Dear Younger Fred… what, really!? A tiny home?
You're going to surprise a lot of people.
Especially yourself.
Because if someone told the younger version of you that one day you'd willingly move into a 400-square-foot tiny home…
you would've laughed.
The North Star seemed obvious.
Work hard.
Build a successful career.
Buy the bigger house and fancier things.
Keep climbing.
Isn't that what success was supposed to look like?
You'll say family and health matter.
You'll believe it too.
But your actions won't always match your words.
Long workdays...
Late dinners...
Surface-level conversations...
You'll slowly realize you're building the life you thought you wanted…
while drifting away from the people you wanted to share it with.
In fact, you couldn't even see it.
Then one day, Madelaine will challenge you to dig deeper... and you'll ask a different question.
"What do WE actually want in life?"
So in 2017, you and Madelaine will make one of the biggest decisions of your lives.
You'll leave the city.
Madelaine will leave her career as a pharmacist.
Design and build a tiny home on a flat deck in Nelson, BC.
And move onto your in-laws' farm to be closer to family and focus on health.
To most people, it will look like you've downsized.
They'll ask:
"You did what?"
"Are you sure?"
"A tiny home is a poor investment..."
But the truth is…
You didn't downsize.
You realigned.
Without the financial and physical weight of "more," you'll gain something you didn't realize you'd been missing.
Time.
Presence.
Time for family and friends.
Presence for conversations that aren't rushed.
Time for Sunday family dinners.
Year after year.
You'll start growing and producing your own food.
Reconnect & develop a new appreciation for where food comes from.
And slowly realize that the richest parts of life were never things you could buy.
This was never really about a tiny home...
It was about creating more room for what mattered most.
That lesson will eventually shape not only how you live…
but how you help your clients.
Because you'll realize financial planning isn't about accumulating the most.
It's about intentionally building a life that reflects YOUR values.
Younger Fred…
don't spend your life building a "house" so full…
that there's no room left for the people inside it.
Success isn't measured by the size of your home.
It's measured by the quality of the life being lived within it.
Because one day you'll realize…
the greatest luxury was never having more space.
It was having more time together.
Baaaaam — that's it for today!
See you next Thursday.
Stay curious,
Fred
