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Personal finance editor, author, and podcaster Jamila Souffrant credits the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement with helping her family realize their financial goals. She joins the latest episode of Financial Freestyle with Ross Mac to share her own experience with the FIRE movement and her advice for others interested in retiring early.
“Ultimately, the FIRE movement is based on the principles in which you save during your working years in order to have enough that your investment accounts or passive income streams pays for your expenses and lifestyle so you don’t have to work,” she says.
The method is based on a “FIRE number,” which is based on the amount you think you will need for retirement. Calculating this number requires investors to truly consider what they want their lifestyle to be like and how much money they are willing to spend.
Souffrant describes levels of frugality as “guac levels,” saying, “guac level five is the most extravagant. You have a private jet. You want the best of everything. Guac level one is you would never buy guacamole… at a restaurant. You’d make it at home.”
After learning about the FIRE movement herself, Souffrant and her husband started applying the principles to their life. They made budgets, calculated their expenses, and figured out what they were willing to cut back on. “That was difficult because it wasn’t just me,” she says. “I had… a husband who has different goals, different things, guac levels, he likes.”
They had to figure out what their goals were for their family. “For me, that wasn’t going to be a long commute while like bearing and having the children,” says Souffrant. Eventually, they agreed that they would, “invest–that was the priority–and save so we can have this nest egg and start off strong.”
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This post was written by Meredith Lawrence.
