Fitness Is Better With Friends, Compounding Money Magic, Creating A Rainy Day Folder | FRLN117
Endurance, Identity, & Building a Life You Actually Want
Last year at FinCon in Portland, I met Justin Peters, host of the FI Minded podcast.
What I immediately liked about Justin was that he wasn’t just talking about financial independence.
He was living a life that actually looked fun.
He cared about money, yes.
But he also cared about fitness, friendship, community, freedom, and building a business that supported his life instead of consuming it.
In this week’s episode of the Fit Rich Life Podcast (Episode 103), Justin and I talked about endurance in fitness & financial independence, upgrading your identity, the boring middle of the FI journey, and what it really means to build a life-first business. We also got into his practical tips for fitness, money, and life — and they were too good not to share here.
Here are this week’s Fitness, Money, & Life strategies.
FIT — Fitness Is Better With Friends
Justin’s fitness strategy was simple:
Do fitness with friends.
And I couldn’t agree more.
If you want fitness to become more consistent, more enjoyable, and more sustainable, one of the best things you can do is stop trying to do all of it alone.
Yes, solo workouts can be great.
I love strength training alone.
But if you want fitness to become sticky — part of your lifestyle and identity — doing some form of movement with other people is a massive advantage.
That could be a:
yoga studio
hiking group
HYROX gym
CrossFit gym
local run club
pickleball club
rollerblading crew
or just lifting with a friend
Justin talked about how running helped him build not just fitness, but identity and community.
I’ve experienced this over and over in my own life.
I experienced it years ago with Spartan obstacle course racing when I had a friend who trained with me every week.
I experienced it with my rollerblading crew I built while living in Menlo Park.
And I’ve experienced it most dramatically this past year through pickleball.
Pickleball has brought 100+ new people into my life.
That’s not just a fitness win.
That’s a happiness win.
A community win.
A major life win.
That’s why I love this idea so much:
Fitness is better with friends because life is better with connection.
Movement with other humans helps you get fitter, yes.
But it also helps you feel more alive.
People to grow with.
People to laugh with.
People to look forward to seeing.
And for a lot of adults, especially as we get older, that matters just as much as the workout itself.
So if all your workouts are currently solo, I’m not saying you need to stop.
I’m saying experiment.
Keep the solo strength training if you love it.
But add one form of movement that gets you interacting with other people.
Because when fitness and friendship start overlapping, your life gets enriched.
RICH — Compounding Money Magic
Justin’s money tool was a compound interest calculator.
And I love this because it helps you see what I think of as:
Compounding money magic.
Because compounding really does feel like magic when you experience it.
You put in what feels like a small amount of money…
You stay consistent for a long time…
…and suddenly that small amount starts turning into something much bigger than your brain thought was possible.
That’s the magic.
Justin shared that every so often, he plugs in his current net worth and looks at what it could become in 20 years.
I love that practice.
Because one of the biggest problems in personal finance is that people hear about compounding…
…but they don’t actually feel it.
Our brains are not naturally wired to understand exponential growth.
That’s why a compound interest calculator is so powerful.
It makes the invisible visible.
It takes this abstract concept of “your money grows over time” and turns it into something you can actually see on a screen.
At the beginning of my own FI journey, I used to plug in how much I was investing each month and see what it would become in 10, 20, 30, or 40 years.
And it blew my mind.
$159 invested into an index fund every month for 40 years grows to $1,005,528.
That is wild.
But most people will never become millionaires because they don't understand the magic of compounding.
Even when I had very little money, I could see that if I stayed consistent, I was going to become a millionaire.
That was incredibly motivating.
It made money feel exciting.
It made investing feel rewarding.
It made the future feel real.
And it turned building wealth into a game.
A game of:
How can I increase the amount I invest each month so the magic works even faster?
That mental shift gave me so much fuel.
And now, as a multimillionaire, I still do a version of the same thing.
I’ll plug in my current net worth and project it out 20–30 years.
And the numbers are bonkers. I am talking tens of millions of dollars.
That’s compounding money magic.
Money invested + consistency + time = results that can feel almost unbelievable.
So whether you’re starting at a negative net worth, $25,000 invested, or $2 million, go play with the numbers.
Use a calculator.
See what happens if you invest $100 more per month.
See what happens if you stay consistent for 20 years.
See what happens if you stop interrupting the compounding.
Because once you see the magic, it becomes way easier to stay in the game.
Small amounts, invested consistently, can become life-changing amounts over time.
That is the magic.
And once you really understand that, it can change the way you look at money forever.
LIFE — Create A Rainy Day Folder
Justin’s life tip was one of my favorites:
Create a rainy day folder.
A place where you save things that make you smile.
Screenshots of kind messages.
Photos from meaningful moments.
Nice comments.
Thank-you texts.
Achievements.
Proof that your life has greatness in it.
Then, on a hard day, you open the folder and remember.
I love this idea because it’s very similar to something I recommend to clients:
A wins document or brag bank.
A place where you keep evidence of your progress.
Because when you’re in a funk, it’s easy to forget how far you’ve come.
You make one mistake…
Have one bad day…
Miss one workout…
Fall short of one goal…
…and suddenly your brain acts like you’ve made no progress at all.
That’s a lie.
This is where the concept of the gain vs. the gap becomes so powerful.
If your goal is a $1 million net worth and you’re at $200,000, your brain can focus on the gap:
“I’m still $800,000 away.”
That feels heavy.
Slow.
Discouraging.
But if you started at zero — or negative $80,000 like I once did — then you’ve already made a massive gain.
That same $200,000 can be seen as evidence that you are winning.
Same reality.
Different focus.
One perspective drains you.
The other energizes you.
That’s why a wins document matters.
Mine includes things like:
Getting into Stanford after being denied the 1st time
Graduating from Stanford after dropping out for 8 years
Paying off $80K of debt
Getting caught up on my taxes after getting 6 years behind
Becoming a millionaire at age 37 despite growing up poor
Dropping 30 pounds & going from 18% to 8% body fat
Starting my podcast & fitness/money coaching business
Being the top sales performer at my company for a decade
Retiring from the 9-to-5 corporate job at age 42 (2 years ago)
Building my first course: Investing Mastery: Your Path To Millionaire
Building a second free email course: The Millennial Work Optional Blueprint
Not because I need to live in the past.
But because sometimes I need to remind myself:
I’ve already done a lot of hard things.
And so have you.
Create your rainy day folder.
Create your brag bank.
Create your wins document.
Whatever you call it, make sure you have a place to store proof that your life is already amazing & moving forward.
Because on the days when motivation disappears, that proof matters.
ACTION — Activate Your Endurance + The Pod
Pick one thing to upgrade this week:
1. MAKE FITNESS MORE SOCIAL
If your fitness has started to feel stale, lonely, or harder to stick with, stop trying to do all of it alone. Add one form of movement that includes other people. Join a run club. Play pickleball. Lift with a friend. Go hiking. Fitness is better with friends, and when movement creates connection, it becomes a lot easier to stay consistent.
2. TAP INTO COMPOUNDING MONEY MAGIC
Take 5 minutes this week and use a compound interest calculator. Plug in your current net worth or monthly investment amount and project it out 10, 20, or 30 years. Let yourself actually see what consistency can do. Small amounts invested consistently can turn into shocking amounts of money over time. That is the magic of compounding.
3. BUILD YOUR RAINY DAY FOLDER
Create a folder, note, or document where you save proof that your life is moving forward. Add screenshots of kind texts, wins, progress photos, compliments, achievements, and moments that made you smile. On hard days, this helps you focus on the gain instead of the gap and remember how far you’ve already come.
Then listen to the full conversation with Justin Peters so you can:
Learn Justin’s 5 Stages of FI, from FI Curious to Full FI
Hear how the FI Bucket List helps you start living now, not someday
Understand the job / side hustle / work-optional pyramid and why it matters
Rethink FI as freedom over your time, not just a net worth target
Learn endurance lessons that apply to fitness, money, business, and life
Get mindset shifts that help you focus on the gain instead of the gap
Listen here:
🎧 Spotify | 🍎 Apple | ▶️ YouTube | 🌐 Web
To your health, wealth, and happiness,
— Justin David Carl