Your situation, your numbers, your options: laid out clearly so you can decide. Photo by Jack Sparrow on Pexels.
Reading time: 7 minutes
1:1 FI Strategy Sessions
Launch offer: 30% off for the first 5 clients. Details below.
In a nutshell
I’ve spent the last few years writing 150+ articles on financial independence (FI), geoarbitrage, and long-term investing, and building free tools many of you already use. But I’m aware that everyone’s financial situation is different, and that the complexity surrounding our finances, together with the busyness of our day-to-day lives, makes it hard to properly assess where we stand, let alone chart and stress-test our own Financial Independence and early retirement plan.
It’s certainly what some of my friends have said. They know the basics, but have no time to model their own path properly, and no clear sense of which changes would actually put them on track to reach their desired financial and retirement goals.
And that’s what these sessions are designed for. We sit down with your specific situation—your income, spending, accounts, plans, and life goals—and model it properly using professional planning software.
This isn’t a quick FI calculator estimate based on your savings rate. It’s a model of your actual life, including the parts that change over time: kids, career breaks, a move abroad, pensions kicking in, and much more.
Once we’ve built your baseline, I show you the levers that could bring financial independence closer or make the plan more robust. I lay out the options and their trade-offs, and the choice is yours.
It doesn’t matter what stage of the FI journey you’re at. Maybe you’re just starting to build your path, optimizing a plan you already have, stress-testing it against bad markets, or dreaming about retiring somewhere sunnier or cheaper. Either way, there’s almost certainly a session that could bring value to your situation.
After years of writing and tool-building, I’m opening these sessions for the first time. To kick things off, the first 5 clients get a launch rate (more below).
These sessions are educational. My job is to help you see your situation clearly and understand the range of options available, and how they affect the timeline and robustness of your plan, not to sell you any product or tell you what to do. The decisions stay yours. I just make sure you can make them confidently.
A financial plan has a lot of moving parts. We map them all out, so you can see the full picture and make informed choices. Photo by Alvaro Reyes on Unsplash.
How I can help — at a glance
Here are a few examples of the situations these sessions are built for:
“I want to build my FI path from scratch.” You’re motivated to pursue FI/FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early), but it’s all a bit of a fog: no clear number, no real timeline, and your situation has more moving parts than a simple FI calculator can handle. We map it out properly and see how far you really are and how you could realistically accelerate your timeline.
“I have a FI plan, but I suspect it’s not as good as it could be.” Investment fees, withdrawal order, tax drag, an inefficient allocation, overspending, or something else—we’ll find what’s costing you years in the office, or where your plan carries more risk than it needs to.
“I want to stress-test my FIRE plan.” You have a plan and you’re close to retirement, but before you hand in your notice, you want to be sure it will hold up. We test it against about 100 years of real market history, including the toughest periods to retire into, when markets did poorly for years just as withdrawals began (known as sequence-of-returns risk). You’ll see whether it’s solid or something needs adjusting.
“I’m dreaming about retiring abroad.” You want to retire abroad for the cost, the sun, or, perhaps, for both. We shortlist countries that fit your specific priorities, assess how your spending would change, and model what each scenario would do to your early retirement timeline.
“Does it have to be all or nothing?” The classic FIRE path is to work full-time until you hit your number and then stop completely. Many people would rather take a gentler route: going part-time at 45, considering Coast FIRE, taking one or multiple mini-retirements, or gradually cutting back instead of quitting all at once. We model these options side by side, so you can see what each one does to your FI timeline and plan.
“I just want to spend more intentionally and save more.” Not everyone needs a full FI plan. Sometimes the biggest lever is simply knowing where your money goes each month. We go through your spending together, work out what genuinely adds to your life and what doesn’t, and sort each expense into keep, cut, or optimize (same thing you love, at a lower cost). Then we see how much the money you free up could pull your FI date forward.
If one or several of these sounds like you, read on.
Who this is for
This is for you if:
You’re anywhere on the FI journey, from just starting out to about to retire, and want your real situation modeled properly
You want to make an informed decision by understanding the options available to you and their trade-offs
You’d like a second pair of eyes on your numbers before making a big decision, like quitting your job or moving abroad in retirement
This probably isn’t for you if:
You’re looking for someone to tell you exactly what to buy, or to give you one “right” answer
You’re after guaranteed returns, a hot stock tip, or a get-rich-quick shortcut
A note on location: These sessions work internationally. The principles of FI apply almost everywhere, and the modeling can adapt to your country’s taxes, currency, and systems. Sessions are available in English or Spanish.
Good planning starts with a conversation about the life you want, not just the numbers. Photo by LinkedIn Sales Solutions on Unsplash.
Why simple FI calculators hit a wall
Most FI calculators rely on simple assumptions. They take your income, savings, and spending as fixed, and assume you retire on a set date and then withdraw a fixed percentage of your portfolio each year. In practice, life is rarely that simple.
Take ours. My wife and I both work part-time so we can spend more time with our kids, and our hours and income will probably change quite a bit over the next years. Our spending won’t stay flat either. Right now we’re paying for childcare. Next comes school, possibly private for a few years, and later perhaps university. Once the kids leave home, our costs will drop again. And we’re still deciding whether to move abroad at some point, or split our time between two countries.
Everyone’s situation is different, but most have one thing in common: life rarely moves in a straight line. For example:
Income and expenses that rise and fall over the years: a career break or sabbatical, kids and their costs, supporting ageing parents, a mortgage that ends, a move
Spending that shifts through retirement, like living somewhere cheaper for a decade, then returning home later
Big one-offs: helping the kids with college, a downpayment, a car. How do these affect the FI/FIRE plan?
On top of that, a few decisions can make a big difference to your plan:
Going part-time from 45 or 50, or testing whether Coast FIRE works for you
The order you draw from taxable accounts, pensions, and other vehicles, and what it does to your tax bill and portfolio
Sequence-of-returns risk (SORR): how a long bear market early in retirement hits your plan, and how to soften it
Choosing a safe withdrawal rate, and building some flexibility into your retirement spending
Folding in pensions and social security, and how they change the portfolio you actually need
Different portfolio allocations, and how each shifts both your FI timeline and the robustness of your withdrawals
Educational tax-strategy scenarios (informed by the software, not a substitute for a tax professional)
No matter how complex your situation, every scenario we model is tested against about 100 years of real market history, including its worst periods. So you’re not just planning for an average outcome; you also know how your plan holds up when things go badly.
The software I use
I model all of this in ProjectionLab, a tool I reviewed recently and genuinely love using. It handles far more complexity than simple calculators, and its charts are easy to follow when we go through them together on a call.
👉 You can get a sense of what we can accomplish for your plan by reading my full review of ProjectionLab
How a 1:1 FI Strategy session works
A free 20-minute fit call. A relaxed chat about where you are and what you’d like to figure out, so we can both see whether working together makes sense. No pressure either way: if I don’t think I can help, I’ll tell you.
You fill in a prepared template. Income, expenses, accounts, debts, the plans, and “what-ifs” on your mind.
I build and stress-test your model. Your path to FI is mapped, tested against market history, and I explore potential scenarios to optimize it.
We go through it together on a video call. Your baseline, the levers that matter most, and the options and trade-offs, all in plain language and viewed on screen.
You get a written summary. Your main findings, the options we explored, and how each would change your early retirement timeline, so you can take your time and decide.
14 days of follow-up by email, plus the option of a short follow-up call if you’d like to talk it through once the dust settles and you’ve studied the summary report. While some people may feel set after the main session and report, others may prefer one more conversation. Your choice.
An example plan in ProjectionLab. Each marker is a milestone, such as reaching FI or retiring, and every scenario we test shows up on the same timeline.
Ways we can work together
To launch the sessions, the first 5 clients get 30% off. First come, first served.
Package I: Build & Optimize FI Plan — $1,000
A complete, software-assisted picture of your path to financial independence, and what could make it faster or more resilient.
This is the core session. We establish your baseline scenario (how far you really are from financial independence), then look at what’s slowing you down: high investment fees, too much cash sitting idle, an unused employer match or tax-advantaged account, expensive debt, or whatever is specific to your situation.
We explore realistic spending changes that don’t lower your quality of life, and test up to four more scenarios of your choice, such as part-time work, moving somewhere cheaper, a different retirement age, or a different withdrawal rate.
Everything is stress-tested against about 100 years of market history, including years of poor returns early in retirement. We talk it all through on a 90-minute call, and you get a written summary to help you decide.
Includes: free fit call · baseline · inefficiency check · realistic spending options · up to 4 what-if scenarios · full stress test · 90-min video call · written summary · 14 days of email follow-up.
👉 Book a free 20-minute call to see if it’s a fit.
Package II: Build & Optimize FI Plan + Retire Abroad — $1,400
Everything in Package I, plus a deep dive into where to retire abroad, one of the most powerful ways to bring early retirement closer.
Using my Retirement Relocation Tool and the data behind it, we compare 100+ countries across nine factors, filtered by what matters most to you (cost of living, healthcare, safety, climate, and more), and narrow them down to a shortlist of three or four worth a closer look.
Each country then becomes its own scenario: your likely budget there, what it does to your FI date, and how your plan holds up in the stress test. I’ll also point you to high-level visa resources to get oriented (general information, not legal advice). We talk it all through on a 2-hour call, and you get a written summary with the countries compared side by side.
Includes: everything in Package I, plus best-fit country shortlist · each country modeled as a scenario · high-level visa resources · 2-hour video call · side-by-side country comparison in your summary.
👉 Curious how important the geoarbitrage lever can be? Read our Geographic Arbitrage & FIRE guide.
👉 Book a free 20-minute call to see if it’s a fit.
Package III: Savings Rate Optimization — $500
Think Marie Kondo, for your spending.
For anyone who wants a push on their savings rate. You send me three months of expenses, exported from your bank and card accounts, and I do the sorting. Then we go through it together, work out what genuinely brings you value and what doesn’t, and file each type of expense under Keep, Cut, or Optimize (same value, lower cost).
Using my Financial Independence Calculator, I then show you how these changes could move your FI date. You leave with your spending decisions and practical next steps to put them in place.
Includes: free fit call · 3 months of spending reviewed (I do the categorizing) · a Keep/Cut/Optimize session · the savings-rate impact on your timeline · 90-min video call · short written summary · 14 days of email follow-up.
Already done Package I or II? Add a spending review for $400 and see how your spending changes affect your full plan.
👉 Book a free 20-minute call to see if it’s a fit.
About me
I’m David Landholm, financial independence strategist and founder of The Good Life Journey. I’m a former academic scientist with a PhD and over a decade of experience in data analysis and modeling. I’ve written 150+ evidence-based articles on financial independence, early retirement, and geoarbitrage, and I like turning complex numbers into something clear and practical.
Money decisions are rarely just about money. More often they’re life decisions, with real trade-offs to consider. Spending more usually means working longer, but cutting back too hard can mean missing out on the life you want now.
My job is to help you see your options clearly and find the balance that’s right for you. That’s what these one-on-one sessions are for.
👉 Ready to get started? Book your free 20-minute call.
Disclaimer: I’m not a financial, tax, legal or investment adviser, and nothing here is financial, tax, legal or investment advice. These sessions are educational and for informational purposes only. All modeling (including any tax or visa scenarios) is illustrative and informed by software, not a substitute for professional advice — please consult a qualified professional before making decisions. All decisions are your own.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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No. These are educational strategy sessions. I model your situation, show you the options and their trade-offs, and you make the decisions. I’m not a financial, tax, or legal adviser, and I don’t sell financial products.
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The calculator gives you a fast estimate from a few inputs. These sessions model your real life—changing incomes and expenses, relocations, withdrawal order, pensions, one-off costs—and stress-test your withdrawal rate against market history. It’s the difference between a quick snapshot and a proper plan.
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No. I handle all the modeling. You’ll see it live on our call and get a written summary to keep.
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Once we’ve done the free 20 min fit-call, I’ll send you a template to fill in—tailored to the session you chose (Package I-III). It covers things like your income, accounts, net worth, and the plans you’re weighing. I’m on hand throughout if anything’s unclear or you have trouble tracking down your data.
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Here’s how I handle your data: I collect only what we need for the modeling, keep your file secure, and delete it on request or by a set date after your report, whichever comes first. Your information is never shared or sold. If you’d like it gone sooner, just ask.
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The principles of FI apply everywhere, and the modeling can adapt to your country’s taxes, currency, and rules. Wherever you are, we can build and model the dynamics that apply to your situation. Sessions run in English or Spanish.
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That’s exactly what the free 20-minute call is for. If I don’t think I can help, I’ll tell you honestly. I’ll only take you on if I’m confident I can genuinely help.
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About two to three weeks from booking to your written summary. Sessions are usually scheduled around two weeks out: it gives you a few days to gather your data, and me a week or so to build and stress-test your model properly. After the session, your summary follows within a few days, and you then have 14 days of email follow-up (plus an optional short call).
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