Exactly 10 years ago, I released the first episode of the Financial Independence Podcast!
To celebrate this big birthday, I’ve collected all the best advice from my interviews with my very first podcast guest – Mr. Money Mustache!Listen Now
- Listen on Spotify or Apple Podcasts
- Download MP3 by right-clicking here
Highlights
- Mr. Money Mustache’s investing strategy
- Thoughts on real-estate investing vs. stock-market investing
- How to invest in a raging bull market
- The benefits of hitting FI before having kids
- Why you’ll likely make money after retiring early
- Mr. Money Mustache’s biggest splurge
- How to decide whether to pay off your mortgage early
- The best part of financial independence
- How to find meaning after early retirement
- Most challenging part of post-FI life
- The impact of financial independence on personal relationships
Show Links
- Financial Independence Podcast
- Episode #01 – Mr. Money Mustache – Early Retirement Made Easy
- Episode #24 – Camp Mustache – Q&A with Mr. Money Mustache, Afford Anything, & Military Guide
- Mr. Money Mustache
That bit about having your mind divided after having kids really hits home for me. I was one of those dedicated career-minded people before kids, and it was never the same after having kids. (I love my kids, but they were detrimental to my career.) I did feel like I had less time and less ability to focus on any job I had after having my kids because I did have something else occupying my thoughts and priorities. In the end, I took time off from my career to focus on them. Being close to our lean-FIRE number at the time made it possible for us to do that. Mr. FD kept working, and financially we were still really stable.
Totally agree with 99.9% of this interview.
I was the guy who hung out the extra 5 years. It did allow me to buy the big house at the marina behind the gate. So in hindsight I’m glad I did but I had a reason.
If you don’t have a reason to hang on, he is spot on. Set a date and leave when your cash flow exceeds your expenses. If you can set less hours and test the waters there is no looking back.
If your family has longevity you have more options. If not get out of the grind ASAP. Life is too short. His clarity of thought and happiness in his voice says it all.
Fantastic!
Hi Mad Fientist,
Your first episode with MMM might have been the first podcast episode I ever listened to. If not, it was one of the first. You and MMM really opened a lot of people’s minds to a new world of possibilities, including mine, thank you very much for that. Your podcast remains the only one that I fully keep up with.
Also very interesting how you sliced down to the meatiest parts of a couple different interviews, well done.
Regarding kids, we weren’t able to get to FI before kid #1, but we did manage to get there before kid #2, thanks to you and MMM, so that’s worked out really well. My wife continues to work half time, which she enjoys. She used the confidence gained via our FI status to negotiate a totally new role in her company that fits her really well.
Thanks again man!
Wow, really great to hear all that :)
Congrats on ten years! Perfect show for celebrating it.
Great compilation. Regarding kids and career, completely agree raising kids is a career itself. While I was always about saving money, not working into 60s, being mindful of spending & value, I did not discover FIRE, MMM, and JL Collins until we were pregnant with our second kid. Then I realized if we even had delayed the kids by 3 years each, it would’ve made a huge difference given how much our incomes grew after we had our kids.
Sage advice ever received : “A part of everything I earn is mine to save and invest—for my future.”
Nice to revisit this. Since I first heard MMM say all of this, I achieved FIRE. Looking back, everything he said has proven true for me. Thanks for putting this together.
What a great distillation of Mr. Money Mustache’s 10 years. Thank you!
Grateful for the work you and Pete have done. 7 years into saving for FI and MAN has it given us options! Thank you guys.
Congratulations on 10 years! I enjoy your podcast and often listen to the old ones. Great info! Thank you
Thank you, everyone, for all the kind comments!
Amazing. Loved It. What a perfect summary.
Anyone else just putting this on repeat and re-listening to it 5 times in a row? The beauty of a short and condensed recording while listening to very wise words. Thanks MF for making it happen!
Sounds like I need to make some more “Best of” episodes!
Thanks for putting this together. It’s had a profound effect on me this afternoon. I really think I’ll make this my last year of work. It’s not like I’m talking about very early retirement. I’m 59. I have been thinking about it a lot in the last year or so but my previous conclusion was to work three more years. However, this reiterated what I always hear from early retirees. They wish they had done it sooner.
I think about the death bed analogy. Is it even remotely possible that I will wish I had worked an additional couple of years? Or will I be more satisfied that I got to spend more time with my elderly mother and more time traveling and seeing my adult sons? Or more time working on my health, well being, and growth? No contest!
Wow, best of luck with your now-impending retirement and let us know how it goes!
I retired from the Army two years ago after 22 years in. I am now “mostly” retired and am working with a great group of friends in an IT business. I work from home. I get to determine my schedule generally. I have “relatively” young children who were 11 and 6 when I retired from the Army. While I had great friends in the Army and enjoyed my time, I am incredibly happy to be out of that grind.
So many people talk about “retirement” as doing nothing. That’s really the wrong approach. Retirement is about having the freedom to do what you want to do. For me, that’s been continuing to help build a business, to spend much more time with family, and to work on the projects I choose to. Like MMM, I love working on my house. It’s a bit of a splurge, but I absolutely enjoy it.