The Quiet Work That Compounds

Dear Friend,

I hope this note finds you well. October was my “cost control and efficiency” month. Nothing flashy—no big investments, no shiny projects—just the quiet work of understanding where the money really goes, what drives costs, and how to make better decisions moving forward.

Every year around this time, I take stock of what I’ve learned. This past October taught me something simple but powerful: clarity is its own form of efficiency and compounding. When I can see clearly, I can act more swiftly.

As teams across corporate America and small/mid-sized businesses start building their 2026 business, financial, and risk plans, this is also the right season for each of us to do the same—tidying our own “financial houses.” Below are a few stories from this past month’s quiet work—what I found, what I learned, and what changed. Perhaps there may be something that might apply to your world.

Our renewal notice arrived with the kind of increase that makes people crabby—home, auto, and personal policies combined were up about 10%. I’d only recently switched agents and didn’t want to move again.

So instead of shopping around, I took a pause and rewired my brain on how I feel about these tasks. I called our agent and opted to team up and solve this problem together. We walked line by line through our coverage. I requested a replacement-cost review—what it would cost to rebuild the home today, not what it could be sold for.

That exercise made clearer something counterintuitive: your home can cost much more to rebuild than to sell. I knew that on a basic level. You do renovations and some will have a higher payback ratio than others. I also knew some capital improvements, such as excavation and wiring, while necessary, would not yield anywhere near the costs. What I realized was quiet and hidden was the fact that our pre-inflation renovations would be much, much pricier now.

I can see more clearly that quality, timeless buildouts are more valuable given their current-day replacement cost than I could have imagined. A note to myself for any future home purchase—beyond location, look for homes with exceptional, high-quality finishes and buildouts first, before considering remodeling. The price I would pay today to buy such a home is far lower than its true replacement cost—or at least that’s how it looks to me now. As the saying goes, “they don’t make them like they used to” is very true.

So, after the review and some sensible changes—adjusted inflation guard, right-sized replacement cost, right-sized deductibles—the increase fell from almost 10% to about 3%.

Takeaway: Ask for a replacement-cost audit at least 60 days before the renewal. Keep buffers for replacement costs and ordinance or code changes, but don’t pay for excess. Raise deductibles only to a level you can comfortably self-insure.

It took a few hours, but the payoff was peace of mind—confidence that I’m insured for what I actually need, no more, no less. Next year, when renewals go out, I will have a good baseline for our insurance coverage. Going forward, hopefully I’ll just need to tweak around the edges.

My health-plan renewal was up 39%, albeit on a lower premium base, thankfully. I could have switched to a lower-cost plan, but it would have meant losing my long-time doctors.

Continuity of care isn’t a budget line item, but it has value. For example, my optometrist, Dr. Nguyen, has followed my retinal scans for years. This year, she showed me a small change—a gentle early sign—and offered a few lifestyle tweaks that could help with my eye health long-term. That conversation alone was worth more than the price increase.

As a side note, if your insurance does not cover the optional retinal photography screening, consider spending the $39 or so to get one. The scan covers many areas of the eye, including the optic nerve connected to the brain. Some say that a person’s eyes are the window into their soul. I believe that. I would also say it is a window into your body’s most precious organs, and it can tell a lot about what is going on inside.

All this to say, I chose to keep my medical team and offset the cost increase elsewhere for 2026. It wasn’t the highest-cost option, but it was not the lowest either. When change eventually becomes inevitable, I’ll move—but not out of haste.

The quiet compounding: Many years ago, I was intentional about building a network of good doctors around me. I emailed colleagues and friends asking for their doctor recommendations based on the criteria I was looking for. Selecting the right physicians was key, and maintaining and growing those relationships continues to be important to me. Once I find a good doctor, it’s hard for me to leave.

Not everyone has the opportunity to keep their doctors. But we all should have the choice to keep doctors who provide good value and solutions.

The more we know about how healthcare works, and how healthcare companies are navigating demographic, social, and financial changes, the better we can be our own agents. We are all recipients of the service and can be the best advocates for future changes. For me, there is great value in continuity of care from our physician team. In my humble view, healthcare should not be transactional. It’s hard to build any kind of health compounding if we are always starting from zero.

Takeaway: Before you shop, decide your top driver—lowest premium, lowest total cost, medical and prescription coverage, or doctor continuity. That clarity can bring a sense of peace during an otherwise stressful season of healthcare elections.

Extras:

• ACA enrollment deadline: 12/31/2025 for coverage beginning January 1st.

• Medicare enrollment deadline: 12/7/2025 for coverage beginning January 1st.

• Employer enrollment deadlines vary. You may see more details such as the total cost of coverage and how much you are paying vs. your employer. This will give you a sense of total costs in the marketplace. It is not a perfect barometer, as large companies can secure slightly better premiums due to scale. Insurance is all about the law of large numbers. Being with employers who use their size and strength to advocate for better care and better total cost of care is a good thing.

Extra Extra:

• Small business owners: consider whether a Certified Professional Employer Organization (CPEO), like TriNet, might be a good option. A CPEO is a PEO certified by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Certification is granted to PEOs that have met, and continue to meet, strict standards for credibility and reliability regarding experience, bonding, and financial and tax compliance. There is a per-employee cost for the service, but we found it a good alternative to hiring an HR team and negotiating HR software solutions and 401(k) offerings ourselves for a private company I invested in. Not all PEOs are managed equally. They manage money flow (payroll, taxes, 401(k), etc.). If you consider one, look closely at their financial rigor and success in providing high value for employees.

Now that we have a new high-efficiency HVAC, I was curious about what kind of savings could now be yielded.

So I pulled the data and separated rate (price per kWh) from usage through a Price × Quantity (PXQ) year-over-year financial analysis. The new system reduced usage meaningfully (23%), but rising rates consumed about 6% of the savings. Net: about a ~17% cost reduction.

I knew our rates increased materially when I signed a new three-year contract last year. I recall having to call them, as the online option was only a two-year contract, and they only offered me a three-year term as a retention tool when I called in. Smart retention step on their part.

These fees were not large, but they were outside the regulated portion of the bill and outside the fixed-rate contract—and could vary without notice. That got me thinking: what else is outside the fixed contract rate?

I knew our rates had shot up compared to the prior contract. I had simply settled into the higher rates—like a frog in water warming up. I’m now paying close attention. With an 82% increase over the last 11 years, utility costs are not trending at a 2–3% inflation rate.

I continued to dig deeper, as the provider had nearly a dozen years of past bills available. For most of our time with them, I had a fixed-rate contract. Only ~2% of the bill was variable. But in the most recent two contracts, the language changed subtly, and now ~38% of the bill is a pass-through delivery charge that is variable based on market conditions and incremental capex costs. That aligned perfectly with the timing of our increases. While rates increased 82% over 11 years, the bulk of that increase occurred only after 2020.

More and more companies are moving to a similar billing framework.

I recently attended (virtually) the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas’ annual Energy and Economy Conference. They shared insightful slides on this topic. See pages 18–19 for a summary of Dominion Energy’s recent rate change request. How much of the requested increase is due to data center customers versus deferred grid maintenance will be hard to follow unless utilities start communicating more clearly.

Takeaway: Even modest efficiency gains compound. Review your bills, track rate vs. usage, and lock in terms where you can. Energy cost increases add up quietly over time. And with new AI/data-center customers coming onto the grid, along with national security concerns, it’s time to become a student of energy—both personally and professionally. On the micro level, cost-manage where we can.

Extras: I asked AI to model our home layout, the new HVAC system, and suggest optimal temperature schedules. It estimated 3–5% savings for every degree of adjustment. I’ll test to see if there are improvements without sacrificing comfort. If successful, it should be sleeves from our vest.

Subscriptions creep in quietly. Once a year I run a quick audit—vendor, renewal date, amount, payment method, and purpose. I had a few that needed to be handled and one that required help from a credit card processor.

We all have some subscriptions we keep but don’t see the real value in. Sorry, but PDF editors are that for me. It became a topic of discussion and, after some research, we made a move.

I had AI help me find a one-time-purchase PDF editor to replace a monthly license with a well-known software company. The new software was one-sixth the cost of a one-year subscription.

In the future, with AI, we may still have applications and subscriptions, but I suspect we will see many more newer, niche, or less expensive options. If they are good, these smaller companies will make their profit on scale or specialization.

Refreshing and cleaning my computer was something I tended to put off until my device bogged down. We all have tasks we are not a fan of; this is one of mine.

However, I got motivated when my hard disk storage turned red—I was running out of space. I used my technologist-analyst AI chat, which has the profile of an advanced technician. I provided some specifics, and it gave me a list of to-dos.

So, I cleaned up my computer: set cloud folders to “online only,” set auto-delete for Downloads after 30 days, cleared caches, removed startup clutter, and removed applications that no longer serve me. The system feels faster again.

Takeaway: Actively review recurring charges—subscription creep is sneaky. Consider replacing what you can with one-time or open-source tools. Periodically declutter your digital workspace—it saves time every day, and time is our most finite currency.

October’s official inflation was 2.8%. Mine isn’t. Energy, insurance, home services, and capex are running much higher.

Inflation has been a concern of mine for the last two years. I started to question everything—why do we have to accept inflation as a standard each year? We are devaluing the money we hold and our purchasing power. It is assumed as a given. Why not assume cost improvements and cost efficiencies? Some companies have become successful through cost efficiency and reimagining costs—SpaceX (reusable rockets), Costco, Walmart, TJX, etc. A discussion for another time.

In the meantime, last year I did quite a bit of research and spreadsheet jockeying to determine the long-term risks of persistent inflation at levels higher than what financial advisory firms typically model. For example, Fidelity uses 2.5% for overall inflation and 4.9% for healthcare costs. Fidelity is pretty conservative; however, I fear this might not be enough if we consider the full range of possibilities—assuming not much changes in the political, economic, or financial landscape.

My analysis: a half-point of additional inflation costs compounded over 40–50 years can change everything and potentially blow up a healthy retirement plan.

To mitigate risks, I override default assumptions in the Fidelity Retirement Planning software for line items where the standard 2.5% doesn’t apply. I’ve been using 3–4% on a per-line-item basis, then testing the long-term impact. Why do this? Because the best way to reduce risk and stress is to understand the range of possibilities and plan accordingly.

And if AI improvements are as significant as we imagine, perhaps we will see deflation in some categories. But we may also live much longer due to breakthroughs in biotech and life sciences, increased quality of life, and the removal of busy work.

There are groups, including CZI, investing meaningful dollars to create foundational tools like an open-sourced cell atlas to advance medical science and hopefully resolve diseases. You can listen to their podcast interview on the intersection of biology, science, and AI. I can only imagine what this frontier might mean for our health and longevity.

All this to say, I will still need to do annual financial reviews, monitor inflationary costs, plan large expenditures, and stay engaged with new innovations—but that is no different than if I were a CFO of a business.

Takeaway: Calculate your personal inflation rate and use it in your work-optional/retirement financial planning.

Extras: If you have a taxable account or a 401(k) at Fidelity, consider using their Retirement Planning tool. You don’t need to be in retirement to use it. I used it for years ahead of retiring. The most effective way is to use the detailed expenditures section and enter your real numbers—not estimates. We all tend to underestimate spending. Wealth early on is built not on what you make but what you keep. Over a longer horizon that changes, but in the early years knowing and managing costs is absolutely key.

I tend to protract when making certain decisions. The result: too many open doors. So I took a decision-making course early this year and built simple bumpers: a framework of intent → options → risk → decision → check-in. It is no different from what I would do with operational decisions; however, for personal decisions, I was not satisfied.

It’s still a work in progress, but already I’m making somewhat faster and cleaner calls. I’m also keeping separate the decision and the outcome. A good outcome may not be because of a good decision but rather luck or other unrelated factors. So I’m working to understand which decisions I can move fast vs. slow, how I should assess outcomes, the factors included in the decision-making, and the factors not included that still influenced the outcome.

Takeaway: Decision speed is a muscle. I’m giving myself time to think, but not to linger. The quiet work is training that muscle before the big decisions come.

All of this—insurance reviews, energy audits, inflation tracking, small optimizations—looks ordinary and boring on paper. But it’s exactly the kind of work that compounds, both financially and in wisdom.

Every percentage point, every improved process, every clear decision adds up over time and helps position us in the direction we want to go. Efficiency isn’t about cutting; it’s about clarity and intention. Efficiency gets a bad rap. It’s not the gorgeous exponential that you can immediately see, but it does compound over time.

And can you imagine if we all actively worked at driving more efficiencies tied to our values? I suspect we would see fewer companies delivering less than what we pay for. In other words, we would not suffer fools.

All of this is definitely work, I will acknowledge that. But if we reframe it as protecting and building a moat—so we can spend more time with those we love, support rising leaders, and do the quiet, focused work that births new ideas, innovations, science, and healthcare breakthroughs—I believe the quiet work leads to more amazement, joy, wonder, and peace in the world.

It could all be hot air, but I think we all worked hard for the earnings we made; we should actively choose who we exchange it with, who we share it with, and who we give it to. That choice is based on our values. It’s all quiet work—all of it—but necessary if we want to live intentionally and with agency.

As you start your 2026 planning, I hope you’ll take a few hours to do your own quiet reviews—to see clearly, act deliberately, and build flexibility and freedom that let you embrace any future that comes your way.

Wishing you a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday weekend—may it be full of good food, fun games, and hugs from those you love and those who love and adore you.

Cheers to peace, prosperity, and purpose.

Most sincerely,
Rachel

1. Ask your insurance agent for a replacement-cost review.

2. Compare rate vs. usage on your energy bills.

3. Audit your subscriptions and pre-cancel one low-value service.

4. Run your personal inflation rate. Talk to your financial advisor about the inflation rate used in your plan—and actively decide what’s right for you.

5. Consider connecting your financial institutions to your retirement planning tool so it can automatically track and report your expenditures and cash flow.

6. Schedule one hour for a “digital cleanup.”

7. Get outside and celebrate your quiet wins—big and small!