One Year Into CoastFI: Role Reversals, Slowing Down, and Finding Joy Beyond the Numbers

It’s been one full year since we hit CoastFI—and we’re recording this episode from the woods, camping and reflecting on everything that’s happened since Matt stepped away from the 9-to-5 grind. In this candid conversation, we open up about the emotional shifts, role reversals, and lessons we’ve learned along the way.

Matt shares the transition into being a stay-at-home dad and the unexpected physical and emotional toll, while Yana discusses stepping up as the primary income earner. We also dig into the psychological impact of stopping aggressive savings and learning to accept slower portfolio growth—without spiraling into fear.

Plus, we chat about some big highlights from the year: being interviewed on other podcasts, speaking at events, and connecting with fellow FIRE-minded folks. We share new tools we love, talk about creativity, connection, and what we’re dreaming about for retirement now that we’ve tasted the CoastFI lifestyle.

If you're wondering what life actually looks like after reaching CoastFI, this episode is for you.

TOOLS WE LOVE AND USE:

Budgeting: Qube Money (https://bit.ly/Coast_Qube) — This is the tool that simplifies everything for us and gives us full control of our money. You will love it. Use the code “COAST” to get 2-months off the Premium or Family plan when you create an account.

Coast FIRE Calculator: BackofNapkin.co (https://bit.ly/backofnapikin_CoastFI) — Our new favorite tool for determining when you can stop saving for retirement.

Net Worth Tracking: Empower Personal Dashboard (https://bit.ly/4eI9CZs)

HSA Expense Tracker: (https://bit.ly/HSATracker) — We document our healthcare expenses so we can tap our HSA at any time without penalty. Here is the tool we use.

CONNECT WITH US:
Website: https://coastficouple.com
Instagram: @coastficouple (https://bit.ly/4dIzhB1)
Contact us: info@coastficouple.com

DISCLAIMER:
Heads up, friends! This show might include affiliate links or partnerships where we earn a little something—whether it’s cash, commissions, or cool products. Rest assured, the opinions here are 100% ours and not influenced, reviewed, or approved by advertise

TOOLS WE LOVE AND USE

Budgeting: Qube Money - Use code “COAST” to get 2-months off the Premium or Family plan when you create an account.

Net Worth Tracking: Empower Personal Dashboard

Coast FIRE Calculator: BackofNapkin.co

HSA Expense Tracking: HSA Expense Tracker

CONNECT WITH US:
Website: https://coastficouple.com
Instagram: @coastficouple
Contact us: info@coastficouple.com

DISCLAIMER:
Heads up, friends! This show might include affiliate links or partnerships where we earn a little something. Rest assured, the opinions here are 100% ours and not influenced, reviewed, or approved by advertisers. Remember, we’re here to entertain and share our journey, not to give professional advice. For the serious stuff, consult a pro!

#CoastFIRE #CoastFI #FinancialIndependenceRetireEarly #FIRECommunity...

Transcript

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I will say one of the things about. You leaving your job this last year and us not saving as much as we have been in the past is watching our investments sort of slow down. They're still going up, which is great, but they've definitely slowed down a lot. So Watching that number not go up as quickly has been like a little like, ooh, And now when I think about me potentially taking a sabbatical or even going part-time, I do have those feelings of shame and guilt when I think about. Future state. Me being at a place where I'm not at the computer all day working and I feel guilty at the idea of maybe not being as productive, especially in front of you, Yeah. But I can see how that's how you felt last year. Yeah. Or last summer, you know? Yeah.'cause you're not only working through your own emotions, you're also working through the masks. You have your corporate mask and you have your home persona where you wanna still feel like a good partner at home. Yes. How can we make this work? For both of us, where we're not one person is carrying the heavier load and one person has, more of that synergy and that freedom. How can we both be in that place, Welcome to CoastFi Couple, the podcast where love meets financial independence. I'm Matt. And I'm Yana. Join us every other week as we dive into the world of cofi and share smart money tips for couples. We're gonna be talking all about how to strengthen your bond and your relationship and bring you closer to financial independence, one episode at a time. Welcome back coasters. Welcome back. We're in a new, uh, new studio today. Yes. We're in the middle of the woods. This is our remote location. Remote location. Yeah. We are, we're camping today with our sun. And today's actually a pretty special day. Yeah. So we were just looking at the calendar and I realize it's a year to the day that you put in your two weeks notice from your corporate job last year. That's right. That's right. So this, episode will be, a year of coast fi and how it's been going and how we're doing and a little catch up because we've been a little MIA We have been. Yeah. Yeah. so maybe we should start there. Right. So it's been, it's been a couple weeks since we've recorded an episode. We just kind of been living our life. We've had a lot going on. Yes. we still are prioritizing the podcast, but we've been doing a lot of traveling, both with family and for the show too. Yes. So we did do some FI travel. We did CampFi Southeast. Yeah. So we got Chance, Florida chance to present a CampFi together. About our story and, and you know, which was really fun. Yeah. Matt and I present differently. We, so that was a little bit of a learning experience for us. So it was good. Yeah, we need to explain that. So for those that haven't been to a campfire event yet, it's a group about 70 or or so people that get together. They're financial enthusiasts and it's like adult summer camp. We. Do kayaking and archery and rope courses together. And in the middle of that there's education opportunities and, group discussions and focus groups and, which was super cool. And, and we had a chance to go our first time, a year ago. And then was actually asked to come back.'cause we, we presented a focus group and told them what we were we were doing. Yeah. And so then we were asked to come back and give an update. So, that went really, really well. And then, yeah, and then immediately after that we did economy. EconoMe, which was also really fun. A completely different vibe. EconoMe is like 500 plus nerds and financial gurus that meet up. Much bigger event Had a great time. It was a lot of fun, You know, I really loved a lot about EconoMe in that we met so many people, we got to meet a lot of other creators, which was really great for us. Yeah. And I think we learned a lot. It's a very, very go, go, go. And I definitely wanna go back. But Matt and I, we're pretty low key and we hermit. So CampFi. If you're new to figuring out what kind of, events you maybe wanna participate in, in the FI space, I highly recommend a CampFi. It changed me. We went to our first one a little over a year ago, and I was already sort of On my fire journey in a new way, but it really reinvigorated. Yeah. You walked out of the first CampFi totally into this. Totally. And, and I remember driving down there, you were very skittish and, and like we're, we're driving into the, the woods. Yeah. What are you doing? You know, but at the end of that, having the community. Was really great. Yeah. yeah, so that kind of helped us kickstart this whole thing. In fact, we met a really good friend of ours there who gave us his recording equipment, and that's one of the reasons why we started the show. Yeah. So it's been, a good ride. let's see, what else have we been doing? oh. We've also been guesting on other people's of shows. Shows, yeah. Lot. So we were on Catching Up to Fi, which was great. Yeah. Catching Up to Fi fy for those who haven't had a chance to listen, it is one of my favorite, Financial Independence podcasts. bill and Jackie are amazing good people. Mindy Jensen actually co-hosted the episode that we were on. But I really, really loved. Being on their show. Yeah, it was a lot of fun that that was a, a nerd, highlight moment for me. That was fan girling going boy. Uh, totally fan girling. Yeah, that was super cool. And we were also on gosh, a handful of other shows too. Yes. You know Justin Peters show Fi Minded. Yes. Yeah, we have a list that we should probably put out there just to let people know what we've been doing. but it's been a, it's been a good ride. So that said, show's going well. We've gotten a lot of really great positive feedback we have from those that have been watching, listening, and just really appreciate you guys following us on this journey. So let's see. I took some notes. You ready for some notes? Yeah, let's see your notes. Alright, so, we're dubbing this, a year of coast fire, right? Yes. And so, Let's talk a little bit about how this year has been going. I think watching you decompress over this last year has been really great. I think that you're much more in tune with your body and the family and me and it's taken time. it's not been all of a sudden you left corporate and automatically you're better. Yeah. There's been a healing process there and it's been really wonderful to watch. Well, wonderful. In the sense that we were here now. I think it was really, uh, harder than I thought leaving the job. So there were definitely times when it was a struggle. Yeah, yeah. Because it wasn't that, it just, I left the job and, know, it was some sunshine and rainbows. There was a lot of, built up anxiety that just. I was so used to having in the middle of my day. Yeah. And so there'd be many times where, I think we talked about this on the show before, there many times during the day where it's like it's two o'clock and all of a sudden I'm just anxious and I don't have any reason to be, but it's because I've trained my body to have like a specific, very stressful meeting at that time. Yeah. Tuesday afternoon was at two o'clock. No, it was just, it was very, it was, it was very interesting. Yeah. And to have to, sit with that and, and figure that out was, um. It was longer and a harder challenge than I expected it to be. Yeah. Uh, and I think, one thing I I, for those that have been listening and kind of been following me on this journey, even in the last campfire, I had someone come up to me and explain that they've also been experiencing a lot of these, you know, high anxiety pops. And, and so what I ended up doing,'cause after a couple weeks of, getting out of the job and still not being back to myself, I started going to, to this clinic and was asking like, Hey. I have no reason now to be feeling the way that I'm feeling. What more can I be doing? And so I tried this thing called TMS. transcranial magnetic stimulus. And so you wear this really funny little sailor hat and they kind of like tap your head a little bit to kind of create new neural pathways. And that was the whole point is because I'd spent 15 years of my high stress job. Developing new neural pathways, which was I sit down at work and I'm instantly anxious and instantly stressed, and I created this highway of stress shortcut, a shortcut in my brain to stress, and so I had to rewire. My brain with, with through different, to skip the shortcut, to skip the shortcut. Create a new highway. Yeah. And so that's what this whole TS process helped with. And it was a lot of mindfulness. I mean, I, I had to sit in those feelings and have a gratitude journal, which I had never done before in my life. And I had to find a way to feel differently. Through it. And so, yeah, I did that for a couple, like 30 sessions or something. Course, course of a couple weeks. Think did it for six, six to eight weeks. Six to eight weeks. Yeah. And what's really interesting is, Matt is, is so, he gets so excited about a silver bullet and I think you quitting your job. You thought that was gonna be the silver bullet and then we realized it wasn't. Yeah. And so when you started to. Seek help to sort of help deal with some of this anxiety. I think you thought that TMS would also be just like the silver bullet, and it wasn't that necessarily, but it did really help you retune yourself. Yeah. And there has been a change in you from when you started and to now, and I think that was also another part of the reason why we haven't been doing a whole lot of podcasting is. We've been focused on that and we've been focused on some other health procedures. Everything's fine. Everything's great. Yeah. No lot everything's more than of that. We're trying to to That's right. With all the, with your healthcare. We were trying to load up on the, we got the healthcare now all healthcare stuff was, was loaded. That's true. But yeah, you're right. it was helpful. It wasn't the silver bill, it wasn't what I wanted it to be, which was. I show up and they, do whatever they need to do When I'm back to my Happy self from 15 years ago. No, it took, it took some work. So, I guess maybe for those listening who have gone through similar experiences, right? there isn't a, a one pill or one procedure you do to make yourself better. you actually have to sit down and work through those emotions and, and take care of the creature. And take care of the creature, which means exercise. Go to bed on time, eat well. Don't be on screens all the time. Yeah. which, luckily with this departure from the high stress job, I've been able to focus on my body now a lot more. And, and that's been really, really helpful and great. So. The health thing is good, and that was a big thing that we spent this year on. We did. Yeah. I'm glad that we did. It's a me too. It feels like we've clicked some things into place in a really great way. Yeah. I'm in a much better spot and I'm so grateful to have had the time and the partner to give me the space to figure it out because this is stuff I had never experienced before. And so it was just interesting learning about it. The more that Yana and I simplify and automate our finances, the happier we became, and this is the single greatest budgeting tool that's come out in recent times. It's called Qube Money. It's changing the way couples implement financial health. We're investors in this company. We have exclusively been using Qube Money to do our own personal budgets since 2020, and it's so simple that even our kids are now using it. We have not overspent from our budget since we started Qube, and it's amazing. This is the tool that helped us get a handle on our family spending. Made our journey to CoastFi so much easier. Qube has developed and patented a technology they call Default Zero, and it requires a category to be open from your personal budget before you can spend with the card. And then once you spend it, deducts it all in real time. This single feature has made Qube the safest card in the world to use. If you drop it, it always has a zero balance on it unless you open the budgeting app. It's been extremely handy for us, and it saved us several instances of fraud and we're never gonna go back. Qube is perfect for families because they've got shared spending categories that allow you to spend in real time from them, and everyone else in the family can see the updated balance. So if you're ready to take your budget to the next level where you truly can automate it, you truly set it and forget it, go to qubemoney.com. That's QUBEmoney.com. And at checkout, use the Code Coast. You can try the premium or the family membership for free. And again, we highly recommend it. It's a personal endorsement. We know that if you use the program, it'll work for you. Enjoy. alright, so, outside of the health stuff and the fact that, we've had the time, I've had the time to, to work on getting back in shape and actually pursuing new, ventures, right? Like I started my own business now and. And I'm doing some passion projects, which I'm super, super excited about and, and it gives me energy back, which is honestly everything I kind of wanted. So yeah. You didn't take as much time off from work as I think that's true either of us hoped. Yeah. But I'm really glad that the opportunity that you've taken on to focus on the, something that you're passionate about, it's, it fits well into the wheel of happiness in our lives. Yeah. And. I love that we've had the flexibility and the opportunity to take that risk and try something different to see if this is gonna. All work out. Yeah. And you know what? It's a year later and it's working. It's working. We're doing it. Yeah. It is really, yeah. It's working. I think it's, it's working. It's working well for me, although it's taken longer than I thought it was gonna take. Yeah. But let's talk a little bit about you, because I think we learned different things about you because my leaving the job ended up putting a lot of stress on you. more pressure. More pressure. My, my job is. not super stressful, but I think because of the pressure of now I carry the keys to the healthcare and my job is now the safety net. If for some reason your passion project is upended, yes, we still have plenty in savings in our emergency fund to carry us, but that means that we really do need my job in that way and for our long term plan, or even like our three to five year plan to work. We really needed my job in this last year. And so there was definitely a lot of pressure in that and, then I took on some new projects at work and, had some new things sort of infused into my job. And so it was definitely much more of a juggle and I started feeling a little bit burnt out. Yeah. And Matt could see it in me before I could see it in me. I wanna be like, no, I'm fine. No, everything's okay. But you were really good about sort of letting me know well. Yeah, because it ended up being your whole life, right? Like you would, you'd go to work, you'd be super tired in the day and you just wanted to sleep. Yeah. You know, so, yeah. Luckily I knew the signs and so we could talk openly about that. And it did put us like in a different situation.'cause we had to work through Okay. If neither of us have. Jobs that can support our lifestyle. Are we ready to do the next step in Financial Independence, which is Barista Fi? Yeah. And is that a thing that we can do? Is that a thing we can do? Yeah. Or if we can't do it permanently, can we do it? For a little while and just maybe I take a sabbatical or maybe I work part-time or something. Yeah. So, yeah, and I think actually on that, so we did spend a lot of time using the calculators that we find online and spending, a good amount of our evenings just kind of going through all the numbers, obsessing, obsessing the numbers over the numbers. But in a good way. Because this is a, this is a, A game. Yes. And we're trying to figure out the way that we wanna play it. and I think we found a new tool that I want to do a quick call out for, BackofNapkin.co. Yeah. I talked with the guy from that website, his name is Brett. He did a great job developing some new tools and it's actually my new favorite Coast FI calculator. I. He made a CoastFi calculator and he made a barista and a Barista Fi calculator. Yeah. Which I recommend you guys check out'cause it's my favorite one out there. So you know, I love my calculators, my middle of the night. Yeah. Plugging in those numbers, which I still do. Yeah. So it's been fun. So one thing I wanted to ask you is with my leaving my job and with you picking up the torch. And really bringing home the bacon for us during this transition. I think we experienced a little bit of like gender norm change. Yeah. The roles were really swapped. Yeah. In a lot of ways I was taking care of the house. I was the go-to person for the kids doing all the logistics for wasn't traveling anymore and you, you were doing some, and so it just ended up creating a little bit more of this. It was a new dynamic switch. It was a new dynamic. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And how have you been handling that? I think is, is what I'm ask you. You know, I think that we collectively handled it really well. We communicate really well. We read each other really well, which is great. I think first and foremost, we are always on the same team. Mm-hmm. And so I'm never stressed about. Being stressed and having a conversation with you about it, which is super helpful. But I did struggle in the beginning with letting go of the reins when it came to the logistics of the house and the kids, because that was such a big wheel of my attention, like a big part of my attention for such a long time. And I can be a little controlling. Yeah. So if you're doing something, I didn't do it the way you wanted to do it all the time, but it got done. You didn't cut the sandwich. The way I liked or whatever, but obviously like I'm not gonna nitpick, having that in the back of your mind can sort of add to your stress. Luckily, I'm aware of it and I think we talk about things pretty openly, which is helpful. But that's been the greatest thing actually. Yes, because I was worried, especially after the first couple of weeks or a couple months of this, where I hadn't really ramped up with my, my new side gig yet. And there was a lot of time and I was just. Hm. Planning, but I had time at home. Yes. And it didn't look like I was doing very much, and I, I almost felt like I was, I felt guilty. He did. Yeah. He did go through some feelings of shame and guilt about having time off. And it's so funny because I. Now at the time, I remember saying no, I, this is the point. This is why we're doing this. I want you to take the time. I want you to heal. I want you to reset. You've been working full-time corporate gigs since you were, what, 20 so earlier? Yeah. you literally needed it for your mind and your body and your spirit and so I wanted you to take that time. So there was definitely a little bit of back and forth there. And now when I think about me potentially taking a sabbatical or even going part-time, I do have those feelings of shame and guilt when I think about. Future state. Me being at a place where I'm not at the computer all day working and I feel guilty at the idea of maybe not being as productive, especially in front of you, which we've talked about. Yeah. But I can see how that's how you felt last year. Yeah. Or last summer, you know? Yeah.'cause you're not only working through your own emotions, you're also working through the masks. You have your corporate mask and you have your home persona where you wanna still feel like a good partner at home. Yes. But you're wearing one mask for so long, and we talked about this. It starts getting stuck on your face, sticks on your face. Right. Like, the mask, the movie with Jim Carrey. Yeah. Yeah. You, told me recently that you said some work saying or something out of context at with friends. Let's circle back. Let circle back. Yeah. You're gonna circle back with a friend. Circle back. And I, I said it out loud, not in a work context and I was like, oh my God. I feel like the mask is starting to stick. Yeah. A little bit. So, I put in PTO Yeah. Which immediately puts a PTO And now we're camping. And now we're camping. Exactly. Yeah. But I think that. Recognizing that you were feeling those burnout symptoms and being as open as you are with me about feeling like you wanna do this also, like you want to get to the stage where you have the flexibility and the freedom to, still build together. How can we make this work? Yeah. For both of us, where we're not one person is carrying the heavier load and one person has, more of that synergy and that freedom. How can we both be in that place, which is something we were talking about before you even quit your job last year. Sure. So this has always sort of been part of the plan. I think that plan has accelerated a little bit and we're, looking at pressing the red button of maybe me going part-time. Yeah. Or taking a sabbatical a little bit sooner than I think either of us thought we would. But at the same time, we have the option because we've planned very diligently around it. And. I think as long as we stay communicative and on the same page, honest and honest on the same page. Yeah. Yeah. I think, BaristaFi just felt like such a big step after CoastFi. Yes. You know, we're a year into Coast Fi. Yes. And so to even be contemplating the idea of barista fi, which to define BaristaFi one more time Is. we are able to start withdrawing from our nest egg, from our portfolio or one of our savings accounts or something. Yes. Yeah, exactly. to buoy our lifestyle because maybe we're not pulling in enough income to cover our expenses. Yeah. So now the game is how can we get our expenses down enough to where we take as little as possible out of those accounts, right? So that way we have as much time to do that. And what I'm finding now is that is a new game. This is, this is the mini game. It's a completely different game. it's included game. It's a game within a game. It's a game within a game. Because we've reached a point where Coast Fi, we have enough in investments now where we just have to sit and wait until we're in our fifties and we can start withdrawing that. And that's, Financial Independence is a huge, you know, load off. Now we're moving towards something akin to Barista FI, where we're trying to find the right. Hustles and the right fun things that we can do that still earn us maybe enough as we're also pulling down from our portfolio. Recreational employment. Recreational employment, exactly. Employment. That is not super stressful. Yeah. That doesn't take up, 90% of your waking hours, but also is we are spending more time focused on the wheel of happiness. Yes. And. The wheel of happiness includes Yes. Your salary, right? Yes. Your work. Yes. Your, your body, your health. what are some other ones that are on that wheel? Time with the kids. Time with the kids. Family. Relationships with each other. Time with each other. Yeah. Prioritizing relationships so that, that's the wheel. And we've realized that, our jobs. We will never really meet all of those things. And it's on us to find ways to insert the missing parts into this wheel. And so, we did a really fun exercise where we sat down and we kind of made a, a Venn diagram of sorts where we said we made a wheel of happiness as it applies to my job. Yeah. Because it's got a lot of perks. Yeah. But at the same time. I'm not fulfilled in the same way that I want us to be. Yeah. And so that was, a hard conversation, but also a really important one. So as the salary part of your job becomes less weighted, less important, then you can find greater jobs that still meet the other things. Right. In that, in that piece of puzzle. So that, that's something fun we're gonna try and map out and show at some point. Definitely. Yeah, I, I'd love to. maybe at some point have some sort of calculator for the wheel of happiness. Yeah. Like plug in. Okay. does this job fulfill, any family benefits? okay. Does it give you healthcare? Okay, great. Does it give you free, gym membership? Okay, great. And then does it give you travel points or free travel somehow, or, right. Which, which will fill up the other buckets. Do you get to work at home so you can spend more time with your cat? Yeah. You know, all of those, which makes me really happy. Yeah. Yeah, so we'll probably build something and, release it at some point, uh, and maybe have like a little mini episode about it. But that's been a, a fun mini game that we've been working on, and we're just, grateful to have that be the main focus of our, that's the new focus discussions. You know, I will say one of the, the things about. You leaving your job this last year and us not saving as much as we have been in the past is watching our investments sort of slow down. They're still going up, which is great, but they've definitely slowed down a lot. So that's been a little stressful because I am still working and we are trying to get me to a place where I can take a load off a little bit and, work part-time and so. Watching that number not go up as quickly has been like a little like, ooh, you know? Yeah, you're right. We're not contributing to any Roth IRAs. we are contributing to my 401k match. We, we just To your match though? Yes. Which is only like 3% of your salary. I think it's six. Is it that high? I didn't think it was that high. Well, if so, then great. We, it's been a while since. Looked at the numbers. You can tell. the happier I get, the longer my beard gets, which is really fun. so we should do a comparison of the last episode that we recorded and. Uh, true. And now And the beard. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think the whole point is that we're able to, to focus on other things outside of just money. Yes. And so you're right though, not getting to watch our accounts grow in, in the, growth rates that we're used to has been a challenge of Yeah. moving to full coast fi that we, although expected. Maybe we're happy to see. It's still like, uh, okay. Yeah, yeah. It's all right. It's fine. But we're still on track, so everything, everything is okay. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's the point is just to stay connected and, and still stay open and communicate and, we have the freedom to adjust now, and if, um, we decide to do some crazy pivot and move to Bali or something like that, that's on the table, we could talk about that and we can get creative. And so I think that's been. That's been our year. I mean, it's been largely really, really good. Yeah. And it's been a glimpse at what we want in our retirement. And there was one, article I remember reading, from Early Retirement Extreme. They were comparing this, this concept of, working to the bone to then retire. Mm-hmm. And then a lot of other people started realizing, well, yeah, but once you get to retirement, what does your life look like? What are my hobbies? What are my interests? What, what fulfills me outside of the mask? That I've now embedded underneath my skin. Yeah. Like, okay, you've, who am I without this job? Who am I without the job? Which is so interesting because I've only been in my current position for three years and I already feel a sense of stress. I love a lot about my job. I love my boss, I love my team. A lot of my clients are really amazing. Yeah. And so I do get a, little bit of a fulfillment from that. And when I think about. Switching to part-time or leaving this job for a sabbatical, I feel like it's already a little bit of a loss of sense of self. Mm-hmm. And I'm only three years into this position. Yeah. And so I can only imagine how that affects someone who's been a lifer. Yes. Yeah. It's their whole social fulfillment in a lot of ways, you know? So I, yeah. I can see how it's a struggle for people who wait until they're 65 or 70 to fully retire and then they don't know what to do with themselves or, or they work, for a single decade, and that's all they do is they live in their van and they accrue as many beans as possible. And they haven't had the time to focus on relationships or other hobbies because they're just working towards this fire or goal, and then they wake up and they hit it, but then they're struggling to figure out what to do with their time now. Right. So what we're figuring out along this journey is it's okay to slow down, smell the roses. To, land the plane gently. It's great to have goals. Yeah. And it's great. It's great to have a starting middle and end point, but also keep in mind that the journey also has to be fulfilling. That is also part of the point. Yeah. You know? Yeah, you're right. the road should be enjoyable. Yeah. it doesn't always suck to take the scenic route. It might be longer, but it's really pretty. It's pretty, it's really pretty. Yeah. I think that's all we have for this episode. You have a fun five fact. Oh, I do Have a fun five. Thank you for the reminder. You're welcome. so given the location, us in the middle of the woods here camping, we thought we would focus a little bit on those road warriors out there. So today's fun five fact. It is about 3.1 million Americans live in RVs full time as of 2022, which was a 63% increase in the past couple years, and a 63% increase, a 63% increase, and I think probably a lot to do with COVID and people moving remote. Yes. And, and wanting to get out of the rat race. Yes. And the feeling of being trapped because most jobs wouldn't allow a remote based position. And now all of a sudden, at least at that time, they were. And so there probably was a huge uptick in, purchases of RVs and people are going to do it. And what I'm seeing now is that people are making it work, right? they're actually leaving and being untethered. And this is, correlation, maybe not causation, but I was saying that. Why would people continue to do this? Is, is obviously the cost savings. Yes. Right. If you can leave your comfy house and rent it out and then get an RV and travel with your family and go anywhere you want across the country, that's, that's an adventure. That's, that fills a lot of the wheel of a wheel of happiness buckets. and also freedom. Right. You're not, you're not stuck in the dark, office. You're not tied to the desk. The, you're not tied to the desk. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I thought that that was an appropriate fun five fact. No, it is, it's fitting. Yeah. Well, we're just a couple happy campers. Everything is going okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's super hot here today. Sorry, we've been away. It's so hot. It's, it's like in the nineties, uh, and we're, we're sweating out here, but luckily the sun's going down. We got a fire going, and we're at, uh, we're at Rainbow Springs, and it's, there's so many beautiful swimming spots here. It's one of my favorite places in the whole world. and it's a super affordable vacation and a way to celebrate. This past year. Yeah. So yeah, I think that's all. So thanks for sticking with us and coming back and we promise we'll have some more episodes. We got some good ones coming. Yes. We got some good ones coming. Some good guests that we're excited about. Yes. it's been a great year. We're super excited about what's gonna happen this upcoming year and we'll keep you guys in the loop. Yeah. So thanks so much for joining. Signing off. There's a raccoon, Is good.