We also thought it was important to address the first steps to take to reach financial independence… and also acknowledge that not everyone is currently in a position to get to financial freedom. The truth is, ‘just save more’ or ‘be frugal’ are not adequate pieces of advice if you’re in a tough situation. Sometimes, you need to do more than just cut back on consumerism.
Tanja Hester’s Work Optional hit bookshelves a few weeks ago with a promise to guide us there “the non-penny-pinching way.” Is it really possible …
Chris explains how he racked up so much consumer debt without even realising it. After paying for his wedding and simply not keeping track of his credit card, he ended up $26,000 in debt. It wasn’t until he took a good look at it that he decided to get rid of it: by moving in with his parents and keeping on a strict budget.
My trip to South America had a new name! It wasn’t a holiday, it was a Mini Retirement! And I was thrilled by the idea of making them a regular part of my life, so I set about redesigning my lifestyle and my work. I promptly quit my job. And in 5 years I took 5 mini-retirements, totaling 22 months off. In between those periods of mini-retirement, I would do consulting gigs in the mining industry, and I would also tinker with my start-up, which later became my business.
Now the question that might be rising in your minds right now—and it’s a logical one!—is, how does someone in their late 20s afford to take more than a third of their time off work? How do they afford a roof to sleep under? Or a car to drive? How do they afford to eat? It’s a really important question.
I know that everyone who says the word ’empower’ and talks about ’empowering women’ means it in a positive way. Or at least, I hope most people do. But there’s something about that—we were talking earlier about ‘words matter’—that suggests someone granting power. That someone else has that power, and they’re deigning to give us a little piece of it. And that’s something that’s always felt weird to me. I think the thing for us to do is not to sit here and wait for someone to say ‘you may have some power.’ It’s to f— seize that power!
Following her divorce 21 years ago, she started her journey with less than $100, a mortgage to pay, and four young kids. She discusses how frugality played a large impact on her success and how her teaching career, with an average salary of 70K, helped cover her needs.
There’s a lot of connections between say, people who are in the extreme debt repayment space in the personal finance arena, and F.I.R.E. folks. It’s just that their energy and focus is just on a different end result. And I thought that I would talk a little bit about why I was reluctant to be called a ‘F.I.R.E. blogger’ but why I felt like it was important to be identified as a person who is ‘F.I.R.E.-focused.’
No two lives are the same, and the amount of work get to a fixed destination is going to be wildly different as well. Your journey is different than every other persons journey.
A myth about the people going after financial independence is that they’re all dudes in high paying tech jobs.
Penny defies all those stereotypes. Her and her husband are teachers on the path to financial independence. It’s almost as far from high paid tech bro as you can get! They live simply and cheaply after getting their finances off on the wrong foot. Literally. Penny had a problem buying designer shoes.
If you’re chasing financial independence on a middle class income, then you’ve got some unique challenges but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible! It just means it may take you a bit longer or you’ll have to make more sacrifices than others.
It’s about money but it’s also about time. How quickly can you see a return from either cutting back or increasing your income?
We didn’t see the signs of the coming crisis. No one did. We were just a young family, busy living our lives.
The prevailing image of the typical Financial Independence practitioner is a tech worker making a solid six-figure wage hunched over a computer. While that …
BART’s Chief Transportation Officer Roy Aguilera says it’s possible because Zhang never refuses extra work and picks up much of the overtime hours offered.
Not only will a business become an asset but it can become an integral step in helping you reach Financial Independence.