(GCC: A few years ago at FinCon, I had a chat with a fiery young woman whose dream was to save just enough $ to leave the corporate world. “I’m going to front load 100% of my retirement savings and then just let it percolate while I pursue other interests.” I loved the idea and the gumption. Fast forward to today: mission accomplished!)
My name is Gwen. I’m 27 years old, and even if I never save another penny I will enjoy a comfortable standard retirement. How did I manage that? I’m glad you asked!
When I first found FIRE at the ripe old age of 22, I was a junior in college. I didn’t have very much money coming in, so I couldn’t put many of the lessons into practice right away.
I was fortunate to get an internship with a Fortune 100 company in college – shortly after I found the FIRE world, as a matter of fact. I had a position doing things that interested me, so I worked hard and was rewarded with a full-time job upon graduation. I was so excited to start working, bringing in money, and start optimizing all my finances.
I graduated with no student loan debt thanks to a lot of hard work, a full-ride scholarship for academics, and a stint in the Air National Guard. Thanks to the military, I was getting $900 a month to attend school. I only had to pay for my car, car insurance, gas, and cell phone. Since I bought my car outright in cash with my bonus money, this meant my overall expenses each month were incredibly low. $900 is A LOT of money to a college student that doesn’t have to pay rent or food. Despite the fact I was bringing in all that money, I didn’t go crazy and instead saved it up. I am so glad I did.
I didn’t have the best introduction to the permanent working world. I went from the freedom of a college student, to being told where to be and what to do for 8 hours a day. I get that’s the whole point of a job, but I didn’t like it. I’d stare longingly out the window in the spring as the weather got warmer. People would invite me to fun events, but I didn’t have enough vacation time to go. I didn’t live near family anymore so I missed out on birthdays and major milestones. I didn’t get to work on things that interested me. Instead, thanks to my lack of seniority, I got mostly scut work that no one (including me) wanted to do.
The first 3 years of my career I was basically a glorified intern. Nothing much was expected of me since my main job was to learn how that team worked, how it fit into the IT Division, and what impact that team had on the greater company as a whole. I did this for 2 different teams for 18 months apiece.
I learned a lot. In fact, I probably took away more lessons than they intended. I learned I’m not good at technical roles. I learned I like talking to people and helping them solve their problems. I learned I dislike having people hover over me and watching my every move. I learned I am most productive early in the morning and least productive right after lunch. I learned I don’t like only interacting with the same few people day in and day out. Frankly, towards the end of my rotational program, I was miserable.
I made do by throwing myself into the FIRE world. (I especially loved Go Curry Cracker!) Reading blogs, constantly updating my budget, fiddling with projections…. all of that helped distract me from how much I disliked working a corporate job. I didn’t let lifestyle creep impact me too much.
I kept my same car I had in college, didn’t go out shopping for useless crap, and tried to pack as many lunches as possible. I knew I couldn’t work a corporate job for the next 10 years and didn’t want to get trapped into that lifestyle. The politics, the pettiness of coworkers, the rigid career progression….. It was not for me.
So I started a side-hustle (or two, or three) to help speed up that timeline. I bought a multi-family rental property and became a landlord. I learned how to do stained glass (something that had always interested me) and started to make a few pieces here and there. I started my own blog.
I even started a podcast with my friend J that covers different paths to FIRE through side hustles and other endeavors.
(GCC: Gwen and J hosted yours truly on their podcast a few weeks back, with some old-fashioned hard hitting questions.)
While I was working on building up these side hustles, I was putting at least $2600 a month away into various investment accounts. Depending on my expenses, that meant I was saving between 50-70% of my monthly income. My original FIRE goal was to save up $600k in 10 or so years and retire early. But after I figured out 10 years in Corporate America wasn’t going to be the best path for me, I decided to let my portfolio percolate while I did other things.
I saved up $200k in 5 years and quit my job. My portfolio will continue to compound and grow over the next 30 odd years until I am traditional retirement age. That $200k is the foundation for a comfortable retirement. I’m going to let my portfolio do the heavy lifting while I work on the things I want to.
Because I saved aggressively at the beginning of my career, I am finally in control of my life. If you front load your retirement savings, you could be free from the awful corporate world, too! Just imagine your life without a corporate job and think of all the things you could be doing.
Now that I don’t work for The Man anymore, I am free to take that bike ride around the lake at 1 in the afternoon! I can say yes to going to fun events. I am free to focus all my mental energy on things that I’m interested in and want to do more of. I can run to the grocery store at 2 on a Wednesday. I can do chores during the day so my weekends are free to hang out with friends and family. The words “business casual” are no longer in my vocabulary. Every day is jeans day (or sweatpants day, let’s be real here).
Join me on the other side – it’s amazing!
Would you jump ship early and percolate your portfolio?
(GCC: Help Wanted: A fiery young woman with a percolating portfolio for a nomadic nanny position. The salary is zero, but all core living & travel expenses covered and you get to hang out 24/7 with an adventurous 3 year old. Bonus points if you speak fluent Spanish. Apply within. Joking not joking. Kinda. Maybe. Sorta.)
Thanks for having me on today, Jeremy! If said nanny position comes with room for my boyfriend and cat, I’m in!
Sorry, no pets or cats allowed
I dunno. She’s never been through a stock market crash. Throwing darts at the S&P 500 the past 6 years would have been a good investment strategy. Never mistake a bull market for investing brilliance.
And… somebody completely missed the point.
LOL yeah. I liked the point about saving 200k in 5 years!
Wow, you want some pepper with that salt?
No one is claiming “investment brilliance”, maybe just discipline. What’s your plan then JDave?
Does not having been through a significant downturn make her story less relevant? Is that written somewhere?
Yeah. She’s in trouble. If the market loses 50% value next year, she will be a 20 something with only $100K to her name.
Exactly.
What were her investments?
The biggest chunk is my 401k with index funds and a slight sprinkle of bonds. They should grow nicely over the next 30 years!
$200K saved by age 27 is respectable – and enough for living well below the poverty line. Assuming the $200K is in taxable accounts, and she averages 8% return, she’ll make $16K per year, or $1,333 per month. The returns for any portion in retirement accounts are inaccessible for decades. Either this article omits important details about other income sources, or Gwen will continue rejecting travel opportunities as she goes on government assistance. She’ll be back in a cubicle within a year. There’s ambition and there’s idealism – unless I’m missing something, this story seems heavily weighted on the latter side.
Yeah, you are missing a BIG something.
Save $200k. Don’t touch it or the growth for 30 years. Pursue other interests that generate low levels of income such that you can live an enjoyable life, but not necessarily enough income to add more to retirement savings.
Sometimes called BaristaFI. (Nice play on words here, as percolate means to put on the back burner and let it sit.)
FI is about living off passive income. You do this by saving enough of a nest egg to live comfortably off the income it generates. If you have to continue working similar hours to earn the same or less than you did as an employee, it’s not FI.
I wonder if we could find somebody to write a blog post about this. Maybe we could call it Percolate Your Portfolio.
FI is about being financially independent. I would say 90% of the goal of most FI’ers is to be 100% independent from any income. But for others it’s not quite as strict. In this case she wants to be be independent from having to work a 40 hour a week corporate job for 40 years. I’m sure there are many people trapped in cubicles who would dream of being able to work part time doing something fun rather than waiting for the hours to go by behind a computer screen.
FI is all about determining what are your priorities in life and finding a way to structure your savings/cash flow to meet that priority. Just as some people work in retirement and still consider themselves retired some people can work in FI and still consider themselves FI to their own degree.
Definitely agree with GCC. Some people are missing the point. Save a lot now. Leave it alone for decades. Market goes up, market goes down, your portfolio continues to grow over time. By the time you’re at standard retirement age, you have saved as much or more as people who don’t think about retiring until their 40’s or 50’s and then try to catch up for lost time. In the meantime, live the life you want knowing it is ok to do something for lower income now if you get more enjoyment from it. Great job @FieryMillenials!!
Love how if someone brings up a concern, suddenly they are “missing the point” – as if to say, “either you agree with me, or you’re a numbskull.” What is today called financial independence is what was once called independent wealth. It means you do not rely on anyone else to maintain a comfortable living. No side hustles or gigs are required. If you have left a job you dislike, and you’re instead working multiple other jobs to be able to survive, you are not “FI” and you certainly are not retired (“RE”). FIRE does not apply to Gwen. I join others in commending her for amassing a nest egg through vigilant saving and for leaving a job she did not enjoy in order to pursue her passions. But that’s simply job changing. It’s not FIRE.
Bravo. This is exactly it.
@Paul S. Not calling anyone a numbskull. Your post was missing the point, but that doesn’t mean I was trying to insult you. You calculated how she could only get an income of $16k/year today off of her investments at 8% and will therefore fail within a year and/or be on government assistance. You were correct when you said “unless I’m missing something.” She is front-loading her retirement account with no intention of pulling on it for 30 years or more. When she does, the portfolio balance will be at some amount significantly larger than $200k. Which means the analysis you provided is, indeed, missing the point. As for your other point, maybe I’m missing where Gwen said that she had already achieved FIRE and no longer needed to earn an income. I can only find that she found the concepts of FIRE on the internet and liked them. This whole article is only about front-loading retirement and the freedom and extra options that this brings, so I do continue to think you’re missing the point of the blog post when it comes to this as well.
Dave, I won’t comment on the condescension woven throughout your reply… oh, oops.
I checked out Gwen’s blog. Did you, by chance? She mentions in there that she recently moved in with her boyfriend, but she doesn’t mention whether her boyfriend has a day job such as the one she left, to fund their expenses. She has a somewhat transparent overview of her income and expenses in a recent post titled “Monthly Status Report: May 2018.” Expenses for the month: $2,778. Income for the month: $71. Deficit: $2,707. She has $7,211 in accessible savings, which will not even cover 3 months of living expenses … but let’s focus on the $200,000 in retirement savings and the growth it will have over 30 years. That will pay for this week’s groceries!
I think portraying this as an example of FIRE, or even offhandedly mentioning FIRE in this context, is patently misleading. Paying interest and penalties for early withdrawal of retirement savings runs counter to the tenets of FIRE, yet unless her boyfriend (or her parents) are coming to the rescue, that seems like a foregone conclusion.
@Paul – disagreeing with your analysis on a point by point basis is not condescending, at least it is not intended that way. My apology was genuine, perhaps my attempt at a change in tone was not successful. I apologize again. Apologizing does not mean agreeing, however, so here’s my attempt to just look at a few calculated numbers based on historical data. We should at least agree on this since it is just math. Your disagreement has (or at least had) to do with $200k only supplying her $16k/year in current income. This was a misreading of the blog post. You have now agreed that the money is in a retirement account and will be allowed to grow for 30 years but say that this will only pay for this week’s groceries, so let’s look at that.
In response to a focus on $200k in retirement savings. I just went to https://dqydj.com/sp-500-return-calculator/ to look at what $200k in the S&P with dividends reinvested would provide someone with today if they had invested it 30 years ago in a retirement account (June 1988 – June 2018). Reinvested dividends is a big boost to total return and usually ignored in conversations of market return, yet is inherent in any retirement account that is left alone and incorrect to ignore. The answer is $3,838,840.96 (10.350% annualized return). This time frame covers high inflation and low, high growth and multiple recessions, ‘the lost decade,’ etc. And would be more than sufficient for someone to purchase a week’s worth of groceries today. If someone were to wait until age 59 1/2 to withdraw from this retirement account, it would have been invested 32.5 years ago. Actual historical returns would put this original $200k at a value today of $4,170,242.13 (10.655% annualized return). Wait 6 months longer to age 63 and the balance would have been over $6m (10.91% annualized return). On top of this, even after beginning to pull out money for retirement, most likely her total portfolio balance will continue to grow as long as withdrawals are at a sustainable rate. Time in the market swamps timing the market over long investment horizons thanks to compounding returns. This is the power of front-loading retirement.
One might say ‘what about inflation?’ The calculator includes an inflation adjustment, and even though the final total returns will be lower since they are inflation-adjusted, it doesn’t change the result of having more than enough money at retirement age. Or one might disagree with the time frame because it skips times of really high inflation, Great Depression, world wars, oil embargo, etc. Going back 100 years the actual, historical annualized returns of the S&P were 10.382%. Am I saying that Gwen will have exactly these amounts in 30-32.5 years? Absolutely not. No one knows the future. But I am saying that, in my opinion, it is incorrect analysis to run the numbers and say that $200k in retirement left alone to compound for a few decades will be just enough to cover groceries or generate $16k/year in income.
I didn’t get that from the post. I mean, I suspected that’s what she was doing, but it seems to be all about “save a lot early and then leave it to grow,” nothing about how she’s funding her living expenses between now and then.
All I have to do is break even for the next 30 years. Yes, I live with my boyfriend but our expenses are separate. I pay him fair market rent and chip in on other expenses. My parents haven’t given me anything but Christmas/birthday gifts since I was 17. I am not retired, I am financially independent. Things haven’t gone as expected after I quit work – hence the deficit I’ve been running since I left. This is also why I’m thrilled to have gotten a very part time job doing stained glass work so I can learn, grow, and enjoy my time spent working. It doesn’t pay much but I don’t need much. I never said I have enough money to live off now, hence the reason I’m doing a lot of different side hustles like stained glass, Etsy, rental property, blogging and podcasting. I do not have independent wealth as I am unable to sustain myself without bringing in money. For someone who doesn’t like it when others are perceived to be condescending, I found all of your comments immensely condescending. Have a wonderful day!
This is definitely a peculiar series of comments.
Gwen: I was really interested in FIRE, but decided to do this other thing instead.
Guy on Internet: How dare you mention FIRE!
Gwen: I’m not retired
Guy on Internet: But she isn’t retired!
Gwen: I’m going to work my side hustles so I can just work part time. I’ll earn enough to just cover my expenses.
Guy on Internet: But she has jobs!
Thanks for the good times, Internet. And thanks, Gwen, for sharing your story and being a model of civility in the comments.
I almost replied, but then didn’t and am glad because yours is tons better :)
I, for one, was not questioning your life choices. I was just confused by the article. It doesn’t explicitly say “now that I have gotten my portfolio started, I can make a living off my side hustles.” I guess I’m a bit slow and needed to have the dots connected for me.
Anyways good luck and ignore the haters.
I’m so envious of Gwen for discovering FIRE so early. She is just 27 and she has a ton of time to let the magic of compounding work for her. That’s a terrific way to do it. Nice job!
I need to check her site to see what she’s doing with her time these days? I’m sure she’s not just hanging out at home.
Sounds super enticing but I have to ask the million dollar question…how? LOL How are you able to pay for living expenses when retiring so early? Still working part time? Side hustles? Collecting rent? Is that enough to survive on while the 200K principal percolates until 65? What are your expenses, etc.? I’ve reached 4% and want to quit so bad already but scared to!
Hi Jenny, I’m not retired yet. I’m financially independent in that I have the freedom to pursue work that interests me for the next 30 years instead of being tied down to a cubicle. I have several side hustles turned regular hustles like collecting rent, stained glass work, blogging, podcasting, and coaching others on their FI plans.
Love this post! I’m 25 and in a similar situation, I have a lot saved but won’t be able to fully live off my investments for another 4 years or so of working. I’m not sure I can make it that long with my current job, so it’s nice to read about other options!
What’s FIRE?
Financially Independent / Retire Early.
I admire this young lady. She had a goal she wanted to attain, and she went out and reached it. I think about myself at that age and how I would have liked to do this, but in reality I was into making it in the sales world and it probably never entered my mind. It wasn’t until the corporate world had shown me all its negatives that I finally said enough was enough. We retired kinda/sorta early for some (the wife at 56, me at 60) but we could have checked out years before that. The allure of the dollar was still in me, but we are making up for it now by enjoying our lives immensely, traveling 4-5 months out of the year, and doing what we choose to do when we choose to do so. I guess there is no one size fits all, so more power to everyone as they look to attain FIRE no matter their age.
Great article! I’m hoping to ‘percolate’ some Roth IRA savings for my 2 kids at the earliest opportunity. They’ve got some time to go being 4 and 7. The earlier you start the compounding train the better!
Congrats Gwen! I started saving early too and trust me, it works. I’m fully FI, and still plenty young enough to enjoy it.
But you have your act together in other ways at that age that I didn’t, like doing side hustles and developing skills. I just focused on my career and drank beer. It worked, but if I could go back again I’d do the things you’re doing to expand income streams. I’m just getting going on them now.
Gwen, I am so impressed by what you’ve done so far! You’re a total inspiration; especially that you’ve been able to retire BEFORE even 30. I hope to be able to accomplish the same feat! I also have around $200k saved and am aiming for around $600k. I’m really interested in the side hustles, I think that may be what I look to next.
Get it! You’re over halfway there already! Side hustles will speed up your path even more!
Congrats Gwen. Like you, I saved early as well but didn’t know anything about FIRE back then. Looking back, wished I could have saved more. :)
Compound interest! Most people just don’t get it. It’s not how much you save, but how early you start and you Gwen are in the drivers seat. Congratulations! Well done.
Thank you Bob!
Excellent article! I am in a different, buy rhyming situation. I missed the boat to retire early as I am already 55. I have a nice nest egg accumulated, but not enough to retire on yet. I do, however, have enough when it can be added to social security in another decade or so. Therefore, like Gwen I am in a position where I just need to let it “percolate”. I have a few large expenses to cover (2 daughters pending weddings, need a new roof and car) but when those are taken care of I plan to quit the rat race and downshift. I will still need to work, but just enough for current expenses as retirement will be taken care of, kids are gone, home is paid for. Depending on how the market behaves I may be able to go full on retirement before social security, but I’m cool if I work until then as it will be part time and hopefully something fun and enjoyable!
I’m not usually a nervous nelly but with only $200k what are your plans for the future? What if you get sick? What if market returns are very weak for the next 30-40 years?
She doesn’t care about it. She wants to blog and make a living. We’re supporting her via ads. Lame.
Hilarious given my site isn’t even monetized.
Gwen, why haven’t you monetized your site?
Thanks for adding value, Woo.
Woo has added value. Your sarcasm is disappointing, and perhaps subconsciously reflects the fact that you’ve lowered your editorial standards in order to post content about a nice person about whom you wish to say nice things.
While I wish Gwen the best, her story is more an example of “how do quit a job you hate by choosing to live by the skin of your teeth” than one of financial independence. I’m struggling to see financial independence in her situation at all. The closest her story comes is that she will be financially independent in around 30 years, all going well in the investment markets. In the meantime as one commenter above points out, she ran a deficit of $2707 last month. She doesn’t have liquid savings to fund that for more than three months.
I’ve read hundreds of articles on multiple FIRE websites in recent months, and have your site not just bookmarked, but on my browsers toolbar as it is a success story. However Gwens story is not inspiring, rather concerning. Of all the FIRE related stories I’ve read, she wins my prize for “Most likely to end up homeless”. Currently she’s just a few missed bills or a relationship breakdown away from a shelter. Rather than hold her up as an example, I wonder if you would have been better gently examining her situation and giving her advice on how to do this properly.
Thanks. I like your use of the word “properly” which implies that there is an official approved method of how to live your own life.
I think you may have preferred an alternative title to this post:
In Gwen’s words: “I just need to break even for the next 30 years.”
Or yours: “Woman with greater net worth than 80% of Baby Boomers about to be homeless.”
Of the 100s of articles you’ve read, how many of them have deeply challenged your thinking? How did you respond to that? Did you adjust your mental models? Or reply with a witty barb? (Out of curiosity, how many of them were written by women?) Did you completely comprehend all of them? (Quiz: where in the core content of this post did it say Gwen was FIRE?)
Gwen obviously has a greater risk tolerance than most of the so-called FIRE community. While many are writing about their struggle with OMY syndrome or whether a 2.2% withdrawal rate is better than a 2.4% withdrawal rate, she is using the flexibility that a high savings rate allowed to pursue entrepreneurial activities.
Fun facts:
– did you know Gwen spent almost $2k on travel last month? Optional, yeah?
– did you know Gwen has a rental property with a vacancy that she is working to fill? Income, yeah?
– did you know Gwen just started a part time job in her passion of making stained glass? More income, yeah?
Given her track record of graduating from college with no student loans, saving 50% of her income for years, and living pseudo rent free with her rental property / house hacking, she doesn’t need advice from a guy who did everything properly (me.) Or anybody else, for that matter.
All of that said, you might be happier to remove a bookmark from your browser’s toolbar and continue to read fluff pieces that reaffirm your current thinking. I won’t be disappointed.
Great post Gwen! Love hearing about various different lifestyles and paths that people choose. “Percolating your portfolio” sounds like an awesome idea for the stage of life you’re in and the entrepreneur mindset you have.
Hey Gwen…
Great to see you here on GCC!
I, for one, love your “percolate plan”
Love the name, too. I used to call it letting my investments fester. Not quite the same lovely coffee smell ring to it. ;)
Fester has a much uglier connotation to it, that’s for sure.
I prefer Gwen’s nomenclature. She could monetize that sass
Oh I would absolutely love to apply for the nanny position but am still working towards FIRE! Just wanted to say that I read this blog pretty much religiously and it really helps with pushing me towards achieving FI. Would really love to be able to meet you guys one day and hopefully while I’m on the road travelling.
Thank you also Gwen for sharing your inspiring story – I’m not much older than you but have a long way to go to get to where you are. Am definitely gonna take the leap and try out some side hustles :)
FYI, just looked up the term “financial badass” in the dictionary and noticed your picture right beside it. Girl, you rock! Haters gonna hate, but you just keep doing you. I do worry; however, that you spending more time in swanky coffee shops has gone to your head. Percolate hah!
Funny thing is I don’t even like coffee! Thanks for the kind words :)
Awesome Gwen! I set a similar goal (though not quite as lofty) for age 30 and exceeded it by a but. I never did leave my job but the flexibility it provided me and later my wife and I worked out completely. Kudos to you!
As an aside, I like the MN connection. Not sure if that’s where you’re from or just for Jeremy. I feel like there’s a disproportionate representation from MN (2% of us population) in a couple online communities I participate in. Maybe just my own biases but I like it.
I moved to Minneapolis a few months ago. There is a huge MN contingent online in the FI community. Stay tuned for a meetup in August with Jeremy and the rest of the gang :)
Maybe August 11th for a meetup
YES PLEASE! I’ll be there.
Great job, Gwen! I remember when I was younger/before I did college, I enjoyed my simple job at the local car wash. It paid minimum wage, but I wasn’t saving tons of cash for retirement, so I was happy and not worried about paying/missing my bills because they were so “low”.
Breaking it down, looking at right now, for example: if I’m maxing out my retirement accounts, I’m “losing” $2,271/month to savings. There’s the $1,541.66/month to fill up the 401k, and $458.33/month to fill up the Roth IRA, and there’s $270.83/month to fill up the HSA. On top of all my other expenses/bills, I’ve got that above total amount of cash that’s not even touching my hands but it’s still going “out” in to my retirement accounts. So I’ve got to have a pretty hefty income coming in (or mad skillz at budgeting..) to cover $5K/month. That’s a lot!
But, if I were to fill up those retirement vehicles early on to a point where they’d be self-sustaining/growing after just a few years, and thusly giving me enough money come retirement age in 30 years, I can stop earning half my income and still meet all my expenses and short term savings goals (like for travel). So instead of needing to make, whatever, $60,000/year, I can be fine with $30,000/year which means..doing other more fulfilling work, be it side gigs or in the corporate world, with more flexibility, or whatever it is that I’m looking for.
That’s what you did and I think that is AWESOME. Great strategy!
Congratulations Gwen on all of your accomplishments.
I’m curious to know what you do for health insurance if you don’t mind sharing.
Thanks!
I went with Liberty Healthshare for now. Thanks for reading!
For those knocking on Gwen, I think the point of her article is that while she is not FIRE yet, she has set herself up for retirement when she’s of retirement age. She’s not quite financially independent since she still does have to work for her living expenses but she definitely has FU money and financial peace of mind. I only wish I had discovered FIRE when I was her age. Kudos to you Gwen, you’ve probably added years to your life just by reducing a lot of stress off your shoulders. :)
PRECISELY! Thank you for the kind words. I actually have a meeting tomorrow with a local stained glass artist for a shop assistant and I am STOKED! Working with stained glass is so much more fun than coding or doing other boring cubicle work.
Wow, the benefit of time in the market is huge here! I can’t imagine having $200k already invested at age 27. The market will go up during that time, and yes, the market will go down…but with 30+ years for it to do it’s bouncing, that’s plenty of time for both recovery and growth. This is a really creative solutions to getting out of the corporate gigs and working for yourself…on your own schedule…wherever you want…and only needing to cover living expenses (vs living + future retirement). Definitely see the benefits there. What a great start – good job!
(Grumbles because I wish I’d thought of this instead of nearly killing myself in a corporate job for 21 years before FIRE’ing this year…)
Awesome idea and implementation Gwen! I’m 28 and have about $200k as well, but with no side gigs currently and a family to support I can’t quite let my portfolio perculate.
I’m currently focusing on finding those side gigs as well as a rental property or two to live off of while the portfolio keeps growing.
Gwen, you and J are brilliant. Don’t listen to the trolls on here. You’re smashing it and your hard work means you’ll live happily until you eventually, fully, FIRE. To be honest, I don’t want you to RE because I enjoy your podcast too much!
You’re motivating people like me half way around the world! And helping people is far more rewarding than any extra year typing code to hit up some higher digits, right?
But yeah, Joe, 59, from Nebraska thinks you’re pretending to be FI to mug us all through advertising on a blog. So you should probably go stack shelves in your local supermarket to cheer him up. :’)
Awesome post Gwen! I love stories of people taking action to pursue their passions. I’m in the same boat as you.
Once I reach “Cash Flow FI” as I call it, I’ll be able to focus purely on what I want and delegate the rest.
Keep being an inspiration to the community.
Kudos Gwen! I wished I knew what you know when I was in my 20’s. I was probably more like in -$100k in net worth when I was 27, only to discover the FI concept in my 30’s.
Don’t worry about the naysayers. There will be more critics or people trying to discourage you along the way. But the proof is in the pudding. How many 27yr old in America has $200k!
Never takes advice from those who are more broke than you :)
I have to admit, I missed the point at first too. Then I went back and re-read the article. Gwen didn’t say she was currently FIRE. I mistakenly read that between the lines.
I agree with others…to find FIRE at a young age, and to have been able to save so much money by age 27, is completely awesome! Congrats, keep it up, and enjoy life!
Saving is drudgery that blossoms into liberty. ($200,000 * (1 + 7% [gross]) ^ 30) / ((1 + 3% [inflation] + 1% [living standard uplift]) ^ 30) = $469,400 in today’s money. Allow 1% per year living standard improvement
How do you manage to keep a US brokerage account if you live abroad?I thought since FACTA this was nearly impossible.
There isn’t anything special required. Even non-US citizens can open US brokerage accounts.
Well-done! Well-done! I wish I could could convince more of my students this. That is part of my new teaching mission. I might not RE but I hope to influence others they can!
It’s funny how similar my situation is to mine. I’ve saved about $210k and I’m 27. Gcc was always my favorite because of your cool and laid back lifestyle. I feel like I’m going to percolate my retirement accounts at some point, but I need to figure out the things that I’d like to do outside of work before doing BaristaFI.
Congrats to you Gwen!
I am late to the party. Just saw this post come across my twitterfeed, though I saw Gwen’s monthly status report yesterday. I think what Gwen has achieved (and actually far exceeded) is what is referred to (at least on reddit) as CoastFI, your retirement savings will compound enough to where you will be able to “retire” without having to add anymore principal.
I think Gwen has done an amazing job and enjoyed her story when I listened to the ChooseFI podcast she was on. I do share some other poster’s concern about her situation for the next 5, 10, 20 years, only because she is currently running a deficit. As Gwen mentioned in the article she still has to/is planning to earn income, but is in a position where she be more selective in what she does.
She has $200k of FU money and it’s the perfect time for her to be adventurous and do something she is passionate about. However, if she keeps running a deficit then that $200k will get erroded. Once she gets a positive cash flow (anything greater than $0) going again things look great.
I think where some of the confusion is in this article is that she is not retiring, but she is free to spend her day however she chooses. Maybe a followup post detailing how Gwen is earning enough to cover expenses until that $200k nest egg grows would clear this up.
Or… crazy idea here… maybe this isn’t about Gwen.
What would YOU do if you never needed to save another penny, and therefore didn’t need to earn enough to pay the bills AND save?
If anybody wants the nitty gritty details, you can find them here. (same link as in the article.)
What I did was circum-navigate the world over 2+ years, starting with ~4 times the dosh in todays money, when interest rates, and inflation, were ~4 times greater. It was a ‘well earned respite’ and left a cash house purchase upon which greater savings built financial independence.
A well earned respite that was well enjoyed, I’m sure
Hey GCC, sorry if I came off as a negative nancy, it certainly wasn’t intended that way. I guess I just jumped past what you thought the focus of the article was “reaching a point where you have enough saved that you only needed to earn enough to cover the bills.”
For me personally, I am at that point already. Without adding another dime our investments should grow to a point where they would fully cover our expenses in about 23 years. Percolating my portfolio doesn’t work for ME, because I would feel dependent on whatever job I had. However, others may find this to be exactly what they are looking for.
Precisely right, Kit. Some will do this, others won’t. Some have more risk tolerance, others less. Do what works for you.
I didn’t interpret your comment in a negative way, so no worries. The real negative nancys won’t benefit from more info, they’ve already formed their opinions.
I started too late @ 35. I wish I had started earlier. I don’t think the investment type matters as long as there is enough time for it to compound. If I had started in 18 and invested in a bond fund I would be all set by 50 :-)
Gwen is doing what a lot of personal finance bloggers (or people in general) won’t do. We become obsessed with the numbers/safe withdrawal retes/sequence of return risks etc… and continue to miserably drive ourselves to a job we hate when what we really need is to start enjoying our lives while we are still young. This is hard for many of us to do for the fact that we do know how numbers work and if we’re reading blogs like this, we probably know what we “should” do with our finances. But life is not simply math and numbers. I believe there is another risk (that is rarely talked about in this space) of working too long and even working to a point where health suffers and creates more serious problems in the future. How many fit, happy, fulfilled middle aged people with strong relationships do you see in the typical corporate office who truly enjoy their lives? These components of our lives suffer in the pursuit of money and status. In reality, most of us won’t ever “retire.” Gwen will likely have 30ish years of life that she will look back on and be completely content with. (Even if she wasn’t making a six figure W2 salary). And then maybe, just maybe she will truly be retired when she hits “true” retirement age. In the meantime, she is doing what all the dirtbags have been doing for years but haven’t written a blog about :P.
The comments on this post have been much more entertaining than usual. Thanks to all for the entertainment – even the judgmental Johns. Awesome job, Gwen!
“Hi Jenny, I’m not retired yet. I’m financially independent in that I have the freedom to pursue work that interests me for the next 30 years instead of being tied down to a cubicle.”
I think Gwen’s context of “financially independent” means her parents and/or boyfriend are not funding her living month to month and she can break-even and pay her bills without assistance from others without touching her saved up $200K. Where FI in the FIRE context means something different to most of the readers of this blog. I would love if my now 23yr old somehow saved $200,000 in the next 4 years. This is quite an accomplishment.
Best of luck
What a great article and some fabulous comments to some very salty ones!