Build the Confidence to Quit with F U Money Patterns
Abstract
Growing up as the son of an immigrant, my family never discussed money openly. We never sat around the family computer and rebalanced our asset allocation on Christmas Eve. If you understood that sentence then this talk isn’t for you. It’s for everyone else. Even though I absorbed some frugal tendencies from my grandparents through osmosis, my perception of wealth remained skewed until my 30s when I finally stumbled on a financial framework that shifted my mindset.
In software, you use design patterns to solve repeatable problems and refactor for long-term maintainability and quality. Similarly, financial design patterns can help you refactor your finances for long-term happiness. These patterns and practices have enabled me to work less, take summers off, slow travel, and spend time with family, without sacrificing our financial future. Since you can’t just git clone my life (it only runs on my machine), I developed this talk as a boilerplate. It contains everything you need to know to begin refactoring your finances and building the life you deserve–on your own terms.
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What People Say 💖
Collected in session feedback. Yes, it's all of it.
Amazing and informative talk! Thank you for sharing your experience!
Financial Independence is the most important topic of this conference in my opinion. Great information for any person with life changing benefits if you look at it seriously. I'm very glad to see this was the path the speaker ended up on and hopefully this talk has helped to spread the word to others as well. Great personal story!
Excellent presentation and storytelling!
Excellent talk!
Fun, inspiring, and entertaining!
Great combo of personal finance and a touch of programming thrown in!
Great life skill presentation. Loved having a non-tech topic.
More of this!
Polished content, great slides.
Very good public speaker! A good topic that a bit of devs don't know, even though it's not a strictly technical talk.
Very prepared & polished - good story-based presentation.
Well-presented, practiced, engaging and good info.
Some good advice, some not as relevant. Interesting trade-offs. Great slides and well-prepared presentation.
Events
I've given this talk at the following events:


Resources
Looking for the links and resources from a recent talk? I've included anything I mentioned and more.
Some of these links are affiliate links and at no additional cost to you, I may receive commissions if you purchase through them.
Podcasts
There are many personal finance podcasts to choose from but these are ones I listen to.
- ChooseFI
- Journey to Launch
- Afford Anything
- His and Her Money
- Stacking Benjamins
- Bigger Pockets
- Everyday Courage
- Rebel Entrepreneur
Check out Financial Podcasts Hosted or Co-hosted by Women and the Top 5 Black-Owned Podcasts as well!
YouTube Channels
Blogs
These are some of the highest impact blogs I've read.
- Mr. Money Mustache
- Frugalwoods
- Early Retirement Now
- ESI Money
- Physician On Fire
- White Coat Investor
- The Fioneers
- A Purple Life
Finance Books
I've read these books and I'd recommend them if you're interested in diving deeper into personal finance.
- The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
- Your Money or Your Life by Vicki Robins
- The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by Jack Bogle
- Work Optional by Tanja Hester
- A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
- The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley
- ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence
Lifestyle, Productivity, Self Development Books
Separate from finance but equally important, these books helped change some of my mindset around getting things done and figuring out what's important to me.
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky
- Essentialism by Greg McKeown
- Company of One by Paul Jarvis
- Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
- The Last Safe Investment by Bryan Franklin and Michael Ellsburg
Articles
These are articles I reference during the talk, many of them are commonly cited in the financial independence community.
- Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
- JL Collins: Stock Series
- Safe Withdrawal Rate Series
- HSA: The Ultimate Retirement Account
- Donor Advised Funds: The Smarter Way to Give
- Socially Responsible Investing
- 7 Reasons to Love Your 457
- Domestic Geoarbitrage (and international)
- 9 States with No Income Tax
- Sabbaticals (Adobe Handbook)
- Can you use a Roth to buy a home?
Tools
- Reach FI (my tool)
- Complete Tax Planning Bundle (I use this for planning)
- Networthify Early Retirement Calculator
- Cash Flow Workbook
- Financial Toolbelt
- FI Labratory
- On Trajectory