Following on from yesterday’s article where I talked about the couple who were living the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) lifestyle but struggling to enjoy spending the £3.4 million they had amassed for their retirement…
I want to share with you a few more stories of people who are working towards (they might have achieved it by now) becoming financially independent and retiring early.
The New York Post ran an article in 2019 about millennials who were living lives of complete frugality and following extreme budgeting plans.
One of the people interviewed was Daniel (surname not given for anonymity), a 36-year-old lawyer who worked in New York but lived in a small apartment in New Jersey to avoid paying NYC taxes.
Daniel didn’t have a television, he preferred to read. His apartment was full of books which he bought from a local church for 50 pence each.
He didn’t go out and socialise, he didn’t eat in restaurants or order in takeaway food. He lived on a diet of rice and beans that he cooked in a slow cooker.
He owned five cheap suits that he would repair whenever they became damaged only replacing them when they couldn’t be repaired anymore. He had five pairs of work shoes which cost between £15 and £35 with the most expensive pair costing no more than £45.
Daniel didn’t need to live such a ‘cheapskate lifestyle’ as an ex-girlfriend called it; he was earning over £210,000 a year working as a lawyer.
Daniel was saving hard so that he could retire well before retirement age and enjoy life. He was creating his ‘fuck off fund’ so that he could tell life and people to well and truly ‘fuck off!’ and leave him alone.
At the time of the article being published in 2019, Daniel had surpassed savings of £315,000 and was set to retire by the age of 40.
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He wasn’t alone; the New York Post interviewed others who were also following extreme budgeting plans so that they could retire way before the socially-accepted retirement age.
Shang Saavedra, 34, and her husband were saving 50% of their combined six-figure-a-year income. They gave themselves a monthly entertainment budget of just £20!
At eight months pregnant, Saavedra sourced all of her baby gear for free from people on social media. She was a member of the ‘Buy Nothing’ Facebook group which helped her to source a lot of free stuff.
Their goal was to be financially independent and retired from working within a few years.
Another extreme budgeter, Carmen Perez, started her life of extreme frugality when she was 29 and in £45,000 of debt.
Within three years she had replaced her debt with £40,000 in savings, bought a home in Connecticut, had left her job and was working towards a new career online.
As well as living frugally and following an extreme budget, Carmen started a side hustle to bring in more money.
She told the New York Post:
“Get a side hustle. There are so many side gig opportunities in the city that can help with adding money to your savings.”
I’ve talked a lot about side hustles and different ways to make money.
In 2019 when the article was published, it might have been a lot easier to save as it was pre-covid and pre-cost-of-living crisis.
However, she is absolutely right that a side hustle is a fantastic way to make more money which can be added to your savings pot to make your future better, or at least… make your life easier today.
Side hustles (a second income) can be hard work, especially if you have a full-time job.
Side hustles require work.
Making money doesn’t have to require work and it doesn’t have to be hard either.
It can be easy, just like ‘The Easy As 1-2-3 Betfair System’ by John Banks.
John Banks makes a couple of simple checks to see which horses qualify and then he places his bets.
It’s as easy as that.
There is nothing complex to learn or any complicated working-out to be done, simply check that a specific criterion is met, and you are good to go.
With the ‘The Easy As 1-2-3 Betfair System’ you could be doubling your money every 3 to 4 weeks.
Discover more here:
Easy As 1-2-3
Kind regards.
John Harrison.
P.S… You can started right away with just £100 and after 6 months, you could be sitting on a decent tax free £12,800!
Here’s that link again: