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ChooseFI | Financial Independence Podcast
From Poverty to Semi-Retired | Kristen Knapp | Ep 554
00:58:59
Kristen Knapp shares her journey from a childhood marked by poverty to achieving financial independence and transitioning to part-time work as a television meteorologist. She introduces her new venture, FI Friends Travel, a travel initiative that...
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- [00:00]
Brad
Hello and welcome to Choose a Five. Today in the show we have a really fun episode. We have Kristen Knapp who is the admin of our St. Louis local group and just started a really cool new thing called five Friends Travel. And this is an opportunity for those of us who love travel, which I think is really a pretty common theme in the FI community to get together and go on amazing trips internationally, all around the world and spend that time with five Friends. And I think it's something that upon hearing about it, it was so glaringly obvious that this is something that should have existed, but it never did. Nobody ever had the idea until Kristen came along and made it happen. And I think that's the entire encapsulation of her story is she made it happen. She went from growing up in poverty to getting to a $0 net worth at 35 to going part time right around age 50 and has gone to countless number of FI events over the last seven years since she's joined the FI community. And she's someone who just takes action and makes it happen. I think her story is incredibly inspiring. I think you're going to love this one. And with that, welcome to Choose Fi. Kristin, it is so great to have you here. It's wonderful to see you.
- [01:21]
Kristen Knapp
I am thrilled to be here. Brad, thank you so much for inviting me on the show.
- [01:25]
Brad
Yeah, you bet. So we have gotten to know each other a little bit at a Bunch of Economies now. I remember calling you out from the stage at a live recording.
- [01:35]
Kristen Knapp
Thank you for that.
- [01:36]
Brad
Yeah, it's so good. It's always nice to see your smiling face in the crowd. So that helped center me a little bit, which is cool.
- [01:42]
Kristen Knapp
We've also seen each other at a few campfire events as well.
- [01:45]
Brad
Oh, that's right. I'm so used to thinking about the economy at this point. So yeah, you're absolutely right. And that's at the end of the day we're here to talk about, well, of course, your story and your fascinating story, but you are a community builder and I think that's what's so cool about what you're up to. And you're one of our admins of the St. Louis group, which is awesome. And I love following the posts on Facebook and now hopefully in our. In our new local app on. On choose a buy.com and you just started something recently called Five Friends Travel. And this is just really great. I think one of the neatest parts about the FI community that I've experienced over the last, really the last eight years. Is seeing these events pop up. And at first they were the camp Fives and then we, of course there was Chautauqua, was always going along, but we see an economy and that's the biggest get together in the world. And Alan and Katie Donegan and I have done an extraordinary event and we're hopefully going to do more. And this is. There's just all these things popping up. We had Ryan Brennan on recently with the FI Service Corps, and that was a small group getting together and really hanging out, but then doing some volunteer work. And I actually see five friends travel as like, okay. It's very similar to that in the regard of, like, there's magic. As you told me, there's this FI magic when people get together. And I'd love to hear you just talk about the community and what it's meant to you because obviously it's meant enough that you've started up this really cool thing.
- [03:14]
Kristen Knapp
So the five magic I refer to is just whenever you get five people together, it doesn't matter if you've ever met or not. It doesn't matter where you are, what you're doing. Everybody always gets along incredibly. You feel within a matter of a very short period of time that you've made all these new best friends. And I have never experienced that anywhere in my life. It's magic. I don't know how else to explain it. I. I've seen this over and over with people. I had a chance to do introductions at a campfire like last year, and as we were going around the room and I was talking to people and asking them, you know, why'd you come? And questions, things like that. And several people pointed out, they're like, oh my gosh, I already feel like these people are already my best friends and we haven't even talked about money, you know, and you find that if you have that parallel because you're part of this community, you just naturally have all these other things in common. And that's what I think is just so cool because I've never experienced that at any other community in my life. To be fair, I. I don't really feel like I've ever had a community ever before in my life. I never really felt like I fit in anywhere in my life. So this has just brought me such joy. I only went to my first in person event in 2022. I found you guys the Choose Five podcast probably in 2018, 2019, and then I started reading the books and going down all the rabbit holes, but it was 2022. Before I went to my first event, which was at campfire, Rocky Mountain, and that weekend. It's so funny because I had such fomo. Like, I didn't want to go to bed at night because I didn't want to miss any good conversations. I was listening a lot, but I was also talking a lot. I lost my voice. I've learned since to pace myself, but it's just. It's such an amazing thing. And obviously, I'm kind of addicted now because I think I'm on my, like, seventh campfire and third economy, and. And I run my local group. I mean, that came out of going to my first event, going, coming home, and then thinking, oh, my gosh, how long is it going to be before I could hang out with these people again? Do I have to wait till next year? You know? And then I saw that there was a local group that already existed, but it had kind of died. I think the person that ran it had moved away. And then there was Covid and some other things like that. So, you know, people always say, oh, well, my group isn't very active. And I'm like, well, make it so. Right. Just do it. So I just took the thing over and started being consistent with it. And, you know, in the beginning, we had six, eight people, and now we have 40 people regularly once or twice a month.
- [05:38]
Brad
That's amazing. Yeah. I think it's interesting because at my most recent campfire, which is Campfire Mid Atlantic over Memorial Day, Chantel from our Washington, D.C. group, who partially runs some of the events, especially the book club, which is actually a really neat thing, she did a presentation on basically establishing and maintaining friendships and really, certainly in the FI community. And part of this that came out of it was with these local groups, right? And it's like, it's be the change you want to see in the world. Right? It's easy to say, like, oh, my local group's not that active. But to your point, stand up and do something about it. Right?
- [06:14]
Kristen Knapp
Exactly. Stop talking about it. Just do it.
- [06:17]
Brad
Right. Just do it. And I think that's kind of been one of the really great things about the local groups. But maybe, maybe to its detriment in some cases is we. Which was basically just me and Jonathan. I mean, this is not some large organization. Choose a buy. It's just at this point, it's just me and Jonathan. But we basically made them these really autonomous, decentralized groups where we don't have any kind of heavy hand on any of them. And each local group has its Own flavor. But, yeah, of course, in some instances, they do go dark. And that happened a lot over Covid. But it's just so neat to see a group like St. Louis. And like I told you, I get the updates, and I just. I love seeing it. That's remarkable to have 30 or 40 people show up a couple times a month.
- [06:58]
Kristen Knapp
Yeah, it makes my heart so happy because again, I was just really missing that when I came back home. And I'm like, what can I do about that? Right? So this is the result.
- [07:07]
Brad
So there probably are people listening who are saying, okay, yeah, my local group isn't that active. What can I do? But there are also probably a bunch of people, many, many to tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people listening who are saying, like, okay, I do have a local group, but maybe our meetups are a little stale. Maybe it's just like we get together at a brewery and it's not really the best case scenario. So you have literally resurrected a local group. What tips do you have for people out there? Not just local admins, but just everybody who wants to see that change in their own community. Anything come to mind, Any particular type of events that you found are really successful in St. Louis?
- [07:42]
Kristen Knapp
Well, first thing is to be consistent, like, pick a day. Like we do the first Thursday of every month so people know that's coming. We started with just the brewery thing as we were getting to know each other. And then came the communications from you guys and Diana Mariam talking about the case studies and how we wanted to do more of that. So someone sent me the template and some people volunteered in my group, and we started that. Everybody loved it. So then we just kind of was doing that once a month. But then people were like, oh, we kind of missed the brewery hangs, you know, because the case study is a little bit more formal and the brewery hangs a little bit more casual. So now we do two a month. We do our case study first Thursday every month, and then on a random whatever day, go to whatever random brewery. And that's kind of a smaller group, more the people who, you know, some of the regulars that know each other just kind of want to do the friendly stuff. But for our case studies, yeah, we regularly have about 40 for that one and maybe 10 to 20 for the brewery meetups. So consistency is key. Also, I tend to over communicate, which is probably a good thing, because people forget. So, you know, I send it out. You know, if you're an admin, I send out the event, but I also make sure to pin it to the top of the page, send out invites. Like, invite the whole group. There's an option to do that. And then like a week before, I post on the main page a reminder about the event and then I do it again the day before so people don't forget.
- [09:00]
Brad
I like that. Yeah, it's really important. It really is. Exceedingly important. And. And yeah, I've seen. And that was not to demean the brewery get togethers, because I love them. I think they're fun and you never know who you're going to talk to, of course. But yeah, my brother in Appleton, Wisconsin has. I think he's run a hike or two, which works. I know I mentioned book club. I've seen a bunch of local groups have real success with a monthly book club.
- [09:25]
Kristen Knapp
We're planning to go to a St. Louis Cardinals game right now. So we're going to do that. Yeah.
- [09:29]
Brad
Oh, that'll be fun. That's really cool. So, yeah, I mean, that's the neat thing is every group has its own local flavor. But yeah, that's really, really cool. I love it. And yeah, one thing you said earlier when you're talking about that five magic, Right. So, quote, we haven't even talked about money yet. Right. And the funny thing is, at least I find at a lot of these meetups there's so little talk about money. And it's not to say it doesn't happen, because it does, but you could go an entire weekend campfire without talking about money very, very easily.
- [10:00]
Kristen Knapp
Yeah. But if you have questions, there are plenty of people that can answer those things for you.
- [10:04]
Brad
I would love to answer them.
- [10:05]
Kristen Knapp
Yeah, exactly.
- [10:06]
Brad
But, yeah, I wonder. So, like, what do you attribute that magic to? I think that that's the big question.
- [10:11]
Kristen Knapp
That's an excellent question, Brad. I don't know. I think if I knew how to explain it, I wouldn't call it magic because it's magic. Touche.
- [10:22]
Brad
Oh, man. Well, I think you might have hit on it earlier, which is just we all, many of us, I don't want to paint a broad brush, but exceedingly broad brush. But most of us have felt like we haven't had our own community. And there is something really special about this is the tie that binds. It's not that we sit there and talk about fi. Like I said, necessarily about money, but it's the tie that binds. Of really interesting people, people who are living life in a very intentional and overt way, who are experimenting.
- [10:54]
Kristen Knapp
Very different way, though, right? I mean, we're not the norm. There's not that many. We're not normies.
- [10:59]
Brad
No, we're not. That's great.
- [11:01]
Kristen Knapp
So when we get together, it's awesome.
- [11:03]
Brad
Yeah. Yeah. That's so cool. Okay, so, right. You've been doing. That's amazing. You've been to seven campfires, three economies.
- [11:10]
Kristen Knapp
And now since 2022. I know, it's crazy. I just signed up for Campfire Rocky Mountain Week 1.5. So this will be my third this year. I have a problem.
- [11:20]
Brad
Could be a lot worse. Could be a lot worse. So. All right, well, listen, we're going to get into five friends travel, and I actually want to talk about the intersection with that. That Campfire Rocky Mountain that's coming up in 20. But let's just take a quick step back. I want to talk about you. I want to hear your story. Because, of course, we've met a bunch of times and that's what's neat about again, events. Sometimes you dive deep on everybody's story, and sometimes you just talk about what's interesting that day and. And I feel like I know you, but I'm curious about the origin story. So let's start from the beginning. Wherever you. Wherever you deem that.
- [11:54]
Kristen Knapp
So I was born in Lexington, Kentucky. I was actually adopted. And this is a whole other conversation that we won't get into today, but I was placed for adoption and in recent years have found my entire biological family. And it has been wild. A lot of it was because of a DNA kit. It was nuts.
- [12:14]
Brad
Okay.
- [12:14]
Kristen Knapp
My brother has actually come to me. Come on. Some of these five. It's my new. My new brother that I just came. 2019.
- [12:19]
Brad
Your biological brother?
- [12:20]
Kristen Knapp
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Isn't that crazy? So I actually did another podcast episode where I discussed this whole story in depth because it's wild with Doc G. I don't know if you want to link to that in the show notes.
- [12:31]
Brad
I would love to. I'd love to. Send me the link and we'll put it in there.
- [12:34]
Kristen Knapp
I won't dive into that here, but just. Yeah, so that course sort of starts things. So given up at birth place for adoption, but placed into poverty, which people can't wrap their head around that now. But in the 70s, I guess it was more common. I don't think babies cost a lot of money back then. I don't know that it cost anything because my family didn't have money, so I don't know what happened. But anyway, plenty of love. I was very loved. But there was a lot of financial trauma. Some other ones, too, but that Was for this conversation. We'll stick with that. I can remember just a lot of arguing about money. I can remember creditors calling my mom and making her cry, you know, because there wasn't caller id, you know, back then.
- [13:14]
Brad
Sure.
- [13:15]
Kristen Knapp
So I always knew, like, this is not going to be my life. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get out of this situation. No one in my family had ever gone to college, but as far as I knew, I didn't know about the trades or anything. I probably would have explored that knowing then what I know now. But all I knew at that time was if I want to get a good job and make decent money and not have to struggle and have health insurance because we didn't have health insurance growing up, that was a huge problem. I need to go to college, you know. So the only person in my bubble of life that wasn't poor was the man that owned the farm that we lived on. So I grew up on a farm. No, we did not own it. People hear that and like, oh, she's rich. Oh, no, no. We lived there for free in exchange for my dad taking care of the property. So that's kind of how that worked.
- [14:02]
Brad
Okay.
- [14:03]
Kristen Knapp
So never had to pay any rent or anything like that. It was just enough money to basically keep the lights on and feed us. And he did some heating and air conditioning work on the side, but it was always a struggle. But this man that owned the farm was a doctor. So I was like, I'm going to be a doctor because doctors are rich. Not that I wanted to be rich. I just didn't want to be poor. Right. This guy had a nice vehicle that didn't break down all the time like ours and seemed like he had a nice life and owned his own home. And I was like, I'm going to be a doctor. So I started out pre med, and then I got midway through college, and I'm like, what am I doing? I didn't want to be a doctor, Brad. I don't know what I was thinking. Nothing against doctors, but I just didn't have that real interest. So I went and met with a, like a career counselor midway through my sophomore year. You'll love this. She said to me, well, you know what gets you excited? And my answer made her give me a really funny look. I told her, tornadoes. That's a weird one, but it's true. And she's like, okay. So then she opens this big giant book because, you know, there was no Internet then to meteorology programs. And she found the broadcast Meteorology department at Mississippi State University. So it was like this big aha moment, big light bulb moment for me because I'd always been fascinated with weather. When you grow up, you think doctor, lawyer, teacher, nurse, you don't think I'm going to be the TV weather person. Like that just never occurred to me in a million years. But once she presented that, I was like, yeah. And they had this really great opportunity that because it was another SEC school that couldn't offer, I couldn't get this program at the University of Kentucky where I was. So I was able to pay in state tuition down at Mississippi State.
- [15:36]
Brad
That is a really cool hack in and of itself. I've heard about those reciprocity programs where, yeah, they're often colleges have these connections with other colleges. Yeah. Whether in this case it's sec, sometimes it's just neighboring states, however it may be. But that's a question to look into, which is if my university does not have the program that I'm looking for, there might be reciprocal benefits where you can get in state tuition at another college that does have that major or program. So yeah, that's a cool hack that I don't think has ever come up in 700 plus episodes, but that's something that I was loosely aware of. But yeah, it's neat to hear somebody who's actually done it.
- [16:12]
Kristen Knapp
Yeah. So I think I thought in the back of my head that we had so little money that I was going to get like a full ride from the government. And that is not what happened. I did get Pell Grants. I mean, I got Pell Grants, but it certainly didn't cover everything. So I ended up having to take out a lot of student loans and, and I look back and I wish there was somebody, anybody again. No one in my family had ever gone to college, but I don't know somewhere along the line who was like, kristen, do not take out these loans. Find another way, you know, apply for scholarships. I was smart. I probably could have gotten scholarships. I just didn't really have any sort of mentor. I didn't know what I was doing. So I graduated with student loan debt. And you know, I'm in my early 20s, by the way, TV news people, they really don't make as much money as a lot of people think they do. Let's just put that out there right now. And especially in these days because it's not many eyeballs watching TV news anymore. I mean, you've got. First it was the Internet and then there's 8 million streaming channels. And none of us sit around wait for the five o' clock news. We get our weather on our phone when we want it, right? So TV makes money by charging for the number of eyeballs watching our commercials. And that just number has come way, way, way down. So in my first job, I think I was making like, I don't know, $29,000 a year or something like that. And you know, I had student loans, I had a car payment. I was living in an apartment, a one bedroom apartment by myself because I didn't know house hacking was a thing. Oh my God, I wish you guys existed back then. And things would have been so different. So I was just really just trying to keep my head above water through my 20s. By the time I paid just those basic things every month, I didn't have enough money left for gas or groceries, you know, so credit card debt happened and I just spent. I think I hit zero, Brad. I hit not broke or just broke, just even at age 35. That's how long it took me to just climb out from all of that.
- [18:06]
Brad
Okay, so $0 net worth. Which is a huge accomplishment. Right? Like I think it's funny because Jonathan used to use that phrasing. I'm back to broke.
- [18:16]
Kristen Knapp
Back to broke.
- [18:17]
Brad
And it always, something about it always struck me as, as, as a little bit off in terms of messaging. But I have grown to care for it because it's important that everyone, no matter where they're starting, understands success is how you see it in your life and how it shows up in your life. And in the case, in your case, if you're. I'm making this up, but it's probably not too far off. Tens of thousands of dollars in student loan and credit card and you get to finally a $0 net worth. That's a massive success.
- [18:47]
Kristen Knapp
Getting out from underneath credit card debt and student loan debt and all that stuff. It's a lot, you know, and the way I did that this is kind of sort of my entry into all of this is Dave Ramsey came on my newscast when he first released his total money makeover book in the early 2000s.
- [19:04]
Brad
Okay.
- [19:05]
Kristen Knapp
This is before he got super famous. Right. And I read that book and you learn about the. Was the snowball.
- [19:11]
Brad
Oh yeah, the debt snowball.
- [19:13]
Kristen Knapp
Yeah, the debt snowball. Yeah. So I started doing that. Right. But I had always been frugal. Not because I'm wired. I think a lot of people in the community are wired frugally. Brad, like do you feel like you're wired frugally?
- [19:24]
Brad
I do Genuinely.
- [19:25]
Kristen Knapp
Okay. So I don't know that I was wired that way, but I became frugal out of necessity.
- [19:29]
Brad
Okay.
- [19:30]
Kristen Knapp
So I had been doing that for so long, and then that book kind of gave me some direction to help get out from under this debt. And, you know, I got there in my mid-30s, and then it was probably, I don't know, 2018. I was talking to a good friend of mine. I think you know him too. Eric Cooper. Of course, people know him as Mr. 72T. He's been doing a lot of.
- [19:49]
Brad
Yeah, he's become famous for that. I met up with him in Louisville recently.
- [19:53]
Kristen Knapp
Yeah, okay. So I met him in Louisville, like, in 2001. So we've been friends for a very long time, and we talk deeply about money and everything else. And I don't remember the conversation we were having, but he goes, you know, have you heard of fire? And I'm like, huh? I think he just sort of assumed I knew what it was, and he explained it to me, and he was like, I emailed this guy, Mr. Money Mustache, and I had him look at my numbers, and he says, like, I'm good to go. And I was like, who are all these people? What are you talking about? He gave me a book to read. I don't remember what the book was. It isn't one of the more common ones. But I started reading it, and I'm like, oh, my gosh. Like, it connected so deep immediately. Like, I'm already being frugal. This is kind of what I'm aiming for. I just didn't know the little things like index funds and you don't need a guy to invest your money. And the 25 times or 4% rule, if you will. And I didn't know all those little things, so I needed that structure, and this provided that for me. And that's when I found you guys and the simple path to wealth and started going down all the different rabbit holes. And that's kind of how I came to find this community. Hmm.
- [20:56]
Brad
I love that. Yeah. So it connected so deeply. That's a cool phrase. And obviously you said you're frugal out of necessity, but nevertheless, you have been frugal for it. Sounds like, ever. Yeah, yeah. Forever going back to childhood, but certainly for the 13 years of your adult life post graduation, until you got to $0 net worth. But do you have any sense of, like, what it was that connected so deeply? Was it just simply, like, this is how you were living? And it finally put, like you said, a structure or Language to what you've been doing 100%.
- [21:28]
Kristen Knapp
It was kind of what I was already doing. I just needed that structure and to know that others were doing it and being given those tips that were so important that I just didn't know. It's like, you do better when you know better. I just didn't know. And then once I started finding all that information, it's like, oh, my gosh. And I think a lot of us say it. I'm like, man, I wish I would have found this sooner.
- [21:48]
Brad
Yeah, I mean, of course, of course. But it's funny because that's exactly how I would describe my fi journey, also in terms of, like, the actual formal, like, I understand fi because, like you said, I am naturally frugal as well. And I did save money from when I was just starting out, but I had no reason to do it. There was no structure, there was no purpose. And to me, the two lightning bolt moments for me very clearly were finding Pete. Mr. Money Mustache's article, the shockingly simple math behind Early Retirement, which I know, you know, so many people in our community know. And I mean, that came out, what, 12 years ago at this point, and it. It finally said, okay, look, it's your annual expenses times 25. Basically, like, that's. I mean, we all know it now, but that was revelatory.
- [22:36]
Kristen Knapp
Yes.
- [22:37]
Brad
Back then it was massive. Like, absolutely massive. And then for me, J.L. collins, simple path to wealth.
- [22:43]
Kristen Knapp
Yeah, totally. Totally. He is amazing.
- [22:46]
Brad
He really is. What else? Anything else? So for me, those are my two lightning bolts. It sounds like those were two similar ones for you. Anything else jump out to you as. As especially, like, that type of lightning bolt. I know you found shoes of I earlier, and I'm not fishing for a couple minutes.
- [23:03]
Kristen Knapp
Okay, but hold on now. Let's give yourself a little bit of credit, because it really was early on for me. Once I found out this concept existed, I didn't really go read Mr. Money Mustache. I love you, Mr. Money Mustache, but that's not where I went. I went to the Choose Fi podcast and the Simple Path to Wealth. Those were my two go tos that taught me the overwhelming majority of everything I know.
- [23:26]
Brad
That's very cool. It's funny because, again, I kind of grew up in my fi journey with Pete with Mr. Money Mustache. And it is interesting and very gratifying when I go to these campfires to see, basically, Stephen asks everybody, where did you find Fi? And it's really choose a Phi and Mr. Money mustache. And it's pretty incredible to Be. To be in that. That company. We'll say. And yeah, I mean, I think, I think hopefully what we've done is basically make this something that seems attainable for people. And I think that's what you were alluding to, which is, hey, there are other people doing this. This is real. There's a language here. I can actually connect with these other people. And I think that's why these events are so, you know, we don't run any of these events, but that's why these events are so popular. That's why, like you said, the five Magic, why it just, it just, it just works.
- [24:14]
Kristen Knapp
I don't know why it just works. And it's amazing. It brings my heart so much joy. I just can't even put it into words.
- [24:22]
Brad
Oh, I love that. Yeah. And it does just work. And it's funny because both the meetups just work, but also fi just works. And I think that's what's so cool about your journey is, yeah, it took you a decent amount of time. And like you said, of course you can always. We can all lament about things that we've done. And I wish I knew this at 17 and my life would have been easy street at that point, but we didn't, and most of us don't, and that's fine. Like, we can't beat ourselves up about the past. We just make changes that make our life better today, tomorrow, and going forward. Right.
- [24:53]
Kristen Knapp
So easier said than done. Now sometimes it's, you know, tell me about frustrated. Well, I just, I try to mentor some of the young people around me and I think a lot of times they probably don't want to hear it. The things about watching their budgets and their 401ks and what to invest in and. Because like I said, I just wish there would have been somebody around when I was younger to give me some of this advice. And there just wasn't. So they can take it or leave it, but this is how I cope with the fact that I didn't know. Like, let me give back.
- [25:23]
Brad
Well, okay, let's talk about that. I love that. So the young people around you, so, you know, you did kind of allude to this. You are a television meteorologist in St. Louis. So are you talking about like younger co workers, family and friends?
- [25:36]
Kristen Knapp
No, in the TV news business, all the old people, they're kind of rotating out. And I have a lot of 20 somethings that I work with who are reporters and anchors and things like that. And I don't know, like, I don't Feel this pressure to like be fancy because I'm on tv. I think a lot of people do. Maybe that's normal. I'm not normal. What can I say? But you know, they drive the fancy cars and they have the fancy shoes and the fancy bags and live in the best part of town and all the things. And I just try to impress upon them that, you know, you don't have to do that and savings rate and you know, a lot of them, they don't know what they're invested in and they're not putting in enough to get the match. And I just try to convey some of this to the younger folks as much as I can definitely become known as, as that person at work. If anybody has questions about their 401k.
- [26:23]
Brad
Or anything like that, that is really cool. So for everybody listening, you might not work in a television station, but undoubtedly you have younger coworkers. It doesn't matter where you work, but because like how did you, how did you do that? How did you become that person? That doesn't happen overnight. How did you first broach this with, if you remember, with the first person? Like, did you just start talking about it? Is it just interest led? Did you actually try to help people?
- [26:47]
Kristen Knapp
I honestly, I probably, I pro. I'm a big mouth. You know, they don't ask and you know, sometimes I get it. It's like, I know you didn't ask me, but you know, and I'm probably sticking my nose where it doesn't belong, but I don't care. I just want to get the information out there. It's important to me to get it out there. Maybe if there's one person that connects with it, then it makes a difference and I probably annoy some people with it, but. And honestly, I don't know how it came up. Most recently, here's an example, we were sitting around, there was an event. I don't know if it was a birthday or what it was, but food had been brought in and we were all sitting around and I think a lot of the girls were talking about their nails and they all have these perfect nails and they were talking about how expensive it is. And I was like, do you guys realize how much money you would save if you didn't get your nails done every week? I'm like, look at mine. My nails look fine. I do it myself. I just use clear polish.
- [27:38]
Brad
That's really cool.
- [27:39]
Kristen Knapp
So things like that.
- [27:40]
Brad
Yeah, okay, I like it. It's right. So it's not like heavy handed over necessarily, but it comes up and maybe, maybe some, a little bit of heavy handedness. I'm sure every now and again. Have you had any success stories? Like, has anybody, out of all the people, like, can you think of one or two people who are like, oh wow, this actually works? And like maybe they did up their 401k contributions or something like that?
- [28:01]
Kristen Knapp
Well, I don't know that they're ever going to feel like it works for a long time. Right. Because when you're new, you know, and you're just starting, it's going to be a really long time before you see the compound interest thing kind of take over. Right. I think they appreciate it though, certainly when I explain, you know, index funds versus managed funds and the what you're saving and I might give them some examples about what this could look like 20 years from now, you know, and math out things like that. But also I make it very clear too, like you're not putting in enough to get the free match. That's free money. That's like you're throwing away free money, you know, and try to get these things across to them. And I feel like 20 years from now they'll be like, man, that was great, I'm so glad you told me that. But right now, some, it's in one ear and out the other and some make the changes and we'll see what happens.
- [28:43]
Brad
Maybe you'll get some thank yous 20 years from now then. I like it. But yeah, that I feel like that's a really good way and it's, it's all about strategy. Right. Like that's one of the fun parts of this is like, not that we're here to like convert people or proselytize or anything like that, but like you said, you just want to help people and it's hard because it, you can't really like walk around saying like, oh, I'm almost financially independent and that doesn't work. But something like that, 401k. I feel like that's a perfect example of like this is literally part of your salary that match and if you're not putting in enough, you are just handing the company back money.
- [29:18]
Kristen Knapp
You're nuts. No, I'm kidding. You know, honestly, one of the other ways that it's come up more recently is when I moved to part time. I moved to part time last March 2024. And I don't know that people have actually said to me, how did you do that? But you know, when it comes up in conversation, I talk to them about some of this Stuff. And just for context, how I did that is, you know, through being a part of this community and learning and knowing how the math works. Let me step back. I had a really big birthday last year, and I turned. I'll just tell you, I turned 50 last year. And it is the age that my mother was when she received her cancer diagnosis that would take her life the following year. And something about hitting that age just really shook me to the core. I also lost a friend last year to colon cancer who was about my age. So I very much started thinking about, you know, when you're younger, obviously we talk about how this is all about time. You can't buy back time. You know, time is your most valuable commodity. And we can say that all day long. But as we really start getting older, that just hits a lot closer to home. So I turned 50. There were some things I was doing during the week at work that I didn't really enjoy. I wanted to spend more time doing the things that I love, less of the things that I felt like I had to do. So I took a look at our numbers, and I figured out we were so far past Coast Phi. Okay, like, we were so almost five, right. So I realized that we didn't need to be saving as much as we were. We were maxing out everything I say. We. I married my husband. So we basically brought our savings rate down to where we just get that free match. Right. And then the other money basically allowed me to go part time. So starting last March, technically right before my 50th birthday, I went to part time. And most weeks I work two days a week. That's assuming there's no tornadoes or anybody's sick or on vacation or anything like that. But in a quiet week, it's. It's two days a week. And, yeah, that's not common in my business. As a matter of fact, I'm the first person that had ever done that at my work. They did not know what to do with me. Like, they were very confused. They weren't sure how that was going to work with benefits and any of the things. So they had to figure all of that out.
- [31:34]
Brad
Wow. So, okay, that's amazing. How did you negotiate that then?
- [31:40]
Kristen Knapp
So I do the weekend evening weather on Saturday and Sunday nights. And the way that it works is you have like, your weekday morning person, your weekday night person, your weekend, you know, so everybody kind of has a role that they play. They didn't really need me for the stuff that I was doing the week I was doing feature reporting. Not hard news. Like I wasn't doing homicides or anything like that. I might be at the zoo introducing the new seal babies. I mean, it was, it was cute stuff, but I just didn't want to do that. I just wanted to do weather. Plus I was having to write some things and shoot some things and it just wasn't my jam and I didn't want to work as much. So I was like, I went to them and basically said, look, you guys don't really need me for this stuff during the week. As a matter of fact, I probably create more of a problem for you than I solve because you have to find a photographer for me and an editor for me and a story idea for me because I'm limited, because I can't do the hard news. And I was like, you really just need me for Saturday and Sunday. So what if I agree to do that? And when I'm in town, I will help out when you need me. Because what they really need me for is to cover when we do have bad weather or when people are sick or on vacation. I'm like, as long as I'm in town, I will help help still cover that. And that's really what you need me for. You don't need me for this other stuff. Plus you're going to save 60% of my salary. So. And they love that. So that's what happened.
- [32:54]
Brad
Wow. Okay. That's incredible. So yeah, you were on a five day, right? So now you're down to two. So hence you're getting 40% of your old salary. But yeah, like you said, you are coastify. So as, as I'm understanding, I'm just trying to catch up here. So you are cosfi, which for most people, and I don't want to assume anything, but most people means they are not actively putting additional savings into their net worth. But they are basically living at, hey, if my life costs $80,000, then I'm bringing in 80,000. So roughly average. That's generally the framework. But it sounds like you actually are again to get that match. Right. So you are saving.
- [33:34]
Kristen Knapp
Yeah, we're putting in enough to get the match. And then the additional savings that we were putting in basically goes now into a Kristen pot to allow Kristen to be part time because I didn't want to adjust my life down by 60% when I started working 60% less. Right. Does that make sense?
- [33:52]
Brad
It does.
- [33:53]
Kristen Knapp
So basically I get a little allowance now on top of my 40% paycheck of what I had before.
- [33:58]
Brad
Okay, okay.
- [33:59]
Kristen Knapp
That makes Sense. It does.
- [34:00]
Brad
It does make sense. It's funny because the optimizer, me or the math person is like, money is all kind of fungible, which is a fancy way of saying, like, money is money is money. It doesn't matter where it comes from. But mental accounting is really important, and I think that's what you're doing there. And that passes the sleep well at night test.
- [34:19]
Kristen Knapp
Exactly.
- [34:20]
Brad
And we can't discount that. That's really important. So how did you come up with this allowance thing as opposed to just saying like, hey, again, in my hypothetical, I'm making up numbers like, hey, we're bringing in 80,000, we spend 80,000. I'm just going to spend my normal bit. And it doesn't really matter where it's coming from or whether I have this allowance or not. It's. The money is all there.
- [34:38]
Kristen Knapp
So the first thing I did is went to see how close we were to fi. And like, if we didn't put in another dollar, would we get to our number by the time that my husband wants to retire, which is 20, 28, by the way?
- [34:51]
Brad
Okay.
- [34:52]
Kristen Knapp
And the answer was yes. So that was where I started. And then I'm like, okay, how much extra above and beyond, you know, the getting the match level are we putting away every year? Would that be enough for me to maintain my lifestyle if I go to two days a week? Because the whole thing was I'm not trying to become five so then I can lead a less amazing life. Like, I want to live the same life part time as I did before. I want to do just as much now. Look, I'm not going to live a more extravagant life per se, but I just wanted to be able to keep my spending consistent and be able to do the same things I was doing before. So in order to do that, it was pretty equal by the time we brought that savings down as to how much additional I would need to continue to maintain my life the same way. Okay, So I don't do spreadsheets, Brad. I know I'm probably going to get my FICARD revoked here. I'm one of the few.
- [35:45]
Brad
No ficard to everybody listening. There's no ficard. There's no rules.
- [35:48]
Kristen Knapp
All back of napkin scratching it out. Just, yeah, figuring out, hey, that works. The mental gymnastics. I had to work with my husband a little bit on. It was a little challenging for him to understand. He was like, well, you know, we're going to be broke and where's the money going to come from? And I think it just took a While of him seeing that it worked every month and now he doesn't even mention anymore. Actually, there is one thing. He's like, well, what do I get? And I'm like, well, what do you want? I'm like, you don't want anything. You don't want to stop working, which, if you wanted to, we could probably do that. He's like, I already feel like I'm part time. I only. He's a firefighter, so he goes to work for 48 hours, and then he's home for four days. He's like, I already feel like I'm pretty much retired. I get four days off every week. And I'm like, well, I mean, you're a little frustrated that I'm getting to. He was saying, you get to have your cake and eat it too. And I'm like, well, yeah, that's the point. That's the point. Right? That's why we do this. He's like, what do I get? So I was like, okay, what do you want? He started thinking about it. He's like, I want a truck.
- [36:48]
Brad
Okay, okay.
- [36:49]
Kristen Knapp
So he got his truck. And he loves that truck. Brad and I haven't heard another word about it.
- [36:54]
Brad
Sounds like a win. Sounds like a win all around. That's really cool. And yeah, I think, like you said, it's about living a great life. Like, you don't want to live a less wonderful life now.
- [37:04]
Kristen Knapp
Exactly.
- [37:04]
Brad
And you're so close to fi, and it sounds like, yeah, you're about three years until your husband's done. And I imagine for you it'll be pretty. Pretty similar date, if not before.
- [37:16]
Kristen Knapp
Exactly. We're gonna see what happens. I've got a new boss coming in. You know, I'm. I'm doing some more traveling. So it's. It's. That's one of the great benefits of this Fi stuff, right, Is that we have these options. Doesn't it make you just sleep well at night? It's amazing. I struggled for so long for so much of my life, stressing about money, and it's so nice to have options and not have to worry about it.
- [37:37]
Brad
Yeah. And this is really like the flexing your thigh muscle. I think this is right. Doesn't it feel amazing? Like you've been on this journey of frugality and then fi for a very long time, and now you're finally flexing those muscles. It's gotta feel remarkable.
- [37:52]
Kristen Knapp
It's amazing just knowing that no matter what happens with this new boss, it's fine if they come in and they're like, we don't like this part time thing. We want you to come back full time. I can be like, eh, nah. And that's fine.
- [38:04]
Brad
Oh, that's so great. That's what's so cool about fi. There's so many ways that we can benefit from it. Like, we've talked about many retirements. I just chatted with Jillian Johnsrud and that's a way that people can take advantage of it. I know me for the first time in my adult life. Like, yeah, I haven't worked in a corporate job for 10 plus years now, but I think I'm finally flexing my thigh muscles as well for real. And been traveling more. I have been able to come up with a way where I can batch these podcast recordings and my newsletters a little bit and, and I can just travel on a much more frequent basis and it's really wonderful. So I think, Kristen, to me, one of the coolest things is like, there's just not one flavor of fi. And I just, I find that so encouraging.
- [38:51]
Kristen Knapp
We all do it our own way, right? But that's the thing is the flexibility that it provides and the options. And that's the other thing I really love about this community too is it would have never occurred to me in a million years to go part time because no one in my business ever did it. Like, it just wasn't a thing. And somebody just kind of casually mentioned it to me one day like, maybe you should think about going part time first. And I'm like, that actually makes a lot of sense. Well, I didn't ever think of that before, which, that's one of the parts of this five magic too, is that you're exposed to ideas that you're just not exposed to in the real world, if you will. And also I think outside of this community, maybe even if you did think of it, you probably aren't going to do it, most likely because you're scared you don't know other people doing it. Something about being in this community and seeing all the people around you doing these amazing things and taking these risks and these chances and doing things and thinking outside of the box gives you the confidence to do that. Whereas if you didn't have anybody else around you doing these things, I think it's a lot less likely to happen.
- [39:50]
Brad
Yeah, it's like an unknown unknown. And you said you most likely aren't going to do it, but you most likely can't do it right for most people.
- [39:59]
Kristen Knapp
That's true. That's true as well. Yeah, right.
- [40:01]
Brad
Like, most people are living paycheck to paycheck, or at the very least, their lives are going to crumble within a couple months if they don't have money coming in, so.
- [40:09]
Kristen Knapp
Good point.
- [40:10]
Brad
You now you're in a position of power. That's what's so wonderful. And it's not like we jokingly call it FU money.
- [40:16]
Kristen Knapp
Oh, I call it that too.
- [40:17]
Brad
And, like, it has a nice ring to it, but it's not licensed to be a clown, like, to be a jerk to people. It's license to understand that you have power in your life that you didn't previously.
- [40:30]
Kristen Knapp
I had to make decisions, work decisions, from a place of fear for so long and to finally be in a place where I could make decisions, positive decisions for myself from a place of power I can't even begin to describe, particularly coming from my background, the happiness and joy and peace that that brings me.
- [40:50]
Brad
That's amazing. That's amazing. Yeah. I mean, it all just helps us again, that sleep well at night test. That's what I think about. And another thing you hit on is like. Is another enduring lesson from this podcast in the community is everything is negotiable. Right. Especially when you have that position of power. Like, yeah, nobody's ever gone to two days a week in your job. Does that mean it's impossible? No. Does that mean you can't do it? No. It just means nobody's ever tried before. Nobody's ever thought to try. But you did.
- [41:20]
Kristen Knapp
Interestingly enough, about three months later, somebody else did because then they found out it was a thing.
- [41:25]
Brad
Oh, that's cool.
- [41:27]
Kristen Knapp
Oh, I didn't know that was an option. Yeah.
- [41:29]
Brad
Blazing a trail.
- [41:30]
Kristen Knapp
Yep.
- [41:33]
Brad
Thanks for listening to Choose a Phi and for all your support of our mission here. The absolute best way to support Choose a Pie is when you sign up for your next rewards credit card to use our cards page at Choose a. Com Cards. I keep this page constantly updated, so it should always be the top resource for you. Thanks for being part of our community and for your support. So blazing a trail into a better life, into a life you want to live into. I think that's the perfect segue for what you're up to now, which is like we talked about earlier, we mentioned in passing five friends travel. This is something that you. I know you have a love of travel, you have a love of organizing amazing trips and bringing people together and sounds like it's. It's all kind of culminating and coalescing into this. I know you had your first successful trip So I will get out of the way. I'd love to just tell us about it. Where'd this idea come from? What's it all about? Just tell me more.
- [42:27]
Kristen Knapp
Okay. So I am obsessed with world travel. I don't know why. I certainly didn't get any growing up, right. But I just have this incredible desire to experience new things. Different cultures, different architecture, history, you know, things along those lines. So I love to travel. I love hanging out with people in the fine community. So why not combine those things, right? Two birds, one stone. I mean, just double the fun, right?
- [42:50]
Brad
Makes sense to me.
- [42:51]
Kristen Knapp
So if there was something that already existed like this, I would have gone on those trips. It just didn't exist. I really enjoy international travel. My husband enjoys it a little bit less. Well, a lot less. I can get him to do an international trip maybe like once every other year. Okay. So in the last few years, he's been saying, you know, go with your friends, go with your friends. So I started going with my friends. So I'd already done a couple of really awesome epic trips with small groups of friends in the last few years. And some of those friends happen to be five people. I did like two weeks in Egypt. I did two weeks in the Alps. And I always naturally fall into being the sort of group coordinator.
- [43:28]
Brad
Okay.
- [43:28]
Kristen Knapp
It's just a role that just. It falls into my lap naturally. I think it's because, well, first of all, I love the planning aspect of it. I research and everything to death. I am really into the details, just who I am, and a lot of people don't care for that bit. So I just sort of end up kind of taking over and being like, here's where we're going here, and here's where we're going then. And think people appreciate that if they don't, don't come on my trip. Right. But this is sort of the role that I play. So, yeah, I'd mentioned casually to a few, you know, some of the leaders in our community. I'll mention Mark Troutman specifically. I think, you know, Mark of Mark's money mind. I mentioned it to him at economy to, let's see, 2024. Okay. So a little more than a year ago. So, you know, I have this idea, you know, I'd like to plan these epic trips, which I was already planning amazing trips, but I'm like, maybe just do it on a larger scale. Plan, continue planning these epic trips and invite all my five friends along. Right? He was like, that's awesome. Do it. I'll come. You Know. So I got a lot of positive response at economy. I was asking people what they thought. They're like, yeah, it's great, Great. It's great. And then a couple months later, I went to a campfire and I mentioned it there, and people were like, how do I get on your list? Like, how do I find out about these trips? I'm like, okay, I guess we're doing this. Which was a huge leap of faith for me to do, because I don't feel like I have an entrepreneurial bone in my body. Like, I've always been a W2 worker. I don't feel like I'm particularly creative. Like, I like going into a system that already exists and you telling me what to do. So the idea that I would have to create this thing from scratch and figuring it out as I go is very, very scary to me. But again, nobody was doing. Seemed to make all the sense in the world. I mean, a lot of five people have the extra time. A lot of them like to travel. We like hanging out together, so why not? And on top of that, for years, people have been saying to me, like, oh, you should be a travel agent. First of all, the idea that I would have clients on the other side of the world calling me at two o' clock in the morning because a dinner reservation fell through, that sounds horrible. Like, no, thanks. So I'm not a travel agent. I'm basically just a coordinator. I sort of just facilitated and bring the group together. So I continue to plan epic trips just like I kind of always did. And now I'm just inviting all my friends, which happens to be the greater fi community.
- [45:41]
Brad
Wow. Okay. I love this. So like you said, you're not a travel agent.
- [45:45]
Kristen Knapp
Nope.
- [45:46]
Brad
You're coordinating.
- [45:47]
Kristen Knapp
Right.
- [45:47]
Brad
So I'm coming from Richmond, Virginia. So now I sign, I go to five friends, travel. You have a trip coming up to X, Y and Z place. Where's the next one?
- [45:56]
Kristen Knapp
Oh, you actually want to know what's.
- [45:57]
Brad
The next trip in my hypothetical? Here, but we'll make it less hypothetical.
- [46:01]
Kristen Knapp
Okay, so my very next trip is I'm taking 17 people to Morocco for two weeks in October. But you're too late, Brad, because that one sold out a long time ago. But I do have a waiting list going.
- [46:11]
Brad
Okay, Nice, nice, nice.
- [46:13]
Kristen Knapp
So I do take care of all the logistics. So, like you, you do have to handle your international flights. But I think most people in this group are pretty capable, tougher. But once you are on land, all the activities and, you know, everything's kind of taken care of. So you don't have to worry about planning anything. Right. That's my part. So I take that off your plate. So the next trips, let's talk. We've got a December 10th river cruise. If you've never done that before. I know many of us haven't. We've done ocean liners. But this is a river cruise and it's to visit the European Christmas markets. We're going to sail from Vienna to Nuremberg. So that seems really cool. Have you ever been to the Christmas markets in Europe?
- [46:52]
Brad
I have not. I've heard great things but have never made it.
- [46:55]
Kristen Knapp
Yeah, I haven't either. I'm really excited. To be clear, I don't plan trips that I've already gone on. Like, okay, I'm not an expert in these places either. Like, I'm planning epic trips that I want to go on that I can get excited about. I don't see any value in going to the same place over and over. Like, there's a big world out there. Right. So I guess the idea with these, it's just a really festive atmosphere and they turn all these amazing European cities into just winter wonderlands and there's crafts and drinks and food. You get in on the local Christmas traditions and things like that. So spots available. That one's booking now. April 2nd, we're doing another river cruise. This one's going to be round trip from Amsterdam during tulip time. Are you familiar with like the famous. Yeah. Okay, so that one's a week. We'll go through parts of Belgium and Holland. We're also adding in. I did not know. I don't know if you're a beer drinker. I'm not. But apparently Belgian beers are a really big deal.
- [47:46]
Brad
Do you notice? They are. They are. Today I'm not a massive. I don't drink much beer. But yeah, Belgian beers are fantastic.
- [47:52]
Kristen Knapp
Okay. So apparently people are way into this. So we have some people who are going to be on the cruise who are also really into that. So they're helping with creating some beer type excursions just for us, for our group while we're on the cruise. We'll go to some breweries and do some tastings and some things like that. So that's really fun. I've got 26 people signed up for that one already. It's next April. April.
- [48:13]
Brad
Wow. Amazing.
- [48:14]
Kristen Knapp
I know, it's very exciting. So we're. As long as there are spots on the ship, there's spots available and there are spots on the ship. So that one's available. Let's see what's next. Oh, I am in the middle of finalizing everything right now for a really cool trip to Turkey. Ooh, we ever been to Turkey?
- [48:31]
Brad
I have not. Well, I have been in the Istanbul airport, but I've never been to Turkey.
- [48:36]
Kristen Knapp
That airport is huge. Right? Me too. I've only been in the airport. It's ginormous. It's like a city.
- [48:40]
Brad
Amazing.
- [48:41]
Kristen Knapp
So I'm actually launching this one to book starting tomorrow, which is super exciting. We're going to take 20 people. It will probably sell out because that has just been how it's been going so far. The ships don't usually sell out because it's a whole ship. Right. But this small group, Land Travel, has been selling out. So we're going to go to Istanbul, which is super cool because it straddles Europe and Asia. You're actually on two continents. Isn't that cool? So we're east meets west, so that's neat. We'll go to the Blue Mosque. We'll go to the Hagia Sofia. We're going to cruise on the Bosphorus. Then we're going to go to Cappadocia. Does that ring a bell? Do you know Cappadocia?
- [49:16]
Brad
Not, sadly.
- [49:17]
Kristen Knapp
I think if you saw pictures of it, you would recognize it because it's kind of Instagram famous. The landscape kind of looks. I'm going to say it looks like the moon. I haven't seen the moon, but they've got these crazy rock formations. They call them like fairy chimneys. And people have built over the centuries, homes and churches into these things, these caves. And they do hot air balloon launches over the city every morning. It's probably become almost too Instagram famous, really. But it looks really, really cool. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site, this area. So we're going to obviously check out all those. The caves and the. We'll have a dinner and a person's home that lives in the area and do some really neat stuff. There's also an underground city there that we're going to go visit. It's fascinating stuff.
- [50:03]
Brad
That sounds amazing.
- [50:04]
Kristen Knapp
And then the other thing we're going to do on the trip, which is kind of interesting, I'm really into ruins. I just think ancient history is really cool. Ephesus, if you've ever heard of Ephesus, I think it's mentioned a lot in the Bible. I don't know all my Bible history, but it's ancient. Cleopatra, Mark Antony walked on these same marble streets. We're going to be walking on. It's like one of the best preserved ancient cities in the world. So those are the three main places that we're going to be visiting in Turkey. And again, all the logistics are handled. You just show up. Right. You book your international airfare and you show up and all the logistics are handled. And not more than 20 people.
- [50:35]
Brad
Okay. And. Right. You get to hang out with five people.
- [50:39]
Kristen Knapp
Exactly.
- [50:40]
Brad
And that's the great part. And I know your first trip to Portugal was a massive success. We kind of alluded to this earlier where 14 of you went on the trip, and now there were. I think you said four or five. A handful of people had never been to a 5N, including a local meetup. And they just.
- [50:56]
Kristen Knapp
I couldn't believe it. I was like, wait, you've never even been to a local meetup and you flew across the ocean to come hang out with us? What an honor. I felt honored that they joined us. But, yeah, there were four that had never been. They've never met a five person in real life. They just listened to the podcast, read the books, came along, and absolutely experienced the five magic that I talked about. Like, they now have gone home and signed up for their local Choose a Phi groups. And interestingly enough, I'm going to campfire Rocky Mountain 1.5. And of the 14 that we had in Portugal, seven of us so far have signed up for that one. I'm sure there's going to be more. There's a lot of FOMO going on in this group. Everybody wants to have a little mini reunion and they hear about how great it is. Like, oh, I want to go. I want to go.
- [51:40]
Brad
That's so cool.
- [51:40]
Kristen Knapp
It's going to be fun.
- [51:41]
Brad
That is so cool. Yeah. And that is. That's really what you're talking about with this five magic and what a lot of us have seen with our choose of a local groups and all these events. And yeah, it's just cool to see you just create something that obviously people are clamoring for. And they. Maybe they didn't even realize they were clamoring.
- [51:59]
Kristen Knapp
I was so scared. There were so many sleepless nights when I decided to kind of pull the trigger and actually launch this thing, because I'm. You don't know what can go wrong. Like, I couldn't even think of. I planned it to death. Right. I mean, I literally researched everything so much. So I knew that if anything happened, it was going to be outside of my control. And there were a few things and everybody was cool. And that's the great thing about these people, too, is everybody's very adaptable and chill. And I don't know if you realize this. We were there when they had the huge blackout in Western Europe that took down all of Spain and Portugal.
- [52:28]
Brad
Oh, my goodness. I didn't. Okay, okay. Good times.
- [52:32]
Kristen Knapp
That was wild.
- [52:33]
Brad
Wow. That's crazy.
- [52:34]
Kristen Knapp
Can I just share a couple of tips? I learned from that? Because I think this is all. I think a lot of us in this community are travelers, and I just want to share some things that I learned. Okay. I think a lot of us are hesitant to pull out euros when we're in Europe because you don't want to pay the fees. Don't do that. Get euros or whatever money in whatever place you're in, because when the power goes out, the first thing that happens. Well, credit card machines aren't working. Assuming even a place is open, the credit card machine's not going to work. They're going to want cash. Well, guess what? You can't get cash because the ATM machines are down, too. Right. So get the euros. And honestly, if you're worried about fees, it's not a big deal. If you get a. You get a Fidelity debit card or a Schwab debit card and there are no fees, they will refund all the ATM fees. That's what I do. It's not a big deal.
- [53:19]
Brad
Yeah, I have the Schwab account, and it's amazing.
- [53:20]
Kristen Knapp
Yeah, exactly. So have cash. Also, maybe stock snacks. Because one of the issues we ran into very quickly is that any prepared foods in any of the restaurant type places was gone quick. And then, of course, they can't use your kitchen. They can't cook anything. So it was like, went to this one place. It was a long line. We're like, oh, we can get food there. We wait through this long line. We get up front. They're like, do you want this piece of bread or this piece of bread? Like, that's all they had. So have maybe some snacks. We got together pretty quickly, and I was just checking on everyone, and I was like, okay, who needs money? Who needs food? So we were able to pool resources if need be. So that was good battery backups. I think a lot of us now have packs that we travel with, but if you don't, make sure you do, maybe even two. Because by that evening, everybody's phones was dead. And then the last thing, and this is one that I didn't do, which I will always do now, is know where the nearest American embassy is, where you are, because if this outage would have lasted, we would have been kind of stranded. And that's probably how the only way I would have known to potentially get help or get home.
- [54:25]
Brad
Yeah.
- [54:25]
Kristen Knapp
So I will always have that resource now. Know where that is in writing. Not again. Your phone can become spotty. Don't have it in an email on your phone. Like, have that printed out on a piece of paper.
- [54:36]
Brad
Wow. Okay. Well, that is great advice. Obviously, we're not all going to get hit with that kind of blackout, but it's important. All those things are very applicable to people just traveling generally.
- [54:46]
Kristen Knapp
It was so scary because I didn't know how long it was going to last. We were hearing these rumors that Putin had dropped a bomb. We heard rumors that it was a cyber attack. We were hearing from the locals. It was going to be at least three days. We were supposed to go to Lisbon the next day. We were in Porto when this happened. I'm like, do we even go? Like, what happens if we get there and we can't get into our hotel? Is our transportation even going to be able to take us? Because they probably can't get gas because the pumps, when their power's out. It was very unsettling because whether I was officially responsible for these 14 people or not, it certainly felt like I was. We were very fortunate that the power came back on late that night. It was out for about 12 hours, but there were certainly some suggestions that it might not have been. So thank goodness it wasn't worse than that.
- [55:28]
Brad
Yeah. Thank goodness indeed. Wow. So, okay, that's great advice. And Right. If you are listening to this. So we've said the website is Phi fi friends, plural. So five friends travel.com.
- [55:42]
Kristen Knapp
Yep.
- [55:42]
Brad
For me, I'm on your newsletter, Kristen, you know this. So I've, I've subscribed. I think regardless of whether you're going to go on one of the trips that are happening imminently, I love Kristen's emails. It keeps me updated on what's going on so you can't miss it. It's right smack in the middle of the homepage. So big subscribe. She'll send out updates with the newest trips and some trip reports from prior trips, which is really neat. A little bit of I won't spam you.
- [56:08]
Kristen Knapp
I don't send emails at all.
- [56:09]
Brad
You don't spam at all?
- [56:10]
Kristen Knapp
Not more than one a week.
- [56:11]
Brad
Yeah, no, you're great. And yeah, like you said, our understanding of when we're recording this is the day after this goes live that the Turkey trip will be coming on the website and there are limited numbers. We said about 20 is the number. So if that interests you, you definitely want to get on it asap. But the nice thing is seems like there you're going to have a good handful of these trips or three to five trips a year. So again, the best way is just subscribe to the newsletter and you'll be updated.
- [56:42]
Kristen Knapp
That is absolutely the best way. I did have people after Morocco sold out. They're like, well, I didn't know. I'm like, well, you weren't subscribed. Definitely subscribe. So, you know, when I launch, I did recently start at five Friends travel, Instagram and Facebook page too, if you want to follow along.
- [56:57]
Brad
Cool.
- [56:58]
Kristen Knapp
But to know when the trips are launching, you definitely want to be on that email list.
- [57:01]
Brad
Yep. So fi Friends. Plural. F I Friends travel.
- [57:05]
Kristen Knapp
Com.
- [57:05]
Brad
So that is absolutely awesome because in.
- [57:07]
Kristen Knapp
This one more point, right now I'm doing three a year. I think once I stop working, I'll probably do maybe four or five, but right now it's three. The other one in 2026 is going to be an African safari to Tanzania. I'm going to launch that. I'm aiming for mid August. So just heads up on that one. There's already been a lot of chatter about that one. A lot of people are excited. We'll go in early October 2026, but it's going to get launched this August. So if you've ever wanted to do that, keep an eye out.
- [57:35]
Brad
Oh, I've wanted to do that. I might keep an eye on. No promises, but yeah, I like the sound of that. That is awesome.
- [57:43]
Kristen Knapp
We're going to go with the Serengeti and the. I'm going to butcher how you say this. Maybe you know what it is. The caldera, the big crater there. Nagor Gongo. I don't know, the big crater that starts with an N. That has a whole lot of words, a whole lot of letters. Okay. Nagor and Garo.
- [57:58]
Brad
I'm not even going to attempt. I'm going to let you be the one to pronounce it. Oh, man. Kristen, you're the best. I love, love hanging out with you. Your energy is infectious. So really just loved hearing your story. Love seeing what you've been doing with the St. Louis group. And this five friends travel thing is awesome. So thank you for the part that you.
- [58:17]
Kristen Knapp
It's a dream. Yeah, I'm living my dream, man.
- [58:20]
Brad
I believe it. I can see it. I can see it. And I'm just so happy for you. So thank you for what you've done for the community. A huge congrats to you and your husband for everything that has gone so well in your lives. This is really, really remarkable.
- [58:31]
Kristen Knapp
Thank you so much.
- [58:33]
Brad
All right, everyone, this has been a really good one. Five friends travel.com check it out and really hear that. The fi magic, right? That's what fi is, magic. In so many ways. The concept is just fundamental truth. It's the way to live a better life. Finding these people in your real life, in your local area, all across the world, it makes a difference. It makes your life better. I've been to so many of these live events and I treasure each and every one of them. They massively move the needle in terms of life satisfaction and it's just cool to see them popping up. And it's really amazing to see something like this where you can just go on these fun trips with other five people. I think it's a brilliant idea and I'm just thrilled to see the success. So as always, thanks for being part of the community. And until next time, thanks for listening to choose a 5.
- [59:21]
Stephen
Thank you for listening to today's show and for being part of the Choose a 5 community. If you haven't already, the best ways to get involved are first, subscribe to the podcast. So you're listening to this on a podcast player, just hit subscribe and then subscribe to my weekly newsletter. I actually sit down every Monday and write this by hand and I send it out Tuesday morning. So just head over to chooseify.com subscribe and it's really, really easy to get on the the newsletter list right there and I would greatly appreciate it. It's the best way to get in touch with me. You can actually just hit reply to any of those emails and it comes directly to my inbox.
- [59:56]
Brad
So that's the way that I keep.
- [59:58]
Stephen
A pulse of the community and how we keep this the ultimate crowdsourced personal finance show. And finally, if you're looking to join an in real life community, we have choose a vi local groups in 300 plus cities all around the world. So head to choose a vi.com local and you'll find a list of all of Those cities in 20 plus countries.
- [60:18]
Brad
All across the world.
- [60:19]
Stephen
And if you're just getting started with FI or you have a family member or friend who you think would be interested, two easy ways choose a Fi episode 100 is kind of our welcome to the Fi community. And even though it's a couple years old at this point, it still stands up and it's a really great just starting point to get an understanding of what is financial independence. What are we doing here? Why are we looking to live a more intentional life where we save money and use it as a springboard to live a better life and then choose? If I created a Financial Independence 101 course that's entirely free, just head to choosefi.comfi101 and again, thanks for listening.