3741: Striving For Financial Independence? Find Your Tribe by Dave of Accidental Fire on Financial Accountability

[00:00:00] This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+.

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[00:00:50] And I'm Justin Malek. And I'm Justin Malek. I read articles and give some commentary to go along with them for a little reminder about what's important every day of the year. So let's get right to today's post as we optimize your life. Striving for Financial Independence? Find Your Tribe by Dave of AccidentalFire.com.

[00:01:15] I track my annual cycling, running, hiking, and paddling miles on my blog. A significant portion of my audience comes to my blog for content related to health and fitness. And my goal in showing my numbers is to inspire an increasingly sick and unhealthy nation to change their lives through activity. I've received a few emails from people who are amazed as to how I can be so consistent in my annual mileage totals.

[00:01:44] To me, it comes naturally. I simply make a routine and put it on autopilot. Sure, I shake things up now and then with a road trip or by doing different activities. But for the most part, I'm dialed in to a nice routine. And the fact that I don't do a ton of traveling for my job anymore sure helps in keeping that routine. Last week, someone with a keen eye emailed me about my running total this year. They observed the fact that I'm running a lot more. And they're correct.

[00:02:14] I'm on pace for about 700 miles this year, more than double last year's total. There's a reason. Peer groups raise all boats. I'm well known in the DC cycling community mainly because I do lots of group rides. I do bike shop sponsored rides and even drop in sometimes with some of the local racing team training rides.

[00:02:37] But for a few years, I tried to run with different groups and it never worked. There's really no drafting and running, at least not at the non-elite level. Every time I tried to run with a new group, I'd find that I was either too slow for the fast folks or too fast for the newer and slower runners.

[00:03:04] In the DC area where there are tons of super good athletes, it was often the former. And very often those super fast runners were kind of standoffish to others like me who couldn't keep up. But this year, I finally found a group of runners who not only train at my usual pace, but who are super cool folks and fun to be around. They have a weekly Wednesday morning run at 6 and I started doing it in early January.

[00:03:32] We usually only do between 5 and 6 miles and then we hang out at a coffee shop for a while afterwards and talk. Over the past 4 months, I've gotten to know many of these folks very well and I now have a whole new set of friends. Friends who care about their health and fitness. The best kind. I found my running tribe. This has been a game changer for my running. Accountability works.

[00:04:00] Most of my new running friends have a race or races coming up and simply hearing their full training routines and diet protocols is awesome motivation. I've learned from them and found new tools to experiment with. One woman in my group had a cancerous tumor removed less than a year ago and runs ultra marathons. She recently completed a 100 mile race less than a year out from a cancer diagnosis.

[00:04:27] These folks are not just inspiring, but they also stir up the competitor in me. I hear their stories and it makes me think, I wonder if I could do that. Some of my new friends are really fast runners, but they use our group for slower training runs. A few have run the Boston Marathon, which you have to be really fast to qualify for. One girl named Katie does speed work at the track every week. I joined her once and got my butt kicked.

[00:04:55] She can run a mile in under 6 minutes. I cannot. I can't even go under 6 minutes and 30 seconds yet. Holy s***, it hurts so much to try. But she's super cool and she's been egging me on to continue training my speed to get under 6 minutes and 30 seconds. At this point, I feel accountable to her in a weird way, even though we've never socialized once outside of post-run chats and I don't even know her last name.

[00:05:22] She's just super nice and, as far as running goes at least, someone who I look up to and want to emulate. Human bonding in this way is powerful. We are social creatures. Find your Phi tribe. If you're striving for financial independence, and I hope you are, you'll do yourself a huge favor by taking that journey with others. Find your tribe and dive in.

[00:05:50] Full disclosure, I didn't use that path to Phi. I'm naturally frugal and invested at an early age, so it just happened to me accidentally, as my blog name suggests. I had no peer groups to help me, and none of my friends even knew I was stashing money away all those years. But if you're finding things a bit more challenging in your journey, you'll speed things up by joining in with others, just as my running game is leveling up this year with my new group.

[00:06:19] There are Facebook groups and blogs, of course, but it doesn't have to be all online, and I actually recommend that it shouldn't be. Find a meetup group. Go to a conference. Meet others in person who are slashing debt, cutting costs, and investing wisely. You'll find inspiration in their stories, and most importantly, you'll have accountability partners who will keep you honest about your own journey.

[00:06:45] Heck, you may even feel the urge to up your game to beat them on savings or financial life hacks. A little friendly competition never hurt anyone. Community. I've always been a bit of an introvert, and enjoy solo activities more than most folks. But this year's experience with my new running tribe has been a big reminder that I need to balance my solitudiness with healthy doses of community.

[00:07:12] So whether you're searching for faster running times, or to shorten your path to financial independence, get out there and find your tribe. Benefits await. You just listened to the post titled, Striving for Financial Independence? Find Your Tribe, by Dave of AccidentalFire.com. And I'll be right back with my commentary. Many leaders think they know where time goes.

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[00:09:06] or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18+. Thank you to Dave. I like that some of the faster runners use that group for their slower runs. That seems like a good arrangement. He gets to learn from them without having to keep up with their fastest pace. I think that matters when you're looking for people to talk about money with too.

[00:09:36] Someone can have a lot more save than you and still make you feel comfortable asking a basic question. Or you can be at almost the same point financially and turn every conversation into a comparison. And that's where I'd be a little careful with the idea of trying to beat someone else. If you started saving because you wanted more time with your family, hearing that another person saves more doesn't automatically give you a reason to take on more work.

[00:10:04] You had your own reason for choosing your goal. So I'd pay attention to how you feel after spending time with that group. Do you leave with a useful idea or mostly feeling like you're behind? I'd want people who are interested in helping me make progress even when my journey looks different from theirs. So thank you to Dave for this one. And with that, have a great rest of your day. Thank you for being here and I'll see you tomorrow where your optimal life awaits.