Letter #38 – ✍️ Writing in Seattle 🌲

This week’s newsletter:

• Our summer whirlwind 🌪️

• First summer of Financial Freedom

• Don’t wear a $12 Costco t-shirt until it has a hole

Hi friends and fam, ♥️

Did you have a great summer? 🌞

Ours was as usual, a whirlwind, lots of travel and mega doses of time with friends and family.

Tyler managed a “bro-trip” almost every weekend (different bro each time, lol), and while he was away I snuck in some me-time… though never for long.

To give you a sense of how nonstop it’s been:

• We flew back from NYC to Seattle for one night, then drove straight to Portland for a friend’s wedding.

• Right after, we hit the road for a weeklong PNW trip. 🌲☀️ Amazing weather, high spirits 😎… until exhaustion caught up on the last day.

• Back in Seattle for another night, I left on a work trip ✈️ while Tyler stayed behind, barely resting before heading to a Game Convention.

• And because we like to keep things extra, I visited my in-laws with coworkers right after the work trip. And somehow, the vibes were perfect. We all had a blast 🥰.

At some point, I stopped thinking ahead to the next trip cause it just felt exhausting. 🫠 

But every single time, the moment we land, just like magic, our energy and excitement come rushing back. 🦄 And that keeps us going! 🛸

First summer of Financial Freedom

On paper, the math is simple: we hit our Freedom Number.

But psychologically, it took me an entire summer to let it sink in…

I had been preparing myself to reach this milestone in 2027, and it arrived two years early—so taking three months to process is not that bad… right? 😅

One of the unexpected beauties of hitting this number? It doesn’t stop there. The number keeps climbing, thanks to the quiet magic of compound interest. 💰📈

And when you suddenly have more than you’ve ever hoped for, a sense of abundance settles in. A deep lightness. Real freedom.

I’ve realized that living a dream is, in some ways, harder than chasing one. Pursuing a goal gives you purpose.

But now we’re learning to embrace the stability and inner peace that surround us.

I’m grateful for all the years of meditation that prepared us for this—helping us stay grounded and cherish the present, instead of immediately chasing the “next” dream.

Don’t wear a $12 Costco t-shirt until it has a hole.

But if it ends up with multiple holes? Well, then it’s basically a vintage statement piece. 😉

Anyway, we didn’t get here by pinching pennies or making extreme trade-offs. If it ever came down to it, we’d always prioritize relationships and location over strict frugality.

We want to live in a place that sparks joy, and surrounded by people who make Tyler say after every get-together, ‘I love our life here.’ 🩵

On the practical side, that means access to: a major international airport, quality food, nature, and good gyms (health is wealth 💪🏼).

So what really got us here?

• ✅ Consistency. For the past six years, we’ve consistently invested 50–60% of our income right when it hits our bank accounts. Consistency + compound interest = one of the most powerful combos in personal finance. 😚👌🏼

• ✅ Keep it dead simple. Be a Boglehead. 95% of our portfolio is in index funds. The remaining 5% is just for fun experiments.

• ✅ Budget BOTH our income and expenses. I genuinely don’t get how anyone can hit a financial goal without knowing exactly their money flow? 🙉 Our golden rules of budgeting.

• ✅ Doing good deeds. This one surprises people, even my friends laughed when I said it’s the real secret to building wealth.  Practicing generosity doesn’t just feel good for the soul, 🩵 it genuinely creates better conditions for abundance. Another underrated practice? Meditation. 🧘‍♀️

Most importantly, we’ve chosen a lifestyle.

• We want freedom, not wealth that comes with a million strings attached. That’s why we passed on the real estate path. For us, income must be passive, even if returns are lower (though lately, that doesn’t seem to be the case). 🧐

• We don’t want to be traders, constantly riding emotional highs and lows with every market swing. So we focus on long-term investing. And funny enough, our best performers are often the ones we’ve forgotten about.

• We let consistency work its quiet magic. We automate investments so we never waste energy deciding what, when, or how much to invest.

That’s it for today!

May we find a lifestyle that brings not just joy but also peace—a peace very different from chasing after pleasure, fame, success, or entertainment.

Have a solid plan for it. And once we’ve achieved it, live it with grace, without feeling the need to immediately set another goal to chase. 🙏🏼

Hope it's helpful for your journey to Freedom 🙏 

Love you to freedom and back, 🫰

Angie & Tyler

Things We are Loving Right Now ❤️‍🔥

• 📚 The Fox Wife: I needed something fun, light, and mysterious to get back into reading, and this hit the spot perfectly.

• 🧦 Compression socks: I started wearing these just to feel better, but after seeing Tyler’s feet swell up on a long trip because he skipped them 😳, I’m officially a believer. We love merino wool for comfort and breathability, so that’s always our go-to.

Check out Tools we made with love ♥️ (and unicorns 🦄) to

• accelerate your path to Financial Freedom 🚀 

• and level up Airbnb hosting experience. 💪