Welcome to A Purple Life!
In 2015 I decided that a traditional career wasn’t for me. I wanted a different life, A Purple Life. I created a plan based on my income and spending at the time and calculated that I could retire in 2025 at 35.
I’ve always loved optimization so I started reading every finance and investing book I could get my hands on. As a result of all this learning, experimenting and planning I was able to cut my time to retirement in half.
To do that I got new, higher paying jobs and reduced my expenses by 40% without changing my standard of living by moving from Manhattan to Seattle.
In July 2020 I hit my FIRE number and in October 2020 I quit my job to retire at 30. I wrote monthly updates on my countdown to retirement and continue to write monthly updates about my early retired life.
If you’re curious how I got to this point, I wrote a “How Did I Get Here?” series detailing every year from college to retirement:
- $5K to Retirement In 9 Years: Year 1 “Is This Adulting?”
- $5K to Retirement In 9 Years: Year 2 “Avoiding My Problems With Exercise & Consumerism”
- $5K to Retirement In 9 Years: Year 3 “Discovering FIRE…And Ignoring It”
- $5K to Retirement In 9 Years: Year 4 “Catching A Unicorn”
- $5K to Retirement In 9 Years: Year 5 “A Seattle Bait & Switch”
- $5K to Retirement In 9 Years: Year 6 “Searching for Bigfoot”
- $5K to Retirement In 9 Years: Year 7 “The Goldilocks Zone”
- $5K to Retirement In 9 Years: Year 8 “The Boring Part”
- $5K to Retirement In 9 Years: Year 9 “The Final Countdown”
FAQ
Here are posts and quick answers to the frequently asked questions I receive about my journey:
Job
- What was my profession? Marketing & Advertising
Finances
- What’s my current income, spending and net worth? I update my net worth monthly and my income and spending annually on my Numbers page, but I was aiming to spend $20K/year in 2020 when I quit plus an inflation increase every year of retirement
- How do I keep my expenses so low? A flexible lifestyle with no house, car, kids or pets 🙂
- Why am I comfortable retiring with $500,000? Because of my many backup plans and the fact that the math works
- How is my money invested? VTSAX (Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund)
- Where are all my financial accounts? Vanguard, Ally, Lively, a Credit Union and Charles Schwab
- Do I use a financial advisor? No – I DIY invest and do not trust financial advisors unless they’re a fiduciary and even then prefer fee-only advisors
- How do I pull from my tax-advantaged accounts before retirement age? I’m using a Roth IRA Conversion Ladder
- How do I sell investments to fund my retirement? Here’s a step-by-step guide
Medical
- What are my health insurance plans as a global nomad? World Nomads travel insurance and WA Apple Health
Relationships
- Do my partner and I have completely separate finances? Yes
- Is my partner financially independent? Yes
- Are my partner and I ever getting married? No
- Am I ever having kids? No
So that’s me 🙂 . Feel free to follow along to see what happens next…
Wow, there are so many wins crammed into this post that it’s basically a cheat sheet! We’ve done all of those things too with great results. People, take these suggestions to heart because they work.
Haha – if I was a more design savvy person maybe I’d make it into a cheat sheet 🙂 . Great to know similar tactics worked for y’all too! Tried and true.
Wow! That’s amazing how you were able to cut costs and such! I really could learn a few things from you and your blog! Glad I found this blog!
Thank you for stopping by! So glad I could help even in a small way.
I love your numbers! Also thinking of doing some Geographic Arbitrage by moving back to a third world country for retirement, but I have yet to convince my wife 🙂
Thank you! And that’s an exciting idea. Which country and what’s the visa situation? Good luck convincing your spouse! It’s possible to do so (I’m living proof!)
Moving to Seattle to save? That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that typed out! but hey it was NYC right :)? I just started traveling hacking this year! Also where did you get the countdown timer? I need one of those!!
Yes indeed! Weird combination of Manhattan salaries and a (comparatively) low cost of living over here. Good luck with your travel hacking – I still love it! The countdown timer is a plugin called Countdown Widget (so original lol…) it looks like you already found one for your site though! Super cool.
Omg, totally. Seattle is very expensive. I am a little unclear how you could have grown your investments so quickly in such an expensive City. Even on 100k, this would seem almost impossible, especially on housing. Where did you live? Did you have lots of roommates?
We lived in Queen Anne. I shared a one bedroom with my partner, but I would have gotten a studio there for half the price if I lived alone (as several of my friends did). I found Seattle very cheap coming from NYC, but it’s all relative.
These are all great tips and will help you stay FI for a long time. Will follow in your FI journey. Good luck
Thank you!
8 Months till FI? That is brilliant! SO excited for you!.
I also moved – from a cheap city to an expensive city (Sydney). But, I get paid way more, and I can rent a small apartment (my preference) in walking distance to work and downtown, and lots of recreation including an awesome pool operated by the city council. I can swim there for as many times as I want for $10 a week. I am also in a high-cost investment fund which I am still scrutinising. It is currently outperforming Index Funds, even considering the fees. So it is hard to leave at this point in time. I am looking for the right time to switch and it’s not quite yet (so far I have increased my retirement fund by 50% in just 3 years).
Luckily my employer pays for my iPhone account, so that is not a concern for me. But travel Hacking is the next thing on my list – we have a trip coming up in May (my partner is English hand we are going back for 3 weeks) and we are determined that this will be the last trip we pay full fare on. we will both get cards with benefits so that our next trip is fully hacked!
Thanks again for sharing here.
I am looking forward to reading more!
Shaun
Thank you! That sounds like an awesome move – congratulations for using geo-arbitrage to your advantage to get that higher salary and life you want. And wow on your investment fund outperforming index funds – how long has it been doing that (after fees)? Woohoo on increasing your retirement fund! Sounds like you’re really looking into every way to improve your life – good luck with your travel hacking ventures! Thank you for stopping by 🙂
I’ve just discovered your blog (mentioned in a ChooseFi article) and I’m hooked already! I love your writing style, it’s fun and straightforward. I’m a bit older than you and probably 10 years away from retiring as I only discovered this whole FI thing recently, but it’s inspiring to see a young woman who’s nearly achieved it. It sounds like you’ll have an exciting year ahead this year, good luck!
Hi Aimee – Welcome! Just curious, what ChooseFI article? I didn’t know I was mentioned in one. So happy you’re enjoying my weird writing style haha. Good luck on your journey and yeah we’ll see what happens together 😉 . I promise to share the good and the bad.
I just found your blog today (don’t remember what link I followed from where) and find your journey ‘interesting’. 8^)
I’m quite a bit older than you (turning 70 this year) and wanted to share some sage advice. Half a million dollar nest egg may seem like a lot and covers your current lifestyle needs, but you’ve got at least 50 years of retirement ahead of you if you retire at 30 like you desire. Drawing 4% a year and covering an average 3% inflation rate (if we are lucky) means your portfolio will need to generate a minimum of 7% per year, on average, every year just to maintain its earnings power. In my opinion that’ cutting it too close to the bone.
My suggestion is that you shoot for ‘Fat FIRE’ before you even consider retiring that young. Fat FIRE is considered to be 30 times your annual spending verses 25 times.
Better to be safe than sorry.
We retired in Jan 07 (age 57) with $1.5M, have spent $1.2M over the last 12 years and currently have a nest egg of $1.67M. Life has been good. 8^)
Hi – Feel free to check out the below post where I go through why I’m comfortable retiring with these numbers. It sounds like you’re talking about a 3/3.5% withdrawal rate instead of Fat FIRE based on those savings amounts. Congratulations on retiring early! I actually disagree with better safe than sorry for my life 🙂 . I’ll keep everyone updated on if I succeed or fail.
https://apurplelife.com/why-im-comfortable-retiring-with-500000/
The choose fi posing that mentions you: https://www.choosefi.com/123-rich-and-regular/
Nice work, I found you on the bigger pockets pod from earlier today.
Thank you for letting me know! And welcome 🙂 . I hope you enjoyed the podcast.
Hi Purple, just discovered your blog today after listening to your BP podcast episode. I was wondering if you’ve shared somewhere on your blog your plan for health costs during your retirement? Also, congratulations on being so close to the finish line!
Hi Brooke! Welcome to the blog. As for health insurance here’s my current plan: Personally because I am planning to travel globally and domestically I can’t use the regular avenues for health insurance since they are tied to one state (and do nothing internationally) so I’m getting global expat insurance to cover me for emergencies globally and then using medical tourism for any large expenses so I can plan and research what country has the best outcomes and cost.
Hi!
I found your blog from the Rich and Regular episode on choose FI podcast. There aren’t many black people, specifically black women that I’ve seen in the FIRE space so your blog has been inspirational!! I just starting my journey this year toward FIRE and will be blogging as a way to keep myself accountable. I binged a lot of your posts and just thought I should probably leave a comment lol.
Hi There! That’s super cool – I’m glad you found me. There indeed aren’t that many of us, but that number is obviously growing every day! Thank you for commenting – they really make my day 🙂 . Good luck on your journey and with your blog – I look forward to reading it!
I love your purple hair. I am eager to learn what else makes your life purple now that I have signed up for you blog.
Thank you! I hope you’re enjoying the blog 🙂 .
Hey Purple, this is really cool and really inspiring!
we are very different yet essentially the same. i am married, with two kids, a cat and house but also working towards FI. obviously you have beaten me! 🙂
i am really interested in they way you think. Obviously you are very driven having received high income as an employee. Don’t you think you’ll get bored in retirement? or do you have a plan?
also i guess you know when enough is enough for you, but if you worked one more year you would have increased your net worth by 20%. do you plan to up your lifestyle in the next 50-60 years of retirement? 🙂
keep up the good work and enjoy your very purple life! i love seeing people living intentionally and this is definitely what you are doing! 🙂
Hi Johannes – thank you! I don’t think I’ll get bored in retirement personally because I’ve never been a “doer” – I absolutely love just reading and lounging and living. I’m on Week 3 of Retirement and it’s already been way more packed with things than I would like 🙂 . Time to do less.
How do you figure I would have increased my net worth by 110K by working another year? I only save $68K a year and that $68K was not worth another year of my life stressed out of my mind and away from my family, especially during a pandemic that might take them and/or my health from me.
My FIRE calculations do not include a spending ceiling so yes I planned to increase spending in later years when my costs for healthcare and related elderly care increases. Thanks again 🙂 .
great stuff! thanks for the reply! very excited for you! all the best!
No need to reply, don’t want to keep you too busy in retirement 😉
Hey! have you ever or could you do a post about where you’re money is? Like how much is in a 401k and how much is in an individual taxable account? And how you withdraw it during retirement? Do you have all of your accounts at vanguard? Sorry for so many questions but trying to plan for the future and would like to see how you do all this actually in retirement with 100% stocks. Thanks!
Hi Savannah – Yes I’ve mentioned these answers before, but they’re not all in one place. I’m planning to do a more in depth post on all of that when I actually start pulling from my portfolio. I’m currently living on a 2 year cash cushion. Since I might not need to withdraw for another 2 years or more I’ll answer these here so I don’t keep you in suspense 🙂 . My money is about 1/2 in tax-advantaged and 1/2 in taxable accounts. When it’s time to pull from my portfolio I’ll sell some of my older shares of VTSAX. Currently taxable dividends to go to my checking account. And yes it’s all in Vanguard. Have a great day 🙂
How do I get this free phone from Google Fi? Me and my husband just switched and r previous carrier will not unlock his old phone. And he is a disabled veteran
If you already switched to Google Fi I don’t think you can get the free phone – it’s for new sign ups. However, maybe reach out to them and see if there’s something they can do.
I just stumbled across your site. I’m also on the path to FIRE, but I took a different path. In reading your site that really stood out to me. There are many paths to the same end. We don’t need to work all of our lives. You’re giving people a recipe for having time.
I love your transparency on this site and dry sense of humor. I see that you are thinking about winding down at some point, but there is still so much people can learn from you. Maybe it’s a matter of stepping back to less frequent posts?
Welcome Greg! Totally agree there are a lot of different paths to having more time. I’m so glad you’re enjoying it! I’m going to consider less frequent posts instead of just stopping so don’t worry. One of the reasons I’m thinking about it though is that I’ve heard the FI journey is more exciting than the destination for readers 🙂 . It sounds like you disagree – are there any topics you think I should add to my list?/What do you think I could still help teach people? Thanks for stopping by!
I don’t disagree at all. I think both are exciting. I just started trying to capture my own story at DadisFire.com. The journey is exciting, but the destination is too. In my case, I bought rental houses in my 20s (the journey) so I could quit my job in my 40s (now) just so I could spend time with my kids (the destination). It’s all important.
…and what stands out to me, is there are many ways to get to financial independence. Our strategies are different, (I have 3 kids 4 and under). But in reading your blog I’m reminded it’s a mindset thing. You are teaching the mindset. Your transparency with numbers is teaching that it’s just a numbers game once the mindset is there.
You’re in your 30s. Everyone complains about their job. You aren’t. You aren’t dealing with politics at work. You are enjoying life. (I hope) you keep teaching your mindset and how you think about the journey, and the destination.
Will do – thank you!
I stumbled across your site a couple of weeks back as I was waiting at the airport flying back home. I have been aware of FIRE movement for a while, but your blogs about post retirement has really hit home, I might have gone through most of them within a week 🙂 I am hoping learn as much as I can, so that one day I can achieve FI too.
I know you have answered this question in podcast and also to Savannah above, but would you be willing to explain in some simple/detailed steps how you use tax advantaged account and taxable accounts or how you plan to withdraw? I have 401K, but I’m not much familiar with rest. Also does your taxable dividends come from your investment in index funds itself?
I’m so glad that hit home for you 🙂 – and going through all those updates in week?! Wow! That’s dedication.
I’m using my taxable accounts and at the same time using a Roth IRA Conversion Ladder to do this tax free: 401K->Trad IRA->Roth IRA and will use that after my taxable account runs out in 15 years or so. To learn about that process the Mad FIentist has a great article here: https://www.madfientist.com/how-to-access-retirement-funds-early/ . I’m only invested in index funds so yes they provide all of my dividends. Good luck!
Great blog! Very informative! I’m a numbers person and I love that actual numbers are presented.
Historically I have had a similar viewpoint regarding housing (e.g. “Rent is the ceiling. A mortgage is the floor” as you wrote). But in 2022 my viewpoints may be shifting: in my city, this year rent has gone up 25% on average, and next year I am projecting 15% rent increases. Meanwhile house prices in my city have gone up by ~150% in the past 2 years. Now, considering how the stock market has also dropped by 20% this year (so far), I think that reflects both the evaporation of wealth and compounding opportunity costs.
What I mean by “opportunity cost” here is the lost passive income that could have been generated by investing. For example, the extra $300/month on rent could instead have been invested in the stock market and generated passive income.
I created plantadollar.com to help quantify these missed opportunities to generate passive income based on actual and real data. For example, going back to the rent example, the extra $300/month in rent (historically) would have been able to generate a conservative passive income of ~$280/month over the past 10 years if it was invested in an index fund tracking the Nasdaq — or ~$230/month from VTSAX that I read about here. Of course there are caveats:
– Hindsight is always 20/20 and there are risks i.e. past performance is not indicative of future performance.
– “time in market” is critical. To give an example: from 1999 to the end of 2021, Nasdaq returned an average of ~18%/year in profits. That’s a period of over 20 years. BUT- after the dotcom bubble burst in 2000, it took Nasdaq ~15 YEARS to reach back to its all-time-high. Meaning if someone had put in a large sum before the crash (i.e no DCA), they would have actually lost money on their principal for 15 *years* (not including inflation) before raking in the profits.
Given the current stagflationary environment (inflation + recession fears), I am very interested in learning whether you are doing anything different to hedge against inflation — for example changing cash/investment ratio etc.
Thanks! And that’s interesting. As for me, I’m not changing my strategy at all. I’m currently living on a 2 year cash cushion and increasing my budget with inflation.