So long and thanks for all the fish?
Our decision to take a break from Two Sides of FI
Reviewing the timestamps on Substack suggests it has been four months since I last put “pen to paper” here. And there is unquestionably a direct link between my last blog post and this one. So if you haven’t read it yet, it’s a natural prerequisite for this post. Trust me!
Recently, my Two Sides of FI show partner, Eric, and I recorded a milestone episode. In it, we discussed a topic we’d been dancing around for a few months - that is, whether it was time to take a break from the YouTube show and podcast we’d been producing for more than four years. Again, I think this episode provides essential background to this post and so I strongly recommend viewing it before continuing on:
2SFI has truly been an unexpected treasure since I left my career behind nearly 5.5 years ago. I could never have foreseen my interest in creating this content, nor how many benefits I’d receive from it. While Eric and I never lost touch after high school, our conversations for the show certainly brought us much closer than we’d been in years. It’s a pretty remarkable thing to do that given all the miles between us and the decades that have passed since our teenage years, when we were thick as thieves. And so no matter what comes for the show, I’ll forever be thankful for that.
Finding my way in early retirement took a lot of forms. Naturally there was the lived experience, which continued to evolve substantially as time went on; the subject of plenty of discussion with my always supportive wife, Lorri. Then there was the original iteration of this blog, which became a key resource and self-teaching tool for me. While I decided to archive those early years, I am thankful for the unexpected benefits that simply following a practice of what was essentially journalling brought me. In the end, it didn’t matter how popular my blog was(n’t), nor who read it and reacted to my words. It was most importantly a platform for processing a torrent of emotions and learnings, many of which I’d not realized until reading what I’d written. And then came our wee show, Two Sides of FI…
We’ve discussed the genesis of 2SFI on the show a variety of times, so I won’t recap that here. I’ve got to leave some homework for you, right? But it is truly remarkable how small acts like single conversations have butterfly effects in our lives. Reflecting back after nearly five years since the fateful conversation that led to our initial trailer, it’s both rewarding and pretty damn cool to reflect on our many conversations. So many of our chats led to important realizations and lessons for me. All humans are subject to tunnel vision, and having a platform for open conversation with a trusted friend can be a great wake-up call when you most need it! And the fact that our spouses were willing to join us in more than one episode? Amazing. Those are favorite episodes among many in our audience for good reason.
I’d be remiss if I went any further without thanking our many supporters over the years, both those who’ve been with us for the duration and those newer to the show. I’ve gained so much from the encouragement, guidance, and many positive interactions over time. I’d never have anticipated how important that would be for me. As discussed on the show, there have also been plenty of awful comments we’ve had to endure, and yes, that comes with the internet. But we surely won’t miss those - though shadow banning people on YouTube is a special kind of catharsis! Returning to the positive, I’m grateful for all of you who engaged with us in the comments section and via our Discord community. While we may not always agree, I always appreciated your time taken to consume our content and provide thoughtful feedback. Thanks also to our show guests who brought us valuable perspectives, sage words, and further exposure for our little show - particularly Fritz Gilbert, Karsten Jeske, Jordan Grumet, and Erik, each of whom made multiple appearances on 2SFI.
It certainly wasn’t easy to consider taking a pause from the show, never mind electing to share that possibility with our audience. Eric and I talked a few months ago about our next steps, while traveling in Scotland together with our spouses. At the time we agreed to continue the show so long as we had topics we wanted to discuss. And thus, our present conclusion isn’t out of alignment with that idea. As you heard us agree, we want to take a break. I don’t think we are saying goodbye, yet. We are open to the idea that we may not continue, but when topics arise that we want to discuss and share, we may well post them again as 2SFI episodes. That feels like the right outcome.
Lest anyone think this, I don’t believe that our uncertainty indicates any fear of “shutting it down” and hesitation to take a permanent decision about the future of the show. It just doesn’t feel necessary nor reflect our current mindset at this time. I don’t know if that’s any solace to our audience or not, but it is our intention to stay true to the honest sharing we always have endeavored to deliver in our conversations. And that’s what we’ve done here.
Not to say we aren’t open to hearing ideas that we may not have considered about what to do next with 2SFI… Eric is right: my “call to action” in the YouTube episode was complete garbage! I think it’s clear what we don’t want to do next with the show. We have no interest in churning out repetitive content, doing reaction videos, nor covering topics that are not of interest or relevance to the two of us and our families. 2SFI has always operated at a net loss and I don’t see us taking typical content creation paths for the purpose of becoming profitable anytime soon. But drop us a comment on the YouTube video if you think we are missing an opportunity to maintain true to our purpose and reinvigorate the show! 😂
In all seriousness… this isn’t goodbye. I’ll continue writing here as the urge arises. Should topics emerge that Eric and I want to share via the channel, we will do so. We aren’t shutting down the Discord server at this point either. Speaking for myself, I don’t plan to fully detach from responding to comments on YT or Discord. Again, we remain forever thankful for your support to date and welcome you to continue reviewing our back catalog if you are so motivated! Mahalo, friends 🙏🙏🙏
PS - kudos to all who understood my title without looking it up. you are my people!
Photo by Andrew varnum on Unsplash
Kudos to you and Eric for knowing when to lay down a card. As I wrote in my "Poker Analogy," retirement is about the freedom to put down one card in order to pick up another. Never stop improving your hand. Thanks for your amazing content over the years. I'll look forward to seeing your stuff if/when it comes out. Until then, congratulations on making a great decision. Enjoy the new phase, you've earned it!
The Mad Fientist had a hilarious analogy, when I interviewed him late last year. He's moved on from making FIRE content to, well, living life... time with family, making music, skiing, etc.
We talked about how FIRE-folks are good at FIRE, they spend their independence continually talking about independence. He admitted he did this himself, but has evolved his thinking:
"They just immerse themselves in the FIRE community. And it just doesn't make sense to me.
FIRE is a hammer. If you want to build model airplanes, fly them, hang out with other people that build model airplanes or whatever… then you’ll buy the best hammer that you can.
But you're not going to go to hammer conventions for the rest of your life!
And yet, that's what I see a lot of people do. It's easy because you're good at it. But it's more about, what's next? And why are you doing it?”
P.S. Great episode... resonated a lot with me.