In my Money Managers interview series, I interview notable members of the personal finance community. Generally, my interviewees are bloggers or professionals working in finance. In this article I interviewed F.I. Squirrel, who you may know from his Twitter account, @FI_Squirrel. I’m a fan of his commentary and content on the ins and outs of personal finance. Without further ado, let’s get into the interview!
For my readers who may not be familiar with you, would you please introduce yourself? Who are you? What do you do?
I go by @FI_Squirrel on Twitter. I’m a 33 year old father of two, who lives in Canada. I’ve been a personal finance nerd since age 19 when I read “The Wealthy Barber” by David Chilton. I currently work in management for my local government. It’s a cushy job that’s a little too easy and unfulfilling for my liking. I’m hoping to find a way to transition into different work in the next few years. After my 9-5, I work as a Financial Coach to help other people make the most of their income and create a plan to work toward their goals. It’s more of a passion project than it is a job. I have always been conflicted with taking peoples money when I’m there to help them save and get ahead.
What is your platform about, and in your opinion, what sets it apart from the others in your niche?
I originally created my Twitter account as a personal journal, to post monthly financial updates and chronicle my progress. However, I discovered the power of community on Twitter and have changed direction. Now I use Twitter as my network of support, inspiration, and education. I now use my account to share insight and give people a peek into my thought process. I feel like there are 10,000 generic platitude and money/hustle accounts on Twitter so my biggest goal is always to be as authentic and unique as possible. I do this by sharing personal stories whenever possible and being real with my audience. Sharing self doubts, struggles, or other personal details exposes a vulnerable side that many people can relate with, but perhaps are too timid to write about themselves. I also do my best to keep things light and have fun with bad jokes, teasing, and excessive GIF use!
When and why did you start getting involved in twitter and online communities? Looking back, would you have gone about starting it differently?
I started my Twitter account in late January 2020. I had followed several blogs for years and always toyed with the idea of chronicling my financial journey but I didn’t like the idea of building a blog and needing to write ‘articles’; it seemed like too much work. Right before COVID hit, our family did one of the best things we’ve ever done; we took a 6 week vacation in Mexico. My wife was on the tail end of her maternity leave and my job is always slow from January-March so I pitched the idea that we take off for a while for some quality family time. We booked an Airbnb and spent a month and half making memories and connecting as a family. During my many many hours by the poolside, I finally took the leap and signed up for Twitter. The beginning was a grind as I was tweeting into the void and getting no traction. Thankfully I started to network and find my community of like-minded people. I didn’t know of any Twitter guides back then, so I probably took a lot longer to grow than a new account today. But I don’t think I would have done much differently. The best advice I can give is to find your people and get to know them beyond the comment section. There are a ton of great off-platform communities these days.
Are there bloggers, authors, friends or anyone else who has really inspired you?
I didn’t get any financial education growing up. My parents did the best they could to give me and my brother a good upbringing, but they were financially illiterate. We had old cars, a modest home, and I didn’t take a vacation until I graduated and bought myself a 1 week all-inclusive. I was always looking to my friend’s parents as role models when it came to inspiration. My parents had me bus an hour to an academic school where everyone else’s family were rich working professionals. It definitely opened my eyes to a different life. After reading “The Wealthy Barber” and learning about the power of compound interest my perspective was forever changed. I remember sitting with a bad of paper, pen, and old school calculator while running sheets and sheets of compound interest calculations. I could never get over the snowballing effect of growth. Around that time I started following several blogs. Millionaire Journey, Financial Uproar, ESI Money, and Afford Anything have been some of my favourites. After a while, I found everything started to sound the same with recycled financial advice. Similar to how Twitter is full of platitudes and generic cliche sayings, bloggers need to find a unique writing style and voice. Nelson at Financial Uproar was in a league of his own when it came to writing with personality and humor. On Twitter I have connected with a powerful network of influencers. I’m forever grateful for a platform where I can find ‘my people’ all over the world and form relationships. We are shaped by our 5 closest friends and I can honestly say Twitter has changed the game for me in this aspect. There are so many high performers and brilliant people that anyone can learn from. I owe a lot to @creation247 whom I formed a relationship with early on. He curated a great group of people who have become my close friends. Our informal group has evolved over time into a community called Masterclass 24/7 people can network, learn content creation, and receive mentorship.
What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced so far, through helping people learn about finance as well as in your own personal finance journey?
Thankfully I got a solid grasp on personal finance early in my adult life so I have always been set up well. We have never faced any real financial hardships but I would say that our biggest struggle has always been lifestyle creep/drift with our spending habits. Before I met my wife I was a hardcore wealth building machine. I overworked and barely spent a dime in order to get ahead. My wife has been a very good influence in the fact that she has helped me to slow down and enjoy life more. Now we just need to be careful not to over-indulge. Around 5 years ago we were on a really bad streak of ‘treating ourselves’ and our bank account was dangerously low from what we were used to having as a buffer. That is when I created my Money Marathon Spreadsheet to track net worth and cash flow monthly. I went back in the calendar to update our data and found that we were cash flow negative for 5 of the previous 6 months! That solidified the importance of mindfulness and tracking. We haven’t missed a month in the past 5 years and I preach that my Money Marathon Spreadsheet is the secret to our success.
The biggest challenge I find with helping other people is getting them to remain committed to their plan. There’s been a couple times I’ve spent countless hours with clients digging deep to define their values, cutting extra expenses, and creating a plan only for them to buy a massive truck three months later. Nothing gets me more frustrated than people who abandon their plan constantly. I understand how it happens though. We live in a material world where everyone is doing their best to keep up with their coworkers, neighbours, and friends. Again, it comes back to mindfulness. Before spending money we need to check in with ourselves to ensure the purchase is in alignment with our goals. Are we buying the item because it brings us value/joy, or are we searching for acceptance of others? Marketing today is a powerful force that is constantly chipping away at our discipline. This is why I believe it’s so important for people to track their progress and goals monthly in order to recalibrate our discipline and align with our “why.” I live by the saying “what gets measured, gets managed.”
Time for a bit of a loaded question – what is your favorite type of investment and why (index funds, stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.)?
This is a loaded question! I feel confident in saying that broad based index funds are best for at least 95% of the population. It’s been proven time and time again that it’s extremely difficult to beat the market over the long term and you are better off keeping your fees low and betting on average (as counterintuitive as it seems). Now, I have a dirty secret to admit. I personally have been a fan of investing in individual stocks and have done well. I was fortunate to be invested early in some major trends that worked in my favour and paid handsomely. But I will be the first to admit that I am not smarter than the market. I was in the right place at the right time. I plan to transition most of my investments to hands off index funds over the next stage in my life. I look forward to the day where I don’t need to be constantly reading research in fear that I have missed something. Index funds are diversified and automated so people don’t need to constantly feel the weight of their emotions and stress.
I own 2 rental properties and can say from experience that real estate investing is NOT for me. Relative to the effort it takes to invest in index funds, real estate investing is too much work. Although I have been very fortunate with great tenants, I never know when I’m going to get that call with an issue or unexpected expense. Each time I have a tenant move I like to do a deep clean and patch/paint all the walls. Maybe it’s overkill, but I am a Type-A personality who likes to make things perfect between every new tenant. Also, I’m not a fan of how illiquid the investment is. Real estate has massive transaction costs when you factor in transferring title, paying the realtors, and settling the transaction with a lawyer. Depending on the market, selling a property may take days, weeks, or months. I am planning to transition out of real estate over the next few years and sell my 2 properties. I will sleep much better when that money is sitting in passive index funds.
At the end of the day, what is the main thing you hope your viewers learn or understand?
My aim is always to inspire people to take a vested interest in their future. Far too many people are living life on auto-pilot: working a job they don’t like, buying things they’re convinced they “need”, and getting unhealthier physically/mentally each day . It can feel daunting to make changes. It’s always going to be easier to drift through life on your current path. But if you take the time to write down what you value, what brings you joy, and where you want to see yourself in 5 years you can start to take the incremental steps you need to get there. Most people never get to Step 1 of defining what they want. Self-reflection is a superpower.
What’s the best piece of advice you received growing up? How did it shape you into the person you are today?
Every day when I left the house my mom would say “Make it a good day!” I didn’t clue-in until much later in life that she was being intentional with how she phrased her words. She taught me that we can always have the power of perspective. We can be helpless to our environment and look for others to blame for our issues, or we can take ownership of our life and make it a good day. I now use that phrase with my kids as well. This empowering approach has given me the freedom to design the life I want. No matter what life has thrown at me, I always look for a silver lining and use the setback to find opportunities for improvement.
Everyone views success differently, what personal metric do you use to define your own success?
Surprisingly for a guy who tracks everything with a spreadsheet, I don’t really measure success by numbers. Success to me boils down to my happiness, my relationship, and my freedom. If I remain disciplined and follow my plan, each year my stress will diminish as my flexibility increases. Ultimately I’m looking to do what makes me happiest and to spend more time with my family. Our family is approaching the rewarding years of our plan. My wife works as a Registered Nurse and is planning to switch to a ‘casual’ position at the hospital this fall. This means she is not obligated to work any hours and can pick up as much work as she feels like doing. This will greatly reduce her stress and allow her more time with our kids. My hope is to transition out of my government job in the next few years as well. The dream is to spend more time on our physical health and fill our days with passion projects.
People tend to struggle with finding a good work-life balance, especially these days. How do you manage? In other words, what’s an average weekday like for you?
Ho-boy have I ever come a long way when it comes to work-life balance. I used to burn it at both ends and brag about how little sleep I got. It took me 7 years to finish my degree in university because I spread out my classes to allow me to work a full time job and an additional part time job while pulling countless all-nighters to study. I’ve always been one to have multiple side hustles. Even up until COVID, I did a poor job of balancing. Beyond my regular working day, I used to be out 4+ nights a week seeing financial coaching clients, reffing sports, or working other odd jobs. It really hit hard when my daughter would ask “are you going to work again?” every time I would put on my jacket at night. The silver lining of COVID was that I spent the last year at home and massively scaled back my extracurricular activities. It’s given me a fresh perspective on what I value: time with family over more money. Now that things are starting to open up and get back to normal, I find myself choosing to remain home. The extra $50 I can make reffing a game at night isn’t worth being away from my little kids. I used to serve on 2 different boards and have recently let my position be filled by someone else. I still have a tendency to over commit to things, but I’m a work in progress.
However, I do believe there is something to be said for picking your seasons in life for hard work. I sure am glad that I frontloaded all that hard work in my 20s so that our family is set up today. It was a sacrifice at the time, but we were able to manage as a young couple with no kids. Now that I have a young family, it’s a different story. If you plan to start a family in the future, do whatever you can now to prepare.
What’s something you’re interested in – outside of personal finance?
We LOVE watching HGTV and I always wish I was more willing to try some DIY projects. I’ve done my fair share of home renovations but it’s either been limited to aesthetic upgrades or it’s been under the close supervision of my father-in-law. When I transition to more of a FI lifestyle I would love to try my hand at more projects. My wife lives on instagram and pinterest, so she is naturally an aspiring home designer! She often shares cool projects that would give our home more character. I’m looking forward to developing more confidence and skills. Our dream would be to build multiplexes or infill homes to sell. My father-in-law is a general contractor who has built 10+ homes in his life. I may pitch a partnership to him one day and draw on his knowledge.
If you had to give advice to someone who has just joined the job market and started their personal finance journey, what would it be?
I’ve thought about this many times over the past few years and I have a few ideas. My first and most important piece of advice is that your education does NOT stop once you leave school. To succeed in life we always need to be learning and growing our knowledge and skills. As Jim Rohn said “formal education will make you a living, self education will make you a fortune.” My second piece of advice would be to surround yourself with people who inspire you. I’ve spent my life watching others and searching for role models. People have a misconception of what a role model needs to be. Most people think of a role model as some wise mentor or guru who will take you under their wing and guide you through life. That’s unrealistic. A role model can literally be anyone who has knowledge that you wish to attain. They don’t need to be good at everything. You could have 5 friends who all bring something to the table which will inspire you to live a better life. If you see someone who’s achieved success that you want to replicate, take them for a coffee or dinner! It really is that easy. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and broaden your perspective. And lastly, as I mentioned earlier, you need to define what you value, what brings you joy, and where you want to see yourself in 5 years. Having that self awareness will help to frame all your decisions and ensure you are moving in the right direction. If you’re really serious about progress, track monthly to stay on course.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed learning about F.I. Squirrel and his views on personal finance and life as much as I did! If you liked what he had to say and want to see more, be sure to check him out on Twitter, @FI_Squirrel. As always, if you have any thoughts you’d like to contribute, add a comment!
