The FIRE Movement, Financial Samurai's Story, and Why it Matters: Achieving Financial Freedom Beyond the Dollar Amount

The FitBUX Podcast

Today's show will focus on the FIRE movement and the recent event that has brought it into the spotlight. We'll be discussing why financial freedom doesn't have to come with a dollar amount, why you need to simulate your plan and keep tracking it, and how a financial professional shed new light to this idea.

We'll start by exploring what the FIRE movement is all about. This acronym stands for Financial Independence/Retire Early, and it's a popular approach used by people looking to achieve financial freedom. It involves cutting back on expenses and investing wisely in order to build wealth over time in order to reach the goal of becoming financially independent and retiring early.

Then, we'll dive into the story of Financial Samurai, a well-known website among those in the FIRE community. He is a finance professional with experience in this area and has his own blog where he shares advice related to achieving financial freedom.

Next up, we will discuss why this particular example serves as an important lesson for anyone interested in achieving financial freedom. We'll explore how having $1 million does not necessarily equate to being financially free, how budgeting down every nickel isn't necessarily freedom either, and why having a bad attitude towards money isn't ideal either. We'll also talk about how most people wouldn't do something like go after full FIRE due to its high level of commitment-- but still use it as an example of what can be achieved if you are willing to put in the work.

We'll then get into more details about Financial Samurai's actual situation at hand-- he was in his 30s when he retired from his 9-5 job, had real estate generating income for him, had a blog generating income, was living in an expensive area with two kids going off to college-- only to realize that three million dollars worth of assets weren't enough for him! That leads us into our next point as we discuss why simulations are important when trying to figure out where you're at financially and why you can't just "set it and forget it" when it comes managing your finances.

Finally, we will conclude by highlighting how financial freedom is really about how you think about money instead of any arbitrary dollar amount-- something that Financial Samurai realized himself after coming back from retirement-- as well as discussing FitBUX as an easy way for anyone else interested in simulating their own plans and monitoring them closely over time so they don't end up in the same situation!