What an eventful, and perhaps, strange, year 2023 has been.

The stock market closed the year strong, and inflation has finally started to ease.

The Fed finally stopped raising rates towards the end of the year, and talks of a “soft landing” abound.

But on a day-to-day level, I seem to hear about people around me losing their jobs.

That strange feeling carries over to when I go into the grocery store to get the basics. I often leave feeling a little shell-shocked at how much a dozen eggs costs now.

(I promise that’ll be the only bad pun in this report!)

Soft landing or no, we at the ChooseFI Foundation continued to keep our heads down, kept our expenses lean, and keep on keeping on.

We...

As we continue to put the worst of the pandemic behind us, I just wanted to reflect on the year that 2022 has been.

While it was not a great year for my VTSAX retirement portfolio, the silver lining was that I was able to use my travel hacking skills again to start exploring the world. All those points and miles had laid dormant for way too long as the world dealt with the global health crisis. 

It was also a good year for the Foundation, as we continued to help more people improve their financial lives.

Here is the break down of our 2 existing programs, FI 101, and the PreK-12 Curriculum, as well as an overview of our financial health. I am proud to say that we again managed to stretch e...

The beginning of a new year is often a good time to reflect on the year that has passed, as well as map out our aspirations for the months ahead.

These past 2 years have been especially tough.

So this is a good time to take a look back at what the ChooseFI International Foundation was able to accomplish despite the pandemic.

2021 Overview

Before we get into reviewing 2021, allow me to apologize for missing this report for 2020.

2020 was a challenging year for many people, and that had an impact on donations to the Foundation.

We had to pivot and make drastic cuts to ensure the Foundation’s survival.

The steps taken throughout 2020 allowed us to enter 2021 on a solid financial footing ...

Whether it's whispers between friends or anecdotes shared on social media, there's plenty of stories pointing to the fact that Americans sometimes really struggle with their finances. But is there any concrete data? Unfortunately, there is. And unlike Halloween, these scary financial literacy statistics that haunt us year round.

Scary Financial Literacy Statistics for Kids & Teens

Have you ever wondered when kids start to learn about money? The easy answer is right away. Kids are learning about money all the time. In fact, according to some researchers, money habits actually start to develop by the age of 7. That’s why it’s so important to pay attention to these financial literacy statisti...