I’ve been biking to work for almost a year now, and I’m convinced that bike commuting is one of the best kept secret blessings. For very little upfront cost, you can convert fat into muscle, save a bunch of wasted money, and make the world a better place! Interestingly, you can get all these benefits without spending much extra time, because you can use a bike to transport yourself to places you were planning to go anyway. Here in Staunton, VA, many people already own bikes, though they seem to be mostly used as foundations for spiders to build webs on in garages. What a bummer! Let me touch on a few of the benefits I’ve discovered from daily biking, and then I’ll give you some tips to get you on the road.

Monday through Friday, both parents in many households rush to get the kids fed and dressed for school, and then hurry their separate ways to different workplaces. Lots of planning, money, and stress go into coordinating all family member schedules so no kid is sitting on a curb for hours waiting to be picked up. And the more kids you have, the more complicated it gets. You have to pay for daycare, arrange carpools and figure out how to get someone out of work when it’s your day, squish everyone’s dentist visits into the same morning, and hopefully not collapse at the end of the day before you make dinner. If your car gets a flat tire, or school gets delayed for half an inch of snow, or your kid breaks a bracket in her braces and has to get to the orthodontist, it’s a nightmare. Or so I imagine. I recognize I am very fortunate, because the truth is I experience relatively little anxiety when little things like this pop up, largely because Mr. Sense is a stay at home parent. And even before Kid Sense, he was a stay at home husband!

Hello! I’m excited to share with you my ongoing journey towards financial independence. I decided to start writing because I was surprised to see such a wide variation of personal finance blogs, but few written through a lens of Christian responsibility. When I searched for a community of financially like-minded Christians, I was shocked to find many articles asserting that the FIRE (financial independence, retire early) lifestyle is totally incompatible with Christian values. I came across warnings about the dangers of wealth (1 Timothy 6:10), concerns about people relying on themselves and their money instead of God (Matthew 6:19-20), and finger shaking about ignoring our God given command to work diligently (Collosians 3:23-24). For Christians who are interested in achieving financial independence but don’t want to risk damaging their relationship with their Creator, I hope to articulate why I believe this goal is not in friction with biblical values. I firmly believe that Christians can strive for financial independence, including potential early retirement, while growing and maturing in their faith.