I’ll be 50 next January and I’ve learned a few things in those years but some things come naturally to me. Here are a few of my decidedly unconventional and quirky ways I got to F.I.R.E. with a few dirty little secrets thrown in too my friends.
The lion’s share of concepts promoted by the F.I. community are not original. Well some are like save 50% of your income and retire in 10 to 12 years; that’s just FI-YAH. But most of the concepts are not late-breaking news. Achieving financial independence was pretty conventional for me, although I wouldn’t describe my financial idiosyncrasies and how I “money” common or normal.
DJ Sumarock, Grand-Ma DJ of Japan!
When I stumbled upon FI-YER (F.I.R.E.), I was undoubtedly intrigued. I applaud the millennial(s) who came up with the term and/or popularized it. I whole heartedly embrace it. However……
Before F.I.R.E. existed, and certainly before I knew about it, I was intentionally paying off my student loans, living below my means and investing.
I had most of the strategies already dialed in, yet learning about F.I.R.E. solidified WHY this “somewhat” O.G. wanted to retire early. It validated a growing conviction inside of me that craved more balance in life.
I wasn’t in the military after all and this wasn’t a war, I could make different choices if I wanted to. It gave me the permission to conceptualize a non-conformist life that did not include practicing medicine anymore. Just thinking about formulating a plan to get off the successful doctor hamster wheel was liberating. The down-time I needed to look within, to see who was there and to cultivate it.
I’ve come to believe that financial independence can solve the majority of burn out by introducing choice and THE ultimate autonomy; the freedom to make decisions based on what is GOOD for you, not what SHOULD be for you.
Enough with all the “Draking” in my feelings. Let’s get back to the off-beat tips, tricks and hacks I used unknowingly.
Thinking about how I wanted to convey my weirdness to you was a little bit of a challenge. I didn’t want to repeat the typical money-saving tips/tricks/hacks (TTH’s) you’ve all heard of and I’m sure most of you are already implementing. Instead I’de like to share the quirky O.G. slant on my – yes – VERY personal finances.
Maybe there’s another oddball maverick out there who will appreciate our methods or at least laugh at them (that’s cool too).
I have a few huge disclaimers though. I utilized these TTH’s for my very busy/high-income earner/contractor husband/no-kids-having life in a HCOL area.
Sherlock here with my megaphone stating the obvious and really loudly.
“Long-lasting success with money management begins and ends with your Net Worth”. I can’t count how many times I’ve said that. Unfortunately for many pre (knowing about) F.I.R.E. years, I was following my “Debt Paid Off So Far” List. Urgh! I can kick myself for not making one of those super nerdy, granular, eye-candy spread sheets, like Brad on Choose FI talks about. But I didn’t, so all I have is my list (dirty little secret #1 – no cumulative Net Worth document).
Eventually all the debts came off (minus my big-fat-mortgage) and I loved seeing my assets grow. Just like an ICU patient’s labs, I looked often and updated frequently. Still today when I am teaching newbies about personal finance, I stress that following your net worth is everything.
Your Quarterly Wining Lottery Ticket
Automatic deduction from my payroll check. Ha! I thought back to my first automatic (insert air quotes here) payroll deduction. It was when I was in high school working at Filene’s basement. My aunt took part of my pay check to set aside for college. Since then, I’ve always taken money out of my payroll check for savings before seeing it hit my banking account.
Early in my career, like clock work, we directed my bonuses to debt in big chunks. When all the debts were paid off minus the big-fat mortgage, we chose to invest or save it. I do have a secret I’ve been keeping for a while. Yikes! I’m almost afraid to tell you. I “blew” some of my bonus on individual stocks (dirty little secret #2). Yup, I broke the golden rule of F.I.R.E. finance. Ahhhh! So cathartic! You know that feeling when you loosen up your jeans? Yeah- that feeling. It was never more than $3K or $4K from each bonus. Consistently I did this for a long time and I never touched it. My thought process was if I lost it, so be it.
Investing in “flashy stocks” was fun and it was my form of gambling and entertainment. Following the antics of the various CEO’s and fluctuations in the stock price were a form of reality television I enjoyed. Best of all, in my Charlie’s Angels undercover spy persona, I tended to work one of my invested stocks into normal conversation. “Ha! They’ll use ‘said’ product and my stock price will go up” (insert maniacal laugh here). Welp, I recently looked at the balance of my “play money” and it’s almost up to $100K!
There is a season for budgets; Winter, Spring, Summer and Fall
For many years I was a YNAB fanatic. I gifted it, I promoted the free classes, I devoured the podcast (still do). I should have worked for the company in marketing. Yup, including the “toothpaste” category (insider’s YNAB joke). For a minute there, I earnestly believed all of life’s problems could be solved with a sound YNAB budget. Fun fact: here’s my favorite podcast of all time (#107).
Having complete control over our hard-earned coin, especially for the irregular expenses made life a fiscal delight. Much later, after I started and finished a budget for my Disco Ball-crafting, we relaxed a bit. Now, we anti-budget.
The Joneses who?
Emphatically – The Joneses can kiss my _____! I have never felt the need to impress anyone. Like several of you, I grew up in a small town and sometimes on welfare. During my childhood, I hardly ever got what the other kids enjoyed from dance classes every Saturday to the latest jeans. When I was old enough to work, I found a way to get what I valued. In fact, I was one of the first of my friends to own a car. The kids in the neighborhood affectionately nick-named it “the doo-doo brown” accompanied by a song they made up about it.
Fast forward ~20 years, we commonly declined 5-figure one-week exotic vacations. If we did take a high-end vacation, it was for a very special occasion or associated with a medical conference thus my work footed a hefty percentage of the bill.
I said “no” to a luxury car. I drove my average car (Prius) for 11 years.
Although I did live in a big, not-so-fancy house that could have been cheaper, I chose to be as close as tolerably possible to the hospital where I took call. No one wants to get up in the middle of the night after a frantic phone call and then have to drive for 30 minutes.
I didn’t pay for expensive dinners unless required for work purposes with one exception- a celebration dinner after paying off my student loans. In addition, my husband has an aversion to “fancy dinners”. Early in our courting, he used to say “let’s be romantic and split an entree” (insert his cheshire cat grin and my eye-roll emoji here). If I shopped for work clothes it was at Marshall’s and Etsy or some online off-label website (“the hunt” on the commercial – that’s real for me folks- hehehe).
Time and being satisfied with what I already have is enough for me on most days
What I value is NOT someone else’s opinion, it’s the 2F Mint Seat on Jet Blue and more importantly the TIME in which to enjoy it. Your’s might be the oh so coveted back-stage tickets to your favorite B-List singer, a neck-massager or less call during the month. Indulge unapologetically in what YOU value and forget about what the Joneses are doing.
Nefertiti is not the only queen of denial
The other day I was stopped at a light and I glanced over, I had NO IDEA there was a gas station connected to the car wash in my neighborhood! I’m literally blind to things that are too expensive sometimes. My eyes never saw that gas station! Subconsciously, I put it out of my mind a long time ago.
I remember a friend ordering room service at a review course once. She was very late getting to the Hotel and there were no viable food options. I thought “OMG, can you do that?” I kept myself on such a stringent path that I would NEVER think of ordering room service! I have literally starved in the past when this situation has come up. I can’t be the only one! Stand up fellow tunnel-visioned ding-dong’s (hehehe).
I’m a Hustla, I’m a I’m a Hustla”
-Cassidy
Hustle in my community means hard work and making your own way. The Urban dictionary’s definition is “to strive headstrong and voraciously towards a goal.”
I don’t know how, or why or when it became our love language, but we’ve always had a great chemistry regarding our collective “hustle”. As evidenced by our C.V.’s that show lots of “hands-on” experience; I sold bowls of clam chowder and T Shirts from my dorm room in college and Mr. D2D owned property in his early 20’s .
Hustling is our form of recreation
One of our favorite past times which organically seems to happen often is talking about our future projects, a new savings technique, or how we’re going to “parlay” our current efforts into the next. Like Pinky & the Brain we are constantly plotting to take over the world.
This Ain’t Our First Rodeo
We don’t let the tail wag the dog and there are many tails. We don’t do something weird to get a tax break. For big-ticket items we don’t buy things because they are on sale.
Dirty little secret #3, if we are doing a project we carry high credit card debt that we commonly can not pay in-full until the project is completed. Yes, it hurts to pay the interest, but it’s MUCH easier and we are rewarded in the end. This has been our process going on 20 years and it’s worked out just fine. Sometimes you have to take the risk to get the win.
We stay in our lane; college rentals, recently – vacation short-term rentals, or just saving our money and putting it into a broad based mutual fund.
We don’t do fancy S#!+ with our hard-earned / took-a-long time-to-accumulate money. Nope, you won’t see me backing a restaurant, buying Bitcoin or angel investing. We’re O.G.’s and we don’t change our spots (insert elderly Leopard here).
No judgment, what are your weirdo/bad ass TTH’s that have worked out just fine for you but don’t fit the F.I.R.E. script? Say it loud, say it proud (you know…… down there ……… in the comments and oh, by the way, subscribe too).
