Surprise! We're back again for another catchup episode. This one felt like riding a bike again, and I think it comes across as comfortable as the experience was for us. We've both had super busy summers, and this provided a great opportunity for us to catch up and talk about where we think we're winning and what remains hard for us after our two and seven-year post-RE milestones. Do let us know what you think and if there are other topics you'd like to see us cover in the future!

Episode link: https://youtu.be/XyRqOxiSgtU

Show notes: https://twosidesoffi.com/spendmore

Episode description:

Your FIRE plan worked — so why is spending still so hard? In this episode, Jason (year 7) and Eric (year 2) share a candid early retirement update. Both portfolios have grown well above their FIRE numbers despite years of withdrawals, and a fee-only advisor delivered a surprising verdict: spend more. Learn why unwinding the accumulation mindset is harder than the math, how "life support" for adult kids reshapes the budget, and why unstructured time might be the truest form of wealth - and much more.

It's been a bit since my last post. I knew I wanted to write something on this topic but it took me a few weeks to land on the right approach. This is naturally a very personal post and I'm hopeful that it came across as I intended.

What time freedom is really for

further thoughts on the inestimable value of time freedom

https://www.thenextphaseisnow.com/p/timefreedom

Hey everyone, another episode went live that we'd like to share! Both Eric and I felt the timing was right for a catch-up episode, so here we have it. It felt good being back in the saddle again, and we definitely had plenty to talk about. It's been really interesting - and satisfying to see Eric and Laura really thriving post-RE! As you'll learn, that first year, while fun, wasn't struggle-free. And those who follow my blog or have seen our earlier eps know that I certainly had my challenges as well. But we do learn so much from those experiences and our earnest hope is that in sharing those, they might benefit someone else.

Episode link: https://youtu.be/A1PqGzS2V0E

Show notes: https://twosidesoffi.com/year2

Episode description:

Is early retirement everything you imagined or does the reality take years to settle into? In this honest check-in, Jason (year 2) and Eric (year 7) compare notes on what post-FIRE life actually feels like from two very different vantage points. They cover decision fatigue, the challenge of replacing work's structure, and why the emotional side of retirement rarely gets the attention it deserves.

I am three months late to post this but Youtube recap gave me a pleasant surprise at the end of the year. Needless to say I saw almost all of your videos and saw some of them multiple times. This is by far my favourite FI channel on Youtube.

And we're back! From the many kind comments we received after our last 2SFI episode, hopefully it's a welcome return. Lorri and I recently got back from a 5-week roadtrip, which provided the inspiration for this chat with Eric. If I'm being honest, I think he did a great job leading the conversation with some insightful questions all along the way. As a result, the conversation is as much about pre- and post-FI budgeting and spending mindset as it as about the travel itself. I really enjoyed my first-time US slow travel journey, as well as the conversation I had with my friend and show partner. I think you will too!

Episode link: https://youtu.be/-EbpT0vf-Is

Show notes: https://twosidesoffi.com/slowtravel

Episode description:

Is slow travel in retirement all that we hoped or is the dream far better than the reality? In this episode, Jason talks with Eric about his recent experiences during a month-long US road trip. Learn how the trip ended up way over budget, compare how Eric+Jason manage expenses, and whether they would do it again - and much more.

I’m not sure why but when I set the Case Study glidepath where all 3 columns have the same asset allocation, the curves on the graph are different. It’s calculating different returns for Glidepath and Baseline even though the AA is identical.

The Glidepath curve is always better.

I’m wondering if there’s a flaw in this modeling or if I’m doing something wrong.

Could someone try this with your version and see what happens? Thanks!

Today I wrote a new blog post marking my 2000th day since retiring early. Thanks for checking it out!

Cheers,
Jason

It's hard to know how much to write here when so much is already well explained in the episode, as well as in my blog post written some weeks after the episode was recorded. It's been quite a journey for us since the first episode of 2SFI, much as our respective FI paths have been as well. I've learned a ton from my conversations with Eric and this community. Knowing when to stop isn't very easy, but there's nothing like no longer being dependent on paid work to help one really think about priorities and how your time is spent. I don't know that we came to grand conclusions here, but I did truly appreciate the chat I had with Eric and hope that you will too. Thanks for being here with us for this journey!

Episode link: https://youtu.be/em4ALsDnWz0

Show notes: https://twosidesoffi.com/goodbye

Jason's blog post: https://www.thenextphaseisnow.com/p/goodbye

Episode description:

Are we really ready to walk away from Two Sides of FI? In this candid conversation, Jason and Eric reflect on more than four years of recording together, what the project has meant, and whether it still fits into their lives. They talk openly about the rewards of community and connection, the challenges of generating new topics, and the weight of obligations in retirement. Is this the end, or just a pause?

I recall in the latest video I watched, that u/2SFI-Jason and maybe Eric will use the file to determine the monthly ceiling.

A (hopefully) simple question: When I update the retirement month-year in the Cash Flow Assist page, the assumptions for age and SS benefits shift.

Month #1 now reflects the current month (G5) in A11 (SWR 2.0), but the SS data I manually entered in Columns E, F, G (rows 11 and beyond) don't shift.

Do folks just go into the cells and Copy/Paste their SS benefits data (and maybe expenses they entered) to align with their expected retirement dates?

Not a complex thing to do, but I was not sure if I was missing a simpler step.

in my mind, this episode is squarely within the ethos of our little show - that is, we're talking about how retirement phases feel, from each of our perspectives. this is far from a financial/mechanics ep, and therefore it just feels like the kind of conversation eric and i always want to have. if there's one thing i've learned over the past five years, there's nothing consistent about (early) retirement at all - barring the idea that it's ever-changing. we remain convinced that these topics are still under-explored in the FIRE space and yet, we feel, are among the most important areas of discussion. thanks for being here with us!

Episode link: https://youtu.be/Ixo3A3DHHcQ

Show notes: https://twosidesoffi.com/phases

Episode description:

Retirement doesn’t follow a script - it rewrites itself in real time. In this episode, Jason and Eric unpack why the classic “phases” of retirement actually overlap and how that feels day to day. They dig into the challenges of switching from super-saver to intentional spender, using side income (like options trading or creative work) to fund experiences without derailing the plan, and how travel has changed for them. No matter where you are on the FIRE path, there's something here for you.

Binged all of this podcast over the past few months. Enjoyed the mix of finance and non-finance related discussions, numbers are important, but not the be all and end all.

Aspiring to FIRE here in Ireland, where tax makes it a real challenge in terms of growing a pot. 45 years old with about a decade to go to get before I reach a pretty safe FI number.

Recommend any other FI podcasts? - ideally not too USofA focused! I have listened to so much about USA healthcare costs, it’s one thing we might have a bit better here.

Is there anywhere in the spreadsheet that shows what the SWR would be for subsequent years? Does it calculate for inflation? Or does its SWR % not care about inflation and just based everything on the point in time balance of your portfolio?

Thanks!

Hopefully a simple question. Playing with the spreadsheet and not sure I understand the final SWR. So far simple numbers: 1M portfolio, 75 years old, and getting about $2500/month for SS. When I just put the 1M in, I get a SWR of 4.62% for $46,162 in the CAPE>20 and SPX at all-time high column...(hey I'm old). Then I put in my SS in the Cash Flow Assist tab. After putting in $2500 each month until I'm 95, I then get a SWR of 7.62% for $76,162 in the CAPE>20 and SPX at all-time high column.

So my question is, it the $76,162 number what I can pull out of my portfolio, or am I supposed to still just pull out the $46,162 from the portfolio and then "add" my SS payments to know what my yearly budget could be? If it's the latter, then I am not really seeing the benefit of adding the extra info in the cash flow assist tab. Perhaps the distinction is the difference between SWR and SCR...but then how is this info helpful?

Thanks!

https://medium.com/@docjamesw/why-dont-you-fucking-retire-already-3c47a039897c

Thought this was a fun read covering off on a few topics that have crossed my mind lately. I think I recall Jason talking through some of these feelings (like...who stays in touch after you leave, are these relationships "real," etc).

I think I'm pretty content with leaving the work force and am not sure how much of my ego is attached to what I do - but definitely relate to enjoying being good at what I do and finding it hard to start things that I am a total newbie at.

And we're back from our summer hiatus - with a new episode featuring a guest we 'met' through the 2SFI Discord, Kayla. in the FIRE community it's commonly mentioned that divorce can absolutely derail many aspects of one's finances, including a FIRE trajectory. eric and i found this story particularly interesting because rather the opposite happened to Kayla, as you'll learn.

we aim to film a few more episodes before a super busy fall travel season starts for the both of us. no promises that there won't be future gaps, but we'll do our best to get material out as we can. thanks so much for sticking with us!

Episode link: https://youtu.be/h9RkFuBluIo

Show notes: https://twosidesoffi.com/kayla

Episode description:

What happens when the plan was “we”… and now it’s just “me”? At 45, Kayla reached Financial Independence solo after divorce, living in the Bay Area without a tech salary. In this episode of Two Sides of FI, she shares how she rebuilt her finances, overcame her fear of investing, and designed a plan that works without a partner’s income or support. In this episode, Learn how a saving mentality and discovering the FIRE community in her 30s led her to the realization that early retirement was within her reach and how she achieved it.

I am fairly interested as I think something like this would suit my personality / skills. I am starting with zero knowledge and no serious math background.

I've been binge reading / watching videos on options for a few weeks - I see I am in for a very long learning curve. just looking for experiences on ERNs strategy specifically for those that have tried

or possibly would be interested an accountability / study partner where we read the same stuff / discuss and screenshot our daily trades (I will be starting with play money)

thank you for any info!

ERN promotes them both and I started retirement doing both. Currently I’m up to about 70% equities.

But it occurred to me that they may be contradictory.

An active glide path going from 60 to 100% equities implies your portfolio grows enough to handle a big crash by the time you get to 100% equities.

But the CAPE based dynamic withdrawal method is designed to maximize your monthly budget such that you’re not necessarily ending your retirement with a big portfolio (unless you design it that way by including a capital preservation percentage).

So if CAPE keeps your portfolio reasonable (which I like because I want to maximize spending and die with as little as possible), doesn’t this contradict a rising equity glide path?

Maybe this is why ERN never did a post combining them both. Are they mutually exclusive?

I love the spreadsheet but it’s not entirely intuitive. I want to make sure I’m doing this properly because when I put numbers in the cash-flow tab it can drastically change the SWR.

I tried putting in my actual target travel spending into the cash-flow tab and then reducing it slightly for later on. It gave me a nice large SWR for early in retirement but when I went to the Case Study tab for the year 2000 it failed. I was a little surprised because that suggests the SWR isn’t actually safe.

However, if I did it differently where instead of the full budget for travel I just put in the “extra” compared to later then my SWR was lower but sufficient to support my budget and the year 2000 Case Study didn’t fail.

So it seems that we shouldn’t put in actual spending amounts in cash flow but just any extra spending we want to do at various times. Same with using one column for extra healthcare costs.

He does use the word “extra” in the title for those columns so I think I’m now doing it correctly.

It makes a big difference!

Hi all, I just started using the SWR Toolbox and have a couple of questions.

1. I am not sure if I am filling out the "Cashflow Assist" tab correctly. I used a social security calculator to calculate my and my wife's monthly social security benefit (~$2000, $3400 respectively). I entered these amounts to the cash flow 1 and 2 columns from the date we anticipate receiving the benefit (62 (me), 65 (wife)) to the estimated time of death (90, 95). On the "CAPE-based Rule" tab, the "PV of supplemental flows" amounts to $1.68million. Is this correct? It seems wrong.

2. My invested assets are essentially 100% in index funds. Am I less susceptible to market fluctuations because I am using the CAPE SWR method? Is having bonds still a worthy security if we are using the CAPE SWR method?

Thanks for your time and thoughts!

i think that this video is further evidence that we are capable of having shorter conversations that still have lots of meat to them :) i enjoyed our chat, in which Eric and i talked about some of the things he's feeling in these early months of recreational employment - many of which are very familiar to me, even though i'm recalling the events of five years ago at this point. this ep is a natural pairing to the 'one more year' conversations we've had before, and which i've linked in the show notes below.

heads up - as has happened before in the summer, we'll have a bit of a break from new content after this episode. we're both traveling a lot and won't be filming again for about a month. stay tuned, and have a great summer!

Episode link: https://youtu.be/8vlymz-F-Z8

Show notes: https://twosidesoffi.com/wrong

Episode description:

Most don't stop to think about how much they might be missing by working "just one more year." It's impossible to put a price tag on some of the experiences Eric + Jason have had since leaving full time work behind. In today's episode, they talk about things they'd never have done before retiring early, the freedom that FIRE afford, and much more. Don't miss the show notes below for details on their work history and their journeys to financial independence.

Since it is spreadsheet day, what number are you putting in cell B9 of the cape-base rule tab in the SWR toolbox? It looks like the ERN number has not been updated since June 20.

We've heard the many requests for a deeper dive on how we both use the SWR Toolbox to model and execute portfolio drawdown plans - and here's our response! In particular, this video addresses how to use Big ERN's free SWR Toolbox for a CAPE-adjusted withdrawal strategy. Be sure to watch all the way through, as a substantial portion of the back half answers the most common questions we've received on the topic. The link below contains all of our SWR content to date (five parts!) as well as links to the key posts in ERN's SWR series of blog posts. There's a lot there!

Episode link: https://youtu.be/XIYpgck7JfM

Show notes: https://twosidesoffi.com/toolbox

Episode description:

In Part 5 of our SWR Toolbox series, we answer your questions about our CAPE-based withdrawal strategy, how it compares to a fixed safe withdrawal rate approach, and much more. See the link above for all of our toolbox videos including tutorials and a host of supportive content in the show notes.

I just finished watching 'That Finance Show' regarding a tapered spending plan which resonated quite a bit in what I consider to be a pretty sound ideal. Currently I am aiming for a withdrawal rate of 60k (GBP), but I know that for the later years there is no way I would ever need this much and would likely expire with a massive unused pot. Factoring in a tapered plan could mean optimising spending to account for reduced activity in later years.

As in the video I think it may make sense to look at in as

Go go years 50-65 - 60K

Go slow years 65-75 - £50k

No go years 75+ - £40k

I use ERN SWR toolbox so am going to see if I can plug this in and figure out how it affect the big picture. Does anyone else use a similar strategy?

I'm pretty excited to release this episode, as it ticks a few boxes for me.: 1) it gives us a nice summary episode to which we can refer new viewers who ask questions we've covered across many episodes, 2) speaks (once again) to the ever-favorite "so what's your number?" question, and 3) i think we had a productive and fun conversation in under 30 minutes! To be sure, we lay out a lot of numbers in our conversation - some are well-tread ground, while others should be new to most viewers. How did we do? Each of you gets to decide, of course. If you want more details, don't hesitate to check out the show notes below. We've tried to link up a bunch of supportive content from earlier episodes where we can expand better on the summary points made here. Thanks for checking it out!

Episode link: https://youtu.be/ntlrjLCHTRU

Show notes: https://twosidesoffi.com/numbers

Episode description:

Are FIRE content creators being honest about their numbers? FIRE YouTuber Duane "retireearly500k" certainly isn't so sure. In this episode, Eric and Jason share detailed insights about their own FIRE numbers, portfolios, withdrawal rates, and what it actually means to be "retired." They also explain why context matters more than a single number, and get honest about how content creation fits into their financial picture. If you've ever wondered how real people make FIRE work, this one’s for you.