought about. Yes, he is a Financial Advisor but given his non-traditional knowledge and approach to personal finance, I consider him a member of the community and someone I could bounce ideas with no strings attached.

A Birthday Party with a Travel Hacking Twist

One of my buddies from work was celebrating his kid’s birthday and decided to invite us to a little get together at his place. Other co-workers that I don’t directly work with were there so it was a good opportunity to catch up. All of the sudden we started talking about traveling and trips some of them had been taken during the summer time and how one of them was taking advantage of the companion pass. As you know I’m a big fan of travel hacking and absolutely love the companion pass.

He started sharing his strategy about credit cards and what he had on the radar once the companion pass expired. We exchanged ideas and suggestions about the best cards available in the market (at that point in time) and how to do further optimization within the constraints imposed by the 5/24 rule.

We bounced ideas about many things but the one that kept coming back was around the most effective way to get the companion pass. At the time, Southwest was offering 50,000 points for their two personal credit cards (Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus and Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier) which combined were short 10,000 points from hitting the minimum required to get the companion pass.

Our friend followed this approach and got the additional 10,000 points by using one of his cards. We didn’t get into the details on how exactly he got there but assuming he used his cards for FIXED expenses then I would call it a win.

Even though I didn’t have the companion pass at that point I mentioned that based on my research there was a better way to do it. The answer was clear, open a personal credit card, in this case, the Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus at 50,000 points (available at the time of opening) and the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business at 60,000 points. Voila, you hit the minimum at 110,000 without the need of additional spending.

The obvious question that followed was on whether or not you needed to have a legitimate business before opening a business credit card. The short answer was yes; however, I provided some caveats as well as resources that I found beneficial while doing my research. One of those resources came from Financial Panther so I totally recommend his post on business credit cards as the ultimate tool for travel hackers.

Attending this party was supposed to be all about the kids and indeed it was, but I was completely surprised by the opportunity to discuss all things travel haking with this group. Today, we exchanged emails about credit card offers and we are kind of watching after each to make sure we all capitalize on available opportunities.

Final Thoughts

• Expect the unexpected, relax and allow yourself to be surprised.
• The PF community continues to grow and like Jonathan from ChooseFI would say the FIRE is spreading my friends!
• Finding community is probably the first step but once you find it,  hang onto it and continue to grow it.
• Be alert and don’t miss on opportunities for creating engagement.

Have you had challenges finding and building community? if so, I’d love to hear from you in the comment section.

Until next time … JJ