Yeah it’s a bit of a clickbait title, but I couldn’t help myself because: IT’S TRUE! Mainstream media likes to portray people who pursue FIRE as “EXTREME”! But I have a secret to tell you – one that if you read this blog you already know: FIRE people are huge wimps. Myself included! We are so far from extreme that I laugh when I see those headlines.
Instead of quitting our corporate job to pursue our passions through entrepreneurship or live the exact life we dream of from Day 1 – whether that be van life or digital nomadism or (like me) laying facedown on a couch – we don’t just do it. We don’t just take that leap.
Instead, we save as much money as the past 147 years of stock market data tells us should be enough to pay for our expenses – forever – even if we never make another dime. We invest enough that we should be fine, even if we are blind lemmings that don’t change our spending behavior when circumstances change, such as a down market.
Instead of taking any real leap or risk, we save our money like squirrels preparing for winter and then bask in the shade of that money tree while we do whatever the hell we want. And that “whatever the hell we want” could be trying our hand at starting a business without having to worry about the consequences of it failing.
It’s being able to try anything and do anything without the stress of its success determining if you and your family eat that month. We build an adamantium safety net and THEN jump. We are literally the wimpiest people ever.
So in the vein of being a huge wimp, I also didn’t just dive off the deep end by quitting my corporate job, selling everything I own and an hour later boarding a plane to start my ideal nomad life – Nope! I used baby steps, training wheels and any other metaphor you can think of. I took the wimpy way!
How I Baby Stepped My Way Into My FIRE Life
If I was a badass, I would have sold all my stuff, gotten on a plane the next day, and jetsetted to another country with only a backpack on my back…but I’m not doing that. Far from it.
Instead, I did everything in my power to make my life during my journey to financial independence as wonderful as I could and as close as possible to the life I imagined after I reached my goal. That’s why I moved from NYC to Seattle – for a better standard of living for half the cost. That’s why I kept job hopping and eventually landed my sweet current gig, which I’ve been doing remotely for 4 years (by far my longest stint yet).
I created the best life I could and then figured out how I could inchworm my way towards my post-career life. Here’s how I did it:
Spacing Out Change
I personally get overwhelmed with change and if multiple changes are happening at the same time, I basically freak out 🙂 . To combat this, I spaced out the time between big changes from moving from a remote job in Seattle to being a retired nomad traveling across the world. Here are the baby steps I took that were each separated by several weeks, months or even years:
Have A Normal Career -> Get A Remote Job -> Get Rid Of Our Stuff -> Try Nearby Nomad Life -> Give My Job Notice -> Move Cross-Country -> Quit My Job Forever -> Travel The World
Working From Home
I worked in ‘normal’ Corporate America for 5 years. I fought my way onto the NYC subway every morning. I waited in endless lines to get on the elevator while worrying if I would be late for my 9am meeting. I pasted a fake smile on my face for 10 hours a day. I walked home from work in the rain.
I did all the normal stuff and when the opportunity presented itself for me to have a remote job – something that I didn’t even realize was a possibility within the marketing industry – I jumped at the chance. And it was one of the best decisions of my life.
I’ve talked at length about the wonderful pros and some of the cons of working remotely, but overall it was a complete game-changer for my life. It made work infinitely more bearable, especially the long hours I often have to keep. It made it feel less like I was choosing my work over my friends and family and gave me a much better sense of balance.
This shift in my career was also extremely helpful on my journey to financial independence because one of the things that early retirees warn about is the complete shift in your life from being at work most of the day to being at home while others are at work or at home with your spouse that you previously basically never saw.
Working from home before retiring allowed me to get a taste of what that’s like – being at home more, being out and about when my friends are at work and spending a lot more time with my partner (he works from home as well). It was like an early retirement prequel.
Micro-Move
I was originally going to pare down from an apartment full of stuff to a 40L backpack, but because of COVID considerations and closed international borders, we changed that plan to a micro-move across the country that includes one checked bag each.
Instead of having to shift from having an entire apartment of stuff to 1 backpack, we downsized from an apartment to a car-load for our 2 months living in AirBnBs. And we are continuing to cull our items by figuring out what we actually need and use on a day-to-day basis to finally get us to the that one checked 50lb bag limit. Even this one step had baby steps built into it!
Local Nomad Life
And those 2 monthly AirBnBs I mentioned? They’re not in another country…or another state…or even another city 🙂 . We booked AirBnBs right in Seattle, but in different neighborhoods than the one we lived in for 5 years. Instead of immediately flying off to a far away land, we drove 10 minutes from our previous apartment and started exploring an area that was only a lake away, but almost feels like a different world.
Instead of front-loading our discomfort of not having our stuff, our apartment, our city or the life we knew, we still have one of those things. We are still in Seattle and in Washington, which we feel comfortable in while we acclimate to being nomads and not having all the stuff we are used to.
My Ideal FIRE Life
So after these 2 months in Seattle AirBnBs are up, I will finally be ready for the final phase: Early Retirement and Global Nomad Life. At the end of September, we will fly across the country to Georgia to begin our true nomad life. A bit before, I will also give notice at my job and then I will be settled in a new state, city and neighborhood with the rest of my life laid before me – a blank slate 🙂 .
I don’t think I would have gotten there with my sanity intact without taking these multiple smaller steps from working from home for years to moving to another neighborhood while adjusting to being a nomad and finally to moving across the country and quitting my career to retire at 30.
Conclusion
I’m a huge wimp y’all. I think that comes through in basically everything I write, but in case it doesn’t: It’s very true. I don’t pursue FIRE because I’m a reckless badass – quite the opposite – and I took the same overly cautious approach to pulling the trigger on my ideal FIRE lifestyle. To the wimps!
Have you ever taken baby steps towards a goal? How did it work out?
Awesome quote: “Instead of taking any real leap or risk, we save our money like squirrels preparing for winter and then bask in the shade of that money tree while we do whatever the hell we want.”
Congratulations, Purple! You’re almost there!
Haha thank you on both counts!!
Such a great post! I was smiling the whole read at seeing your journey all put together and knowing where you are at now in these exciting last weeks!
So right on the wimp thing haha. Starting this coaching side-business thing is much easier knowing that we are over 70% of the way to hitting FIRE. I’m not afraid of “failing” per say because this does not have to cover our cost of living and this allows me to focus on what I enjoy, everything extra is just gravy. In fact, while I still have a full paycheck, any revenue from coaching is going to be reinvested in becoming a better coach, having better systems in place, etc.
Go FIRE Wimps!!!!
Yay!!! Thank you lady! And exactly – great example and I agree with the quotes around ‘failing’ – is it failing if the dollars aren’t what you’re going for in the first place 🙂 ? Woohoo!
Purple – this article is a great example of mindset and owning who you are and what your “why” is! I love following your journey! You are so close to your next step!
Thank you so much! I’m interested in seeing what happens too haha. So close!
Such a beautiful post. There is a scale for wimps – from ‘do nothing’ wimps to ‘action movie hero’ wimps. The ‘do nothing’ wimp is completely overwhelmed by this mountain. But the action wimp breaks down the goal (no matter its formidable size) into its tiniest parts. All the time, the action wimp stomps on the little gremlins that pop up screaming, “How long!😳” Well maybe not so much anger. You sound calm and patient. I need to move myself up the wimp scale. Purple, you are such an inspiration. Thanks for being so giving. Congratulations. 🍾
Thank you! And oooh I like the scale idea and would be honored to be an “action hero wimp” 🙂 – I love it! And that is a visceral description – wow. Any interest in writing children’s books? Cause you have the start of one right there. And that’s so kind – thank you!
Ohhhh freak! I have three unpublished. Two are about young princesses who defy the monarchy about work – real work. One is about a little dragonfly who flies from the west coast and saves Washington DC. Your question makes me think I need to go human and more granular and direct. Hmmmmm🤗🤗🤗 I love it! Purple! You are fantastic. Thank you for that genius question.💥 You may hear more in the near future.🙏🏽
Ha!
Logical, thorough, cautious, calculated, risk adverse person sounds better. 🙂
Fair. I’ll take those re-brand notes 😉 .
Very insightful post, Purple! I realized I have taken baby steps towards pretty much every goal or new habit I’m working towards. On a micro level, I wanted to practice meditation an hour a day but I started out with 2 minutes a day for months to get some momentum and build a positive association with it first. On a bigger scale, now that I finally have a post FIRE plan, I am hoping to have at least a 1-2 new ‘chapter overlap’ of testing the waters to make sure I like it, before leaving my current job. I think it is the cautious, risk-averse side of me. You explained it so well 🙂
Thank you! That’s a great idea for establishing a habit – I haven’t done that before. Surprisingly in other areas of my life I’m very “all or nothing” haha. Love the chapter overlap – very smart!
Disagree with the premise.
Which is truly wimpier, to be purposeful and decide to get out of the rat race, or to be complacent and live in it (and live with it) for 45 years, never pushing back? I would bet a lot of people wouldn’t even have considered doing what you have done because “it’s not safe”.
You are strong and determined, Purple. Way more so than I am (21½ years and counting in the “safe” workforce).
Fair 🙂 . I’ll take those notes. I guess I don’t think of inaction as a wimpy thing, but I probably should. And you are too kind – thank you!
Haha! For sure! I mean, I’ve never seen what’s so hard about not buying a bunch of ridiculous junk none of us need. Building the habits in the first place might be a challenge, but after that I don’t see it as being particularly hard.
In fact, I argued in my latest post that FIRE is essentially the financial equivalent of creating a safe space. I could also say it’s part of unjacking from the consumerism matrix. But I think my domestic cozy post is relevant here. (Link in my comment name)
Unlocking yourself from our world that shoves buying stuff = happiness is difficult (I didn’t realize it was a lie for a good long while), but breaking out of that is awesome 🙂 . Glad you saw through it. And that’s a cool argument!
I realized I should correct myself: “never” is wrong. I definitely had some bad spending habits in my late teens/early 20s, started living within my means in my early 30s, and kicked into FIRE mode in my late 30s. I roughly came to the idea of FIRE myself, sort of. Stumbling across Mr. Money Mustache and the shockingly simple math behind early retirement opened my eyes. That happened around the halfway mark my my 30s, and I would say since 39 or so I have been in coast mode, with most of my FIRE habits locked in and on cruise. Now I’m focusing on the entrepreneurial side more, which is proving more of a challenge.
i kinda did the opposite and made every single irresponsible money move until my mid 30’s. i quit jobs with no jobs lined up, moved to new orleans and back with no job lined up on either end. cashed out some 401k’s to fund these and front loaded my life with so many zany times i don’t feel the need to do any of that any longer for fear of missing out. these activities would make most peoples’ bucket lists seem pretty tame.
then i found money religion in my 30’s and it took 15 years to get to financial independence. i recommend your way.
Haha well your way sounds more interesting 🙂 . Glad you found that money religion freddy.
Taking small steps is the best way to go. Big steps are a lot more jarring. I love how you change a bit at a time to achieve your ideal lifestyle.
I took a leave of absence before I quit my career, but it really wasn’t enough. I should have tried to go part-time first. That would have made the transition much easier. Anyway, keep at it! Only a few weeks left.
Agreed! That’s interesting about part-time: were people in your field able to make that work? In marketing when I’ve seen people go part-time everyone seems to look down on it and not respect the boundaries so they’re actually working the same amount for 1/2 the pay. Almost there!
At first, I paused at “wimps” but ultimately agree that FIRE adherents are probably more risk averse than either people who hedge their bets on their ability to sustain meaningful/desirable employment or those who quit to pursue their passions, assuming the universe will provide. I tried the latter about 10 years ago. It didn’t work out. When I try again, I’ll be equipped with a different engine. 😉
Haha glad I swayed you to my side 😉 . And that sounds like an awesome plan!
I feel like I’ve been watching this series for years. This season we finally get to the episode… where you give your notice. Yay 😉👍
Haha I hope the series finale lives up to your expectations 😉 .
I am the wimp!
Ijust got screamed at(again) in my weekly call for suggesting I fire. Im not even early ( 46) ( from a retired person who just bought 6 pair of pants that dont fit and have to be altered) who can wear 6 pair of pants in retirement???? It must be me that doesn’t understand the world.
Oh no! I’m sorry people yelled at you for that – that’s ridiculous. They intentionally bought pants that didn’t fit? I thought alterations were expensive.
What a fun take! While I don’t think you’ve got a wimpy bone in your body your point is right on. We are methodical planning people with goals and targets and metrics. We are the ants in the ant and grasshopper story. As usual a fascinating read!
Thanks! We are indeed the ants. Glad you enjoyed it.
You got me, I’m a giant wimp in that sense. 🙂
One of the positives of COVID-19 has been working from home. It will make the transition to remote work then eventually part time/no work a lot easier IMO.
Haha I love it! And yeah WFH is an awesome transition I think. I’ve been reflecting on how that might have prepared me in other ways than the ones I mentioned here.
Congrats, cheers and welcome. I’m super-excited to read all your FI adventures. I love the “save $ like squirrel” quote. I did and have never, ever, ever looked back.
Thank you! I’m excited to read them too haha 😉 . Yay to the squirrels!
THIS should be the article that every major news outlet runs on the FIRE movement, instead of the inflammatory articles you normally see!
This highlights how do-able it really is, if you just take it in sensible steps.
Also I am so excited for you to actually quit your job and take the leap next month, I’m living vicariously through you 😂
Haha AGREED – feel free to tell them that 😉 . And yeah – breaking things down makes them seem a lot less wild. And thank you! I’m excited too haha 🙂 .
Very great, very relatable post.
Thank you!
Couldn’t agree more about spacing out changes. I’m feeling it now while working remotely. It’s like an adjustment period for me to see if I like it. The next step for me is working remotely but from different locations and while moving every few months.
I really think making all these changes at once can be overwhelming.
Cheers Purple.
Love it – baby step it! We’re coming up on a month of working from home from different locations and were talking yesterday about if this is a good plan to continue for my partner (who will still be working). We agreed it was! Totally do-able. Cheers!
Ha! I’m with you, I’m a total wimp XD that being said, there’s real strength and wisdom in understanding your limits and fears, and working to address them so that you can live your best life anyway. Perhaps some of them aren’t super rational (I say this while thinking of my quite irrational fear of ending up homeless and living in a cardboard box under a bridge – my friends and family wouldn’t let me get to that stage! *I* wouldn’t let me get there!), but feelings don’t have to be. Setting up a financial safety net is logical and prudent, so why not? Maybe it’s all just excuses 😉 but whatever, it works! Kudos, this is a great post, Purple.
Agreed! Taking the time to know yourself is a huge advantage in life. And oh no! I’m sorry about your fears. As irrational as they can be we all have them. Totally agree – let’s build those safety nets! Thank you 🙂 .
Haha! When you put it that way, I’m a total wimp with my giant pile of cash and income creating assets.
No wild leaps for me, just math! 😉
Haha yeah I guess we’re all cautious nerds at heart. Enjoy your pile of money 🙂 !
I’m so excited for you! Baby-steps into FI life is definitely wise. I went a bit more “rip-the-band-aid-off” approach and, after a few weeks of vacation mode, felt lost for several months. It took a while to adjust to all the free time and a schedule that most of my friends/family didn’t have. I’ve since found my groove, but looking back should have taken your approach, for sure. Good luck!!
Thank you! And woah – good to hear about the rip-the-band-aid off approach. I’m sorry it didn’t work out perfectly. Interestingly that sounds more about my original plan (vacation for a bit with time after to reflect).
It wasn’t all bad, but definitely struggled with what to do with all that spare time. And had to adjust to most of the world having a schedule that I no longer had. I spent so much time focusing on FI I kinda forgot to prepare for life after that… That said, over a year later, I’ve developed a ton of hobbies and pursuits, made new friends, built a great social network, and constantly surprised how busy I am without a job 😀 But those first few months were tough, and I think you working remotely has helped you prepare well for that. Excited to watch you become a Global Nomad and embrace your freedom!!
That’s wonderful to hear you found your stride! And thank you 🙂 .
Hah, yes click bait reframing but I think I like it better than the current mainstream framing of FIRE. Then again I also like YOU and your approach better than many of the mainstream FIRE faces.
It all depends on where your feet are set and your head is floating! Either way, remote work is my absolute favorite of all the incarnations of work I’ve done. No face time, no idle chatter, no wasted time socializing, just do my work and be done! It’s glorious.
I am highly risk and change averse and wouldn’t have even considered FIRE 12 years ago. I was clawing my way out of a family and mindset based in scarcity and an impoverished mindset.
I couldn’t imagine voluntarily stopping working for money. But it wasn’t about the work, it was about the steady money and the financial stability (and fear reduction) that it represented. Not working felt like a choice to be poor. And back then, it was!
Fast forward through one massive recession, a prolonged layoff, and struggle out of the financial mire and through chronic pain, plus having a kid and realizing that with THAT choice came a responsibility to be there for the kid, and I shifted to seeing that the bigger risk was NOT planning for the day I might not be able to make W-2 income.
I’m the same wimpy but stubborn and determined person I was in 2006 at the start of my PF journey but my perspective has completely shifted from knowing I need and want to work for money to knowing I need money but I don’t need to work to be a human with worth so it’s ok to aim for a life with money without a 9-5.
I don’t think I’ve ever been this emotionally invested in or excited about another person’s retirement, especially someone who is technically a stranger! I really hope writing this blog remains an interest of yours after the big day comes and goes, it’s one of the nicest places to visit on the internet. 🙂
Aww thank you! Writing is definitely still an interest and I’ve promised to continue my weekly posting for a year into retirement so I’m here until Octob 2021 at least! And you are too kind THANK YOU!