How to Spend Your 2020 Tax Return Money in 2021

Congrats, you got a tax return! This video is really relevant for anybody who has started filing their taxes and is getting a big refund. Bonus season is also upon us. People are getting their awesome, stellar performance reviews and bonuses are rolling in. So if you have this extra windfall of money and need some ideas for what to do with it, this article is for you.

1. Pay off debt

I'm going to put this one first and foremost—if you have a high interest debt above 7%, so things like credit card debt or student loans, one of the best things you can do for yourself to really help you achieve all of your wildest dreams in life is to get rid of that debt as soon as possible. The interest that you're paying on the debts is detracting from any potential wealth growth that you could achieve. It’s generally not a good idea to invest money when you have an interest eating away at your money.

Stock market returns usually yield about 10%, minus inflation which is around 3%. So that's really about a 7% of return that you can expect on average for the stock markets. Sometimes it's way more, sometimes the market is down, and you do lose some money. Because of that, it's important to get rid of debt. If you have the debt to just toss in your bonus money and really just get rid of it as soon as you can. Then you will be on your way to gaining and building wealth for yourself.

2. Contribute to your Roth IRA

Another idea for your windfall tax return or bonus is to max out your Roth IRA account. If you have not done that already for last year, you still have until the tax filing deadline of April 15th, 2021 to max out your Roth IRA account. 

If you were making over $139,000 you'll have to do a backdoor Roth conversion, which just means putting your contribution money ($6,000 is the max) to a traditional IRA and filing a form to convert it to a Roth IRA. This helps you get around the income limits. $139,000 is the income limit for single filers. Below is the income chart limit from Investopedia.com,  so you have a reference of what your income limit has to be under to contribute directly to a Roth IRA.

Source: https://www.investopedia.com/retirement/ira-contribution-limits/

If you are under these limits, then you can go ahead and contribute directly to a Roth IRA. You still have time right now to contribute to your IRA for the year 2020 until April 15th. 

3. Spend it (intentionally!)

Assuming you don't have any debt and you maxed out your retirement account, it is okay to treat yourself! I'm not saying, just get whatever you want, but what is something you have been working hard towards? It's been on your list for months at this point, and it is something you will use daily. Whether it be that Chloe purse on the Real Real that you've been eyeing that you are going to use as your new daily purse, of course, spend the money! As long as it’s on something that you think you will get a lot of use out of. Spend that money on a big ticket item that you really need and will add value to your life.

4. Contribute to a savings fund

Another great idea is putting that money into a travel savings fund or a savings fund for something you are working towards that's a big ticket item. Maybe you won't have all the money for it with your tax return, but I think it's important to start building savings funds. 

I personally use Ally bank. You can put it in buckets. So I have my emergency fund bucket and then I have a travel bucket I'm actually currently working on building that back up since I dumped, I stole from it to max out my Roth IRA for 2021. And front-load it. And do a lump contribution because why not?

I haven't been traveling and I don't really see myself traveling in the immediate future, but I'm going to be cautiously optimistic about travelling this year. I still have time to replenish my funds. Putting your tax return aside into a travel fund will set you up to do a nice trip. I think experiences are something worth paying for.

5. Donate

Donating your money is a really good thing to do with your tax return that will honestly help your taxes for the following year. You can actually donate to a qualified charity of your choice and have that be deducted from your gross income. You just need to keep the receipt and file for it.

You can actually write off $300 without filing any form or anything. Say you donated $300 to a charity in good faith. The government will take that off of your taxable income. If you donate above that, you can put as much qualified donations towards a tax write off. You just need to be sure to save the receipts and your taxable income will be reduced.

That is really great. And honestly, yeah, like if that money you didn't notice it was gone anyway, you might as well pay it forward and also help yourself out in the future on your taxes. 

6. Invest in yourself

Something I think is always worth spending money on is an investment in your mind and yourself. If you have been eyeing a course to learn a new skill set, to either enhance the one you already have now might be the time to spend on that.

Maybe you want to switch careers or take a coding course online, read a book. I think educational materials to help you learn something new is always something worth spending money on. Potentially those things could even help you earn more money.

If you've been eyeing a course on how to do something—maybe how to get better at making YouTube videos—and you have this money to invest in yourself,  I think you and your brain are the best thing you can spend on.

7. Invest in the stock market

Finally there's always the option to invest your tax refund. That's probably what I will do if I get a refund. I'm actually probably going to owe money this year because I did a lot of freelancing and 1099 work that I haven’t paid taxes on yet.

Good, old, boring index fund investing is how I invest. If I get a refund, I’d dump all my money into a total stock market index fund and have my money keep working for me as hard as it can. And that is by being invested. 

Those are my 7 suggestions for what to do with that extra cash! Have you gotten a tax refund or a bonus this year? Let me know what you spend it on or what you're planning on spending it on. I'm always so curious what people end up doing with this money.

Be sure to drop that in the comments below and subscribe to my channel if you haven’t already so we can spread the FI/RE. Let's retire early together!

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Disclosure: Some links are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I may earn some compensation. All opinions are 100% my own! I truly appreciate you and your support. :)

FI/RE Diaries: A software engineer living in Monterey Peninsula, CA and FI/RE-ing in 6 years with $530k

Follow @the.retired.millennial on IG here!

Occupation: I'm a federally contracted Software Engineer, I maintain and develop software for the U.S. Department of Defense

Industry: Tech in Government

Location: Monterey Peninsula, CA

Salary: $70k/year

FI/RE Number: $532,862 -- 4%SWR

Years Until FI/RE: 6 years

Current financial situation: I am living at a university staff/faculty housing neighborhood (from my part time job), which provides under market housing. I make way under market pay for my position because it's in the government sector. I turned down a six figure salary in SF to live a slow life on the central coast.

Ethnicity: Hispanic/Latinx

How did you first hear about FI/RE?

While I was using Chris Hogan's RIQ calculator in early 2020, it let me input in how many years I wanted to retire, and it clicked that it didn't have to be when I turned 65. After seeing how much I had to contribute a month to retire at 50, then 45, then 40, and 35 and seeing how doable it was, I decided that I would document my journey to early retirement in a blog called "The Retired Millennial." I searched "The retired millennial" on Google and found an article written about Grant Sabatier, who retired at 30 and was part of the FIRE movement.

Why do you want to reach Financial Independence/Retire Early?

I want to be able to own my time, and have the flexibility to plan my life around my future family. I don't want to plan my life around work.

What is your % savings rate?

62% After Tax (after 401k contributions). This does not include my part time or side hustle income.

Are you doing anything to achieve FI/RE faster? If yes, what?

House hack to save on rent, increase my income by flipping <3

Any advice you'd give to someone who has a similar FI/RE lifestyle as you, especially if it seemed hard or unattainable?

Check to see how you can cut back on your most expensive expenses and increase your income 😊. Follow other people who have done it or are pursuing your goals as well. It's also okay to start with a number and revise down the road.

Favorite FI/RE resources you’d like to share?

Follow the #firecommunity hashtag on Instagram!

IG: @the.retired.millennial

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Disclosure: Some links are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I may earn some compensation. All opinions are 100% my own! I truly appreciate you and your support. :)

What I Spend in A Week in LA as a Girl on FI/RE

Today I am sharing my money diary—what I spent a week as a visual designer pursuing early retirement and living in Los Angeles, California!

As a reminder, I'm a 29 year old currently living at home with my parents. I chose to move home to save money to work my way towards financial independence even faster.

But this week I’m back in LA crashing at a friend’s house. Since I lived in Los Angeles for 10 years prior to moving home last year, I don’t really think of LA as a vacation. It’s my home away from home. 

My spending is going to be pretty normal, since my friends here don’t play tourist or entertain me. That means buying my own groceries and doing my own thing. It's the perfect situation to share with you as a person striving for FI/RE (Financial Independence/Retire Early) how I think about spending money.

I am collaborating with a couple of my other Youtube personal finance and FIRE friends. Here’s the link to their money diaries so you can binge watch all of our money diaries and see what we spent in a week.

Day 1

To start off the week I'm meeting up with my sisters to go plant shopping. I don’t think I’m going to get anything, because I don’t live here and don’t need anything.

Okay who am I kidding, I love a good plant, so I end up getting one BUT it's not for me. This plant is called a ZZ plant and I got it as a gift for my friend for letting me stay at their place! I am not stingy when it comes to presents for others. Plus I just loved how it looks!

It kind of looks like The Sill but without The Sill prices. You pay so much for the brand markup! 

It is kind of annoying because each part was separate—the coaster ($2), the pot ($8), and the plant ($12). Of course I'm gonna get the coaster because I don't want the water to come out of the drainage hole and go everywhere. 

The total should’ve been about $24.70, but when the Venmo settled, I somehow ended up paying for a portion of my sister’s plants too. No, I’m not so stingy as to charge my littlest sister a few bucks! However this is a spending diary so I feel like I need to clarify the prices for each thing I bought.

Plant: $27

I go to Trader Joe's and try to be not too awkward about vlogging. I’m getting groceries for the week and trying to stick to Mexican style dishes. But I spot a few new things I want to try like the Everything But the Bagel chips and toss those into the cart too. It’s been so long since I’ve been grocery shopping on my own! 

Even when I lived on my own I really was terrible at guessing how much food I needed for a week and never planned my grocery list. I usually stick with a theme. This week's theme was Mexican-inspired food—taco bowls, taco salad, salmon tacos, etc. All of the ingredients can work in any of the dishes, so I minimize food waste.

I don't really budget either. (I have a whole video on that.) But if I look at my previous grocery spending from years past, I only usually spend like $60/month on groceries. It's been a while since I've grocery shopped on my own and my bill shows it.

Trader Joe’s: $106. 39 

Day 2

I realized I forgot some of my makeup at home. Since I’m filming my Youtube videos down here, I ordered a few things on Amazon. I got a contour palette and two little eyeshadow palettes ($3 each). I wanted something cheap that does the job because I have stuff at home.

I also forgot a notebook so I got a two pack of dotted, leather-bound notebooks for $15. I got all this stuff on Amazon and spent a little money on that!

Notebooks & makeup: $34.04

I’m making a salad for lunch because I have dinner plans, plus I bought all those groceries. I made a salmon taco salad with Green Goddess dressing—nice and refreshing!

My friend, Rae, suggested Roberta’s in Culver City for dinner. She’s been raving about the bread and I really wanted to try it. The meal was literally SO good! We got a pizza, a salad, and the most scrumptious fresh bread with cheese. I also got a refreshing hibiscus cocktail.

Dinner: $59.65

Afterwards, we walked over to Van Leeuwen’s ice cream. I got the brown sugar ice cream with cookie dough and brownie bits. DECADENT!

Ice cream: $6.75

I love spending time with my friends. These are the experiences that I really find value in spending on, even if it means paying for parking in LA.

Parking: $3.00

Day 3

I thought I wasn't going to spend any money today, but I did. I bought TubeBuddy.

I've watched so many YouTube videos on the importance of improving your SEO. It helps you figure out what is popularly searched and how to grow your YouTube channel. All these major YouTubers use it! 

Since I’m at 700 subscribers (at time of filming) and am growing pretty quickly, I wanted to take advantage of it being 50% off before you hit 1,000 subscribers, otherwise you have to pay the full price. This is how they get you!

I know this business in and of itself will pay for that. I already have $70 dollars in Google Adsense revenue from my blog. Although you don't get paid out until you accrue $100, I know I’ll make the money I spend on TubeBuddy back and then some.

Plus by increasing my YouTube SEO, hopefully it improves my blog SEO too. I can write better titles and use them across all my content platforms. I have a whole article on how I’m making money from my YouTube videos, which if you’re a small Youtuber you should definitely check that out. But that's how I validated that purchase.

TubeBuddy annual subscription: $43.20

For dinner I made a poor man's pizza. I used leftover flour tortillas and Trader Joe's marinara sauce, which is basically the same as pizza sauce (right?). My friend let me take all the cheese leftovers, so I made a pizza out of it! Can’t let leftovers go to waste!

Day 4

I just finished work and was so busy I didn't have time to spend any money even if I wanted to. The sheer amount of hours I spent in meetings today made me realize (just kidding, didn’t make me realize) reminded me why I want to achieve financial independence ASAP. So yeah, I didn't spend any money today, good and bad, for better or worse, richer or poorer, yadda yadda. 

Now, I'm gonna go eat a snack from my Trader Joe's haul. I definitely bought too much stuff for one week. I think it’s enough food to last closer to 2 weeks. I've eaten less than half and it's been half a week. I guess I gotta stay another week in LA to eat all my food! After that I’m going to meditate and do yoga. My first no spend day!

It's my quarterly goal to do yoga every single day even if it's only for 10 minutes. Being consistent with these daily micro habits is better than not moving my body at all, which is what I normally would do. I use the Down Dog Yoga app, which is free, changes the routine up every time, and has some good yoga jams.

Yoga: $0

Day 5

I’m about to head out to go to Starbucks since I have a gift card. Since it’s a gift card, I'm not gonna count that towards my spending. There's a nearby park and I'm going to meditate, enjoy my coffee, and journal there. I've always wanted to do this because I'm not a very introspective person...probably because I'm always connected to technology and don't really have time to think. I thought today's a good day for that! 

WARNING: Sexual harassment incident described below. I documented my thoughts immediately after attempting to process what happened.

Oh my god. I was walking to get my coffee and a guy rode by on his electric scooter on the sidewalk and literally slapped my ass. I've never been sexually harassed but I'm really scared now. I wish I'd gotten a video, but I was so shocked. 

I was like, what the F!$k, dude?!? You can’t just do that! And he was like, oh, I'm sorry.

NO, YOU’RE NOT!

That guy sucks. I don't know if I should go home or keep trying to walk. I'm feeling very confused and angry and upset...

I decided to continue to get Starbucks because I'm not gonna let this dude ruin my day. 

Starbucks: $0 (gift card)

After that I headed to the park to journal and meditate. I was literally about to do a dissipate anger meditation and then *BOOM* a baseball hits me square in the chest.

Have you ever been hit with a baseball before? Well let me tell you, it hurts 🤬!

At that point I lost it. I started sobbing uncontrollably.

I look up and see a little boy staring at me. The dad, who was playing catch and had missed his son and hit me, runs up to grab the ball apologizing profusely.

Through my tears, I was like, no it's not you, I'm having a really rough day.

I posted about the incident on my IG story and everybody was so nice. Many told me it’s okay to cry and heartbreakingly shared similar experiences.

I didn't want to cry, but after the ball hit me I was SO overwhelmed with feelings. Hitting random women is never okay!

Clearly the universe is conspiring against me, so I packed up and called my sisters crying. One of them works really close by so she's like oh, I'm coming. I'm six minutes away, we're gonna get you Mcdonald's. I love my family.

Day 6

It’s going to be a good day. That is my mantra today. I'm meeting my friend for coffee. I needed a little pick-me-up to get the day going before work after yesterday.

I honestly forgot how bad LA parking is. The worst!

Parking: $2

I meet Laura at Good People coffee and order an an ube latte. Whenever I buy coffee I try to get things I can't make at home. I also only really get nice coffee if I’m meeting up with a friend or as an experience like I tried to have yesterday.

Coffee: $8.51

Day 7

I'm actually half Chinese and half Japanese American. My friend from Shanghai hosted a Chinese New Year meal of dim sum in the backyard of my old spot in LA. Everything was so delicious.

I wanted some coffee so I could go home and edit YouTube afterwards, so we walked to go get some. To be honest, the Horchata latte I got from Mañana Coffee was way too sweet, but the journey was still worth it.

Total & reflections

Thanks for spending a week with me in Los Angeles. I hope you enjoyed all the highs and lows, certainly some lows, but lots of highs. I loved documenting this process, it was so fun! For my grand total I spent...

TOTAL: $296.39

That isn't too bad and if I multiply that by four, it's about $1185, which isn't horrible for a month.

For context, I’m living at home I'm not paying any rent or utilities, so no expenses like that. I get a paycheck weekly and after taxes it’s usually around $1,200. But at the moment I am front loading my 401k, so my paycheck is $0. I prefer to front load instead of dollar cost averaging because I like to spend more time in the market. 

Between taxes and putting 75% of my paycheck into my 401k, I basically get nothing. I’m doing that this year since I’m taking advantage of living at home. 

Right now I am living off of $3,000 checking account and then I have my emergency fund with 6 months expenses that should cover anything, since I'm not getting paid for the next several weeks. That is my current paycheck situation, it should return to normal at the end of March.

Again, I'm a visual designer working in tech. I make six figures a year and you can check out my wealth journey to get a full picture of my salary timeline. I used to make $22,000 starting out and have slowly over the course of eight years worked my way up to my current salary.

This was so much fun to take you behind the scenes and show you how I spend my money as a girl on FI/RE. I hope you found it insightful and if you did be sure to subscribe to my channel below so we can spread the FI/RE.

I want us all to get rich and retire early together! xo

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Disclosure: Some links are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I may earn some compensation. All opinions are 100% my own! I truly appreciate you and your support. :)

How to Retire Early: START HERE On Your Journey to FIRE! My Early Retirement Goals

“Retiring early? Won't you be bored?” I'm always really confused when I get that comment because there are so many things that I am looking forward to doing with my life. Many people ask me, “Where do I even start on my journey to financial independence?”. Although you may think it’s about money, it is not at all. It’s really about figuring out why you even want to chase FI/RE. I'm here today to talk about discovering your “why” for a FI/RE, and how to begin your own journey to financial independence and potentially retire early.

For those who say, “Why don't you just go and find your passion now?”, you are in a really fortunate position. It is very lucky to be able to have the funds to step away from your job, if only temporarily, to pursue a passion that you love. However, not everybody has the opportunity to take a salary cut or the luxury of time to explore different pursuits of passion. This is why I'm so passionate about spreading the FI/RE for everybody to achieve financial independence, or at least know that it is an option. Through investing your money, you are able to have a sustainable life where you can truly pursue your passions without having to worry about money. 

While you might think, “Oh let me just crunch my numbers, see how much I need to invest, and I'll be ready”, that is actually not the first place I recommend people start. Really what I want you to do before you even begin, or even if you're already on your journey, is to write down every single thing you want to do with your life. I did this when I first started my FI/RE journey, but I recently did it again the other day to check myself and make sure my goals are still there. I'm not saying you have to have these goals forever or that they are static and can’t change, but it's good to periodically remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing.

Before we get into my personal goals, I wanted to talk to you a little bit more about how to write a good goal. When I ask a lot of people what kind of things they want to do when they reach FI/RE, they're like, “I want to travel more”, or “I want to start a company”. Well those are great, noble things to do, but they're not specific enough. It's hard to stay motivated when you just think, “I like traveling. I want to travel”. Narrow in on the details. Where do you want to travel to? What do you want to see? Who do you want to travel with? How do you want to travel? What type of hotels do you want to stay at? When you start thinking about your goals you need to get really, really specific. Without that specificity it's hard to visualize it as something you can actually achieve.

So let me give you a few examples that I wrote down from my own personal goals. My very first life goal, and something that has always been a priority to me when I reach financial independence, is starting a family and having kids by 38. Minimum I would like two kids, and I'm 29 currently. I want to start working towards that process of finding a sperm donor if I need, or figuring out my options. It’s important to understand this because I know that my lifestyle right now is going to have to accommodate future little humans. It’s a big life goal, and I know that as part of my FI/RE, I will have to consider that financial aspect.

Another thing I want to do is design a phone app. I'm actually not going to say too much on this one because I don't want to give away the idea, but it's a really simple one. I have a very specific and niche concept, and I have written in detail what it will do. I don’t expect to make any money from it, but I want to design an app purely to have accomplished it.

My next life goal is to go to all the National Parks in the contiguous U.S. and Hawaii. For Alaska, it can be hard to get to some of the National Parks (which I actually learned on a date!). Apparently some of the parks in Alaska you have to charter a helicopter, and it's a lot more expensive than you’d think. So for now, my goal is the contiguous U.S. and Hawaii.

Sticking with the traveling theme, I want to travel with Mom and Dad at least once a year. My parents are nearing retirement age and you only have so many years to travel before it starts to take a toll on your body. Spending that time with them while I can and while I'm young is so important for me to do.This goal isn’t as specific since it depends on where my parents want to go, but I am 100% down to be there with them and enjoy that time with them. 

Another one of my goals is to rent a little Airstream or trailer to test out. Initially, my goal was to buy a trailer, but I think it's best to rent one for a road trip first. A trial run would help me decide whether or not I want to buy one. If I do end up really liking it, I would invest in an Airstream for myself. I think the van life is really romanticized, and obviously as a millennial, I like to imagine a simple life would be nice.

Lastly, one of my early retirement goals is to host a FI/RE event at least once. Specifically, an event for young women who are early retirees in Utah or Montana or Wyoming, somewhere super vibey. I want to see if I even like event planning and I think being retired and being able to focus on that would be extremely fun. Plus, community is one of my core values, which I discussed in a previous article, and I think it would be cool to have a retreat for FI/RE women to get together.

So those are some of my personal life goals, and hopefully they'll inspire some of yours! These are very specific to me and what I want to do with my life. It'll be interesting to do it again when I have kids and my priorities shift, but always having a clear “why” in mind really gets me so excited! Once you've written out your extremely precise goals, what I do is mood board everything. I have a vision board, inspired by my girl, Cynia at finance (check here out on IG). She is so great and so inspiring, but she turned me on to this idea of vision boarding, and that truly just crystallized my FI/RE dreams. I could really see the vision. So what I like to do is just pull a bunch of images off the Internet. You can dump it in Canva or the Figma app and mood board it out. Another option is to create a Pinterest board or put it in Google Slides. This allows me to actually visualize how all the images look together and then I can see, in this clear little concise grid, exactly my goals and dreams realized.

I hope this has helped you start thinking about your journey to FI/RE. It's definitely where I would begin. If you have already started, no sweat! Go back and do this exercise. I think it's super valuable to stay motivated, to remind yourself why you're doing what you're doing, and above everything else, keep you motivated on your journey. Because it is going to be many years. I still have another six to go, so it's important to be focused on why I'm doing all this. Leave a comment below with one of your own personal life goals that you've thought about, and hopefully that will inspire others to think about all the possibilities. Early retirement is not being bored - it means having the option to pursue all of your life goals. But it’s important to remember that some of these goals are doable now. You don’t have to wait to start weaving them into your journey today!

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Disclosure: Some links are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I may earn some compensation. All opinions are 100% my own! I truly appreciate you and your support. :)

FI/RE Diaries: A 35 year old army officer living in Fort Bragg, NC and FAT FI/RE-ing in 7 years with $5m

Follow @corybates1895 on Instagram here!

Occupation: Army Officer

Industry: Military

Location: Fort Bragg, NC

Age: 35

Salary: ~$100K year

Ethnicity: White

Education: Bachelors

Current financial situation: Single, still working, rent.

What was your first job? Why did you get it? How much did you get paid?

I commissioned into the Army straight out of college. The starting salary was $40K year.

Growing up how did you learn about personal finance? Was money talked about openly? How did it make you feel?

We were broke! My father worked as a painter and my mother was a secretary. They struggled and lived paycheck to paycheck with no end in sight. I knew I never wanted to live like that & swore to myself to learn everything I could about money.

What was the moment or event that made you realize you needed to start getting your money together?

After I started working, I went to the library and checked out every book they had on money, investing, and business. Started a brokerage account and got to work.

Let’s Talk Money

Net Worth: $1.3 million; Roth IRA: $1.1M; Roth TSP: $70K; Brokerage: $100K; Bitcoin: $130K

Debt: Debt free

Monthly Expenses: Rent: $1300 (Author note: I think the rest may have got cut off!)

Savings Rate: About 40%

Investing strategy: This year, I STOPPED contributing to retirement account and will focus all investing into brokerage as I will need to access money from age of 43-59. My plan is to buy a house in cash at retirement.

Your FI/RE Story

FI/RE number: $5 million + pension by age 43

FI/RE type: Fat FI/RE (> $100k/yr spend)

Years until FI/RE: I hit FI in 2020 but still working and love my job. Will work another 7 years and retire at FAT FIRE.

FI/RE location: Some place warm with an airport.

How did you first hear about FI/RE?

Mr. Money Mustache! His blog sent me down the FIRE rabbit hole and made me realize it was possible. P.S. Millennial Money Honey is my favorite insta FIRE account

Why do you want to reach Financial Independence/Retire Early? What keeps you motivated on this long journey?

Freedom, generational wealth, & the ability to affect the world in a positive way.

In what ways have you cut back your spending? In what ways have you started mindfully spending more?

Stopped buying sh*t I didn’t need after reading Mr. Money Mustache. I was very disciplined in the early days, but am much more relaxed now in my spending after building some wealth.

What do friends and family have to say when you tell them your plan to achieve FI/RE? Are they supportive?

They don’t know 😊

Are you doing anything to achieve FI/RE faster?

I have always only ever bought index funds...until recently. In 2018, I began investing in strong single stocks (Tesla, Amazon, Apple, Google). Began buying Bitcoin last year.

What does retiring early (or financial independence) mean to you? What will you do once you FI/RE?

I have always wanted to have FU money. I’m a bit of a rebel & value the freedom to go off & do what I want, when I want. I will travel the world and want to visit all the cool spots I see on Insta.

Above all that, I would love to be able to give life changing gifts to people & make a positive dent in the universe some day.

FI/RE Tips

Any advice you'd give to someone who wants to pursue FI/RE, especially if it seemed hard or unattainable?

Live on less than you make & don’t owe people money.

What is the biggest thing you learned about money on this journey?

Anyone can do it these days. The internet is the most amazing tool....go learn & just start!

Have you made any money mistakes or learned any lessons on the way that you wish you knew before?

Yes, I bought two houses in cities that I moved away from. 👎

What are your favorite FI/RE resources that you'd recommend to someone just getting started?

Clubhouse is my new favorite resource! Tons of money/investing rooms full of smart people sharing ideas. Read books. Watch YouTube. Stay curious.

Instagram: @corybates1895

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Disclosure: Some links are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I may earn some compensation. All opinions are 100% my own! I truly appreciate you and your support. :)