Hey folks! I hope everyone is staying safe and sane out there during the COVID-19 pandemic. Grumpus Familias is safely ensconced at our new home in Nelson, New Zealand. We love the place despite the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. I attached a picture of the snow-capped mountains of Mordor that we can see from the hill we live on as proof.

However, more on life in NZ in future posts, because I have another great guest post to share from Chris Pascale. Today’s topic is Making Bold Adjustments which fits perfectly as a subject for this blog. I hope you agree.

In case you’re a new reader, or just don’t remember, Chris is a Marine Corps veteran, a friend of the blog, and also an author. In addition to that, he helped me BIG time by editing my forthcoming book, The Golden Albatross, which I’m happy to announce that ChooseFI Media will publish in June! Stay tuned for more announcements soon.

Back to saying great thing about Chris, though! He is interested in many of the same things I am like personal finance, pension hacking, and family time. Yet, he looks at things differently than me, which means he always has a fresh angle or new topic in mind for the blog. You can check out his other guest posts by going to the Article Index. One more thing, as with all other guest posts on the blog, I supplied the pictures, captions, and what hopefully passes as comic relief.

OK, Chris, take it away ….

Bold Adjustments Will Get You on Target

Military rifle range training teaches that if you completely miss the target, then you need to make a bold adjustment to your sites. The idea is that as you look from the rear site aperture to the front sight post, you should see the bullseye. But, if you fire and miss entirely, it means your sites are so far out of alignment that it requires more than mere incremental adjustments. Otherwise, you’ll just keep firing and missing the target without any useful data as to where your shot impacts.

I have used this same principle as a problem-solving technique five times in the past two years and will discuss the differences they have made in my life. The first two deal with personal finance; the other three address my health.

Material Additions to 403(b)

I teach accounting at a New York state community college where I’m also building up credit toward a pension (see my piece on traditional pension hacking for more info). Additionally, I have access to a 403(b) through this job. I mistakenly thought that the 403(b) was automatically contributed to from my pay, and figured it wouldn’t be of much consequence – perhaps $25,000 at 59 ½. However, that wasn’t the case.

Having to then make conscious contributions, I thought about what I wanted the account to look like. Projecting that I’d teach only until my youngest daughter finishes a 4-year degree, and only 1 class during the Spring and Fall, the calculation was 16 contributions per year for 15 years. Initially, I calculated a completely painless $50.00 deposit with compounded annual growth of 7% from 36 to 51-years-old. The account would be about $16,000, which would grow to nearly $30,000 over the next 8-9 years.

Because I don’t need the teaching income immediately, I decided to make a bold adjustment with contributions of $400 per paycheck, which is nearly the entire amount. I now estimate that the account will be worth $130,000.00 when I’m 51. If left to grow with no additions after that, it will be worth almost $240,000.00 when I withdraw.

Instead of having a small account of small consequence, I now have one that will allow me to supplement my income for the duration if I employ the 4% rule to all accounts. Or, I may find myself in a situation like Tony Robbins, where I need that $240k to save my own life.

Chopping Down Debt with Wife’s Income

If you read Wife on FIRE, you know that in 2018 my wife returned to work with the sole purpose of paying off our debt. That way, I can retire early without resorting to geo arbitrage, which we may still do. Initially, we figured that excluding funds taken out for dental insurance and to get the match from her TSP, the rest would go to debt. However, as noted in this TED Talk, working is expensive. Along with her daily commute, we now had after-school care, too.

After all of the work-related expenses, which sometimes included ordering in, we paid off a credit card with a $7,000 balance. We paid for repairs on our rental house in North Carolina next, since it was destroyed by Hurricane Florence in 2018. Despite having adequate insurance, the claim payments were sometimes delayed.

However, just because you make more money, it doesn’t mean you will save it all. When you have kids, it’s easy to say that it’s for them. We almost did this last summer while trying to figure out who would take care of them over the school holiday. My oldest daughter (18) had a summer job, and I preferred her working outside the home rather than babysitting for us. My other daughters were 14, 10 and 8. Legally, we could leave them home together, but that didn’t mean we should.

Instead, we looked into a 6-week, full-day camp. The cost for the three of them was $7,400, but it felt like the right thing to do, so we paid the money. This meant that the previously paid-off $7,000 credit card debt was back on the books, which didn’t sit well after the fact. As a result, we changed our minds and cancelled their camp memberships. While we received a $7,100 refund, we incurred a standard cancellation fee. To solve the daycare problem, I teleworked two days each week while my mother helped two other days. The kids were on their own for the 5th day, which worked out fine.

Beyond these adjustments to my long-term and current personal finances, I also made some significant changes to my daily health habits.

Vegetables for Breakfast

After hearing Dr Rhonda Patrick talk about sprouting, I began to grow my own vegetables to eat with my morning eggs. I’ll also sometimes have avocado, tomato and/or spinach. Veggies for breakfast also led me to eat them for lunch, which was not the norm. I used to frequent fast-food restaurants for lunch but now find myself at Trader Joe’s buying 2 fruits, 2 veggies and 2 less healthy snacks. I also keep walnuts in my desk.

One issue here, of course, is that eating more vegetables could lead to a longer life, which can be extremely expensive, but it’s a risk we take if we like living, and I generally do.

Kicking Sugar

Before 2018 my workday always included 2 K-Cups of Mocha Nut Fudge coffee with milk and 4 packets of Sugar in the Raw. That’s 40 packets of sugar per week for about 5 years. 10,000 packs of sugar are roughly 200,000 calories, which is 57 lbs., some of which I retained.

To me, taking three sugars in my coffee is just as bad as having none. So, I started drinking black coffee. I also tried drinking diet sodas (Diet Dr Pepper really does taste like regular Dr Pepper, by the way). In the end, though, the sugar-free coffee — both regular and decaf — made the difference. As a result, in 2018, I dropped from 215 to 208 while exercising less, but increasing my vegetable intake.

Boosting Exercise

My weight stayed flat through 2019 after the initial loss by deleting sugar from my coffee. During 2019 I increased my exercise by joining a gym and going 100 times. I ramped up my exercise regimen in 2020 by jogging 5 miles nearly every day. Before the COVID-19 quarantine, it was on a treadmill or elliptical machine. Since the quarantine, I have used a quarter-mile track.

I was initially discouraged because I only lost a couple pounds. As I write this, I’m 204 pounds. Still, after a month, one of my daughters commented that my stomach is smaller. The month after that, she asked if I remembered ‘when my stomach stuck out really far.’ By using the metric of weight alone, progress seemed slow compared to how hard I was working. Yet, within two months, my bold adjustment of jogging 5 miles was remarked on by a reputable source!

Recap

The main point of this article is this: if your aim is so far off that you miss your target entirely and you don’t even know where your shot went, then you must make bold adjustments to your aim to get back on target. Inching along incrementally will not work. The five Bold Adjustments below worked for me.

403(b): I am setting myself up for success with a bigger 403(b) sum. The estimated numbers changed from $96,000 of take-home pay over fifteen years to $240,000 twenty-three years from now. It’s a decent trade, especially when the exchange is money I can live without for money that may save my life, or that of someone I love, as noted in the previously linked Tony-Robbins-metal-poisoning scenario.

Wife on FIRE: Since I wrote about this in a full article linked above, I’ll only say our debt elimination plan, which includes the home, moved forward from age 49 to 44. This fits nicely with my intent to leave my position with the federal government at 48 when I reach 20 years of service. I can’t collect my pension until I’m 60, but that one pension is only a small piece in my financial puzzle.

Drinking Straight Black Coffee: My weight dropped from 215 lbs. to 207 lbs. It continued beyond last year, and other than preventing weight gain, it also eliminated adverse health effects by removing 2,000 sugar packets from my diet each year. This translates to over 11 pounds in caloric weight. Also, I’m putting less strain on my pancreas since it has to produce less insulin…..unless science declares that sugar is the only thing keeping a pancreas going, in which case it’s a good thing I’m still eating candy just about every day.

Vegetables for Breakfast: We know veggies are good for us, so why do we only eat them with dinner, or as a chore? By starting my day with fiber-rich, nutrient-dense foods, I feel better. And it’s not complicated or expensive. When I’m at Trader Joe’s, I’ll pick up an Envy apple, organic banana, cucumber, and tomato for under $2.00. For something salty and sweet, I’ll get seaweed chips and peanut M&M’s.

Running 5 Miles a Day: This takes about 2 hours per day, when you add in stretching, dressing, getting to the track, coming home, showering and unwinding. When my gym is open, it is usually something I do after dinner or the kids go to bed. During the COVID-19 quarantine, I go at 3:00 PM to beat the drop in temperature.

Go Bold or Go Home

The last point highlights something about all bold adjustments – you must sacrifice something. In the case of the 403(b), I chose less money today for more money tomorrow. By running every day, I am choosing to better myself over spending time with my family.

Even though my family will likely benefit from a healthier father/husband, it is an aside. The fact that I have already spent years of my time in jobs I often hated just to take care of them is also irrelevant. What is relevant are the tradeoffs that bold adjustments require. The work doesn’t stop there, though, because after you identify the tradeoffs, then you must make a decision and stick with it.

Other Randomly Bold Ideas

• When making any change, consider doing it in a big way.
• Changing out incandescent lightbulbs with LEDs as they burn out? Just change them all right now. You’ll make money while polluting less.
• Spinach, tomatoes, avocado, and broccoli sprouts go well with eggs for breakfast. Personally, I am not sure how I went for so long without a healthier breakfast.
• A year ago, I began mixing hemp hearts into yogurt, which made a positive difference; as have the walnuts I have with my first cup of coffee.

Good luck with your bold choices!

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Have you really read this far? Cool! Don’t forget that Chris is the author of a book of poetry called War Poems: A Marine’s Tour 2003-2008 that touches on war, finances, and life. Buy it from Amazon in paperback or Kindle format, or ask your local library to acquire it. Don’t forget to write a 5 STAR review if you like it!