ABOUT His and Her FI Post-

Our financial independence blog speaks to those who walk in the opposite direction of traditional. My aim is to help people navigate financial independence, whatever that may looks like for them. I envision the stories and posts here as a resource for those looking to live life a little bit differently – and most importantly, master their money. I write about retirement planning, career transitions, lifestyle choices, travel on the cheap, personal growth and our own personal finance ups and downs – stay up to date on my posts!

Bethany (HerFI) is the writer and content creator for His and Her FI Post Post. Go to the bottom to grab her bio.

So who the heck are we?

We are a couple of millennials who currently reside in Phoenix, Arizona. Our family is composed of fur babies, two cats and two dogs. Outside of our jobs, our day-to-day operations revolve around them and getting outside as much as possible.

We are DINKS. HisFI is an Engineer and HerFI is a full-time freelancer. Our names IRL are Charles and Bethany. Charles has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Bethany holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a concentration in Photography and a Masters in Teaching with a concentration in English and Art. As educated (and privileged) as we are, you would think we would have had this whole financial strategy thing down.

Not the case. We are learning and growing everyday and come to you with opinions, lessons, the good money moves and down right total F-ups. We are designing the life we want to live now, and bringing you, our readers, along for the ride.

How did we get here? On the same page – literally.

Discovering FI was a roller coaster for us both. His FI jumped on the FI wagon long before I did and was met with full denial and avoidance. Our first FI approach was in the form of deprivation. This was not working for me at all and His FI soon found this was not sustainable for him either.

We have the story in each of our perspectives. You can read them here: Discovering FI for Him and Discovering FI for Her. (Don’t judge our first blog posts! Ha!)

The nuts and bolts of where we were:

~We were spending too much on travel and life

~We never talked about money

~ We were not saving or planning for retirement

~We had consumerist mindsets

~I had student loan debt

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Can you relate? We decided to get it together and change our habits and most importantly, make our money work for us to build a life we want now.

~ We set budgets and tracked our spending

~We figured out how to travel hack and do the things we love for less

~We communicate about EVERYTHING- especially money

~We research and plan for retirement

~We are (still) changing our mindsets

~We are still paying off student loan debt

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Why we keep this up. What’s in it for us?

Connection. Growth. Being humbled. Being better humans. I know it sounds like a whole lot of philanthropy and selflessness. We are not perfect and we share this too, but right now that is really what’s in it for us.

We are not blogging for money- only to share and build something together. You can read all about money and the blog on our Transparency page.

Since Discovering FI in 2017 we have:

• We put away $180,000 towards our retirement
• We were paid to buy our first home and bought it unmarried
• Renovated our home to gain $40,000 in equity after paying off a 401k loan
• Traveled to Ireland, Peru, Spain, France other gorgeous places
• We built up an emergency fund
• Her FI started freelancing and quit teaching
• We each worked to get a raise or promotion in order to increase our income
• We downsized our belongings
• We started eating well to be well by becoming vegan
• We moved to a new state
• We have paid off over $44k on my student loans
• We created sinking funds for our home and pets (like second emergency fund accounts)
• We got one month ahead in our budget
• Made countless reflections for life improvements

It is all so connected…

So we write about more than the numbers. Especially myself. I believe that stories speak louder than spreadsheets and you will find ours along with our progressive opinions sprinkling the posts.

We also found that money was not everything, but IS connected to EVERYTHING. This is why we talk about relationships, mindsets, personal changes AND the top 10 tips to travel for cheap. Because it really is all connected- let’s not try to oversimplify the complex human being and our complex lives (but simplifying your life is okay)!

You will also find that we love…

Cooking, family, friends, travel, hiking, camping, nature, meeting good people, good conversation, Feminism, gardening, research, technology, DIY, reading, food, walking our dogs and petting our cats.

It is about the little things and big ideas.

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Stay Updated

If any of this resonated with you – whether on your own or with a partner (a cat counts too) then please sign up for the monthly newsletter and occasional hand-typed e-mail.

Get our Newsletter:

If you have any suggestions for future posts please send them to us. Don’t forget to follow me on Twitter and Instagram @HisandHerFIPost.

If you are a podcast listener- you can listen to our first two seasons on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play (We are not currently creating for the podcast)

Sincerely,

Her FI (Bethany)

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Bethany’s Features & Freelance Work

Writing:

• Managing Editor for InvestingAnswers
• Freelance Writer for Finch
• Freelance Writer for Business Insider
• Freelance Writer for The Money Manual
• Freelance Writer for InvestingAnswers
• Freelance Writer for Saving for College– How to Earn Extra Money to Repay Student Loans and How to Build an Emergency Fund After Graduation
• Editorial and Design lead for The Everyday Courage Podcast Season 2 with Jillian Johnsrud and ChooseFI
• Freelance Writer for Student Loan Planner
• Freelance Writer for Smart Money Mamas- Sample- Things to Get Right Before Creating a Budget and Should You Refinance your Student Loans: Ultimate Guide
• Contributor on Tread Lightly, Retire Early: The Environmental and Frugal Reasons to Go Vegan
• Women Rock Money Movement Collaboration: I’m in your Corner. Are You?
• Women Who Money Contributor: How can I Best Automate my Finances with Infographic

Featured Writing:

• The Financial Diet Feature: How Quitting My Stable Job in Education was the Healthiest Decision I Could Have Made
• The Financial Diet Feature: How I Gave My Bedroom a Facelift for Less than $200
• Women’s Money Talk Feature: How to Schedule your Day when you Work from Home
• Women Who Money Feature: Garden Musings: Nature and Economics
• Money Middleton’s Feature: Teachers, Your Pension Won’t Cut It: What you Need to Do Now
• Rockstar Finance Feature: How to Create a 5 Year Money Plan after Falling out of FI
• Money Middleton’s Feature: Black Friday Shopping the Smart Way
• Featured on Bravely Go and Women’s Money Talk: Are you poor or just broke?
• Money Middletons Feature: When FIRE is a Necessity Podcast
• Campfire Finance Feature: How to Create a 5 Year Money Plan after Falling out of FI
• Featured on Bravely Go and Women’s Money Talk for The Side Hustle Hunt: Why None of them have worked for me..yet
• Best of the Web on Michael Dinich: The Cost of Physical and Mental Activity: What is stopping you?
• Women’s Money Talk Feature: Feminism + Financial Independence: Why the Two are Inseparable.
• Campfire Finance Feature: The Path to Finacial Independence is Never About the Money
• Women’s Money Talk Feature: 5 Books by Women that Changed my Life
• Friends and Finances Feature on Saving Joyfully
• Campfire Finance Feature: How NOT to Tell your Spouse about FI
• Rockstar Finance Feature: I Suck at Financial Independence: Reflections of a Broke Teacher and Starving Artist
• Campfire Finance Feature: I Suck at Financial Independence: Reflections of a Broke Teacher and Starving Artist

Interviews:

• Guest on the Plutus Awards Podcast: Career Transitions and How to Pivot
• Expert Round-Up on Fit My Money: Emergency Funds
• Guest on the Beyond A Dollar Podcast: Buying a Fixer-Upper
• Guest on The Fairer Cents Podcast: Broadening the FIRE Conversation with Vicki Robin
• Guest on The One Million Apples Podcast: Teaching, Side Hustles and Relationships

Media Coverage:

• Reviewed.com – How to Talk About Money with Your Partner – October 2020
• Qube Money: Budget Date Night: Fun Financial Checkups with Your Partner – April 2020
• Business Insider Freelance Work: Personal Essays and Money Stories
• Forbes: 20 Financial Bloggers Share Their Secrets To Running A Successful Blog – Nov 2019
• Business Insider –My fiancé and I live on half of our income so we can pay off $75,000 in student loans and still save for retirement – Oct 2019
• AllBusiness – 20 Financial Bloggers Share their Secrets to Running a Successful Blog -Sept 2019
• Milk and Honey – FIRE Movement: The Realities of Partnering Up to Retire Early – Sept 2019
• CNBC – Why are some people so much better at saving? -August 2019
• The Ladders- A definitive guide to quitting a job – June 2019
• Financial Impulse – When can I quit my job? -May 2019

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Hire Bethany

I offer freelance services in graphic design, writing, and website design. See my portfolio here.

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Bethany’s Bio

Bethany McCamish works as a full-time freelance writer and graphic designer in the personal finance space. Her work has been published by Business Insider, The Money Manual, Student Loan Planner, The Financial Diet, Saving for College and more. She is also the owner and writer of His and Her FI Post, a personal finance blog , which has brought her coverage from CNBC, Forbes, Milk and Honey, and Plutus Award Nominations. McCamish specializes in writing about student loans, couple money, career transitions and retirement planning. She believes that transparency and conversations about money are essential in gaining control of finances.