#042 | The Fioneers Interview

June 8, 2020

Episode Summary

We interview Jess and Corey from The Fioneers. They are a married couple in their early 30s living in Boston, and they both work for non-profits. They coined the term SlowFI and believe that FI is best understood as a pioneering journey that requires courage and vision to create a new way of life. Their vision is as much about creating a fulfilling and meaningful life along the journey as about making our way to the destination and beyond. We really enjoyed our discussion with Jess and Corey, and we touched upon topics from how they got started to what they’ve learned along this journey to advice for those who may be burnt out.

Episode Notes

The Fioneers share a number of great stories and insights:

We always like to ask people how they grew up financially. Corey grew up always hustling and earning money and was focused on what he could buy with money. He grew up believing money is a tool, not positive or negative, that can be used to get what you want, whether an experience or item. Jess grew up in a household that rarely had money stress, though she knew her family was pretty frugal. One thing very formative was when Jess went to college her dad sat her down and gave her two options, both that involved her not getting into debt. He said she could go to a school with scholarships or get a job to help pay for college.
They shared their why for financial independence and how it has evolved over time. It’s less about retiring early for them, and more about building financial freedom that we can utilize along the way. They are not in a huge hurry to “retire.”
They want the journey to financial independence to be as remarkable as the destination.
They are focused on how they can use this financial freedom we gain along the way to live a life that is aligned with our values and our priorities and this vision that we have for our ideal life.
Their motivation for financial independence, both a push and pull. What is it pushing you away from, and what is it pulling you towards? One of their early motivations was when Jess was working in a toxic job environment. So at first they were pursuing it to get away from that, and then eventually it was to get towards more freedom.
Corey started on this journey about five years earlier than Jess, and over time she slowly came along on the journey. Jess initially didn’t understand what they were saving money for and wanted to enjoy her life and spend the money she earned. Jess had a level of guilt about having money, from her childhood and growing up having money and from her international travels and seeing so many people without money. That perspective has shifted over time.
Corey initially excluded himself from being part of this community as he thought he had to have a higher income job than he had.
The idea of incremental freedom. If they saved just a little bit more they could get more freedom and flexibility.
The way Corey finally convinced her and got her on board was getting her to read Your Money of Your Life. From that book she realized there were people making intentional decisions about how to live their lives, and then she also started to learn the mechanics of retirement.
They talk about the vacation in the woods of Maine in 2018 when they came up with the idea for the Fioneers. They wanted to Focus more on happiness along the way and they realized there weren’t any voices that had that type of message. They also share how they landed on the name itself. They are adventurers and like to explore new things. Pioneers are the first or trying something new. They wanted to chronicle the journey they were going on.
They heard feedback from others that they pushed themselves so fast and hard they were making themselves miserable in pursuit of this. They didn’t want that to be them. They didn’t want to focus just on where they were going but how they would get there, so they termed the coin Slow FI. It is a happy balance of pursuing it but keeping the end in mind, and it’s not just a financial number. SlowFI is not a particular number, it is more of a mindset that I’m going to use my financial freedom to help me build a life I love right now.
They also popularized the term CoastFI within the FIRE community, which is when you have enough already saved for retirement that it can continue to grow so you can retire comfortably at a traditional retirement age.
Their ultimate goal is they get to a place where they can run a location independent business and make enough to cover their cost of living.
Jess shared how she started having severe stress and anxiety attacks and ended up taking some time off and then quitting her job. It made her rethink a lot of things in her life.
One of their biggest pieces of advice to people is to make lifestyle changes that are slow and incremental and design your life along the way vs waiting for the distant future to make a change.
The effects of burnout and how a lot of people are pushed towards financial independence because they are burnt out in their job. Realize that once you get through this stage of burnout, you’re likely going to want to do something. It would be such a shame to live 10 more years in a toxic job just so you can retire early and then realize you want to keep working anyways.
They have some upcoming projects they are excited about, including a new coaching business Jess is starting, focused on lifestyle design.
If they had it to do all over again… Corey would embrace hobbies and activities even if they cost a little bit of money. And Jess would have gotten involved in their finances earlier in life. She stayed in a toxic job longer than she needed to and if she’d understood their finances better she may not have felt like she had to.