A few days ago, I broke some big news on this blog. After 3 years of law school and 5 years of working as an attorney, I made a huge move, choosing to opt-out of the clear career path and instead make the move to the wholly unclear path of self-employment and gig work.
It’s a scary thing for me to do. And it doesn’t come without its fair share of criticism. One of the most common has to do with the fact that I quit my job when I’m obviously nowhere near financially independent. This move – which results in an uncertain future (and uncertain income) – will likely set me back on whatever path to financial independence I might have been on.
It’s a seemingly risky play. And yet, on closer inspection, maybe it’s not really that risky at all – at least not when you take a bigger picture view of things.
Life, if you think about it, can be broken down into three fairly distinct stages. I think it looks something like this:
- School: 0-22 Years Old
- Work: 22-65 Years Old
- Retirement: 65+ Years Old
The FIRE movement (financial independence, retire early) did something interesting with that basic framework of school, work, and retirement, essentially taking that “work” part of life and dramatically shortening it. Instead of a 40-year working career, FIRE proponents figured out that if you maintained a high savings rate, you could cut down that middle stretch of life to half the time or more. Many of the biggest names in the FIRE movement have shown that, with frugal living and a high savings rate, that “work” portion of life can be shortened to just 10 years or less.
I’m on board with shortening that “work” part of life, but for a lot of people on the path to FIRE, I think there’s a bit of tunnel vision that happens where you sort of forget just how long 40 years really is. That’s a long time with a lot of stuff that you can do during it. And yet, when you talk to a lot of FIRE people, you seem to get a sense that there really isn’t any time to mess around during the “work” phase of life. Instead, the typical advice is to play it safe, buckle down early, and hit financial independence as soon as possible. Once you’ve done that, THEN you can go ahead and try things out and do whatever it is you really want to do with your life.Â
I think there’s a problem here though in discounting those early work years. There’s a lot of value in them – you’ve got energy, you’ve got a lot of drive, and most importantly, you’ve got time. Years and years of time, in fact. But so often, it seems like we waste those years, treating it as something to slog through, rather than something to take advantage of.
Understanding exactly how long 40 years really is exactly why I feel so comfortable with my decision to step away from the traditional FIRE path and to try to create my own path to FIRE. Because with so much time in the “work” phase of my life, is there really that much risk with taking a detour?
The Traditional Path to FIRE
One of the things I’ve noticed about the FIRE community is how it seems to view work and its role in reaching financial independence. For most people in the FIRE community, it seems like a job is something you tolerate –Â a tool that you use to get yourself to the promised land of financial independence. And once you hit that point, you can discard that tool and go do whatever it is you really want to do.
That’s exactly how I viewed FIRE when I first discovered it a few years ago. I was at a miserable point in my life, paying off student loans, and just hoping that I could one day do anything besides the job that I was doing right then. FIRE provided an escape from what was making me unhappy. It told me that if I did things a certain way, I could be done working in my 30s or 40s. Then I could be happy and find something else to do. Life could look like the below if I played my hand right. All I had to do was just slog through some crappy work years.
- School: 0-22 Years Old
- Work: 22-32 Years Old
- Retirement: 32+ Years Old
Interestingly, I’d already found work that made me happy. I’d been doing gig economy stuff in my spare time, using it as an escape from the day-to-day work life that I dreaded. And when I started this blog and started having fun doing that, it provided another escape from my regular day-to-day work.
But financial independence – that was always going to be reached by finding myself a good job that I could handle and working there until I reached the number I needed.
In a way, this traditional path to FIRE (or at least as traditional as FIRE can be), seems to view life as short. Get through those beginning parts quickly and then you’ll have the rest of your life to do what you want. If you don’t do that, you’re just throwing away more years of your already short life.
But what if we didn’t think of it that way?
Life Is Long – An Alternative Way To Think About FIRE
One of the things that make the FIRE movement so powerful is just how remarkable those principles are when you apply them to your life. Many of us changed our lives after we read the Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement. And Four Pillar Freedom has his awesome Early Retirement Grid which details how long it’ll take you to reach financial independence based on what you earn and what you spend.
What both of these authors showed us is that financial independence is something that you can reach much faster than most people think. A 50% savings rate means you’ll only have to work for 17 years. So, someone graduating from college at 22 years old, then applying that 50% savings rate principle means they’ll be financially independent before they’re 40 years old. Increase that number to 65% or more and you’re looking at financial independence in 10 years or less – retirement at 30, rather than 65.
Those are amazing things to see and it’s easy to see why so many people get sucked into this world and want to hit that financial independence point as soon as possible. But there’s a lot more to these FIRE principles beyond just playing it safe, saving money, and then doing what you want. Because what those principles also show us is that FIRE is in reach for almost anyone, regardless of when you start. When you combine that with the fact that the work part of our life is 40 or more years, well, suddenly, anything seems possible. Life can look like this:Â
- School: 0-22 Years Old
- Work: 22-32 Years Old (try some things out and succeed or fail); 32-42 years old (work normally if all else fails)
- Retirement: Be “retired” at 32 doing something you’ve been working on that you love for the past 10 years. If all else fails, go back to the traditional FIRE path and retire at 42 Years Old
The basic takeaway from this post is this. Contrary to what some people might think, life is actually very long – much longer than most of us realize. This means we can afford to take chances during the “work” phase of our life because, in truth, we have nothing but time.
Imagine someone discovering the FIRE movement at 40 years old. If these FIRE principles are true, that means someone could literally start with nothing at 40 years old and potentially be financially independent at 50. That’s a full 15 years before most people are even thinking about retirement or financial independence.
Importantly, what this means is that the 40-year “work” phase of life gives you a lot of room to try things out and take chances. Financial independence doesn’t necessarily require playing it safe for the first decades of your working life. Instead, you can use those years as a testing and building ground, figuring out who you are and what really drives you.
Think about it. You can graduate from college, and literally spend a decade trying to figure out some way to earn a living, and if you completely fail, start from nothing at 32 years old and still reach financial independence in your 40s. Heck, you could spend 20 years trying things and failing and still reach financial independence in your 50s after two decades of failure. My guess is that most people won’t need two decades to figure out how they can make a living in a way that brings them real joy.
When someone hears that I quit my job, their first reaction might be that this was a stupid move with a lot of risk. Even folks who understand FIRE would say the same thing – trading away certainty for uncertainty will likely do nothing but set me back.
But when you just remember how much life I have, the possibilities become endless. Forty years is a long time. It too often seems like the path to FIRE is thought of as something to tread carefully on – never deviating from the path. I just don’t think this is true.
I’m 32-years old right now. I could try my hand at this blogging venture for 10 years, completely fail, and make no money. But if I understand how FIRE works, it means, no matter what, I’m only a short ways away from reaching financial independence.Â
So where’s the risk?
More Recommended Ebike/Scooters
Check out these other ebikes/scooters I've had the chance to do a review for:
- GEN3 Outcross Bike – The GEN3 Outcross is a solid, affordable fat tire ebike that does a good job of doing what I need it to do. It works great for city riding, giving me a smooth ride in all conditions. It’s works really well as a winter ebike since the fat tires give it good traction over snow and ice. Check out my GEN3 Outcross Review.
- Himiway Escape Bike – The Himiway Escape is an interesting bike for anyone looking for a moped-style ebike. If you’re a gig economy worker, the Himiway Escape is particularly interesting and it’s possible to think of it as an investment, especially if you can opt to do deliveries with the Himiway versus using a car. It’s not cheap, but you can definitely make your money back when you compare the mileage you’ll put on your car versus using an ebike. Check out my Himiway Escape Bike Review.
- Espin Sport Bike – The Espin Sport is a good ebike for someone who is looking for an ebike that feels and rides more like a regular bike. There are many ebikes that are really only bikes in name. In reality, they’re basically electric mopeds. The Espin Sport, by contrast, is a bike you could probably ride without the battery and you’d feel like you’re just riding a regular bike. Check out my Espin Sport Review.
- Varla Eagle One Scooter – The Varla Eagle One is an excellent scooter that can make sense for a lot of people. It can work as a primary mode of transportation. You can use it to work on gig economy apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats, and Grubhub. And it can also be a recreational vehicle if you’d prefer to use it for that. Check out my Varla Eagle One Review.
- Fucare H3 Scooter – The Fucare H3 is a fun scooter and I’ve enjoyed testing it out. For a daily commuter or quick trips or errands, the Fucare H3 is probably the scooter I’ll use. It’s portable and easy to maneuver, so it’s just easier to take on the road when I need it. Check out my Fucare H3 Scooter Review.
More Recommended Investing App Bonuses
For additional investing app bonuses, be sure to check out the ones below:
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- Fifth Third Bank ($225) – This offer is limited to customers in the following states: Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia, and South Carolina. If you don’t live in one of those states, you won’t be able to open an account online but you can still open an account in-branch if you happen to be visiting a city that has a branch. This is a fairly easy bank bonus to earn, especially since there are plenty of data points showing what will trigger the direct deposit requirement. In addition, you can open the Fifth Third Momentum Checking bank account, which comes with no monthly fees or minimum balance requirements. Read my guide on this bonus here.
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- Netspend ($40 + 5% Interest Savings Account) – Netspend is a company that provides 5% interest savings accounts. If you sign up using my referral link, you’ll get a $40 signup bonus once you make your first deposit into your Netspend account of $40 or more. That means you get a 5% interest savings account and a free $40 to start! Make sure to check out my in-depth guide on how to set up these accounts.
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- Digital Federal Credit Union ($20) – Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) is a free, nationwide credit union that I recommend to readers for two reasons. First, DCU has a $20 referral bonus if you open a free DCU checking account with a referral link. Second, DCU has a saving account that gives you 6.17% interest on your first $1,000. Check out my in-depth post on how to set this account up.
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Kevin is an attorney and the blogger behind Financial Panther, a blog about personal finance, travel hacking, and side hustling using the gig economy. He paid off $87,000 worth of student loans in just 2.5 years by choosing not to live like a big shot lawyer.
Kevin is passionate about earning money using the gig economy and you can see all the ways he makes extra income every month in his side hustle reports.
Kevin is also big on using the latest fintech apps to improve his finances. Some of Kevin's favorite fintech apps include:
- SoFi Money. A really good checking account with absolutely no fees. You'll get a $25 referral bonus if you open a SoFi Money account with a referral link, and an additional $250 if you complete a direct deposit.
- US Bank Business. US Bank is currently offering new business customers a $750 signup bonus after opening a new account and meeting certain requirements.
- M1 Finance. This is a great robo-advisor that has no fees and allows you to create a customized portfolio based on your risk tolerance. You also get $100 for opening an account.
- DCU. Digital Federal Credit Union (DCU) is a free, nationwide credit union that I recommend to readers for two reasons. First, DCU has a $20 referral bonus if you open a free DCU checking account with a referral link. Second, DCU has a savings account that gives you 6.17% interest on your first $1,000.
- Personal Capital. One of best free apps you can use to monitor your portfolio and track your net worth. This is one of the apps I use to track my financial accounts.
Feel free to send Kevin a message here.
To answer your final question, the risk has to do with timing and compounding risk due to our finite life.
As we age, the probability of death, serious illness, or injury increases. Accordingly, the expected number of future healthy years continues to shrink. The actual number can be estimated from actuarial tables plus knowledge of your genetics/family history and lifestyle. For some FIRE adherents who want to maximize the overlap of their FIRE years with these healthy years, they may be unwilling to trade away a decade or more of future FIRE years for 5-10 years of uncertain YOLO-ish years while still young. The counterargument to this is that future years are not guaranteed and if someone really wants to spend some of their younger years pursuing something then they might be willing to make that trade.
Similarly, on the financial side there is the time value of money to consider. Based on historical investment performance, hitting a FIRE number 10 years earlier can result in 2 times more money (or more) at all future years compared to hitting that same number later. For those seeking extra security in their plan or the potential for a more lavish lifestyle in the future, this is something that cannot be ignored. The counterargument here is that someone who has already saved for FIRE for several years has already done most of the hard work (since the earliest years of saving have highest impact on future outcome) and can afford to take some risk during later parts of the accumulation phase without completely derailing FIRE.
I’m not saying that there’s a right or wrong answer to this choice, but just that there are good arguments for either side and it’s up to individuals to make the choice for themselves.
For what it’s worth, I also recently left my stable high-paying job at the same time as you in order to take my own risks in life. Best of luck on your adventure!
-Your 2018 CampFI Midwest roomie
Hey Mitchell,
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I’ve thought about that as well that the future isn’t guaranteed. To me, that’s always pushed more towards going for your dreams and passions or whatever else it is that drives you early on, rather than the safer route of sticking through a job that might not light you up. I guess one thing is that I tend to associate the YOLO lifestyle as basically goofing off, whereas my thought with those first years isn’t to goof off, but to work on your passion. Like anything we do in life, the work we put in early tends to compound later – so a business or something that drives you will compound over those early years.
Time value of money is another thing to think about, but at the same time, does FIRE take that into account? Because my understanding has always been that once you hit your target number, it doesn’t matter at what point you hit it, but only that you hit it. In other words, hitting your FIRE number at 30 doesn’t change the equation for FI vs hitting your FIRE number at 50.
Congrats on leaving your job as well! Hopefully we can chat about our ventures at the next meetup!
Re. time value of money: what I meant is that someone who hits their FIRE number 10 years earlier will likely have ~2x the money at the same age of someone who hit the same FIRE number later. So someone who hits $1 million at 35 will likely have ~$2 million at 45 (depending on spending levels and investment performance, of course) vs someone who delays saving for FIRE and hits $1 million at 45. This gap due to earlier saving will continue to increase over time as both age.
Whether or not this is important is a personal decision!
Why don’t you post blog income reports? I suspect one reason is that your blog income is a multiple of your side hustling income, and that by posting such information you’d reveal that, in fact, it’s more profitable to blog about side hustling than to partake.
Financial Hippo, it’s likely that his blog income does already/will later surpass his side hustle income, but that’s not the point. He’s not stating he lives only off that quoted side hustle income, which would be inaccurate.
I’ve found that Kevin has done a great job highlighting side hustles that can be picked up easily and can be good money earners if they dedicate the time and effort to them.
Blogging for income can be a fickle beast and not always easily replicable. Kevin’s focus isn’t on showing this path to make income, so fair enough he doesn’t include this in his side hustle reports.
Thanks for chiming in Michelle. I mean, honestly, if anyone wants to know what I’ve been making on this blog, seriously, email me with a well-crafted reason about why that number is important to you (for example, you’re starting your own blog and want to know what the possibilities are or whatever). I’m not against sharing it if there’s a reason you want to know.
So, two reasons why I don’t post blog income reports: (1) I never really saw how blog income reports helped the non-blogging reader, or really most readers, for that matter, and (2) I didn’t really want to be someone that makes money by blogging about making money blogging.
Let me explain in a little more detail.
First, blogging is something that requires two things: time and some luck. While I believe that most people eventually earn money blogging, the vast majority of people will not make any money for years and years. My point of side hustles was to help people make money right away, which is why I’ve always shared side hustles that, in my opinion, most people can do and start earning money immediately. I could write about all the money I make blogging – but does that really help anyone right now? If I’m telling people I made X amount blogging last month, someone reading isn’t going to be able to do that right away. It’ll take them years and maybe never at all.
Second, I suspect that a lot of bloggers that blog about how much money they make blogging do so because it helps them earn income essentially showing others how to make money blogging. I didn’t necessarily want to become that type of blog. There’s nothing wrong about blogging about blogging, but nothing annoys me more when I see a post that says, 10 best side hustles, and one of them is blogging. Blogging is not a side hustle. It’s a business that takes a LONG time to build up and that you’ll make literally nothing on for years.
In other words, for a lot of people, blogging is a luxury, since it means you have the means right now to work for free, like someone doing an unpaid internship to land a big job.
So, to answer your question – absolutely it can be more profitable to blog about side hustling then it is actually side hustle. One is a scalable business. The other is a non-scalable gig work. It can also be more profitable to blog or be a youtuber than it is to be a lawyer or doctor simply due to scale. So what does that say about even elite jobs that require years of schooling? It’s just showing that scale matter – the owner of a business that can reach a lot of people will always make more than an employee can. But it’s not guaranteed, unlike working for a paycheck – you trade off one for the other.
This blog wasn’t an overnight success. I literally have written over 200,000 words over three years to get to this point. Many others might not be willing to put in that kind of time.
I know you’ve said you don’t have kids. I suspect that many, even most in the FIRE movement do not. Kids change economics, a lot. There is also housing, especially if you have a mortgage. In our area, housing is very expensive (SF Bay). Unless you are pulling $200k a year, no way can you think about even a small home. Kids and a home here? That FIRE is a small ember.
Absolutely. But does kids change the FIRE number, because if you’re spending X and saving Y percent, that’s ultimately the only number that matters. If you raise your spending, then you’ll have to have a higher FIRE number. I don’t think that changes the fact that, if FIRE principles are believed, 50% savings rate equals 17 years of work. 65% or more equals 10 years of work. With 40 years in our working lives, many of us can still afford to take 5 or 10 years in the beginning to build our dreams and see if we can make it, because that still leaves us 30-35 years to buckle down.
Hi. Great post.
I agree that your younger years are valuable. I travelled a lot in my early 20s. Didn’t save a thing. I’m sure if I did a PV of that spend today it would be a lot. But the life experience was worth far more.
Same with kids. I’ve got four of them and in a financial sense they cost a lot. But I’d never give them up. FIRE can be a little too black and white.
Jump, flap your wings and see if you can fly!
Thanks Jim! No doubt about those kids. Four of them especially! And yes, we’ll see how far I can fly. Worst case, I crash and burn and go back to doing what I was doing already.
Good article. Well my thoughts on this is that the longer you leave it the less likely you can do FIRE as quickly as when you are younger. Family life will put a dent in it for sure.
However as your income grows as you get older this hedges against it as long as your lifestyle is in check.
The other thing is that you are growing a business which does not have a ceiling of earning. Not trading time for dollars. So you have the potential to replace and exceed your old fixed salary.
You aren’t sitting around just watching the grass grow.
Aaron
True about growing a business and not watching the grass to grow – and that’s the point I was trying to make. A lot of people get on the FIRE path and there seems to be this view that you can’t deviate at all. I see FIRE as giving yourself even more freedom to take risks and chase passions or ideas, because if you fail, you still have plenty of time to catch up and FIRE.
i messed around and did whatever i wanted up until age 35 when i met my wife. i’m sure my net worth was negative 16 years ago but once we combined forces we got to a financial independence number in 14 years or so with some luck and good investments. we have middle class jobs and no silver spoons.
what i’m saying is that i wouldn’t trade those carefree years from age 18 to 35 for anything. like you said, i was young and had all kinds of boundless energy to take chances and go crazy. i think i’ve lived a lot of peoples’ bucket lists and then some.
That’s amazing. And if my math is right, that means you still hit FI a decade before most people. That’s the power of the FIRE movement.
It seems I was attracted to FIRE for the same reasons as you (burnout and work dissatisfaction) and subsequently slightly disenchanted by FIRE for some of the same reasons as you. While I still subscribe to the broad philosophy, I think I over-consumed the blog content and burned out on the hacks, repetitive savings tips, “voice of God” advice and echo chamber vibe of the whole thing. FIRE became a bit too identitarian and doctrinaire for me. It didn’t help that many of the FIRE bloggers seemed to make money exactly as you said–blogging about the business of blogging–while simultaneously preaching the virtues of extreme frugality.
Also, to your point about quitting your W2 job – it seems that position only represented a minority of your monthly income along with the blogging and side hustles (not to mention your overall household income with your spouse). So it seems the financial hit is more than manageable, and actually may be wholly made up for by being able to increase your other revenue streams using your newly-liberated time (or developing an as-yet-undiscovered supplemental revenue source). A year after quitting my extremely demoralizing city government job, my income has doubled, largely due to one semi-unexpected opportunity and one very unexpected opportunity. Anything is possible.
I think a lot of us turn to FIRE simply due to burnout and job dissatisfaction and then sort of have to backtrack later. It’s really normal. My issue really has just been that the solution to being unhappy with work isn’t to keep working at the same place for 10 years until you can quit. It’s to go get another job or go do something else. There are way too many options out there!
I love how you left your job, then found your income actually increased! This is exactly the way to think. Most traditional FIRE folks would’ve said quitting is a mistake – instead stick it out until you’re FI.
Kevin, this is a great post but my perception is that your risk is a calculated one. First, you’re leaving your job to do something that required planning ahead of pulling the plug. In short, you’re being proactive instead of reactive. Second, I believe you’ve built a financial
position (emergency fund, investments, etc) to be in a place where you can pull the plug and have running room to try things. Third, I believe your wife owns her own practice so even though you might not be counting on that at all, it probably gives you additional flexibility to explore new endeavors. Fourth, you don’t have kids and that has to give you peace of mind to succeed in your projects or fail forward. All in all, I applaud your transparency and the intentionality you put in every single post you share. Best of lucks!
Thanks! Yes, it’s definitely a calculated risk. I’ve been working on things for a while to get myself to a position where I could take chances. And yes, it definitely helps that my wife works too.
Hey Kevin,
Really enjoy the great content on your blog, and congrats on going full time. It sounds like you’ve got a solid way ahead, and it’s a nice thought that you’ll always have your law degree to fall back on.
I look forward to reading more about your full time FIRE adventure now and wish you the best of luck.
Thanks Justin! Yep, it’s good that I have education to fall back on. Worst case, I’ll probably just go to library science school and maybe try to be a law librarian.
Brilliant move. Gutsy and 100% the right choice. Your upside potential is unlimited, and even your worst-case scenario isn’t too shabby. Like someone else commented, and as is true with a lot of FI debates, what matters is that you’re being deliberate and calculated. I did the uncalculated path of just living it up for a decade with no purpose. It was fun, but I probably could have had just as much fun while pursuing a smarter financial plan. So I’m a little jealous :).
In a somewhat-similar vein, my husband and I have been talking about taking a “gap year” of sorts. Sure, it would push our FI timeline back a bit, but we’re also hovering around the 40-mark and concerned that some of the crazy hikes, adventures, and business ideas we want to take on will only be harder the older we get. Like your plan, it would be a calculated risk based on what we want to get out of life and the reality that our best years are slipping through our fingers. Heck, even if we took a year (or more) off and then reentered the work force (we’re lawyers too, not concerned about being able to find a job if we need to), we’d still be able to retire way, way before most people.
I haven’t seen much in the FI world along these lines, but it’s a perfectly valid approach. You’ve given me even more to think about, so thanks for that!
Hey Kate, I’m glad my post resonated with you. That’s the thing about thinking outside the box and being deliberate with our plans – even if we mess up, we’re still in great positions. Take a chance if you think you’re in the position to take chances!