I'm Retiring at 35 // Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE)
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Welcome to Millennial Money Honey where we talk all things money! Today I wanted to share actually a super intimate look at my own journey into FI/RE, Financial Independence Retire Early and how I got the idea that I even wanted to retire, so let's talk!
My journey into personal finance actually started way back—I say way back 😂—back in 2017, when I was first making my own money and I had a decent salary. I was making $60,000 and so that was enough for me to save enough money and be like, “What should I do? Should I invest it? Should I save it? What do I do? How do I make this money grow for me?” But I had no idea what financial independence or what that concept was.
Two years later I was at work and a friend sent me an article to the Mr. Money Mustache blog—basically the bible of FIRE. And he has this article on The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Retiring Early. I read that and literally my mind was blown. Mr. Money Mustache actually retired at 30. How? What? Why? How is this even possible? I was hooked. He was a software engineer and crunched the numbers and did all the math and looked at historical studies. And after following him, I thought, “You know what, they all did it, I can do it too.”
I'm a graphic designer and so many of them are engineers and I knew that if they could do it, I could still achieve those results maybe on a different timeline. So I crunched the numbers and for me it would take me 10 years to retire so I would be 37. And I thought, “You know what, okay, this is super radical, but if I miss my goal at least I would still be on the path towards becoming financially independent and not having to work for money.” I could do what I've always wanted to do, which is to be a stay-at-home mom and take care of my kids and not have to worry that I need to be working and I can't be there with them. That was my eye-opening experience.
I started with the Mr. Money Mustache blog, and I'll link all of these links below, but after that I binged the Mad FIentist podcast, and then I proceeded to watch all of Our Rich Journeys YouTube videos. Between all three of them they blew open my mind about tax-advantaged savings accounts, what an HSA was, a 401k, and how I should be maximizing all those to take advantage of retiring early.
Until September of 2019 I was not tracking my expenses at all. I am not a spreadsheet person. I know some of the flack that financial independence movement gets is often that people live in the spreadsheet. They become extremely frugal. I think when you first find FIRE it is this notion of where can I nickel and dime everything? So I've had to shift out of that mindset. I would beat myself up for the longest time, but I'm still a work in progress.
It's harder for me to spend money than it is to save and invest it. That is how I know I am financially literate because it's such a struggle for me to spend it. It's like well, I could invest it and then that dollar could become fifty dollars in a couple years. But that being said, I think it's so important to even get started on your FIRE journey. If you have to move and adjust it, it'll change and be fluid with you. You quickly realize, yes, you can nickel and dime, you can cut back your spending, but also a lot of it is how can I increase my income?
There is a fine line between going for the highest paying job and also finding happiness at your job. I think it's important to find that medium where you're not hating your life. Actually in the current job that I am in, it's not the highest paying job that I could have gotten. It is a job that I'm happy at and that I am living comfortably at. I'm happy in this lifestyle while I work towards my goal for FIRE. It's not by any means that I'm making a little bit of money, I'm making a lot of money relative to the average person. I think that's a key factor towards starting your FIRE journey, which is how can I increase my income?
I increased my income by moving from advertising into tech specifically. So many of these people who are in the FIRE community like the Mad FIentist and Mr. Money Mustache and even Kristy Shen from Quit Like A Millionaire were all software engineers. I cannot be a software engineer, like I just cannot. I do design, but for me it was figuring out how I can get into tech to make that tech money. Engineers obviously make more so they can retire a little bit faster, but for me that's obviously a trade-off that I'm willing to take because I'm not an engineer.
In September of 2019 I started line by line tracking every single item that I would spend my money on so I could see the ballpark of what I was spending. I finally was able to calculate my savings rate, which I had never done before. I didn't even really know what a savings rate was. I started tracking all my expenses and figuring out what my savings rate was, which is the percentage of money that I was saving. I discovered that I was already in the 60% range, but I could push that up to the 70-80% range. Even though my initial target was retiring at 37, I am currently scheduled to retire by 35 now.
As my income has increased, my spending has decreased. I've set myself up to retire a little bit earlier, which two years is not insignificant. So we'll see! No, we won't see, it's gonna happen. I think you have to put out the intention that you believe something will happen. Half of FIRE and in all personal finance, is having the mindset that you can achieve something. If you don't think you can achieve results, then you're already setting yourself up for failure. That's one of the key mentalities I have when I think about my own personal finance journey—anything is attainable. It's just what you're willing to sacrifice for and creating actionable steps to achieve that goal.
For example, it's always been my goal to make six figures before 30 (gross income). So I look at what progress do I need to be making to achieve those results. For me that’s moving from job to job to job and always negotiating a little bit higher, a little bit higher, a little bit higher…or a lot higher. At one point I leapt from a $70,000 to an $85,000 salary just switching jobs. I’m always moving, always growing, and have a hunger and thirst to achieve that goal. It is something that really fuels my FIRE.
FIRE is so financially-focused and you're always working towards hitting your number, which for me mine is $1.25 million dollars to be able to “retire early” and never have to work again. But at the end of the day it's not all about money, it's about finding joy in living and life. That's why I say I took a pay cut. I was earning $80/hr freelancing, but I took a pay cut to take for $58/hr because that is the trade-off of happiness.
It’s finding that balance between money and happiness and even though you are working towards the goal, it is about the journey. It's not the end in mind, it's about the whole process and experience. I'm sure when I hit $1.25M it won't feel any different. It will just be like, “Okay, I've reached my goal, yay!” I mean yes, I will be so excited, but at the end of the day it's just a number. Will it drastically increase my happiness? I don't know. It will be the journey that I look back on and really find happiness in.
So if you're starting your FIRE journey today, if you are still on it, if you've already FIRE-d, I would love to hear more about your story. How did you find FIRE and what you hope to achieve? Because I think it's all about finding this little community of people who maybe think a little different. Maybe some might call you crazy, but people have done it, people are doing it, they're living the dream and I just want to create this little bubble and be supportive of all the people who are on their own financial independence journey. Even if you don't retire early I think being financially independent is still for everyone!
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