Work With Me.


  • A complete, software-assisted picture of your path to Financial Independence, and what could make it faster and/or more solid.

    • Free 20-minute fit call

    • Establish your baseline trajectory: income, expenses, accounts, debts and life events over time. How far are you from retirement?

    • Identify common money leaks: investment fees, withdrawal order, tax drag, or other factors depending on your situation

    • Explore realistic spending cuts: which changes fit your life without lowering your quality of life, and how much each could bring your FI date forward

    • Assess what-if scenarios: up to 4 more levers tested, such as part-time work, moving somewhere cheaper, retiring at a different age, a different withdrawal rate, or a scenario of your choosing

    • Stress-test your plan: how each scenario holds up across a century of market history, including a run of bad years early in retirement

    • 90-minute video call: we go through your situation, the range of options available and their trade-offs

    • Written summary report: your main findings, the options we discussed and their trade-offs, and how each would change your FI timeline, so you can decide what fits your life

    • 14 days of follow-up questions by email about your report

    Book a free 20-minute call to see whether Package 1 is a good fit.


  • Everything in Package 1, plus a shortlist of countries that match what matters to you, and what living in each could mean for your FI timeline.

    • Everything in Package 1: Build & Optimize FI Plan

    • Find your best-fit countries: using our Retirement Relocation Tool and expertize, we rank 100+ countries across 9 factors weighted by your priorities, including cost of living, healthcare, safety, climate, and more

    • A shortlist of 3–4 countries worth a closer look

    • Model each shortlisted country as a scenario: your likely budget there, how it changes your FI date, and how your plan holds up in the stress test

    • A 2-hour video call instead of 90 minutes, to cover your plan and the countries

    • Written summary report: all your findings, your country shortlist compared side by side, and suggested next steps

    Book a free 20-minute call to see whether Package 2 is a good fit.


  • Think Marie Kondo, for your spending.     Let’s work together to identify what brings you real value, let go of what doesn’t, and see how a higher savings rate could change your path to Financial Independence.

    • Free 20-minute fit call

    • A simple template to capture your spending

    • Go through your spending together: what brings you real value, and what you could let go of

    • A simple framework: Keep, Cut, or Optimize (same value, lower cost)

    • See the big picture: how a higher savings rate could shorten your path to FI, using my Financial Independence Calculator

    • 90-minute video call

    • Short written summary: your Keep, Cut and Optimize decisions, your new savings rate, and practical next steps to put them in place

    • 14 days of follow-up questions by email

    • Already booking Package 1 or 2? Add this for $400 to see exactly how your spending changes move your full plan.


    Book a free 20-minute call to see whether Package 3 is a good fit.

Book Free Call

Educational sessions, not financial advice.

Who is this for.

  • You want to build a realistic plan towards Financial Independence tailored to your specific situation

  • Kids, a mortgage, several account types, or perhaps a career change on the horizon. Your life already has a lot of financial complexity and a simple calculator can’t hold all of that.

  • You’re 40 or older and want to know what's realistic and how to accelerate your FI journey

  • You think you’re nearly there and want to know whether your plan holds up before you retire

  • You want to know what a lower cost-of-living country could mean for your timeline to early retirement

Who I am.

Hi, I’m David, a former academic scientist and the founder of The Good Life Journey. I’ve written 150+ evidence-based articles on Financial Independence, early retirement and living abroad.

Money decisions are rarely just about money. Often they’re life decisions, with real trade-offs. I’m here to help you see your options clearly and think them through, so you can build a plan for the life you want.

More about me

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73,000+ visits from 120+ countries in the past year

How it works.

I build your plan. Whether you already have one or are starting from scratch, I model your baseline from your numbers: where you’re heading today, when you could reach FI, and how that path holds up across historical market conditions.

Step 1

Free 20-minute call. We talk about your goals and whether I can help. If it’s a good fit, I send you a simple template for the numbers we need. I work with readers in the US and abroad.

Step 2

Your written summary. Within a week you get a report with your baseline, what we discussed, the scenarios we ran, and the options available with their trade-offs.

Step 3

Your session. I walk you through the findings: where your plan is strong, where it’s fragile, and where you may be losing money. Together we test the levers that matter to you, live, and I answer your questions.

Step 4
Book Free Call

Questions about the process? Ask me on the free call, or email me at david@thegoodlifejourney.com

Disclaimer: The Good Life Journey offers educational services on personal finance and Financial Independence. Sessions and reports are not financial, investment, tax, legal or immigration advice, and I don’t recommend specific financial products. Plans are modeled in ProjectionLab, an educational planning software, using the information you provide and assumptions based on historical data. Projections are illustrations, not predictions, and past performance doesn’t guarantee future results. Please consult a licensed professional before making decisions about specific investments, taxes or legal matters.