Sharing stories and strategies from the daily grind toward our financial independence. We are a Queer blended family of five living in the Bay Area and are "late starters" dedicated to Trying for FI!
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Fetch & Rascal Podcasts

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Redefining Wealth on Vacation: A FIRE Family’s $5,000 Getaway
19:15
19:15
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19:15Is it possible to take a meaningful family vacation without blowing your FIRE goals? In this episode, we share how we spent a week in La Paz, Mexico as a family of five — for under $5,000 — and how the trip deepened our evolving definition of wealth. We cover: • How we planned and budgeted (including credit card hacks and DIY adventure gear) • What…
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AI as a Money Coach? Rascal Debriefs Their First ChatGPT Budget Date
14:24
14:24
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14:24This episode, Rascal went on a financial date — but not with Fetch. With AI. 😏 In this playful and surprisingly insightful episode, we explore what happened when one of us fed our real-life budget tracker to ChatGPT and asked it to analyze our finances. You’ll hear: • Why we decided to test AI as a financial thought partner • What budget "secrets" …
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Wealth Is More Than Money: Mindset Shifts for FI Families
19:33
19:33
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19:33What is wealth — really? Is it just a number, or something you can practice right now? In this episode, we explore how our definition of wealth is expanding to mean more than our Financial Independence #goals. We talk about moving beyond the spreadsheet into the present moment, where wealth includes time, health, joy, connection, and purpose, now —…
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Video Games + Investing: How Parents Can Turn In-Game Purchases Into Real Investments
9:14
9:14
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9:14This is a quick update to one of our favorite parenting-money mashups: the video game investing rule we introduced in a previous episode. Here’s the deal: when our kids want to spend their own money on video games or in-game purchases, they now also invest 50% of that amount into their custodial account — saving toward a future goal like buying a c…
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Quarterly Money Talks: A Simple Practice To Track, Reflect, and Reconnect
13:35
13:35
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13:35In this episode, we introduce one of our favorite new FIRE practices: the quarterly wealth talk — a simple but powerful way to reflect, plan, and feel more connected as budget partners. Here’s what we cover: • What a quarterly money talk actually is (and why we love it) • A sample agenda you can use to review your finances and reflect on what wealt…
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Tracking Every Dollar: How a Shared Budget Boosted Our Financial Intimacy
29:04
29:04
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29:04Ready for a serious nerd alert? Want your marriage / partnership to feel more like a financial team? In this episode, we break down our 3-month experiment using a shared daily budget tracker — and how it radically shifted not just our finances, but our relationship too. You may want to download the "Trying for Fi Budgeting Template" in our resource…
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Teaching Kids Money Skills: Slime and a $40 Business Loan
13:48
13:48
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13:48Ever thought about giving your kid a business loan? We did! On our journey to financial independence, we want our kids to build confidence and real-world money skills early. So when our daughter pitched a plan for a slime business to sell to classmates, we decided to back it — with a $40 private loan from the family’s own “Homegrown Lending Departm…
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Save Money and the Planet: 5 Everyday Tips for Busy Families
9:53
9:53
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9:53Are you a busy parent trying to save money without spending hours researching hacks? Same here. In this quick episode, we share 5 simple, budget-friendly tips that help us cut costs in everyday life — from using Amazon and Google smarter, to scoring secondhand finds on Craigslist, to easy DIY swaps. Bonus: these money-saving tips are also better fo…
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The Utility Bill Disaster: What We Learned as New Duplex Owners
10:46
10:46
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10:46Thinking about investing in a duplex or multifamily home? Wondering how to split utilities fairly between tenants (or future you)? In this episode, we share the story of how our well-meaning, flat-rate utility plan went sideways — and what we wish we’d known before setting it up. If you're a first-time landlord, house hacker, or just curious about …
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What Should You Do With Extra Cash? Real Estate vs. Stocks for FIRE
16:22
16:22
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16:22Got some extra cash after filling your emergency fund and maxing out retirement accounts? Wondering whether to put it into real estate or the stock market? In this episode, we break down one of the biggest FIRE questions: Where should your surplus money go if you want to reach financial independence faster? We walk through our thought process, comp…
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How We Started Investing: Funds, Fees, and Finding the Right Platform
23:37
23:37
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23:37Curious about investing but not sure where to begin? In this episode, we walk through exactly how we got started — from figuring out what an index fund even is, to choosing a platform, to understanding how fees can eat away at returns. We break down: • Index funds vs. ETFs • Where we invest (and why) • How much is too much to pay in fees • How we m…
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Teaching Kids to Budget with Roblox? Yep, We Tried It.
10:05
10:05
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10:05If your kids (or you!) are spending money on video games or in-game purchases, this episode is for you. As FIRE-minded parents, we’re always looking for ways to talk about money in ways our kids actually care about. In this episode, we share a new family rule we created to link video game spending to real-life savings goals (like buying a car somed…
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Trying for FI: A Podcast for Families Chasing Financial Independence, One Step at a Time
6:24
6:24
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6:24Are you interested in Financial Independence but feel like you’re starting a little late? Wondering if it’s still possible to retire early—or just work less—while raising a family in a high-cost area? We’re a queer couple in the Bay Area with three kids, chasing FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) on a moderate income. In this intro episode…
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Different Money Backgrounds, One Budget: Our Relationship Story
35:59
35:59
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35:59Talking about money in a relationship can be... a lot. In this episode, we take you through the story of how we learned to talk about money as a couple — from awkward first convos and conflicting money beliefs, to building shared strategies that support our life together. Along the way, we tackle big themes like: • Fairness vs equality in finances …
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