I first wrote this post about financial independence in 2012, soon after I had left my day job in the finance industry. It was a 13-year slog, but I was thrilled to leave but also a little worried about the unknown.
The idea of this post is to capture the feeling of financial independence and share how it felt to finally get there.
In this update, I'd like to add more color on the reasons to strive for financial independence. Today, I'm 46 years old and a father of two young children. It's interesting how our perspectives change as we get older.
Since 2012, I've written about the negatives of early retirement nobody likes talking about. I also shared what I would do differently if I got to retire all over again. The posts are worth reading.
I want to encourage everyone to save more, invest more, earn more, and pay better attention to your finances. I can assure you that the reward is worth the “sacrifice.” Because looking back, I felt like I should have saved and invested even more and worked harder!
What Does Financial Independence Feel Like?
When you finally become financially independent, every day will feel like Christmas morning. If you don't celebrate Christmas, then substitute Christmas with your birthday or whichever religious holiday.
The feeling is the same as when you were a kid waiting for a present. You go to bed late because you're so excited. And then you wake up early because you're so excited!
As an adult, the feeling of being financially independent is similar to when you get into your college of choice or land your first job. Do you remember turning 21 and feeling so thrilled you could legally drink at the bars for the first time? Those were the good old days.
However, the good feeling of financial independence fades as you get used to your situation. Your focus shifts towards crossing off all the things you've always wanted to do before it's too late.
Reaching Financial Independence In 2009
Technically, I've been financially independent since 2009 when I realized my passive income could cover all expenses. This is the one definition of FIRE I believe in. At the time, my taxable investments and real estate portfolio were generating about $50,000 a year.
Life would have been very simple living off $50,000 a year gross in Honolulu, where we'd relocate to. Breakfast would consist of papaya or mango picked from my grandfather's farm. Then we'd go boogie boarding until lunch and eat some more fruit and corn from the farm. We'd then take a nap and then do some writing to stimulate the mind.
Today, we call this type of financial independence Lean FIRE. It sounds like a great lifestyle. However, I just wasn't ready to live it just yet at 31 years old.
My career and my wife's careers were both starting to take off until the recession hit. I decided to work three-and-a-half more years to feel more secure. We also started thinking about having kids.
Surviving Recessions
There was one point during the 2008-2009 recession, however, where I thought I'd have to start all over if things continued to worsen. I had lost 35 – 40 percent of my net worth in just six months and there didn't seem to be a bottom at the time. Thankfully, the world didn't end just like the world didn't end after the pandemic hit.
I decided to hang on for the recovery and start Financial Samurai. No longer did I want to delay an idea that had popped when I had graduated from business school in 2006.
Back in 2009, financial firms actually raised base salaries by ~70%. I was shocked when my base salary jumped from $150,000 to $250,000. The purpose was to comply with the government's desire to lower year-end bonuses.
Ironically, the government enabled finance workers to live more freely with higher cash flow. Those smart enough to negotiate a severance when thy departed received much higher severance packages as a result. The reason? A severance is based off your salary, not a bonus.
Uncertainty Nowadays Feels Better
One of main reasons to strive for financial independence is to minimize financial worry. It's the angst and worry that drives some parents to stay miserable at well-paying jobs to one day accumulate generational wealth. It’s so my money that they’ll likely not spend it all before they die.
Usually, when you have more money you tend to worry less about running out of money. However, there is certainly a truth to the saying, “more money, more problems.” Your worries tend to just overflow to something else, like your health, your children, or your parents.
In 2009, I was worried I would lose all my money and then lose my job. Therefore, I probably wasn't as financially independent as I thought. Perhaps I was fooling myself much like some are fooling themselves with being OK retiring near poverty.
When we are younger, we tend to believe we are more invincible. We think we know more than we really do. I see this truth more clearly now as a middle-aged man.
In 1Q2020, my net worth fell about 6% from its peak due to the pandemic-induced panic. It still felt like a huge punch in the gut because the absolute dollar amount was much larger than when I lost money during the 2008-2009 global financial crisis.
However, my worry was lower this time because my net worth was more diversified and more defensive. Further, after almost 12 years of operation back then, Financial Samurai could not be shut down.
Passive Income's Importance
Money will always be somewhat of a concern, even if you are financially independent. The more people who depend on you, the more you will feel the pressure to provide.
Be careful having children if you don't feel like you can comfortably take care of yourself and your partner yet. Children not only cost more money, they require a tremendous amount of your time and energy when they are young.
Sacrificing and hustling when you still have the energy is worth it. Waking up a couple hours earlier to work on a new income source is privilege. Adopting an abundance mindset will make you richer than if you adopt a welfare mindset.
If you are torn between being an optimist or a pessimist, choose optimism! If you're annoyed the world isn't fair, you will only drag yourself down. Control what you can control in order to get what you want.
One of the things that will help you during times of chaos is accurately forecasting your passive income streams. If you do, you will have less fear and more confidence navigating the storms.
Reasons To Strive For Financial Independence
To provide some motivation, here are some reasons why you should strive for financial independence.
1) People don't piss you off as much anymore.
You know the people who are always late because they are selfish with their time? They used to bug me to no end. What about folks who steal your ideas and don't give credit? I could go on and on about such people in the work place and online.
Or how about people who only contact you when they need something? All of these people use to annoy me, but now their actions hardly bother me anymore. I just stop associating with them, because I no longer care about lost potential opportunity.
The lightness you feel about no longer having to interact with people you don’t like is a tremendous relief.
Related: Your Lack Of Emotional Intelligence May Be Costing You A Fortune
2) You begin to appreciate the government a little more.
When you're working hard at your job or running a business, you may slowly start resenting the fact the government takes more and more money away from you the more you earn. You also don't like it when other people vote to raise your taxes when they don't have to pay more themselves.
For most people, the government takes more in taxes than most people save! How crazy is that? Meanwhile, you witness all the government waste, pandering, and corruption. You're so busy working that you don't have time to enjoy public services.
When you're financially independent, you can more easily enjoy the libraries, parks, museums, and concerts all for free during the weekdays. In other words, the return on the taxes you pay increases.
I have friends who play tennis or pickleball almost everyday thanks to government unemployment benefits, a government pension, or other types of government benefits. They aren't rich, but they love life and are not stressed.
Strategically, it's better to retire when the government is big and taxes are high. This way, you get to pay less taxes and enjoy public goods more.
3) Financial independence improves your health.
Prolonged stress kills. During my most stressful working days I developed chronic back pain, tendonitis in my elbow, and TMJ (jaw clenching, teeth grinding).
My chronic back pain has long been cured since reading Dr. Sarno's Healing Back Pain Book. However, it wasn't until I became financially independent did my elbow and TMJ disappear! My grey hairs also went away in 2012 and haven't come back since.
The health benefits of early retirement are priceless. Every time I'm sick, I wish to give anything to feel better. It's easy to take our health for granted when we are young. Random health issues start popping up more frequently after 40.
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4) You are no longer afraid of losing your job.
I always had a little bit of worry I'd come into work one day and be called up to HR and get fired. Working in finance was a cutthroat business where underperformers regularly got let go. A little bit of paranoia is good for everyone. It's just an annoying feeling.
If I got laid off, not only would I feel angry about being let go, I'd also feel embarrassed as I packed up my box of things in front of my surviving colleagues. Why me? I’d wonder.
Part of the reason why I wrote How To Engineer Your Layoff was to empower people to take control of their own destiny. To be able to leave on your own terms gives you dignity. You will also feel like you won the lottery as you got to decide when to leave with money in your pocket.
When you're financially independent, you no longer fear losing your job. As a result, you might become more vocal at work to make things better. Ironically, you could get paid and promoted faster as a result.
If you're financially independent and have no job, then that constant paranoia of getting laid off goes away completely. Your worry shifts to having a strong-enough investment portfolio. You feel the lightness of being 100% free.
5) Financial independence enables you to work on your passion projects.
It's rare to be able to make a living off something you'd do for free. We call these things passion projects and not a job for a reason. But working on your passion projects creates a more fulfilling life.
Financial Samurai has been my passion project since 2009. I treated this site as a hobby for so many years. I wrote carefree, barely focusing on monetization because I either had a job or had enough passive income. Enjoying the process is the key reason why this site grew.
After reaching my 10-year writing anniversary in 2019, I decided to do more experimenting.
The first thing I did was write a new personal finance book. It is a book that was missing from the market because it addresses many of life's biggest dilemmas
I should also self-publish another book to create more defensive income streams. But writing books takes a lot of time and discipline.
As a result, I decided to record more podcasts because they are fun and easy to do. After finally figuring out how to use the podcast interviewing software in 2023, I will be interviewing more authors, entrepreneurs, and interesting people.
6) You hang out with people because you want to, not because you need to.
Hell is other people if you are forced to spend time with people you don't like. When you're financially independent, you only hang out with people because you enjoy their company, not because you want or need anything from them.
Imagine not feeling the need to respond to every e-mail or request. Feeling OK with 20,000 unread e-mails is wonderful! Imagine not having to pretend you like someone just because they hold the keys to your future. Liberating!
7) Financial independence makes you less afraid to fail.
So many of my projects have flopped, I don't know where to begin. Here's a post chronicling some of my past 15 years of failure. Failure is scary because it is embarrassing. Sometimes, failure can also be disastrous financially.
However, if you have the financial means to withstand failure, then you become less afraid to take risks. Think about billionaires like Bill Gates or Evan Spiegel. Because they were born rich, they could afford to experiment with entrepreneurship.
Eventually, you get to the point where you start succeeding because success is partly a numbers game. You can afford to fail. When you can afford to fail, you will feel more free. To create something on your own feels much more rewarding than creating something for someone else.
8) You stand up for what's right.
There's a lot of bullshit in the world that goes unchallenged because people are afraid of the repercussions. How many times have you bit your tongue because you were worried about the consequences?
If your finances are secure, you no longer have to put up with verbal abuse or harassment in the workplace. If you don't need to rely on a job for money, you are much more able to speak freely.
When you are financially independent, you are more confident to speak your mind when you see an injustice. Your survival doesn't depend on your reputation, a person, or a company. Let me share a small example.
Tennis Confrontation
One time, a tennis opponent quit his match after being down 4-6, 1-5, 30-all because of a close baseline call I had made. It was clearly out, but he disagreed. He started cussing at me so I walked right up to his face. I told him not only was he a sore loser, he best apologize for swearing at me.
He was in shock at the confrontation, probably because nobody had ever stood up to him before. Immediately, he apologized and said he was out of line. He realized he could not afford to damage his reputation because he was a professional tennis teacher. Tennis was just my hobby, but to him, tennis was his livelihood.
Online, you see mobs form all the time because individuals are too afraid to stand up for themselves or think independently. For the sake of mob protection, individuals will dilute their beliefs. It's sad to witness.
To be able to never have to back down from anyone is a wonderful feeling. So is being able to live your truth. Funny enough, once you have f you money, it's hard to tell others to F off! The main reason why is because it’s easier to move on.
9) You care less about what other people think.
One of the best reasons to strive for financial independence is because it enables you to care less about what people think. Caring less about what people think is hard. We always want the approval and admiration of others. Why else do some people try so hard to seek status?
In the past, I always used criticism to try harder. Today, I approach criticism with more of a ho hum attitude. When you've been called every name in the book, criticism no longer bothers you as much. I don't suffer from FOPA, ie fear of other people's approval anymore.
It feels liberating to have insults and insinuations roll off your back. Because you have less to prove, you don't. You also don't feel as great of a need to one-up your dissenter because you're already set.
Not only will you care less about what other people think, you may find ways to benefit from your critics. I've used many critical e-mails and comments as ideas for writing new posts.
For example, in the past, I often got chased aggressively by the Internet Retirement Police (IRP). As a result, I decided to make lemonade and write about my experience. Now the article is one of the top searched posts on Google. So fun!
10) You can explore new industries without worrying about pay.
Between 2013 – 2105, I consulted with several financial technology companies, including Empower. I learned so much about Silicon Valley startup culture and even made a 3X return on my stock options once Personal Capital was purchased by Empower in 2020.
I consulted for a Y-combinator Series Seed company with only six employees. Even though the company failed, it was a great experience being in the trenches with those men.
Since 2017, I've been a high school tennis coach. For three-to-four months a year I would get paid only $1,000 – $1,100 a month to help 12 teenagers compete for glory. We ended up winning the Northern Conference Championship twice. We were excited to try and three-peat in 2020 until the pandemic shut us down.
Think about all the other jobs you would happily try if money wasn't a big reason for working. I'm sure you would have a lot more fun.
I talked about giving up on retirement and going back to work because both my kids will be in school full-time by September 2023. Sniff. But one job I have been thinking about is joining the Golden State Warriors in any capacity so I can be around the players and watch the game. I'd also love to understand more about the business of basketball.
11) You make your parents proud (or at least give them relief)
Our parents tend to give us everything and ask for very little in return. They hope we can simply lead happy, self-sustainable lives that are filled with purpose. When we are financially independent, our parents worry less about us. We start spending more time with our parents too because we have more time.
Hearing my parents say they are happy that I'm happy doing what I want feels good. Every one of us have some desire to make our parents proud at some level.
As a parent now myself, nothing would bring me greater joy that seeing my kids find love and doing what they want.
12) You get to spend more time with your children.
The sooner you become financially independent, the sooner you can spend more time with your children. It's hard to juggle work and parenting, as millions of parents experienced during the pandemic.
Children grow up quickly. It is very rewarding to teach children new things and witness important milestones. When our children become adults, we will reminisce about the time we spent with them. We might even regret not spending more time with them if we worked too much.
My wife and I had children late, which is one of the downsides of trying to achieve financial independence at a younger age. We focused so much on our careers and didn't seriously entertain the idea of starting a family until our mid-30s.
If you know you want children, I say have children sooner, rather than later. There's never a perfect time so don't wait for one. The sooner you have children, the longer you will have each other in your lives.
Thankfully, I discovered that even if you are an older parent, you might have the capacity to spend a lot more time with your children before they leave the nest. I did the math and because we are financially independent, we will end up spending more time with our children compared to if we had them five years earlier while working.
Related: The Ideal Age To Have A Baby Based On Age And Economics
13) Financial independence provides greater happiness for longer
Perhaps the best reason to strive for financial independence is greater happiness. Not only do you feel happier, you get to feel happier for longer!
When I first left my job, I was happier, but I was also filled with a lot of uncertainty. Only after consulting for various startups, coaching high school tennis, becoming a father, and more did I realize I had a higher steady state of happiness.
You can check out my life satisfaction by age chart to learn more about what I mean. With less monetary worry, you'll be able to focus your time and effort on the things that truly matter.
Just make sure you've got several things you are retiring too. Because if you retire without a plan, you could find yourself feeling melancholy.
Here are even more surprising benefits to early retirement I had not anticipated.
Striving For Financial Independence Is Worth It
Hard work is awesome because the benefits last long after the hard work is done. Don't be afraid or feel ashamed of obsessively pursuing financial freedom while you are younger. The people who are trying to put you down are too lazy to try themselves.
More than fourteen years after leaving work behind, the value I place on financial independence has only increased. This realization has motivated me to keep on writing and recording why it's important to get your financial life together.
I've been called lucky many times and I don't mind because I am. Whatever wealth we have is mostly due to luck. To not recognize our luck would be disingenuous.
As a lucky guy, hopefully, I can help you get luckier as well!
A Tool To Reach Financial Independence Sooner
To reach financial independence sooner, it's important to track your net worth. Sign up for Empower, the web’s #1 free wealth management tool.
In addition to better money oversight, run your investments through their award-winning Investment Checkup tool. I will show you exactly how much you are paying in fees. I was paying $1,700 a year in fees I had no idea I was paying.
After you link all your accounts, use their Retirement Planning calculator. It pulls your real data to give you as pure an estimation of your financial future as possible. If you link over $100K in investments, you're eligible for a free financial planner review, a $795 value.
I’ve been using Empower since 2012 to make sure my net worth is properly allocated. When you are financially independent, the last thing you want to do is go in reverse.
Achieve Financial Independence Through Real Estate
Real estate is my favorite way to achieving financial independence because it is a tangible asset that is less volatile, provides utility, and generates income. Real estate accounts for roughly 50% of my ~$380,000 in investment income.
My favorite real estate platform is Fundrise, which manages over $3 billion in assets across multiple funds for almost 400,000 clients. Fundrise predominantly focuses on investing in residential and industrial real estate in the Sunbelt, where valuations are lower and yields are higher.
Private real estate investing offers individuals a way to diversify their real estate holdings away from their existing city. Investors also get to earn passive income and dampen portfolio volatility. Personally, I've invested $954,000 in private real estate funds since 2016.
Reader Questions And Suggestions
Readers, how is your path to financial independence going? Do you feel the journey is ever over? If you are financially independent, how does it feel? Why aren't more people willing to save and invest aggressively to have more financial freedom in the future?
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Hi, Sam: I’ve achieved financial independence since ~2013, although our expenses had gone up as our child grew older, we were able to save more and grew our assets to more than 50x our gross annual income and finally retired after our kid went to college. I’d add that the benefits of being financial independent while still working was the work became much less unpleasant since I can avoid working with nasty people without ever had to worry about career anymore. Although looking back the only things I’d done differently were to leave earlier (to join more interesting companies or start my own), or be a little nastier at work toward those nasty people (you’d think people with FU money would FU more often, the truth is we just became a lot nicer).
Hi Sam, my name is Evan E. And a subscriber. Love your blog! My wife and I do not own a home and are relocating to the city of San Francisco. We have the resources to buy a single family home at a 7% interest rate and are willing to own the house for at least 10 years. I read that you decided to upgrade your home in your last post, but if you didn’t own a home currently, and had no equity to cushion a fall in home prices, would you buy a house right now in in SF in what “could be” the top of the cycle? Versus renting and saving? Would really appreciate any advice!
Hi Evan, nice to hear from you, and welcome to San Francisco!
There’s not a lot of inventory on the market right now. If you plan to be here for over five years, I would try to look for deals in this market, because I think Nguyen mortgage rates fall in a year or two, the pent-up demand is going to be unleashed.
San Francisco is famous for its bidding wars. And once those return, it is very difficult to get the house that you want.
GL!
Sam
I’m a big believer in creating passive income streams. I think a lot of people confuse financial security and financial independence and look at them as one in the same. To me, financial security is accumulating enough assets to cover your living expenses throughout your retirement. This is your total retirement nest egg. Financial independence is having enough passive income to cover your retirement expenses so that your accumulated assets (nest egg) can continue to grow rather than be spent down. This is what allows you to create multi-generational wealth or a legacy of giving from assets that you don’t need to fund your retirement.
We have a nice nest egg and a number of passive income streams that will allow us to continue to invest our nest egg somewhat aggressively without the fear of running out of money. To me, this is true Financial Independence.
Sounds very similar to me! If I am FI I also feel financially secure and vice versa.
It is a little bit crazy, almost like cheat mode, how much quicker your net worth can grow once you have a decent size nest egg. The bull market can turn one or two million into $5+ million in a decade and it can just keep on snowballing larger.
If more people knew about the power of compounding and staying consistent with their saving and investing, more people would do so.
The surge in wealth thanks to this bull market has been incredible for those who’ve stayed invested. And the thing is, anybody reading Financial Samurai since 2009 would have been able to supercharge their net worth.
Sigh…if by financial independence you mean, not living in your parents basement, I agree. If you mean not having a W2 job….we’d be in deep do do. No firefighters, cops, doctors, teachers, doctors, etc etc.
You can still be financially independent and be a firefighter, police officer, doctor, teacher, etc. That’s the beauty of FI. You can do whatever you want! Don’t limit yourself or your thinking.
I’ve not limited my thinking, I went from being a house wife to investing in my 60s. Unfortunately, in the investing groups that I’ve belonged to, people are always insulting W2 workers and of course, Education.
Who and why are people insulting W2 workers and education? How else can regular folks make money, save, and invest for the future without first getting a job? Surely the investors must have first started working.
The MAGA does that all the time, most people I meet in investing are Repubturds and have nothing nice to say about education and W2 jobs. Irony, they all have at least 1 W2, Indian Doctor. Sam, I must admit, I have had a lot of fun learning about the “other” people, the ones not in my usual circle and am doing things to help just the kind of people they disparage.
The repubs are not the ones trying to raise your taxes, take away your incentives to save and make you more dependent on the government vs. your own initiative. People need to wake up to today’s reality and vote accordingly or risk becoming the social state the government want us to be.
You are undoubtedly meeting the well off MAGA folks. The vast majority, referred to as deplorables by Hillary, are blue collar and likely not college graduates.
I have an Indian friend who lives in San Jose and he often makes similar comments based on his circle of contacts in California. I keep telling him he really needs to visit the midwest and the south to understand how the rest of the country thinks.
In FL the MAGA I meet are not well off and they are the ones making degrading remarks about education, W2, etc
What degrading comments do u hear about education and w2s? I have seen that the US is falling far behind in education compared to much of the developed world given its new focus on “wokeness” rather than preparing students for professional success especially in scientific fields. Here’s a link to an excellent article on mediocrity and how it relates to “wokeness”.
https://open.substack.com/pub/boriquagato/p/the-glorification-of-sub-mediocrity?r=pf2n0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I would love ur thoughts
Financial independence is priceless to me. I knew from an early age that I wouldn’t be able to rely on my parents for much at all so I had to think practically. I went to a public college, got a practical degree, got a steady paying job and kept my head down and worked hard. Time passed and my finances improved and truly enabled me to be financially independent. It was so liberating and something I’ve worked hard to keep ever since.
I am surprised at your statement
“Today, we must be appreciative of the government for providing over $3 trillion in stimulus money to combat the coronavirus.”
This money did nothing to combat the actual virus. One only needs to look at China, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, and others in Asia to realize how the virus could have been contained. Even the new president who campaigned as being the better candidate to tackle covid, admitted that there was no way to change the trajectory of the pandemic. The government absolutely wasted 3 trillion dollars and is in the process of wasting yet another 1.9 trillion. The latest bill is even worse as it includes numerous programs that have absolutely nothing to do with combatting covid. As an American I am ashamed of how the country has responded and continues to respond during this pandemic.
I’m surprised you would be ashamed of trying to help working families and poor families with children who are struggling during this time period. It is brutally difficult, if not impossible to raise children and work at the same time for during a pandemic.
There are no easy perfectly efficient solutions to combatting the virus, poverty, and other issues.
What would be your alternative solution? And can you tell me more about your background so I understand where you are coming from?
Here’s what you wrote before:
“
I keep trying to convince my self to buy a nice home (I live in Monterrey, Mexico). Nice homes are in the $300,000 range but yesterday we visited a friend in a lower income area, and the area was safe and decent small homes were barely $50,000. I could easily afford either home but the stingy in me keeps trying to keep me from buying either.
Any thoughts on how to start spending? I should add that I am retired and 60 years old with a decent pension and savings. My father was always cheap as well and my brother and I were raised that way so it is difficult to justify spending even a dollar or two. I do spend money on travel and within the past few years, have started to stay in much nicer places. We just got back from a 5000 km driving road trip to southern Mexico. Contrary to what you read in the news, there are very few people traveling within Mexico – nearly all are going to the famous beach resorts like Cancun and Cabo. We often had hotels to ourselves in some beautiful locations.”
You also said you were in the top 2% net worth. So another words, you are wealthy, you don’t even live in America, and you’re complaining about trying to help others? What’s going on here? What is truly bothering you to make you not want to do everything possible to help other people during this difficult time?
I am ashamed at the response to the pandemic. Trillions of dollars were spent but with little assistance provided directly to the working and poor families. Basic healthcare was never included in any of these relief bills. That alone would have alleviated much of worry that many families have had during this pandemic. Biden’s proposal is to reopen the exchanges so those with limited resources can purchase nearly useless insurance.
A much better solution would have been to provide universal income to those same families and truly close the economy for a few months much like the Chinese did in Wuhan. Yes, it may have been draconian but it worked. Life there has returned nearly to normal and the economy is booming once again. Why is it the US has refused to follow the lead of those nations that have successfully combated the virus? How many of those half a million Americans that have perished would be alive today if they had?
I am retired Foreign Service Officer like your parents. I live in Mexico and I have seen the pandemic from a different perspective. Here the government provided little economic assistance. When the pandemic first hit, we moved to a nice home 25 kms from the city in a rural area for fear that crime would explode in the lower middle class neighborhood where we reside. Surprisingly crime has not risen very much; people help each other and know that they cannot count on the government.
It’s true government deficit isn’t a great thing – but people often forget the flip side of government debt is private wealth – i.e. if Uncle Sam is carrying $10 trillion on its book as liability, there’s $10 trillion assets and guess who own them? It’s you and me (and Elon Musk, Bill Gates, etc..). This is the reason why billionaires don’t criticize government debts because if the government try to paid them off, the money would have to come out of the private sector. Do you rather want Elon to keep those billions and invest or the government take those billions and pay off at once (zero future investments, private or public)?
Sam,
Recently started reading your stuff and love it. I’m close to leaving a Wall Street (both in NYC and international) job after 12 years. My wife has an online business we are scaling and I’m in process of starting a blog about my path to financial independence.
When you started the blog in 2009 how did you do it? Lots of employers (esp Wall Street) prohibit (or at least highly discourage) employees from having a public presence and/or side gig which impacts timing.
Thanks!
I just wanted to say thank you for doing a great job with this blog, I’m already wealthier by following your advice and I only discovered this blog about 5 months ago. I read the Internet Retirement Police article linked to this one and I got angry that you would get such awful comments for writing great articles, I thought I should show some love, thanks for helping us become smarter and wealthier, keep up the great work!
I appreciate the love Manuel! Glad to have you as a reader.
I try to look at the positives in bad things. Why not!
I think you and I would be friends. You try as hard as I do. I just don’t understand the advice of passive index funds. Everyone including Warren says this is the way to go. I read 4 hours a day about the markets. I enjoy it. After that effort, I bought Netflix, Tesla, Apple and Amazon. That’s it. Everyone I ask has Netflix. No one talks about Apple Plus. In my opinion, 50 years from now there will only be EV made by Tesla. Amazon owns the world. It seems most people are walking with white sticks in their ears. Maybe I’m just lucky. Maybe I’m foolish. Maybe I’m just stupid and got lucky. I am a part owner in these companies and I will NEVER sell them. If I lose my money, you can say “I told you he was stupid he should have bought an index fund.” By the way, Warren is into Apple and not an index fund.
Charles,
I’ll first state that I am no Warren Buffett. However, I feel qualified saying that your approach to investing is dangerous for your long term wealth. You don’t need to spend 4 hours a day reading about markets. Just do a 4 second google search on the top handful of companies in the S&P 500 in ten year increments going back to 1980. Do you notice a trend? For your own good, apply the knowledge gained from recognizing the trend to your investing strategy and adjust. Nothing lasts forever.
Since discovering your blog in 2013 and pondering whether I could be (or already was) financially independent, I’ve had a terrific run financially. I’m not on board with every point, but I definitely get where you’re coming from.
For me, everyday is not like Christmas. In many ways, I have bigger problems (mo’ money, mo’ problems). Relative to my wealth, I also continue to be stressed out by small problems (e.g., the car mechanic possibly ripping me off) that I realize should not bother me so much. (Just to clarify for me personally, I’m talking about being peeved, not flying off the handle or staying wake at night plotting revenge). All of us should work on not letting the small things bother us regardless of our wealth.
Over the years, I have tried to approach life with greater calm. By not being burdened with a full-time job, I have greater clarity of thought and time to face the other challenges in life. The money helps, but I think part of it is just getting older and hopefully wiser.
The only part that is like Christmas are the moments when I remember I avoided 25 more years of sitting in an office, cubicle, meeting, commute, etc. Then most of life’s problems seem to be put into perspective.
It sounds repetitive and/or needs to be stressed so much, the MOST important things about achieving FI is to a) start as early as possible before life obligations pile up (spouse, house, kids) and b) stay stay stay out of debt as much as possible.
I fell into my interest of finances largely by accident. I’m very analytical, and like to build spreadsheets. I built a spreadsheet to track the payoff of a vehicle and how extra principal payments would affect the total interest, term, etc., and just continued to read finance blogs/books so I could build more spreadsheets. Kinda nerdy, I know. That was about 3 years ago. Which until that point, I put 6% in a 401k to get my employer match (7.5% which is amazing) and that was it. Never really had substantial savings, pretty regularly had a car payment, etc. Luckily I did get rid of my student loans, and had always been responsible with not building up consumer debt.
Now, at the age of 34, married with two kids (5 and 3), 3 years into a 30 year mortgage, and a spouse that stopped working to stay at home with them until they are both in kindergarten+ to maybe return to work part time, it feels like a much more tremendous uphill battle to payoff the mortgage faster while also building up investments. All of these obligations have taken away flexibility I once had, but didn’t realize how IMPORTANT it was. The days where I could’ve sprinted towards these goals are long gone. Sure I had fun in the moment, but it could’ve been so much more balanced. Now I must chip away much slower, a brisk jog at best. But admittedly I should still be FI far before the average person. Why? Because I am dedicated to it. I set goals. I track progress. I want to be FI.
I busted my butt career wise to get to where I am, and make great money for my age in a smaller city, and in the past 3 years I’ve been able to:
-Build an emergency fund of 4 months of expenses…it was 3, creeping it to 6 since the pandemic began.
-Max my pre-tax 401k
-Max out a Roth IRA (I’ll need to start backdooring in the next few years)
-put 5k into a 529 for each child annually
-Start paying extra principal on mortgage (on a 17 year trajectory, but I like having the 30 year for flexibility)
-Investing at least 5k annually in an after tax brokerage in a simple 4 ETF index fund portfolio.
I went from saving 13.5% of my gross income (includes employer match) to currently at a rate of 31.5%, which continues to rise every year with any raises or income increases. I’m on track for my goal to FI at the age of 50 with no mortgage, or maybe 45 if I’m lucky (I agree luck has a part to play in this) with my ongoing career progression and maybe some side hustling.
I say all that, as hopefully some motivation for others. Either at my age, older, or hopefully some young whippersnapper out of school may see this and get that early head start, and sprints for awhile before they have to jog…
Keep up the good posts, Sam!
Good stuff! As the saying goes, “Better late than never!”
With kids, the energy to side hustle and do more work absolutely gets zapped. Ideally, folks have a solid financial foundation first, before having kids. Otherwise, the stress might destroy a marriage.
But I think you are very fortunate to have kids at 29 and 31! They are the biggest blessing and worth any financial sacrifice.
Sounds like you’re off to a great start. I’m not sure when I achieved FI, but I was laid off in my early 40s, and I didn’t sweat it. Nor did I ever return to a full time job.
The only thing I would suggest is to not fear debt. We’ve all been programmed to eliminate debt, but debt is instrumental in building wealth whether it’s college loans, car loans, mortgages, etc. Many finance gurus preach paying off all that debt as quickly as possible but not all debt is created equal.
Home mortgages are hovering around 3% lately and it’s tax deductible. Whether that number is actually 2, 3, 4 or 5, you should think twice about paying that debt off early. If you want to build wealth, then you must be able to make investments that return > 5% over the long run. Don’t lock your cash in your home equity where the appreciation is quite low. I highly recommend maxing out your low interest, tax deductible home loan for as long as you can while you are in your wealth building years.
Much of my wealth has been built by real estate. I’ve taken on a mountain of debt, but it’s been worth it. Recently, I even bought a car that was 100% financed. At a 0% interest rate, why not? However, I never pay interest at a rate higher than my HELOC rate which is < 4% and I'm careful about what I spend in all respects.
Nice post, I enjoyed. What kind of job did you make 250k?
Finance. I was a Director (one up from VP in banking) when I left in 2012. Finance was the best industry to make money in the 1990s and early 2000s. Then big tech really took over.
Nice. I’m a software engineer, making decent salary for the midwest, but hoping to find Bay Area-type companies that allow remote, see if I can make some more.
That is the dream for a lot of SWE. In fact, don’t be surprised if Sam replies and includes a link to his “why investing in the heartland” post to provide insight on what may be ahead in the future.
Hi Sam! Long time reader. I was recently laid off last week and it was hard to read personal finance content when I have no income coming in as of now. This was exactly the post I needed to stay motivated and strong. Thank you
I’m sorry you were laid off. It is such tough times now. I hope you at least got a severance and get some enhanced unemployment benefits. I’m pretty confident benefits will be extended.
Hang tough!
I’m not quite at FI yet but getting there. Hopefully, I can hit FI over the next two to three years.
But even getting close to reaching financial independent provides with a few great benefits:
(1) Less stress over money;
(2) Actually enjoying my job more because I am not afraid to mold my job to what I want (limit my interaction with people I don’t like, reject projects which I don’t find interesting, not afraid to speak up more and challenge status quo, work more from home, etc.);
(3) Spend money which allows for personal growth and enjoyment; and,
(4) Focus more on value than cost.
The sentence you wrote, “Ironically, in order to stop caring about money, you’ve first got to care a great deal about money” really struck with me. That’s so true! I cared some about money in my early 20s and then a good deal more in my late 20s. Then, I cared a lot about money in my 30s and really stepped up my hustle. I need to remind myself of the feelings I had in my late 20s and 30s to appreciate my financial independence more. It’s bumpy as heck out there in the job market today and you’re right about appreciating the governments stimulus initiatives. Sure it’s not perfect, but we’re fortunate to have a government that is able to take action. Great post and loved reading the updates. Thanks for inspiring us for so many years with so much financial knowledge and wisdom!
Thanks Sam for reminding me why I’m still saving and investing hard. Without purpose its just penny hoarding. Good luck!
When you wrote this in 2012 retirement was far from my mind. Now I have a date set for 2021. While I do not have multiple income streams, I saved enough and diversified enough to not worry. I will not need social security distributions either. Much appreciate this article. I associate with people of a certain view that government is in their way. Well government will not be in my way when I no longer have the W2. Yes, I could appreciate the libraries, fire departments, road repair crews, and what not. But thirty six years of paying for all that is enough for me. I diversified among tax avoidance strategies and might even afford to stay in a nice part of California without feeding much to the beast. And there are still nice areas. There is political freedom and there is financial freedom. The sad cruel fact is that if you have enough money the state thugs will ignore you. Sad and cruel for those struggling. But I’ve had enough of living like a miser.
Your statement of willing to go to war over being mistreated is admirable in theory, but sounds dumb in practice. You can get shot if you decide to go to war with the wrong people.Your statement of willing to go to war over being mistreated is admirable in theory, but sounds dumb in practice. You can get shot if you decide to go to war with the wrong people.
Indeed. Not a physical war, but other ways. Got to think smarter b/c so much more is at stake.
Here’s a related post: How To Blow Up A Company That Wronged You
[…] right. I wanted to try something new, and to do so, would require another massive pay cut. But that’s what having financial freedom allows. You get to explore different things that may excite you with much less regard for what […]
Were you bullied while growing up? Or maybe you never grew up around rough neighborhoods where violence is a daily part of life. Your statement of willing to go to war over being mistreated is admirable in theory, but sounds dumb in practice. You can get shot if you decide to go to war with the wrong people.
Definitely got in a lot of fits and suspensions growing up. There was definitely a lot of conflict.
How about you? You say it sounds dumb in practice to stand up for yourself. Were you walked over a lot as a kid? How did you cope with not standing up for yourself?
I was never bullied or walked over at all while growing up so never had to really stand up and fight back at all. I went to an inner city school and grew up in a rough neighborhood, so my friends and I knew to stay away from certain people. If you try to start a war over every trivial injustice such as someone cutting you off in traffic or argument on a basketball court in the neighborhood I grew up in, it can easily get you shot.
Definitely. But for other things, I recommend you really stand up for yourself and know your worth.
What is your story? Age, industry, eduction, financials etc so I can get a better idea of where you are coming from?
I’m late 30s, bachelors, high tech, 160k to 185k depending on bonus, around $1 mil net worth. It wasn’t my intention to sound harsh with my initial comment. I recall reading about how you remained calm with your meathead racist college linemen story, so was mentioning sometimes removing oneself from a situation is the smart thing to do. As you mentioned once someone becomes financially independent, we don’t have to deal with ignorant folks any longer.
Josh has a good point. I had a colleague in a similar situation who grew up in East LA. He was forced into a gang as if you don’t, you are relentlessly bullied and can possibly get killed. He rose to be a successful techie and got out. This world is different from ours (upper middle class). Some people “go to war” because of anger, “respect”, boredom or mental illness. When chatting with my good friend, I still recall his comment from over 10 years ago … ” You are thinking about this too logically. Some people just don’t think that way”.
[…] questions before in posts such as, “Overcoming The One More Year Syndrome,” and “How Does It Feel To Be Financially Independent.” I still spend hours writing posts, visiting companies, and responding to comments on […]
I am still a long way from being financially independent but thanks to blogs like yours, I have made a lot of changes to the way I manage my finances. I no longer live paycheck-to-paycheck. However, I need to come up with a side income stream. One reason why I would like to be financially independent is to have the choice of whether or not to stay at any job.
I know this is not the right forum to ask, but what can one do to have extra income? I do not seem to have any business acumen. I am however, a very good listener and good at comforting people in sad situations. In fact, when I was back home in Zambia, people always asked me to talk to those who were bereaved or had problems in their marriages and apparently my words worked. I just wonder how I can turn this into a money making venture without taking advantage of people in distress (I am also not sure of how to do so in Austria where I now live.)
Dude — Sarno is THE MAN. Wish more people paid attention to his theories. Certainly worked for me.
I agree with everything you say. I’m working on reaching financial independence though youtube. I already started working less for my boss and more for myself making video’s. I even agree with paying taxes and bills paying them with a smile. I struggled paying bills, I was behind on them and they cause stress cause you can’t pay them. Now I can pay them as soon as they drop in the mailbox and I pay them with a smile, just because I CAN pay them :-). If everything goes accordingly to plan I should reach financial independence in 2 and a half years from now. Can’t wait :-)
I just wanted to note that you’ve given some good advice and some bad advice (primarily on the importance of GPA to careers outside of finance or Academia), but that I slightly object to your statement that bullies need to be eradicated;
Mike, thanks for your thoughts. If you come into my house to mock me or disagree without a reason, then of course I’m going to defend and fight back. I’m happy to have a debate with anybody who disagrees. Seriously, that’s a big reason for this site’s existence so others can provide their viewpoints. Just disagree with some substance and some background rather than attack out of the blue. You’ve always got to protect your house.
Please share with us your story. Thanks!
Hi Sam,
Been reading your blog for a few Months now.
That article on 10% income for a car purchase hit me hard. I’d have to double my income, literally – to get a 5500 dollar car.
How would you attack the issue I face?
Where I have an associate degree, an Eagle Scout. Have volunteer experience, and have been in 4 major industries. I just don’t want to get bored, and my personality type and autism (high functioning) seems to make me bounce from idea to idea.
I don’t want to use drugs to get me to focus. I know for a fact I love the arts and teaching. But teaching art sounds incredibly boring.
Oh, and I’ve been wildly successful at sticking to your rule of don’t buy it, unless you can buy it twice today. So thanks for the nuggets!
I can’t wait to get to FI. I’m going to get there in the next 8 years or so the way we’re saving at the moment. Thanks for making me so jealous!