Surprising Wealth Blog
Welcome to Surprising Wealth, where we explore the unexpected journey towards financial independence and abundant living. Join us as we share stories, tips, and strategies for achieving financial stability and creating a life filled with purpose, freedom, and memorable experiences.
Recent Posts:
The Best Car I Never Bought
I thought I was saving for my next car. It turns out I was really saving for something much bigger. Here’s how an unexpected opportunity transformed a future car purchase into the down payment on a rental property… and one of the best lessons we’ve learned about opportunity cost.
The Anti-Upgrade Mentality That Upgraded Our Entire Life
Every major purchase asks the same question: What else could this money become? Years ago, we started asking that question before upgrading our home or car. The answers reshaped our finances… and our lifestyle.
65 Months to FI – Practicing Looking for the Opportunity
65 months to FI! Just months after deciding to slowly wind down our rental portfolio, life accelerated the plan for us. Three long-term tenants moved out in rapid succession, giving us the unexpected opportunity to sell three properties this year instead of one. Twenty years ago, we couldn’t have imagined how much rental real estate would shape our Financial Independence journey. Today, we’re learning to embrace the evolution of that chapter.
2025 Auto Cost: The Quiet Superpower of a Boring Car
Every year I calculate the true cost of owning my vehicle, including insurance, maintenance, taxes, and depreciation. The results remind me that one of the best ways to build wealth isn’t earning more… it’s spending intentionally on the things that matter most.
2026 Great Life Goals: Mid-Year Friendship Goal Check-In
One of the ideas behind SlowFI is that you don’t postpone living until you reach your financial number. This year’s visits with friends goal has been a wonderful reminder of that. Research consistently shows that strong relationships are one of the biggest predictors of health and happiness. So we simply keep saying yes to inviting friends over, attending bookclubs, and chatting with neighbors. Those tiny choices added up to 79 meaningful connections so far.
70 Months to FI – What Would You Want Less of in 6 Years?
70 months to FI! When you’re far from Financial Independence, you optimize for growth. When you’re closer, you begin optimizing for simplicity. This month’s decision to sell a long-held rental property marks a quiet but meaningful shift in how we’re preparing for the next chapter. As we approach FI, we’re realizing that what once energized us is now beginning to exhausts us. Sometimes the bravest financial decision is letting go of something that once made perfect sense.
Self-Employed Health Insurance: 12% premium increase for 2025
Our 2025 health insurance premium increased by 12%. Healthcare is now our second-largest expense as a self-employed couple. And unlike groceries or travel, this isn’t an area where we can optimize much further. High deductible. No subsidies. Shopping the marketplace every year. As we plan for early retirement, we’re treating healthcare differently than other spending categories.
2025 Great Life Goals: Year End Review
In 2025, my Great Life Goals told a story I didn’t fully expect. More time with aging parents. Fewer ocean days than I craved. Travel shaped more by service than adventure. This year, I tracked days with family, visits with friends, travel, ocean time, and walking habits. But what I really measured was alignment. 2025 became a year of proximity to the people who matter most, releasing pressure in hard seasons, and noticing where my spending isn’t yet representing my values. Here’s what my goals revealed about the life I’m building.
Tracking Our Lifetime Wealth Ratio: 2025 Update
For every $1.00 we’ve earned as income in our lifetime, we’ve built $0.93 of net worth, not by saving every dollar, but by investing regularly and letting time + compounding do the work to grow our wealth. Ever wondered how effectively you’re turning income into wealth? We’ve been tracking our progress for the last 5 years using the Lifetime Wealth Ratio.
75 Months to FI – Vulnerability Turns Connections Into Friendships
75 months to FI! This month brought a powerful reminder: FI is richer with friends beside you. By sharing a simple introduction before we attended a FI event, we found ourselves welcomed, invited, and connected in ways that made us . Taking that step towards being open and vulnerable by posting about ourselves led to car rides, meals shared, and new friendships that make this journey even more meaningful.
The One Percent Rule of Friendship Building – The ROI of Friendship #5
The 1% rule for friendships isn’t about grand gestures or life-changing moments. It’s about micro-moments of care that most people overlook but create the strongest bonds over time. Building wealth while living richly today means recognizing that your most valuable assets aren’t just in your investment accounts. They’re in your relationships, your memories, your support network, and your capacity to show up for the people you care about.
76 Months to FI – It’s Not About Convincing It’s About Finding Overlap.
Hello FIRE Family 🙂 This month, we consider how to turn a potential “no” into a “yes”: by connecting spending requests to what we care about.
The Compound Effect of Showing Up – The ROI of Friendship #4
Picture this: It’s late evening, you’ve just discovered your basement flooding during a severe tropical storm, and all the hardware stores are closed. This is exactly when you discover the true ROI of friendship wealth. Thanks to our network of friends who didn’t hesitate to answer late-night calls and lend us pumps and hoses, we turned a potential disaster into a manageable challenge. This is compound interest in action. Not financial, but relational.
My First CampFI – CampFI MidWest 2024 recap
What happens when you put 60+ financially independent (or aspiring) people in one place for a weekend? Speed-friending, midnight conversations about life purpose, and the realization that you’re not weird for prioritizing freedom over stuff. As a shy introvert, CampFI was well outside my comfort zone. As someone seeking genuine community in the FIRE journey, it was exactly what I didn’t know I needed.
Using Your FI Freedom for Relationship Wealth Building – The ROI of Friendship Series #3
Here’s the hidden superpower of living below your means: It creates space to make choices that aren’t motivated only by money, including the choice to prioritize your most valuable asset class, your relationships. When you’re not trapped by lifestyle inflation, you have the freedom to turn down higher-paying jobs for better work-life balance, live closer to people you care about, and take afternoons off when friends need help.
The Accessibility of Friendship Wealth – The ROI of Friendship Series #2
When we think about traditional wealth building, there tend to be real barriers. You’ll need capital to invest in stocks. You’ll likely need good credit to buy real estate. The more money you already have, the more opportunities typically become available to you. Friendship wealth operates by different rules. Research shows strong relationships protect your brain, extend your life, and create more joy than money alone. While traditional investments require financial capital, friendship wealth asks for something we all possess in equal measure each day: time and presence. This wealth is accessible to anyone willing to invest their time and presence. And it’s benefits go beyond what money can buy.
77 Months to FI – Practicing For The Life We Want Later
77 months to FI! This month’s focus is future planning for a time when we will want to simplify our weekly responsibilities. Practicing now for the life we want later, we are outsourcing property management for one of our rentals. We’ve started testing the systems we may want in the future. Small experiments like this help us learn, adjust, and build confidence in letting go of tasks that may not need to stay ours forever. We’re laying the groundwork for a simpler and more freedom filled future.
2025 Mid-year FIRE Goal Update
A Real Path to Wealth: SlowFI + Reflecting on Our 2025 Milestone Acheivements & What It Means – Hello FIRE community! It’s time for our 2025 mid-year update on our journey towards Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE). The countdown to full FIRE sits at 77 months. It’s still a journey, but we’ve mapped it out, and every month that passes reminds us how far we’ve come and how close we’re getting. Let’s dive into the numbers and what they mean for our path to financial freedom.