This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Financial independence, retire early. It's called fire and it's a trend that's not going away. Welcome to Sadosville School. My name is Chris Guillebeau. Got a listener question about this very topic today.
A lot of people are interested in the idea of saving a high percentage of their income, being extremely frugal and retiring early, sometimes way early, sometimes at the age of 40 or even 35 or earlier. I miss that boat, but maybe in my next life. So this listener wants to know how Sadosville School fits into the model or vice versa, or are they compatible at all? And as part of my answer, I'll give you my number one and number two tips if you're interested in fire. All right, stay tuned.
We're gonna dive in in this episode. [Music]
Hi Chris, this is Barry from Milwaukee and I recently found your show and have been enjoying the content. Can you talk briefly about fire, financially independent, retire early? How does Sadosville School fit into that concept? I've been reading a lot about the fire movement and I love the idea of being able to retire in my late 30s or early 40s.
And I've started saving at least 30% of my income with the goal of making that happen. What do you think about the fire concept and how does Sadosville School fit into it? Or does it? Thanks Chris, and I look forward to hearing from you. [Music]
Hey Barry, thanks so much for listening from Milwaukee.
I hope I can get to Milwaukee at some point. I was supposed to go there on my 40 city tour. So look forward to regrouping on that. Anyway, thank you so much for listening. And yes, let's talk about fire.
It's interesting because I was reading about this model, this concept at least 15 years ago. I first discovered it from the source that a lot of people do, which is a book called "Your Money or Your Life" by Vicki Robin. I think it went out of print for a while or at least some of the content was outdated, but it has had a resurgence. There's a new updated edition to reflect some changes in investment strategy and so on. So anyway, I know I think it's great.
I have a couple of concerns and when I say these concerns, they're not meant to be criticisms. It's more just like some observations, a little tweak or adjustment that I might suggest to some people who are really into this. So a lot of this movement is very analytical in the sense of like there's a lot of spreadsheets, there's these calculators, this great focus on finding your number, whatever your number is, the point of the point where you feel like you can safely quit your job, et cetera. So there's a lot of focus on the minutia of savings and comparatively little on what's the point? Like why are you doing this?
Like what will you do if you're retired actually? And I think it's designed for people who really don't like their work. And that's a lot of people to be fair, but I tend to connect more with people who do like their work and don't want to retire necessarily. So leaving aside that whole point, I think tip number one is just to be intentional about, like if you're gonna go down this road, why do you want to do it? If you have a goal in mind and this whole path lines up with that, then excellent.
Okay, the second thing is, second concern, which leads to my suggested adjustment or tweak, is that there tends to be, at least in my observation, more focus on saving than earning. And I really believe that like the best thing you can do is to make more money. If you have an average income, you can scrap and save, you can live extremely frugally, which is the way that some people in this movement do and technically achieve your goal. But it will be far, far easier if you can actually increase your income, which is what I try to help people with. And then maybe not stress out as much about buying whatever kind of coffee you want to drink.
I think it's actually a lot easier to find a way to pay for that $5 coffee than it is to just not buy the $5 coffee. So that's what I try to teach here on this program at least. And with all the effort that some people put toward the saving side, like I said, some people are fanatical about it. I wonder how effective they might be if they focus more on earning. So that's just my suggestion.
No offense to any fire fans, anybody in that community. I'm with you on the concept. I just think it's more important to earn than to continually cut costs. So tip number one is earn more than you save. And remember, always do what's best for you.
Listeners, if you've got a question, come to sidehustleschool.com/questions. We'll be featuring them throughout the year, along with updates from other listeners as they launch their projects. Wherever you are in the world today, take a deep breath and then let's get to work. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
- From the Onward Project.
