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Why Saving For Retirement Feels Impossible

Retirement is the final
chapter of the American dream. But the dream of the
golden years is quickly turning into a fairy tale. Retiring in America today is
not easy. It is a very tall mountain
to climb. More than a third of
Americans today feel unprepared or unsure if
they're on track for retirement. And nearly a
third of seniors say they either plan to work through
the age of 70 or never retire in their lives. I'm not want to be rich. I just like to have enough
to where I could be comfortable. The pandemic, a war in
Europe, rate hikes, as well as fears of a recession,
have also led to great turmoil in the market,
wiping out an estimated $3.4 trillion from retirement
accounts during the first half of 2022.

The United States is
definitely facing a retirement crisis. If we don't do anything
about it, years down the line, you're going to wind
up with a lot more seniors in poverty, reliance on
public services. Others say the retirement
crisis in America is a myth. The US retirement system is
stronger than it's ever been. Retirement incomes
have never been higher.

Retirement savings have
never been higher. Participation in retirement
plans has never been higher. All the things we would
like our retirement system to be doing it is doing. So is America facing a
retirement crisis? And if so, can it be
stopped? My name is Juanita Dykes. I live in Rural Retreat,
Virginia. I've been retired for six
years now. I've had a number of jobs. I've worked in factories
all my life. Unfortunately, I didn't
listen to people telling me that I needed to save for
retirement. I thought I would get paid
by the government. You'll have enough to live
on. Wrong, you don't. I get $1,574 from Social
Security. I get $631 from my pension. You pay all your bills, car
payment, all your utilities, all your insurance, all
that together. It just don't add up.

Americans aren't saving
enough for retirement. I don't have no savings. I'm probably in the red at
the bank for you. You write a check and you
don't have nothing to cover it. Then when you get your
next check, all that extra money comes out. The median retirement
account balance for those approaching retirement sat
at $89,716 in 2022. That translates to less
than $500 per month over a 15-year retirement span. Baby boomers, they were well
into their mid-forties before 401(k)s came along
and they had the opportunity to saved When they entered
the workforce, the assumption was social
security and traditional pensions.

Now that they're
reaching retirement, the ground rules have changed
and the expectations are that they would have saved
more along the way. The last place I worked was
just like a factory job. And you got paid, that's
it. No extra nothing or
nothing. We didn't have paid
holidays. You didn't have vacation. You didn't have nothing. You
just worked. The other problem is that
during times of economic crisis, there's a lot of
leakage out of retirement savings plans. Whereas things like pensions
and social security, they are lockbox. You don't
touch that money no matter what. That is there for
your future. IRAs and 401(k)s often tend
to get tapped when people run into unemployment or
health issues, medical expenses. In our own research of
retirees, we see that they're doing pretty well. However, they're not
financially in a position to absorb a major financial
shock.

And a big example of that
is the high cost of long-term care services and
support. If they have some sort of
cataclysmic health crisis or need that long-term care,
they just don't have the financial resources to be
able to afford it. One in five Americans, aged
65 and older, said they spent more than $2,000 out
of pocket on health care. A separate study found that
more than a third of Americans over 65 are
worried they're unable to afford health care services
within the next 12 months.

If you go to a regular
doctor, that's covered. But if you go to a
specialist, that's like $30. I have an appointment this
week with a specialist. I don't have the money to
go, so I'll have to call and cancel that and redo it
some other time. Higher life expectancy also
means that more retirees can outlive their retirement
savings. An analysis by the World
Economic Forum found that men live 8.3 years longer
than their retirement funds can pay for, while women
live 10.9 years longer. Younger generations aren't
faring any better. About 25% of non-retired
adults in America have no retirement savings
whatsoever. A lot of people don't have
access or at least don't have consistent access to
an employer-sponsored retirement plan.

And we know
from the behavioral science research that people don't
walk into a bank and say, I want to open up an IRA. Workers aged 25 to 34 had an
average total saving rate of 10.5%, while workers under
25 had a saving rate of 8%, far from the recommended
total saving rate of 15%. And as we look at the
changing landscape, especially millennials and
Gen Z, they're entering the workforce with student
loans, with a debt that is unprecedented from earlier
generations. Another issue impacting
younger generations is they're going to change
jobs many times over the course of their careers, as
well as spend time in self-employment.

So they're
going to have to take a much more hands-on
do-it-yourself approach in managing their savings and
investments and ensuring that they're saving enough
to last their lifetime when they retire. I have considered going back
to work, but I had a knee replacement two years ago
and the other one's trying to tell me it's about time
for it, so I can't stand very long at a time. I won't say that I won't
have to because I might if they don't get this social
security straightened out where we can have enough to
live on. In 2022, the Social Security
Administration estimated that their reserve will
deplete by 2034 unless Congress intervenes,
putting Social Security benefits under threat. Because of demographic
changes during the 70s and 80s, social security built
up a large surplus and is now in the process of
depleting that surplus. Once depleted, retirees will
only receive 78% of their benefits starting then. It's not obviously the end
of the world, and it doesn't mean social security is
bankrupt at all, but it does mean a meaningful reduction
in benefits that's really going to hurt people,
especially at the bottom and even in the middle.

Inflation has been the most
disruptive force to retirement. A quarter of
Americans are expected to delay their retirement due
to rising consumer costs. The worker is now the one
that bears the longevity risk and the market risk in
retirement. Market downturns are really
the most problematic for people who are about to
retire because that represents a real loss to
them as opposed to something that they can recover from
over time. $1,000,000 in a retirement
account two years ago is worth about $120,000 less
today when adjusted for inflation. If you're retired and on a
fixed income, inflation really, really, really
hurts. And we've come out of decades of historically low
inflation to all of a sudden pretty substantial
inflation, especially in the things that matter to
people, which is food and fuel. I'm like anybody else. I like a good steak every
now and then. Well, that's just plumb out
of the question because you can't afford to buy that. You just have to buy what
you merely have to have and then hope that you have
enough left to pay your bills. Inflation is higher than
we've seen in a long time.

Right now, we don't really
know whether this is we're now in an era of high
inflation or higher inflation or whether it is
a longer tail from the effects of the pandemic. An ongoing retirement crisis
reduces consumption and drains resources which
could be detrimental to the economy as a whole. In terms of people who wind
up falling into economic hardship during
retirement, that is something that a lot of
states have taken very, very seriously, and they're
really concerned about more and more seniors needing
things like food stamps, subsidized housing, which
is already in very low supply, and also Medicaid. A hidden impact that doesn't
get as much discussion is the impact on families. When an aging parent
doesn't have the resources to care for themselves, or
maybe they can't afford long-term care, they turn to
their adult children.

As adult children step in to
support them, this detracts from their own ability to
save for retirement. So this could create a
generational, vicious cycle unless we solve for it. But some argue that the
retirement crisis in America is merely a myth. The US retirement system is
strong. The income of the median
retiree, the typical retiree in the United States is at
record levels. It's never been higher. Poverty and old age has
never been lower. The median US retiree has
the highest disposable income in the world,
according to the OECD, 40% higher than Germany, 50%
higher than the Netherlands. U.S. retirees in surveys
are much more likely than European retirees to say
they can maintain their pre-retirement standard of
living. So all the things we want
people to do are going in the right direction. In 2021, nearly eight in ten
retirees were confident they'll have enough money
to live comfortably throughout retirement,
while over seven in ten workers agreed with the
sentiment.

Nobody really has the
incentive to tell the truth about the successes of the
US retirement system. Four in five retirees also
reported that their overall lifestyle after retirement
was as expected or better. I think everyone agrees
there are certain people who are falling behind in their
retirement savings. That's true today. It was
true in the past. And the question is, what
do we do about it? The danger of claiming we
have a retirement crisis is we throw the baby out with
the bathwater.

We throw out the things
that are working for us and we don't address the
problems that really exist. I think a lot of it is
semantics almost. Most researchers do
understand that there is a substantial portion of the
population that are going to be financially insecure in
retirement. There are some debate about
whether that's, you know, high 30%, 50%, 60%, but
that's not a small portion of the population. Policy will likely play a
pivotal role in improving the state of retirement in
America. Retirement policy is one of
the few things in this country that has a long and
exemplary history of collaboration among both
parties. What we need from a public
policy perspective is a broader collaboration among
industry, among employers,the great minds,
academics, nonprofits and everyday people to step
back and take an even broader look at our
retirement system and address the issues that are
the greatest detractors of retirement security right
now. The Securing a Strong
Retirement Act of 2022 was passed by the House in
response to concerns over retirement security.

The act includes many
benefits that could help more Americans save for
retirement, such as automatically enrolling
employees into a retirement plan unless they elect not
to participate. But issues concerning
coverage still need more attention. Almost half of
the employees in the private sector between the age of
18 and 64 aren't provided with options to save for
retirement, and about 65% of employees in companies with
10 to 24 employees lack retirement plans.

Improving retirement plan
coverage, meaning ensuring that all workers have the
ability to save for retirement in the workplace
is paramount to increasing retirement security in the
U.S. We need to have a
retirement system that is fully inclusive so that
people have the opportunity to save, invest and grow
their savings over their lifetime. Ultimately, retirement
security today rests in the hands of future retirees. Tip number one, avoid
getting overwhelmed. Getting overwhelmed can
lead to procrastination, and it can lead to inaction,
which is counterproductive. Another is create a
retirement strategy. Even have some fun with it. Envision what you would
like your life to be like in the near future, or if
you're younger, far away into the future, and then
put some numbers by it. Start building a plan. Seek help if you need it. There are financial
professionals available to help you with that. You have to engage. You have to learn as much
as possible. So it's up to you to know
enough to ask good questions and make informed
decisions.

It's your retirement. You need to save. I know when you're young,
you think, I don't need to save, I'll do that next
time, we'll do this whenever . Do it now because I'm
telling you, you need to. If you plan on living any
length of time, you need the extra money..

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10 Levels of Financial Independence And Early Retirement | How to Retire Early

Long-term financial goals can sometimes seem
so big that they feel almost unattainable especially when we’re just getting started
on our road to financial independence. I and many others like me in the financially
independent, retired early community have found it helpful to break down the goal of
becoming financially independent into smaller and more manageable levels of financial independence. Not only because it makes it easier for us
to track our progress, which in turns helps us to stay motivated throughout the process,
but also because it helps us get over that initial hurdle of starting to chip away at
this mountain of a task.

In today’s video, I’m going to take you
through what I consider to be the 10 levels of financial independence as well as give
an example on how to go from the first level to the top level in your lifetime. Hey everyone Daniel here and welcome to Next
Level Life a channel where you can learn about Investing, debt, retirement, and many other
general financial education videos because the school's aren't going to do it for us. So if any of those topics sound interesting
to you or if you want to learn how to better handle your money and have more financial
freedom be sure to hit that subscribe button and the bell next to my name to be notified
every time I upload a video. And if you want to further support the growth
of this channel you can check out some of the links I’ve left down in the description
below which includes a 30-day free trial of Audible and 2 free audiobooks of your choice
as well as a list of some books on money I’d recommend checking out, or you can share this
video with a friend, and leave a comment below letting me know what topics you’d like me
to cover in future videos.

Now obviously these ideas of the levels of
financial independence are not solely my own nor are they very new as there are many articles
and blog posts that have covered this topic already and have done so for many years. So consider this more of a summary of many
of the ideas expressed in those articles and if you want to learn more about the topic
feel free to check out some of the articles for yourself. I’ve left some links in the description. With that out of the way, let’s get started. Okay so real quick the 10 levels of financial
Independence are Level 0 Financial dependence, level 1 Financial solvency, level 2 Financial
stability, level 3 debt Freedom, level four coasting Financial Independence (also sometimes
known as freedom from employer), level 5 Financial Security, level six Financial flexibility,
level 7 Financial independence, level eight Financial Freedom, and finally level 9 Financial
abundance.

The levels are usually defined as something
like the following: Level 0 – Financial dependency is when your
debt payments and other living expenses are greater than your own income. This means that you are in one way or another
dependent on someone or something else to help you pay for your bills or if you happen
to be a kid and don't actually have any bills you need someone else, usually your parents,
to pay to put food on the table and keep the lights on and have a roof over your head. This is the level that all of us start out
on and it is referred to as level 0 because as a financial dependent you obviously have
no Financial Independence. Level 1 – Financial solvency is when you are
current on all your debt payments and you can meet your financial commitments and your
other living expenses without any outside help. Level 2 – Financial stability is usually defined
as when you have built some sort of emergency fund in addition to being financially solvent. Level 3 – Is again debt freedom and it's defined
differently depending on who you ask.

For some, it is being completely debt-free,
mortgage and everything. For others, it's being just free of the high-interest
debts like credit cards but you still might have a mortgage or other debts like student
loans. And for some others, it is paying off all
of your debts except for the mortgage but your credit cards and student loans or car
loans all that stuff is all paid off. Level 4 – Coasting Financial Independence
also sometimes known as freedom from the employer, Barista Financial Independence, or Agency
in blogs and other mediums. I personally like the idea of it being coasting
Financial Independence so that's what I'm going to be using in this video but know that
some people refer to it by one of those other titles but the idea is the same. You have reached the level of coasting Financial
Independence when you could, if you wanted to, step down from a job that may be higher-paying
but may also be either less satisfying or more stressful or both into a new job that
is lower paying but more enjoyable or less stressful or both.

This is because in the early years of your
career or just thought most recent years you have managed to save a very decent sum of
money that would be able to provide for the later years of your retirement after it has
grown even if you don't put much more in. Therefore all you need to do is make enough
money to get you to age 60 or 65 or 70 or whatever your numbers work out to be when
that amount of money you've already invested will be able to fund your lifestyle because
it's been given enough time to grow.

So in a sense, you've worked really really
hard and been very frugal in the first few years so that you can coast into your retirement. I have gone into more detail on the various
types of financial Independence in a previous video which I'll leave Linked In the description
if you're interested in learning more. Level 5 – Financial Security is effectively
when your cash flow from wealth such as you are investments has grown to large enough
that it can provide for your annual basic survival expenses. Now I say survival expenses because I do differentiate
that from living expenses survival expenses are just the basic things you need to survive
Food, Water, Shelter, some form of transportation, clothing and probably insurance. This does not include things like Netflix
subscriptions or cable bills or things like that it is purely survival expenses.

So this may not be exactly the ideal spot
to retire and I certainly wouldn't want to retire at this point but it is an important
level to keep in mind because it does give you… well security. If you were to get fired today and you were
on level 5 you would be okay you could survive until you found another job. This is essentially the first level that really
gives you I guess that piece of mind even if the lifestyle should you have chosen to
live it may not be the most lavish. Level 6 – Financial flexibility is similar
to Financial Security just one step up. It is when you have the ability to live off
of your current cash flow from your wealth assuming that you have a flexible spending
plan that adjusts for up and downs in the market.

So if the markets up 20% one year you're able
to spend a little bit more but if the market is down 20% the next year then you don't spend
quite as much. I’ve seen it defined many different ways
so it could vary depending on who you ask, but the one that I personally like the most
is that it is roughly half of your full financial independence goal, or roughly about 12.5x
your current annual expenses if you follow the 4% rule to get an idea of how much money
you need to retire like I’ve explained in previous videos. So it isn't quite Financial Independence yet
but it's close. Level 7 – Is financial Independence and it's
usually based on the 4% rule which I have covered in a previous video.

You can follow the 4% rule when you have saved
roughly 25x your annual expenses. The vast majority of the time this will be
enough money to allow you to maintain your current lifestyle in retirement and as a result,
you can be considered financially independent. And some articles end it right there but I
think there are a couple of levels that are a bit higher than that that are worth considering
even if some of us may decide to not ever try to achieve them because being at level
7 allows them to do what they wanted all along.

So let's talk about those other levels. Level 8 – Is Financial Freedom which I've
often seen defined as the cash flow from your Investments is greater than financial Independence
and a few more life goals. Life goals, of course, will differ for everybody
but this is could be something like taking a trip or two overseas or moving to a new
place you've always wanted to live but haven't had quite enough money to live there up till
now or whatever the case may be for you like I said it's different for everybody. Level 9 – Is financial abundance and this
is quite simply just that the cash flow from your Investments is more than you will ever
need. You could spend it if you really wanted to
but it would actually take some effort.

And the stuff from level 8 doesn't really
cut into it much at all. So you could up those goals even more and
still have more cash flow left over at the end of the year. This also probably has a slightly different
definition for each person depending on who you ask, but I like to think of it as roughly
3x your financial freedom number because this would allow you to experience a horrible bear
market where your investments go down by 50% and still has 1.5x the amount that you would
need to maintain the lifestyle you lead when you reach level 8.

To me, that means that it is likely more than
you will ever need, but again that one is strictly my own opinion on the matter. So those are the 10 levels of financial Independence,
now let's walk through a hypothetical example of how someone could go from Level 0 to being
financially independent in a single lifetime. John and Jane are recently married couple
each making $20 an hour at age 23 or $83,200 a year between them assuming no overtime.

They manage this because they are not only
good hard-working people but got great grades in school and we're selective about the job
that they decided to pursue. Obviously just like everyone else they would
have started off as Financial dependents and as they were going through college they would
have been building up student loans that they would not have had the money to pay off (assuming
of course that they didn't earn enough money while in school to keep up with the rising
debt). In all they have credit card debt, two car
payments and the student loans which have balances of $5,000, $35,000, and $60,000 respectively,
but since they got their jobs they are no longer financially dependent and their incomes
have allowed them to become current on all their debt payments without the help of others.

In addition to the regular monthly debt payments,
their annual expenses are $48,000 a year. So they are currently in level one Financial
solvency and trying to figure out a way to move to level 2 Financial stability. In order to do that they need to figure out
a way to build up an emergency fund. Now if they're following the 10 levels system
to a T then they would look to build a 3 to 6-month emergency fund of their survival expenses. However, this is not the only way to approach
it say if you were to follow Dave Ramsey 7 baby steps you would start off with just a
$1,000 starter emergency fund and then get right onto attacking your debts. And other Financial systems and plans may
have you approached it an entirely different way. Either way is perfectly fine because the 10
levels system is not meant to be a financial formula per say it's more there to give us
some sort of guidepost so that we can better track our progress towards achieving Financial
Independence.

But for the purposes of this video, I am going
to assume that they follow the 10 levels in order so we are going to be building up a
full emergency fund. In order to find how much of an emergency
fund they will need we will need to know how much money they need to survive not necessarily
on their current level of expenses while they have jobs but purely on Survival expenses
which are basically your four walls of your financial house or in other words food shelter
including utilities Basic clothing and some form of transportation as well as the insurances
that are related to that assuming there are any. In this case, I'm going to assume that their
survival expenses are right around $3,000 a month. Which means that in order to get a 3-month
emergency fund they would need $9,000 in order to get a six-month emergency fund they would
need to save $18,000. Both John and Jane feel that their jobs are
pretty darn secure and the market is doing fairly well so it's not likely at least in
the near-term that they would get laid off because the company has to downsize so they
decide together that they are comfortable with having just a 3-month emergency fund
of $9,000.

So with $83,200 a year in income, $48,000
a year and expenses, plus minimum monthly payments of $100 on the credit card which
is 2% of the balance, $550.78 on the car loans, and $621.83 on the student loans they will
have approximately $1,660.72 a month left over to start building their emergency fund. However, both John and Jane have been looking
into their finances and researching a lot lately and they become fired up at the possibility
of becoming financially independent while they're still young. So they want to see if there's a way that
they can speed this whole process up. And as it turns out thankfully there are many. After taking a look at the options they decide
that they're going to work as much overtime as they possibly can (for the sake of Simplicity
I'm going to assume that they manage to work on average 5 hours per week of overtime which
will increase their monthly income by about $1,300 a month, meaning that instead of $1,660
a month they will have $2,960 a month left over) and they're going to sell both of their
cars and buy some nice used cars with cash to help knock down some of that initial debt.

After putting out a couple of ads online they
managed to find buyers for each of their cars that is willing to give them $15,000. So they take that $30,000 and use $5,000 of
it to pay off the credit card balance and another $10,000 to buy a couple of used cars
from someone that they know takes good care of their Vehicles whether that be a family
friend or just a mechanic that they Trust. The remaining $15,000 is thrown at their car
loans. This means that the credit card loan is fully
paid off and therefore the hundred-dollar minimum payment is no longer needed. So John and Jane start throwing $3,060 per
month into their emergency fund and get it fully funded in 3 months with a little bit
left over at the end of the third month to throw out their car loan. Over the course of those first three months,
they managed to bring the car loans balances down to $18,423 thanks in large part to the
$15,000 that they threw at it in the first month after selling the cars and also making
the minimum payments in the first three months.

Now that their emergency fund is fully funded
however they're able to throw that $3,060 a month in addition to the $550 a month minimum
payment at the car loan and get it paid off in 6 months flat. So a mere nine months into their Journey John
and Jane not only have a fully funded emergency fund but they also have paid off both of their
car loans. Now there are just the student loans to tackle. And thanks to the fact that they've been making
minimum payments on them for 9 months and the fact that they had a little over $3,000
at the end of the ninth month after paying off their car loans their student loans now
have a balance of $53,263.

John and Jane follow the same pattern that
they did with the car loans throwing the $3,600+ which is what they now have left over at the
end of every month because they no longer had a $550 car payment to make and they managed
to get their student loans paid off in full in 13 months. So John and Jane have managed to become debt
free and have a fully funded emergency fund in 22 months. They have now reached level three and because
of that they now have over $4,200 a month left over to start investing. This brings us to level four coasting Financial
Independence. Let's assume that John and Jane want to retire
by the age of 65. That means that whatever they put in now needs
to be enough to grow to a point where it can support their lifestyle in retirement by the
time they're 65. If we assume a rate of return on an average
in the market of about 10% before inflation and an inflation rate of about 3% per year
on average then we can get a rough estimate of how much John and Jane need to put away
in order to achieve a state of coasting Financial Independence.

In this case, since they're 24 about to be
25 they will have somewhere in the neighborhood of 39 or 40 years to let the money grow before
needing to take any of it out. If their expenses were $48,000 a year at age
23 then 42 years later if we assume a 3% rate of inflation they would need a tad bit over
$166,000 each year to live on. Again assuming we follow the 4% rule to figure
out how much they need once they fully retire to be financially independent that means that
they would have to have at least $4.15 million invested in the market by the time they turn
65. In their case, they would need about $110,000
saved up give or take in order to achieve coasting Financial Independence and because
they're able to save about $4,233 a month now that they’re debt free, they’re able
to hit that goal in 2 years flat. Meaning that in theory, they would be able
to step down from their jobs to a more rewarding less stressful but probably lower-paying job
just 3 years and 10 months into their financial Journey. That is incredible! But like I said coasting Financial Independence
wasn't their end goal. They wanted to be fully Financial Independent
so they keep working and investing for now.

The next level is level 5 Financial Security
which is achieved when your cash flow from your Investments is greater than your annual
survival expenses which remember is $3,000 a month or $36,000 a year in John and James
case. Because they are debt-free, are making good
money at their jobs, and being intentional with their finances they Achieve Financial
Security in a little over 4 years with over $367,000 in their portfolio. It is been a mere 87 months or 7 years and
3 months since they began their financial Journey. John and Jane are 30 years old and they are
able to get by on their Investments alone. In theory, they could retire now, it wouldn't
be the most glamorous retirement and it wasn't their goal but it is an option they have. They don't have to worry about losing their
jobs anymore because even if both of them lost their jobs today they would be able to
make it long enough to either find a new job or some other source of income.

This is really the first level where you start
to get that piece of mind when it comes to money at least in my opinion. Next is financial flexibility which as I mentioned
earlier in the video has many definitions depending on who you ask but for the purposes
of this video, I'm assuming that it is roughly 12.5x your current annual expenses which for
John and Jane would be roughly $600,000 or about $855,000 if you account for inflation. This means that they would Achieve Financial
flexibility 9 years and 8 months into their Journey not accounting for inflation or about
11 years and 9 months if we do account for inflation.

John and Jane continue investing through all
the highs and lows of the markets until they reach Financial Independence exactly 14 years
into their financial Journey assuming we don't account for inflation or 18 years and 3 months
if we do. So you might be wondering why did I split
up the accounting for inflation time frames and the not accounting for inflation time
frames should we always be accounting for inflation? Well technically yes but the reason I split
them up is because in my experience taking this journey myself as well as seeing others
take it, this journey changes how you view a lot of things and more often than not those
changes lead to you valuing things such as freedom of mobility and location and freedom
of time to be able to spend with the people you love more and valuing more material things
that cost possibly a lot of money less and less.

That's not to say that everybody becomes minimalist
going through this journey, I'm not saying that at all but I have seen a lot of people
who have gone through this journey become closer to minimalist than they were when they
started the journey as they find out more and more things that they used to buy just
don’t provide enough value or happiness for them to be worth the purchase. They find better uses for their money and
time and as a result, they generally tend to spend less. Which means that even though inflation is
technically increasing your expenses by making every dollar less and less valuable over time,
if you're also decreasing your expenses because what you value is changing it may even out
or in some cases, you may even see your regular expenses going down year-over-year as you
continue through this journey.

So that's why I split them up. And, before I go, I do want to mention that
based on what I've seen on various articles and forums some people really like to have
even more goals to chase as they go through this journey than what I've laid out today
in this video so if that's something that would help you feel free to break down these
levels even further then I have today this is obviously just the list that I used and
what worked for me, but you could take it even further.

For example, Debt Freedom could be broken
down into three separate stages: One where you are free from all high-interest debt,
a second where you are free from all debts except for the house (if you have one), and
a third where you are totally debt-free. You could tackle the coasting Financial Independence
level in a similar way breaking it down into two stages: One where are you have invested
enough to survive in retirement and a second where you have invested enough in order to
maintain your current lifestyle, adjusting for inflation of course, in retirement.

And the financial independence level could
also be broken down into three stages: Stage one would be where you are at a survivable
level of financial Independence, stage 2 would be where you have achieved leanfire status,
and stage 3 would be where you have achieved full Financial Independence on your current
lifestyle assuming that it is above the leanfire level. So what do you guys think of this 10 levels
system of tracking our progress to financial Independence? Do any of you use a similar system to track
your progress? If so, what is it and what level, step, or
stage are you guys currently on? Let me know in the comments section below.

But that'll do it for me today once again
if you enjoyed this video be sure to subscribe and hit that Bell next to my name so that
you'll be notified of all my future uploads. I generally upload every single Monday, and
if you have a friend that would be interested in this kind of content be sure to share it
with them and let's really get this information out there and start our own Financial revolution.

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The Truth about our Early Retirement in Bali

at one point or another we've all dreamed about 
what life could be like if we could spend our   time doing whatever we want whenever we want 
maybe it's vacationing to all sorts of exotic   places maybe it's lying around on the beach 
all day reading perhaps we'll finally pick   up that hobby we've always admired for many 
of us that sort of Freedom happens when we   Achieve Financial Independence and retire and 
that's exactly what we did I'm Jean that's my   husband Vitali we're in our late 30s and in July 
2021 we retired to Bali Indonesia we get a lot   of people questioning our early retirement with 
comments like you're too young to retire isn't   it boring but the truth of our lives in Bali 
could not be further from what people think our   retirement lives alike so today I thought I'll 
show you the raw and real deal with us here in   Bali by taking you through a typical week in 
our lives here I want to give you an honest   standing of the alternative lifestyle we've 
designed for ourselves at a relatively young   age so you can consider how you are designing 
and planning your own life your own retirement   the options you truly have at your disposal 
and what really might be the best fit for you   hello most days here in Bali starts slow and 
easy we wake up early have morning tea quiet   time maybe a little meditation or journaling and 
we check the self conditions actually to maximize   each day's potential usually the night before 
I would have already planned off the to-do list   and the structure for today's activities and now 
looking at the surf forecast now it's too high for   surfing in the morning so that I'll just have 
to wait till later today in the meantime this   is a great moment to head over to our Pasa 
to pick up some fresh supplies so let's go the meat and chicken ladies closed shop by 10 30 
am so it's best to hustle over there early [Music]   a lot of our freedom retirement life here in Bali 
is also eating well and staying healthy and after   more than a year of living here we've actually 
settled into the pattern of trying to have at   least one home-cooked meal a day we absolutely 
love eating out and eating local here in Bali   especially street food like this what did you 
buy I buy Mullen right banana so everything obviously it can also be really calorific 
and high cholesterol home cooking gives   us the freedom to go more plant-based or 
alternatively for Vitali to enjoy creating   his barbecue Delights very conflicting I know but 
really food is one of the main joys of life no so we've got fruits and vegetables and meat 
for us and bones for the doggy so now it's   time to go back off home but first we make 
another stop [Music] yeah so the pastries   here are really really good so we come here quite 
often to pick up something quick for breakfast so we don't actually work any kind of salary 
employment or do any business here in Bali   instead our living costs here are covered by a 
modest amount of monthly passive income hence   our categorization as technically retired 
if you're interested in the financial side   of things to our life here we actually made 
two videos about it so once about our monthly   living costs here and the other one is about 
how we actually reached retirement I'll link   them down in the description below if you want to 
check them out anyway so the beauty of our setup   here is that our time is actually free from the 
constraints of having to make money for survival   and we get to choose what to keep busy with and 
it's completely not about lazing around every   day doing nothing that gets old really fast it's 
an amazing feeling to you know keep busy and be   productive every day with stuff that you actually 
truly believe in and one of these things for us is   the weekly Youtube upload commitment so Vitaly 
and I started this channel like over two years ago   and for the longest time now it's been 
one video every week every Saturday and   sometimes it's about what we do here 
in Bali like a little live update and   sometimes it's about some thoughts 
that I'd like to share with you guys   we are starting work on a brand new video this 
week so right now it's going to be script writing   for me for the next two to three hours I usually 
work way in advance so I already have my idea   all set up I just have to articulate my thoughts 
around it and think about how to execute the shoot   whilst I'm doing this Vitali is often on his 
guitar or busy with his other responsibilities   he's often managing our rental properties 
and solving small issues that crop out with   the tenants here and there remotely from Bali he 
also spends a lot of time learning new technical   stuff on YouTube and skillshare because that's 
his areas of Interest photography videography   Etc right now with the tide dropping it's just 
about the right time for us to start heading   over to the surf so it's time to pick up Bali 
is our Dream Paradise particularly post Italy   and I both love surfing and it's a luxury to 
live in a place with quality ways like Bali   has and we try to get as much of it as possible 
if not every day then every other day at least okay super nice there are some ways available 
we're gonna suit up and head in the thing is   kind of our daily sport but it's also 
actually something we really love so   to us surfing is not just about exercise 
it's kind of like an art and both Vitaly   and I want to progress in it it does take 
up a considerable amount of time though   between traveling to the spot checking 
for good conditions surfing getting a   coconut to rehydrate driving back showering off 
that's at least three plus hours of each day foreign [Music] all right now so it's a couple of days later 
I've returned a halfway decent script after a   few rewrites that I'm actually happy to 
go shoot with so today is lights camera   and action this usually takes a couple 
of hours or so depending on the type of   video and I need to look tidy so usually 
shoot days are never surf days instead we   usually couple it with errands that we have 
to run there's always stuff each week that   requires us to venture a bit further out of 
our quiet Village Life into more civilization right so now we are at the Bali art supply 
store it's actually a great little place   for arts and crafts Hobbies you know if 
you need supplies they have got a lot   of things especially for watercolors 
acrylics all sorts of painting really   we've got a lot of really great stuff here but 
they actually also sell this stuff off tokopedia   right okay so now we're done here and it's off 
to the next stop this is one of bali's home   renovation Mega stores our bathroom tiles need 
replacing so we checked out some options [Music]   on the way home this is one of 
our favorite stops for lunch so I'm not having rice today but 
this is what I've got another nicely Nasi champor is like the best deal here ever of 
living here in Bali or in Indonesia in general I   mean it's cheap it's always tasty and you know 
you get to choose what you want to have it's   like really easy to go vegetarian or like just cut 
out the meat and yeah super awesome after if I'm   feeling energetic and in the flow I'll set up the 
easel and go outing for a little bit good morning   so now the shoot's all done and for this next 
few days it's just going to be production time editing color grading adding music usually   takes about three to four hours 
each day until the video is done so we love living close to bali's Nature 
it's one of the biggest privileges of being   here in Bali so we keep the house as open 
as we can most of the time but that also   means it gets really really dusty plus 
doggy runs in and out as she pleases so   we do have to clean every day there's a lot of 
upkeep required for the house and the garden so living like this also means we can take 
rest whenever we need and usually this is   just taking a day out of our normal swing of 
things where we can just unplug and stop going Sam Dogan also known as the financial Samurai 
turned living like this fake retirement he himself   stopped working full time since 2012 but after a 
year of the traditional doing nothing retirement   he got bored and he went back to keeping busy with 
his family his Finance website writing books and   managing his Investments including investments 
into art through platforms like today's video   sponsor Masterworks if you two are retired or 
planning for that Investments invariably form   part of the picture in the U.S most Americans 
now believe they need 1.25 million US dollars to   retire comfortably a good 20 up from last year 
traditional investing has been far from enough   with the stock Bond portfolio that Millions rely 
on down 34 this year if you're worried know that   historically in times like these professional 
investors seek out real assets because they can   still deliver gains and help fight inflation not 
just oil gold or real estate but also Fine Art   while stocks and bonds are going down the average 
artwork is selling at auction for 26 more than   this time last year outside of 2022 investing 
in art has outpaced the S P 500 over the last 26   years by 131 obviously for most of us investing in 
art has always been a tad Out Of Reach I certainly   can't spend three million dollars on a painting 
but luckily there's Masterworks Masterworks   allows us to invest in multi-million dollar 
artwork high-class paintings from legendary   artists like Picasso and Banksy for a fraction of 
the cost in 7 out of eight sales Masterworks has   delivered over 17 net returns to their investors 
over 550 000 people have signed for Masterworks   and as the economy tumbles there's a growing 
wait list but my subscribers can get Priority   Access using the link in the description people 
have pushed back saying that living like this   isn't truly retired since we're still doing 
some sort of work and getting money in return   I disagree I think the point of our retirement is 
not that we can sit around and do nothing all day   long but that we have the freedom to choose 
what to visit ourselves with and if some of   those Pursuits happen to bring in extra money 
it's not a necessity but it is a nice bonus   the point of our little body life is we chose an 
alternative lifestyle design we chose to content   ourselves with a simpler more economical life 
here one that may even seem perhaps a little   poor or name to some people but it allows us the 
freedom to pursue what we believe in to learn new   things and to live each day slowly with gratitude 
and spend time with the people we love every day   because these are the things I won't want 
to miss out on or defer to much later in   life because having all the free time in the 
world will be pointless without all these   I've always wondered if the traditional retirement 
that Society paddles to us is a bit of a mirage an   endless and aimless vacay gets old pretty quickly 
for many people and Truth yet that is the very   same picture of traditional retirement that's 
painted for most of us to hold in our Mind's   Eye whilst We Trust through layers of toil and 
endure unfulfilling work to reach that Promised   Land then sadly the reality of traditional 
retirement pans out differently for many   people these same people who spend most of their 
lives working so beautifully and will have been   conditioned to live their life around work as 
their dominant priority they never took time off   to develop themselves or develop other interests 
outside of work work was all they need work had   become their identity their purpose in life and 
their social network and in retirement these very   same people often seem to become lost lonely blue 
some even find a way back into a retirement job   personally I thought the whole thing looked a 
little bit like a sub-optimal trade-off and a   lousy lifestyle design after all you can never 
get that lost time in your life back can you   I'm just so grateful that Italia and I achieved 
this together earlier rather than later in our   lives and there are fake retirement in Bali 
is as productive and meaningful as it is to us   I will forever want to be spending our lives 
this way this is a life I will never want to   retire from in the traditional center of the 
world I've learned that it is a misconception to   drive towards unlimited Freedom with our time it's 
really what we do with our free time that counts   if you're still striving out there you may wish 
to consider redesigning your own life to optimize   it to serve you better in the long run I believe 
that by making more conscious choices about how   we want to use the time in our life and how we 
truly want to live we don't need to wait until   retirement to live closer to our true selves 
we are all definitely different people with   different perspectives and priorities so so I know 
my choice may not always be the same as what you   will achieve but I'll be very interested to know 
what you think of our design for life and your   ideal plans for your retirement so let me know 
in the comments below I would love to hear it   thank you so much for watching today's video 
and I guess I will see you next Saturday bye [Music]

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6 Retirement Essentials (Most people only prepared 2 or 3)

I'm planning for retirement most people focus 
mostly on marshaling together enough money you   know Financial Resources so that they can last 
the distance and then maybe at the back of their   heads they have some vague plan right perhaps 
two or three things to fill the time with a lot   of the times this is stuff like travel family 
well unfortunately I'm gonna say that's not   quite nearly enough for Preparation we ourselves 
have been retired for two years and going looking   back on the past two years I kind of see like 
six essential things that if you prep for it   beforehand before your retirement starts I think 
this can really make such a positive difference   to your retirement so that's what I wanted 
to bring up and discuss with you guys today   number one first and foremost of course we have 
to talk about money most people's concern is the   amount of money that they have in retirement 
whether it will last them till the end come   comfortably and allow them to afford the Hobbies 
like travel good food Etc but I actually think   after going through the last two years building up 
our financial Acumen is just as important if not   more so what do I mean by Financial Acumen I mean 
stuff like budgeting tracking projecting investing   I mean if you think about it the money in your 
bank account can always be squandered we all   know that story I think more importantly what's 
going to make your retirement more fireproof is   having an ability to generate more money where 
it came from in the first place so the second   essential thing that you can prepare for so that 
you have a wonderful retirement it's definitely   the ability to be self-directing and disciplined 
self-direction definitely helps so much with   spending your retirement days meaningfully right 
after all there are no more like work schedules   or like demands from colleagues or bosses to help 
shape your days anymore you have to be the person   to take charge in retirement there's a study out 
there actually that shows that for happily retired   folks most of them actually have about 3.6 core 
Pursuits that's what they say and the unheably   retired folks tend to have less than 3.6 corporate 
suits coming in at about 1.9 call Pursuits that's   what the study reflected I guess it kind of just 
shows in retirement you really need to fill your   life to the brim and keep busy with activities 
you love and that is a really great formula for   happiness and self-direction will help you 
to achieve that state as well as discipline   because if you think about it like discipline 
directly affects the state of your finances right   it affects whether you stick with your retirement 
planning whether you keep fit and active and you   get to maintain your health in retirement even 
whilst you're left up to your own devices even   to find your cover suits if you don't have any 
when you're starting or in your retirement so   discipline and self-direction will be like 
the building blocks for enjoying your life   in retirement the third essential thing you might 
want to work on and cultivate or happy retirement   is people skills right so studies and research 
have reflected very consistently that the main   determining factor for happiness and Longevity 
for most of us is actually relationships Human   Relationships friendships relationship with 
your spouse and with your family I guess if   you look at most of us you know we all have 
a little need of work on some social skills   in some aspect I mean some of us are a bit shy 
paper hats or graph or maybe socially anxious   working on our people skills really will help us 
to get along and live happily with our spouse and   family members and also importantly to make 
new friendships at whatever age we all know   that making new friends gets a lot more difficult 
as we get older I mean I haven't heard anyone say   otherwise for me personally making new friends 
as I get older is the biggest challenge there's   this huge feeling that nothing can replace 
friendships with people who have known you   all your life but it is also a challenge as I 
have chosen to exercise through Arbitrage in   our retirement and we've moved away from home 
so those friends aren't with us in our present   I find that it takes a lot of intention I have 
to consciously push myself to broaden my Social   Circles and make the effort to get to know people 
on a more intimate basis I am also very happy   to be able to say that it has paid off in that for 
the last two years in Bali I have actually made   two or three new friends that I'm happy to say are 
kindred spirits and not just social acquaintances   so that's very nice and it's a huge Comfort to our 
daily life here in a foreign land away from home   now before we move on a big thank you to 
Mumu Singapore for sponsoring this video   Singapore is an online trading platform for 
stocks ETFs and options I've been using the   MooMoo mobile trading app myself for almost 
a year now and I think it's awesome it's   fast intuitive trading US Stocks is commission 
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app will save you so much money already when   you deposit at least a hundred same dollars and 
start using the mobile app to trade you stand   to receive cash coupons up to 128 Sing dollars 
and even a free Coca-Cola share worth around 87   subscribe two thousand Sing dollars or more into 
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just for using the Momo app so if you're actively   investing anyhow I recommend checking out the 
MooMoo ad using my link in the description below   now back to the video the fourth essential 
thing that you can definitely work on and that   will benefit your retirement tremendously it's 
actually courage you're definitely gonna need lots   of courage in retirement and I guess this isn't 
a skill exactly it's kind of more of a quality   but in retirement you need a lot of courage 
to even plunge into retirement you need the   courage to you know take that leap of faith to 
stop putting it off due to fear of the unknown   feel or financial insecurities so then it's all 
about courage at that stage not let fear and   insecurity rule your life and your decisions it 
is also the courage to recognize that in life at   the start at the end in the middle the Domino's 
you need are never all nicely lined up you know   at some point you just got to jump into it and 
then learn to cross the obstacles as they come   so for retirement long term I guess the 
biggest issue most commonly is always money   but my perspective on this is that hey budgets 
can always be reduced money can always be earned   or recouped or whatever happens so I still 
think that you know it is actually beneficial   to Advocate an approach whereby you get to 
a point where you feel that you have most of   your Ducks lined up you've planned well you've 
prepped for it grab hold of your courage with   both hands and then take the plunge people tend 
to think of retirement as the end but it's not   it's the start of a new phase where you should be 
trying so many new things new Pursuits new ways   to live and for each of these new adventures 
you're gonna need courage to take action and   once you have taken the plunge you'll find the 
next fifth thing very very useful and that would   be a mentality of resilience especially in early 
retirement there are a lot more decades ahead of   you you know and therefore a lot more chances that 
they things can go wrong whether it be down to bad   financial planning or perhaps an unexpected Health 
catastrophe or even sometimes natural disasters   whatever comes I guess you will always need that 
strength of Will and the resilience so that you   can roll with the punches and then get back up 
you want to know that you have the mental strength   that even if things go pear-shaped you won't just 
give up and lose hope and certain Corner you've   got to Marshall what you've got inside you go out 
there find Solutions perhaps if necessary you've   got to go back to work but know that later on 
you can return to retirement and try again so the   sex essential thing that I believe will benefit 
everyone in retirement is to cultivate an attitude   of gratitude we all know life is a very long 
journey hopefully at least and so much of what   we Chase using most of our years actually doesn't 
really matter in the big picture once you have   taken a step back and then at that point is when 
you start realizing the earlier you cultivate and   attitude of gratitude and that appreciation for 
the simple little things that are probably around   you everywhere every day the happier you probably 
will be and it sounds silly but it's not really   automatic I mean we all live and grow up and 
work and go to school in a society that kind of   innovates us with messages that we need to reach 
for more have more ambition gives us you know that   High definitions of success in life that we 
have to try to jump to reach and nobody sings   the Praises of the pleasures of a simple cup of 
tea you know the importance of family time with   your loved ones or or just the pleasure of being 
able to take an evening walk on the beach with   your dog so I think that it's very important that 
somebody reminds you that you know you can not   overload what you already have what you're already 
surrounded by growing that muscle of appreciation   so that in each and every moment you are present 
in your own life you see all the little Joys that   you're surrounded with every day and if you 
live life like that I think that will help   you achieve contentment with just the small stuff 
around you and that's what majority of your life   in retirement may be about is just a small stuff 
every day but in my own retirement here in Bali it   is what makes me so grateful and so happy every 
day that I am surrounded by my loving husband   and very interesting and independent little dog 
that's very very cute you know that we have very   comfortable a bit simple house we have the ability 
to enjoy good food even if it's simple stuff   from the war rooms locally we have a garden and 
beautiful things are growing around us every day   the weather is great you know stuff is good yeah 
I think this is one of the most essential simple   things that's often overlooked simply because it's 
a matter of mentality but I believe this essential   quality or characteristic could make all the 
difference for you so these are the six essential   things that I believe are very very important for 
you to cultivate and prepare for in the leader to   actually taking the plunge into a return then I 
think that if you have these six strong skills and   qualities going for you you will be in a position 
much more well placed to make the best out of your   retirement however long that period may be let me 
know what you think of my suggestions whether you   agree or if you think they suck let me know why 
but in any event I really appreciate you tuning   in and sharing my thoughts for this week and 
wherever you are in the world I'm wishing you   a happy Saturday evening and let's speak again 
next week till then you take care and bye for now

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Things We Wished We Knew Before Retirement

Well it's great to be with you all again it's 
another video day for us – It is – So things that   we wish we knew before we retired almost 
sounds like a country music song there Tina   – And I guess you must be feeling lucky 
today Norm – Oh yeah got my lucky shirt   on so because we're filming been to 
Costco – Got the great deals haven't we   – We have so one of the things that we wish we knew 
before we retired was how free it is how stress   free no longer having to get up and go through the 
morning ritual of preparing yourself to go to work   and being accountable to somebody else all 
day long it's wonderful to be accountable to   your own self and your partner that's it 
you're your own person and it's such a freeing   feeling and we saw that with Tina when she gave 
up work the amount of stress we hadn't realized   until a few years after retirement just how 
different she was she'd lost all that stress of   meeting quotas and all that good stuff – And I think 
I'll just add Norm that when you're actually doing   the job you actually don't think it is stressful 
you don't think you are under all this   stress until you stop it do something else and 
you think wow this is a lot better we like this   it's great so just being accountable to ourselves 
we love it don't we – It is totally life changing   – One thing that we do think is very important 
before you retire is you do need to have a   discussion with your partner as to what it is 
that the ideas that you're both thinking you   have when you're going to retire you do need to 
have some goals about, do you want to travel do   you want to garden or do hobbies do you want 
to stay home you really do need to have that   conversation to make sure you're both on the 
same page – I think it is it is important and   we hear a lot from some comments especially 
married women who are saying that their husband   their frightened the husband will get under their feet 
because he'll be hanging around all the time in   retirement but that really isn't the case – Not 
for us is it – We've been secure as a couple for   the longest time and retirement hasn't changed 
how we feel about each other and about what   our expectations of each other is it's not as if 
we've all of a sudden being locked up together in   retirement (no) so it is important to figure out 
what you both want out of retirement and to have   that discussion a few years before you actually 
do retire (yeah) one thing to bear in mind is   the first few years of your retirement you'll 
be your most healthy so just use that health and   strength that you do have in the early years 
to achieve some of the goals that you want   – Yeah and if you want to be traveling do it while 
you've got that – Don't think about traveling if   that's on your list just do it right away – Yeah 
absolutely and that's what we've done isn't   it when we retired we just traveled everywhere 
didn't we it was great – About two years before we   retired we had an inspector come to the house 
for I don't even remember what it was but it was   some form of home inspection that we had to and 
so we got chatting with him because he was a few   years older than us but not that much and he told 
us that he had a house very similar to ours that   he had sold and now he was living an apartment 
and he went through the whole process of them   and how they moved to the apartment and how 
it was such an improvement on their life   and it was something we'd never ever considered 
– This was big news to us wasn't it we never even   thought about renting an apartment – We had been 
homeowners since we were 19 years old so to rent   we had that preconceived idea that it was throwing 
money away but the more that we looked into it so   after he left the next couple of days we spent 
many hours thinking about this we did a budget   of how much it cost to keep our mortgage free 
home – Yeah crunched all the numbers – And what the   rent would be and if we had sold the house and it 
made more and more sense to us to sell the house   to downsize into an apartment bank the money 
from the house live off that as an investment and   that's what we did – And that's what we did didn't 
we – But had that guy not come to our house we might   never have come up with that idea – No because 
originally we had thought that we would just   buy a smaller house didn't we – That's right yeah 
– So part of our decision when we had actually now   decided that we were going to rent and we realized 
that would take care of we wouldn't have all this   maintenance and stuff like that to do we decided 
after we started looking at apartments that if   we moved to a cheaper area could we benefit by 
getting the same as what we wanted in an apartment   but would it cost us less money so the more 
we looked into it we did have a family member   who lived in a cheaper place so we looked 
at the equivalent of renting an apartment   in this new place and it was so much cheaper 
wasn't it Norm – Because we initially thought   we would just sell our house and stay in 
the same area so we started shopping for   apartments to find out how much they cost and the 
availability and we were pretty surprised that   at the expense of them but we were prepared 
to pay that (yeah) and then we came to a what   you would call it a small town that's cheaper 
(yeah) we came to visit a family member here and so   we started looking around at the apartments here 
and they were substantially cheaper about $800   a month cheaper than where we were initially going 
to – Yeah and not only that Norm there was a lot of   extras with it wasn't that we got there was 
underground parking and what else a swimming pool   – And laundry facilities in the apartment – And that 
was one thing the gentleman had told us he didn't   have on-suite laundry he had it in a laundry room 
so we wanted that – But coming to the cheaper town   it wasn't just the rents that were 
cheaper everything was cheaper   the Tina's hairdresser as we've 
said in the past was cheaper it just permeated everything so our budget became 
so attainable (yeah) by moving – That gave us a lot   more money to be able to travel didn't it because 
we thought if we can save money on a daily basis   and it worked perfect didn't it – It did it was 
great, take a look at that if you do have family   that live in an area that might be cheaper or 
just consider going not knowing anybody – No it's   like a new adventure isn't it a new chapter in 
your life because we've made friends here and   they don't have any family just here but they've 
made it a new place for them haven't they – A lot   of people have moved out of the big cities to a 
small town because it's it's far more conducive to   retirement (yes) and friendlier another 
thing that you really need to consider   is where your friends are going to come from 
in retirement because once you leave work   those friendships tend to wither away because 
the only common bond you have was your job   your workplace so we've never 
really had lasting friendships from   work colleagues they've always been outside 
of there so it's it's critically important   to continue looking for friendships in retirement 
and being outgoing and prepared to speak to people   Tina when we moved to this apartment building 
they did have a social room and they did a coffee   morning and so she would go down there and we 
found out so much information about the town and   businesses to use – It was great wasn't it – It was – It 
was kind of my mission wasn't it to find out   new information and to try and make new friends 
which we did and we made some fabulous friendships   – Well in particular there was one couple that Tina 
made struck up a friendship with and they in turn   have introduced us to another couple yeah and then 
they in turn have introduced us to another couple   so that's how it goes – Yeah so now we've got 
a group of really close nice friends that we   socialize with don't we – And the thing that we have 
in common isn't an employer it's being retired   – It is isn't it – It really is so don't be afraid 
of striking out to a new city a new town   because it's relatively easy to make friendships 
– Yeah you just have to push yourself out there   a little don't you and be confident to going to 
things and it's very exciting isn't it so we hope   that everybody is staying safe – And keeping 
well – Until the next time bye bye, bye bye

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F.I.R.E – 6 Uncomfortable Truths we discovered about Early Retirement & how to mitigate them

foreign hey what are the ugly sides to 
retiring early um aren't you bored every   day just lying around doing nothing don't 
you guys worry about running out of money hey guys welcome back to another beautiful 
day here in Paradise Bali many of you have   been asking me so many questions like the 
above so today I'm gonna run through six   uncomfortable truths about early retirement 
as well as my suggestions for mitigating them   based on our own experiences reaching fire and 
being retired here in Bali Indonesia for the   past two years so uncomfortable truth number 
one retirement is a journey not a destination   for the record lying around all day doing nothing 
in retirement is a myth it's always nice to have   a few days of that here and there but in reality 
you do that for long stretches of time and you're   probably going to be hit very very hard with 
feelings of boredom lack of self-worth and you're   gonna be missing a sense of fulfillment retirement 
isn't a destination like Bali or Boracay it really   is the start of a New Journey in your life it's 
that stretch of time where you finally do those   things you wanted to do but always couldn't 
because you were so busy making money to   survive it can be anything traveling the world 
finally writing that book or studying that say   cross stitch side hustle if you never get past the 
myth you'll probably end up getting bored and then   end up going back to work and missing out on this 
Amazing Life Adventure so like every other journey   start planning what is this epic adventure you 
want to spend your retirement time and money on number two if you got bored during your 
retirement stuff maybe you're doing it wrong   so for a lot of people their retirement Jam 
is about traveling the world right that's a   super common one and it's amazing fun you never 
feel more alive and it's such a great challenge   because actually you need so many different skills 
to travel properly right you need Street smarts to   navigate the towns and scams and other issues 
on the road you need to be able to plan your   itinerary book the best travel deals know how 
to haggle your prices not to mention stuff like   riding a motorbike and scuba diving and at the 
start it's always epic it's so incredible but on excitement and sense of achievement starts to 
plateau and then you're gonna hit that point   of diminishing returns and it wasn't just 
in travel either it was also my painting my   businesses my surviving The Nomad life thingy I 
find that when love to remain largely undirected   most Pursuits actually tend to lose their flavor 
with time another way of putting this is perhaps   you feel yourself falling into stagnation or 
mediocrity thing is if you're early retired on   your own efforts then you're probably more of 
the go-getter and achiever type of person and   the aspect of your personality doesn't 
change just because you're tired you'll   still be looking around and judging if you're 
spending your time meaningfully and productively   to this fix personally I found two solutions 
that worked really well for me one either I   start drilling deep down into the details of 
what I'm doing or two I make it into a business   take my dad baking is his great love in retirement 
but he's not just begging anyhow for the fun of   it the last few years he's in pursuit of baking 
a tastier sourdough bread anyone has ever come   across out of 365 days in a year he is probably 
baked about I'm guessing maybe 400 sourdough   loaves two loaves each bake he tweaks the recipes 
the starter the technique the ingredients he does   some reverse engineering of sourdough bread that's 
commercially sold outside it's been maybe three   years and he's still going strong so he set his 
own special sourdough bread goal and Target and   standards instead of just serving and yogurting 
for fun I became qualified instructors in both   and eventually started both a yoga business and 
a surf school and you know I learned so much   more about both in the whole process whatever 
Pursuit out there if you start really drilling   down there's always more Improvement to be had 
more personal growth to pursue please say you love   Pottery don't just do it aimlessly to pass time 
polish up your skills enter competitions become   a professional Potter do commissions as your 
retirement side hustle or teach pottery classes   when you keep pushing yourself to those higher 
standards because you're either really drilling   down into the craft of it or you're running it 
as an Enterprise you'll find new measures of   productivity therein and you will be bored not to 
mention if you're actually like us on lean fire   whatever site income you generate will help defray 
the cost of your interests and hobbies so you   don't need to tap on your long-term Investments 
isn't that a really good deal so two years ago   at the age of 38 I retired with my husband here 
in Bali it's pretty early by most standards and   it's been a completely amazing journey we've 
learned a lot and I hope the insights we are   sharing with you guys are useful if you're on 
your own fire Journey or already neck deep in   retirement smack that like button share with us in 
the comments below what your retirement looks like   so far how you're keeping busy and whether you 
agree or disagree with the points we made here   now on to the third uncomfortable truth it's 
hard that you must defend your time you probably   retired so you can spend your time doing however 
you please whenever you please most of us will   have spent the vast majority of Our Lives 
thus far making a living which means usually   someone else is directing your time either your 
boss or your clients and we get really used to   that so then in retirement self-directing your 
time becomes something new and kind of foreign   and if you look at retired folks in Singapore 
after working jobs that entire lives most of   them graduate on in retirement working as free 
child care services for their grandchildren   if that's their ultimate dream and for some 
traditional older folks it definitely is then   it's wonderful I'm really happy for them but 
for some it may not really be that but they   find themselves doing it anyway kind of like by 
default because they're just so used to allowing   someone else to direct their time for them there's 
always going to be people around who will try to   take advantage of your free time asking you to 
run errands for them perhaps or like for us here   in Bali we get so many requests from both people 
we know personally and complete strangers of the   internet asking us to do stuff like plan their 
holidays show them around Bali Etc of course we   love hosting close friends and family and we 
enjoy helping people generally but sensibly   speaking our own private lives would just vanish 
if we were to entertain all the requests we get   you'll need to learn how to say no to people and 
how to strike balance retirement is as much about   sharing your time with the people who matter 
to you as it is about having time for your own   personal growth and development just be aware 
uncomfortable truth number four it's probably   gonna be just you and your significant other from 
now on out so upon retirement your social scene is   going to change drastically everyone else is at 
work or busy with their own stuff you're either   gonna have to learn to enjoy your own company 
a lot or if you're lucky enough to have retired   with your significant other that's who you'll 
probably be spending majority of your retirement   with so best learn to get along companionably good 
communication is key as it's just generally being   a considerate and respectful human being through 
the pandemic and on the road this past decade   I've seen so many people who seem really surprised 
by the person the other half truly is when they   start retirement and start traveling together 
24 7 a day but building that Comfort to do   stuff by yourself and building that wonderful 
relationship with your other half can also   possibly be the most rewarding part of your 
retirement journey and your personal growth   before I share with you the fifth uncomfortable 
truth just the quick word from our sponsor of   today's video MooMoo Singapore the stock 
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uncomfortable truth number five your money plans   are never as foolproof as you think all retirement 
whether it's the regular kind or fire really all   boils down to the financial planning behind it 
right and the most uncomfortable truth of all   may be that your retirement funds are never 
as foolproof as you plan for especially if   your plans are supposed to spend 30 40 even 50 
years in the case of early retirement expert   predictions and assumptions go wrong you made a 
mistake in your portfolio planning because of all   the buyers that we all carry Bear markets happen 
blacks on events gray Rhino events so many things   no matter the plan no matter how much stress 
testing you did before you dove into it the   unexpected often happens and the sooner you come 
to terms with this uncomfortable truth the sooner   you can move on to hatching against the risks 
You can predict most retirees they're working   their financial planning and less Aid around 
the four percent drawdown rule right so the   U.S stock market has had a phenomenal Run for the 
last 10 12 years or so now of course things are   looking a little different for the foreseeable 
future so those who have been conservative and   who have refrained from tapping their long-term 
investments will have more breeding space now   to ride out this bear Market however long it may 
last friends who have been following our journey   for a while now know that a dominant portion of 
our retirement here in Bali consists of rental   income from a number of real estate Investments 
and unfortunately in the last two years since   we started retirement Europe is a game at War 
soaring Energy prices have driven up the cost   of living across the world and everywhere massive 
inflation is now a huge issue thankfully we have   so far managed to resolve whatever disruptions 
we've experienced but basically yet another   uncomfortable truth in retirement is that managing 
your money to make it last till the end takes up   more time than you think don't just go to sleep on 
it continually look to diversify the eggs in your   basket and be open to adjusting your money plans 
like rebalancing your portfolio or changing how   you invest your retirement Arsenal as different 
opportunities present themselves for time you may   not need to work for money any longer but doing 
stuff that fuels your personal growth and that   generates some extra side income as a bonus is 
never a Bad Thing uncomfortable truth number six   no point sweating the small stuff y'all know I'm 
a big fan of simple frugal living and no pretenses   whereas happy dining in a fancy restaurant 
as we are eating at the local War rooms here   sometimes more happy actually but many of us 
can also easily get carried away diving into   with the itsy bitsy details of frugal living you 
know spending two hours here looking up deals and   coupons that end up saving you 10 bucks three 
hours there figuring out how to maximize your   air miles should you lock in that 3.5 fixed 
deposit rate now or wait till next week where   maybe it might be 3.7 I mean it can be fun 
and then it can also be a lousy use of your   time you can do it if you enjoy the challenge 
just know that so long as you get the big stuff   right your retirement is probably going to work 
out just fine so don't sweat the small stuff   big things include stuff like keeping on top 
of your overall General expenses you know doing   your taxes right maintaining a balance then 
Diversified portfolio so as long as you keep   on top of all of that I think that's about 95 of 
the big picture really conversely what I'm also   saying is that if you blow up your retirement 
finances by for example trying to go big or go   home on crypto no amount of coupon cutting is 
gonna save you from having to go back to a job   so yeah that's my take on not sweating the small 
stuff we're all retire at some point of Our Lives   whether early or late voluntarily or unwillingly 
it all boils down to choice and advanced planning   just what I've personally observed is that if 
you cut out all the noise and distraction in   life what do you think are the real currencies we 
truly traded the way I see it is four things it's   money time Youth and health just think about it 
everything we do throughout our entire lives is   really us trading one of these for the other an 
early retirement is that one anomaly where you are   in a position to spend all four currencies at once 
simultaneously and that maximizes your experience   of life a really clear illustration of this is 
traveling you can travel in your 60s and 70s sure   that's what most people will end up doing and it's 
great you know you see these folks really enjoying   seeing new things being very happy but it's often 
in the form of like lots of cruise trips around   the world and that's cool too but they'll never 
experience what it's like to try learning to surf   or sail and getting all salty and burned and 
muscle achy but happily exhausted oh they'll   never try anything more vigorous and adventurous 
like say backpacking your way through Europe you   know crushing in new hostels meeting crazy people 
from Iceland or wherever and doing silly things   together we all have two lives the life that we 
currently live and the life we could possibly live   so then which life would you choose tell me in 
the comments below and don't tell me you wouldn't   retire early because you just wouldn't really know 
what to do that's just a cop-out answer because   yeah well you're too lazy to do the legwork 
and try new stuff and understand yourself   thanks for watching as always speak 
again next Saturday bye foreign

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6 Retirement Essentials (Most people only prepared 2 or 3)

I'm planning for retirement most people focus 
mostly on marshaling together enough money you   know Financial Resources so that they can last 
the distance and then maybe at the back of their   heads they have some vague plan right perhaps 
two or three things to fill the time with a lot   of the times this is stuff like travel family 
well unfortunately I'm gonna say that's not   quite nearly enough for Preparation we ourselves 
have been retired for two years and going looking   back on the past two years I kind of see like 
six essential things that if you prep for it   beforehand before your retirement starts I think 
this can really make such a positive difference   to your retirement so that's what I wanted 
to bring up and discuss with you guys today   number one first and foremost of course we have 
to talk about money most people's concern is the   amount of money that they have in retirement 
whether it will last them till the end come   comfortably and allow them to afford the Hobbies 
like travel good food Etc but I actually think   after going through the last two years building up 
our financial Acumen is just as important if not   more so what do I mean by Financial Acumen I mean 
stuff like budgeting tracking projecting investing   I mean if you think about it the money in your 
bank account can always be squandered we all   know that story I think more importantly what's 
going to make your retirement more fireproof is   having an ability to generate more money where 
it came from in the first place so the second   essential thing that you can prepare for so that 
you have a wonderful retirement it's definitely   the ability to be self-directing and disciplined 
self-direction definitely helps so much with   spending your retirement days meaningfully right 
after all there are no more like work schedules   or like demands from colleagues or bosses to help 
shape your days anymore you have to be the person   to take charge in retirement there's a study out 
there actually that shows that for happily retired   folks most of them actually have about 3.6 core 
Pursuits that's what they say and the unheably   retired folks tend to have less than 3.6 corporate 
suits coming in at about 1.9 call Pursuits that's   what the study reflected I guess it kind of just 
shows in retirement you really need to fill your   life to the brim and keep busy with activities 
you love and that is a really great formula for   happiness and self-direction will help you 
to achieve that state as well as discipline   because if you think about it like discipline 
directly affects the state of your finances right   it affects whether you stick with your retirement 
planning whether you keep fit and active and you   get to maintain your health in retirement even 
whilst you're left up to your own devices even   to find your cover suits if you don't have any 
when you're starting or in your retirement so   discipline and self-direction will be like 
the building blocks for enjoying your life   in retirement the third essential thing you might 
want to work on and cultivate or happy retirement   is people skills right so studies and research 
have reflected very consistently that the main   determining factor for happiness and Longevity 
for most of us is actually relationships Human   Relationships friendships relationship with 
your spouse and with your family I guess if   you look at most of us you know we all have 
a little need of work on some social skills   in some aspect I mean some of us are a bit shy 
paper hats or graph or maybe socially anxious   working on our people skills really will help us 
to get along and live happily with our spouse and   family members and also importantly to make 
new friendships at whatever age we all know   that making new friends gets a lot more difficult 
as we get older I mean I haven't heard anyone say   otherwise for me personally making new friends 
as I get older is the biggest challenge there's   this huge feeling that nothing can replace 
friendships with people who have known you   all your life but it is also a challenge as I 
have chosen to exercise through Arbitrage in   our retirement and we've moved away from home 
so those friends aren't with us in our present   I find that it takes a lot of intention I have 
to consciously push myself to broaden my Social   Circles and make the effort to get to know people 
on a more intimate basis I am also very happy   to be able to say that it has paid off in that for 
the last two years in Bali I have actually made   two or three new friends that I'm happy to say are 
kindred spirits and not just social acquaintances   so that's very nice and it's a huge Comfort to our 
daily life here in a foreign land away from home   now before we move on a big thank you to 
Mumu Singapore for sponsoring this video   Singapore is an online trading platform for 
stocks ETFs and options I've been using the   MooMoo mobile trading app myself for almost 
a year now and I think it's awesome it's   fast intuitive trading US Stocks is commission 
free plus they give free level to data and many   more perks now for a limited time when you open a 
Mumu Singapore Universal account they'll give you   a year of commission free trading of Singapore 
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app will save you so much money already when   you deposit at least a hundred same dollars and 
start using the mobile app to trade you stand   to receive cash coupons up to 128 Sing dollars 
and even a free Coca-Cola share worth around 87   subscribe two thousand Sing dollars or more into 
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dollars cashback altogether that's 368 Sing   dollars worth of Welcome rewards absolutely free 
just for using the Momo app so if you're actively   investing anyhow I recommend checking out the 
MooMoo ad using my link in the description below   now back to the video the fourth essential 
thing that you can definitely work on and that   will benefit your retirement tremendously it's 
actually courage you're definitely gonna need lots   of courage in retirement and I guess this isn't 
a skill exactly it's kind of more of a quality   but in retirement you need a lot of courage 
to even plunge into retirement you need the   courage to you know take that leap of faith to 
stop putting it off due to fear of the unknown   feel or financial insecurities so then it's all 
about courage at that stage not let fear and   insecurity rule your life and your decisions it 
is also the courage to recognize that in life at   the start at the end in the middle the Domino's 
you need are never all nicely lined up you know   at some point you just got to jump into it and 
then learn to cross the obstacles as they come   so for retirement long term I guess the 
biggest issue most commonly is always money   but my perspective on this is that hey budgets 
can always be reduced money can always be earned   or recouped or whatever happens so I still 
think that you know it is actually beneficial   to Advocate an approach whereby you get to 
a point where you feel that you have most of   your Ducks lined up you've planned well you've 
prepped for it grab hold of your courage with   both hands and then take the plunge people tend 
to think of retirement as the end but it's not   it's the start of a new phase where you should be 
trying so many new things new Pursuits new ways   to live and for each of these new adventures 
you're gonna need courage to take action and   once you have taken the plunge you'll find the 
next fifth thing very very useful and that would   be a mentality of resilience especially in early 
retirement there are a lot more decades ahead of   you you know and therefore a lot more chances that 
they things can go wrong whether it be down to bad   financial planning or perhaps an unexpected Health 
catastrophe or even sometimes natural disasters   whatever comes I guess you will always need that 
strength of Will and the resilience so that you   can roll with the punches and then get back up 
you want to know that you have the mental strength   that even if things go pear-shaped you won't just 
give up and lose hope and certain Corner you've   got to Marshall what you've got inside you go out 
there find Solutions perhaps if necessary you've   got to go back to work but know that later on 
you can return to retirement and try again so the   sex essential thing that I believe will benefit 
everyone in retirement is to cultivate an attitude   of gratitude we all know life is a very long 
journey hopefully at least and so much of what   we Chase using most of our years actually doesn't 
really matter in the big picture once you have   taken a step back and then at that point is when 
you start realizing the earlier you cultivate and   attitude of gratitude and that appreciation for 
the simple little things that are probably around   you everywhere every day the happier you probably 
will be and it sounds silly but it's not really   automatic I mean we all live and grow up and 
work and go to school in a society that kind of   innovates us with messages that we need to reach 
for more have more ambition gives us you know that   High definitions of success in life that we 
have to try to jump to reach and nobody sings   the Praises of the pleasures of a simple cup of 
tea you know the importance of family time with   your loved ones or or just the pleasure of being 
able to take an evening walk on the beach with   your dog so I think that it's very important that 
somebody reminds you that you know you can not   overload what you already have what you're already 
surrounded by growing that muscle of appreciation   so that in each and every moment you are present 
in your own life you see all the little Joys that   you're surrounded with every day and if you 
live life like that I think that will help   you achieve contentment with just the small stuff 
around you and that's what majority of your life   in retirement may be about is just a small stuff 
every day but in my own retirement here in Bali it   is what makes me so grateful and so happy every 
day that I am surrounded by my loving husband   and very interesting and independent little dog 
that's very very cute you know that we have very   comfortable a bit simple house we have the ability 
to enjoy good food even if it's simple stuff   from the war rooms locally we have a garden and 
beautiful things are growing around us every day   the weather is great you know stuff is good yeah 
I think this is one of the most essential simple   things that's often overlooked simply because it's 
a matter of mentality but I believe this essential   quality or characteristic could make all the 
difference for you so these are the six essential   things that I believe are very very important for 
you to cultivate and prepare for in the leader to   actually taking the plunge into a return then I 
think that if you have these six strong skills and   qualities going for you you will be in a position 
much more well placed to make the best out of your   retirement however long that period may be let me 
know what you think of my suggestions whether you   agree or if you think they suck let me know why 
but in any event I really appreciate you tuning   in and sharing my thoughts for this week and 
wherever you are in the world I'm wishing you   a happy Saturday evening and let's speak again 
next week till then you take care and bye for now

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Retired at 38: 5 strong reasons to retire as soon as you can (Retirement Planning)

so early retirement has actually improved our 
health so much that I actually think we'll be   avoiding higher health care costs down the line 
that may actually lead into our retirement funds   and then early retirement has also allowed us 
to achieve a state of intuitive living which   has been absolutely awesome financially the 
conventional wisdom is that early retirement   could potentially be disastrous but frankly 
I think so far two years into retirement that   our early retirement has been great for us 
financially these plus two or three more are   just some of the very strong reasons why I would 
Advocate that anyone considering retirement should   do so as early as possible let me explain why 
down below hey I'm Jean and for the past two   years I've been retired in Bali Indonesia 
with my husband today I wanted to discuss   about all these reasons why I think retiring 
as early as you can is a brilliant idea [Music]   so Health basically don't wait till it's too late 
I think that when most people think about health   and retirement planning they just kind of hope 
and assume that they will be in good health when   they enter retirement and then that they pray it 
remains status quo until the end but I guess most   of us pre-retirement might be involved in jobs 
that might be high stress with long hours at   the desk and then naturally Fitness just isn't 
what ideally it should be so all my life I've   been struggling with skin rashes and allergies and 
these issues tend to pop up every time my immunity   gets low because I'm stressed I'm tired I'm taxed 
but truly in the two years since we have been   retired the manifestation of all these problems 
have just gone down so much in retirement mode   I'm happily keeping very fit doing all the things 
that I know of like surfing walking the dog with   the hubby eating better overall probably further 
down the line maybe I might be avoiding higher   healthcare costs having this health is actually 
so much wealth it allows you to live life to the   fullest because frankly all the stuff that you 
want to do in your enjoyment of Life probably   involves a lot of Health you want to travel 
you want to scale that mountain at Sunrise to   see that incredible view you need your help even 
just to enjoy good food if you like us you like   to eat you need your health I mean I know so many 
people who have dietary restrictions because of   high cholesterol or diabetes improving health is 
actually one of the biggest and strongest reasons   why you should retire early so the second big 
reason for wanting to retire ASAP is actually   intuitive living basically intuitive living is 
really connecting with yourself and listening to   your garden stings and your feelings as to stuff 
like eating and rest and meditation relationships   even your spending habits perhaps I don't know 
how it is for you guys but I was generally living   my life governed by a lot of shirts right I 
mean I should be at the office by 9am so that   I won't piss off the bosses I should stay in 
the office stay late and postpone my workout   postpone dinner so I can meet the deadline set by 
my clients I should carry branded Handbags and of   course I should be a corporate lawyer I mean why 
would I want to be anything else right finally   in retirement we are free from the demands of the 
pursuit of money to listen to ourselves to truly   tune in and understand what is the optimum cause 
in life you can chart you really want to wake up   every day without an alarm clock naturally because 
you've had enough sleep you want to eat only   enough and not too much I mean you want to make 
better choices food wise intuitive exercise you   know you're doing what really only appeals to you 
maybe you don't like sweating in the afternoons   so then you know get a gym membership or play 
indoor record Sports whatever works for you I   only wish that more people have the opportunity 
to experience living life this way intuitively   away from the entanglements and distractions 
from regular running the hands the real life   the third reason why you might want to retire 
as soon as possibly is just that the earlier   you retire the more time you gain in life I 
mean if you think about it most of us live   life as though we are invincible as if life 
itself will never run out and therefore we do   things like squander our time or sell it away too 
cheaply in exchange for material things we each   only have so long to live right and the money you 
make in your lifetime you can't bring that with   you when you go home so well might as well you'll 
be the one to spend it when you can right Society   feeds us like so many different narratives 
about success and what it should look like   but actually I think success is really not 
about the achievements per se but it's just   really a Feeling and I like to think that at 
the end of our Lives when we're there in our   last dying moments what we'll be thinking 
about probably wouldn't be like stuff like   oh I closed that three billion dollar deal I 
think it would more be along the lines of like   I had good friends and I loved my family I had 
a good life you know I ate good food I laughed   Lots I took care of my kids and my dog stuff like 
that so don't squander the time that we each have   maybe you have personal goals that you really 
want to achieve stuff like learning Spanish or   scaling the Great Wall of China or just 
watching your kids grow up that's just a   million places that are better to spend your 
time at then at a job which you don't really   particularly care for and which maybe you're just 
doing just cause that's what everyone else is   before we move on a big thank you to 
skillshare for sponsoring this video   so skillshare is an online learning community with 
thousands of classes for anyone who loves learning   if 2023 is the year you promised yourself 
you're gonna finally explore new career or   side hustle options or work on personal growth 
then skillshare is the perfect place to start   for me one of the ways we have fun in our 
retirement is making YouTube videos when we   first started skillshare was instrumental 
in teaching us so many of the basics like   videography storytelling and more till today 
one of the best classes I ever sat through   online anywhere is still the class by Sorel Amore 
YouTube success build an authentic Channel that's   worth the follow so her advice about finding my 
Niche valuing authenticity over Beauty creating   meaningful messages and providing value to the 
audience really changed our perspectives on what   we were creating back then for the better of 
course we've gone from like 40 Subs to the 143   000 Subs of today and from time to time I still 
pull up sorel's worksheet when I'm creating   my videos just to check that I'm on track for 
making something good for our people our audience   it's always super easy to take whatever you learn 
on skillshare and apply it directly to your life   Pursuits whatever those may be I highly recommend 
checking out skillshare and if you want to do that   you can use my link in the description below the 
first 1000 people will get one month of skillshare   absolutely free you can try it out learn something 
new move a step closer to your 2023 goals reason   number four the earlier you start your retirement 
the better you'll get at it with every other   change in life we expect that we all need time to 
learn how to do it well so things like becoming   apparent for the first time even if like us it's 
just a fur kid or transitioning from being a   student to being a working adult and then there's 
the transition from being and actively working   adult to retirement mode it seems ridiculous and 
silly even at first I mean it's like saying who   doesn't know how to spend their free time right 
but if you actually truly observe things around   you retirement Falls really differently for 
different people we all know the people who   have retired and in their retirement seem a 
little lost lonely left behind and uninspired   and then there's the other kind of retired people 
right the ones who go like when we're talking that   I'm gonna grab Life by the balls and Max things 
out a big part of that may actually be the point   in life at which you retire whether at that point 
where you retire you still have your zest your   Zeal your energy your health your Fitness to help 
you max out the happiness potential of that free   time and freedom in retirement and then there's 
the thought that retirement supposed to stretch   out for a few good years at least right if not 
for a few decades and doing that requires skills   you know you need so many different skills to 
have a successful retirement I think that's a   topic for another day but basically you need time 
to learn those skills whether it's Financial money   management or social skills you know building 
relationships and stuff but basically you need   time to get all that down pat in order to have 
a successful retirement so then the earlier you   retire the better usually you will probably 
turn out for you so the last and possibly the   most controversial point I think that early 
retirement could possibly be great for you   financially and this is controversial because it's 
directly opposite to what a lot of the experts say   right you retire too early there's so much risk 
that you miscalculate your finances or that world   events take an unexpected turn and then you know 
things go belly up and then you're destitute in   your last years but I mean underlying all that 
seems to be this assumption that in retirement   we're all just going to be like one dead lazy log 
and I think that these days especially if you're   an early retiree that is just so not true maybe 
like us with YouTube in our retirement in your   own retirement maybe you'll learn new skills pick 
up new side hustles and stay busy doing something   that you're doing for the love of it for the fun 
not for the money but having the money come in as   a result of your side hustle is a nice bonus and 
you know what it becomes an additional buffer for   your later years so retiring early also allows you 
to take advantage of things like dual Arbitrage   Right Moving overseas to improve your financial 
situation and yeah so like us I'm from Singapore   but I'm now retired here in Bali Indonesia we're 
not just here because life is more affordable but   the fact is that our retirement sums in fact our 
whole entire retirement is only possible because   living here is so much more affordable as compared 
to back home you know this wouldn't be possible at   all if we retiredly and ended up having health 
concerns right mobility issues for example   retiring early and then using the time to keep up 
with current affairs learning hedging strategies   to minimize risk learning how to diversify our 
Investment Portfolio I feel that the time in our   retirement has been well spent to actually make 
us more resilient and the fact that we retired so   early also means that if anything goes badly up 
time and youth are on our side if our financial   planning for retirement had just sucked or you 
know things unexpectedly go failure so prepare you   know if we have to U-turn and go back to work or 
maybe start another business it's not a big deal   and then we'll go off Marshall the resources 
that we lack and then we'll come back again   and second time around third time around will 
definitely be better each time at doing this   so in terms of confidence and the feeling of 
resilience that we will be able to make this   last all the way I think that starting 
early doing it early diving into it and   understanding the parameters the potential 
the boundaries of what we face in retirement   actually really really helps well guys so 
these are the few takeaways from our last   two years living in retirement here in Bali and 
I mean if you have any thoughts or objections or   contributions to the points that I've made in 
this video I'll love to hear them let's start   a little discussion in the comments below you 
guys have a good week ahead wherever you are   and let's chat again next Saturday thank you 
for watching and bye-bye have a good weekend

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How To Retire Before 99% of People (Starting With $0)

simple if you want to retire before everyone else then you need to follow these three steps firstly calculate the real numbers secondly manage the variables and thirdly execute your plan successfully it's really that straightforward but most people don't even get past step one to be honest thirty percent of people have probably clicked off this video probably because retirement sounds too old school for them however you might not actually want to retire early I'll explain why towards the end well that's for the few of you that make it that far step one calculate the real numbers how much do I need to retire this is one of the most searched questions on the internet and no one seems to be able to give the real answer it's no surprise that lots of people are turning to the internet as the school system has left us in the dark they're only interested in pushing us into the workforce so that Society can exploit us for our time and labor if most people actually knew the answer to how much they need to retire then they'd probably an uproar that's because Millennials and gen z's are reportedly going to have to work longer than any other generation the sad truth is many people are deluded some think they'll enjoy round the world cruises on the back of saving fifty dollars a month others believe they'll need so much money that quitting work is an unrealistic fantasy most people are hurtling towards a harsh reality check without even knowing it it's not their fault as they've been set up to fail retirement was much more achievable in my day however that's why it's so important to calculate the real numbers now so you're at an advantage this is kind of like the first step of any road trip setting the destination on your navigation system without air how are you going to head in the right direction right I'm going to cut through all the confusion online you just need to focus on the role of 300.

This rule is so powerful that it allows you to jump forward in time and calculate how much money future you will need to quit your job and still pay the bills it's simple all you have to do is add up your monthly expenses and multiply them by 300. this means if you currently spend one thousand dollars per month then you'll need three hundred thousand dollars saved if you spend fifteen hundred dollars a month this will mean you need four hundred and fifty thousand dollars in your account if you spend three thousand dollars a month you'll require nine hundred thousand dollars and so on you get the idea now I know what you're thinking how much but let's say you do need nine hundred thousand dollars you don't have to save all of that I'll reveal later how you can use the power of compound interest and only have to save around a hundred and ten thousand the rule of three hundred is based on the ability to safely withdraw four percent per year from your savings the idea is that if you put your money in the correct places then it will grow by more than four percent per year allowing you to take from your pot without it running out it's a bit like Hermione's Magic Bag in Harry Potter I know this sounds great but it's very important this is just a rule of thumb and not scientific law like gravity I mean it's pretty impossible to accurately predict the future because there are so many different factors that we can't take into account if anyone tells you otherwise then they're trying to sell you something so yes stock market conditions and inflation could have an impact on your final Freedom figure however still think it's a good idea to use a ruler 300 as a guide and adapt it as you go now you've figured out your destination you can start increasing your odds and get in there which brings me on to step two manage the variables just as you need to use the steering wheel brakes and accelerator in a car to navigate the roads you need to use these five variables to achieve your retirement goal variable one is of course income I highly suggest that you increase your income as soon as possible this is your accelerator and if you're making more than the average you'll be able to retire before most people in my late teens I had an income problem after leaving school at 16 I just wasn't making enough money to pay my rent and go out with my friends let alone save for retirement so I devised a plan to get a pay rise you see I was working part-time in a radio control model shop earning next to nothing I thought to myself how can I get the owner to pay me more for the same work for the next couple of weeks I work my socks off and I kept track of all the sales I made I remember writing down every detail in a little notepad when I got a chance I sat down and I looked at all my notes and compared them with what the shop had sold in that period one thing became very obvious I was making all the radio controlled helicopter cells because of my expertise in flying them that's when it hit me I was valuable to my boss because without me he couldn't sell any helicopters now I had this information I felt confident I could approach him and ask for a raise I clearly explained my value to the business and asked for the increase in Pay I wanted I remember him staring at me blankly for a couple of seconds I thought I'd offended him until he let out a little Grunt and a nod of his head agreeing to pay me exactly what I'd asked for although this was a long time ago the principle Remains the Same now if you want to increase your income then you need some kind of Leverage to have this you need to become valuable maybe you could learn some high income skills such as sales and marketing or alternatively start some kind of side hustle however it actually doesn't matter how much you earn it's all about how much you save and that brings me on to variable two expenses even if you were accelerating at full speed in a Formula One car if you had a massive parachute attached to your rear wing then you aren't going anywhere fast this is exactly what it's like having a good income with too many expenses look I'm not one of those online people that's going to tell you to stop buying Starbucks and enjoying life I think that's a pretty sad way to live if you like those things this variable is more about cutting out the things you couldn't care less for this is actually the perfect time to come back to the rule of 300.

Let's say you spend fifteen dollars per month on Netflix if we multiply that by 300 you'll see that you actually need four thousand five hundred dollars saved in your retirement pot to keep watching indefinitely well this is assuming the price doesn't go up which it most certainly will most people have little monthly expenses so they don't really care about us they seem so small but if you apply them to the rule of 300 they're no small expenses actually add up very quickly as well as cutting out little expenses I also highly suggest being smart about the larger ones I'm talking about rent mortgages and car payments these are the biggest silent wealth Killers as they're a huge drain on your finances every single month but there are a few ways to get around them the first is known as house hacking this is when you buy a house and rent out part of it to a roommate in order to cover the mortgage in America you can also buy something called a duplex which is two separate living accommodations in one house allowing you to live in one side of the house and rent out the other the next is rent hacking this is simply renting out a house and then subletting individual rooms to different people to cover all of your costs but before you start doing this make sure to clear it with your landlord the third is car hacking this is when you buy a car that has lost most of its value already drive it around for a couple of years then sell it for almost what you paid for it and repeat the process if you successfully managed to drive down your expenses and still live a great life then you can start thinking about variable three debt a lot of people aren't going to like this one but you need to master debt some people are totally against It While others are way too Reckless I've always been somewhere in between the two extremes it's kind of like the fuel in your car it can be very useful but it can also explode if you're not careful managing debt is crucial for a retirement planning because carrying too much bad debt can eat away at your savings make it difficult to achieve your retirement goals on the other hand using good debt strategically can help you build wealth and increase your income which can lead to an earlier retirement it's important to understand the difference between the two and make smart decisions about when and how to use debt put Simply Good debt is when you borrow money to buy things or make more money in the future like buying a house and renting it out bad debt is when you borrow money to buy things you don't make any money on like using a credit card to buy clothes expensive holidays or a car that you don't need but here's the real kicker in order to get good debt you need to have a good credit score and the best way to do this is to actually own a credit card you can put little expenses on it and pay it off in full at the end of each month this will mean you never pay any interest and build a good score for the future but like I said the only reason to have good debt is to buy assets which brings me on to variable 4 investing investing is important for retirement because it can allow your money to grow faster than it would if you simply just saved it it's kind of like the Boost pad you go over when playing Mario Karts with the right Investments your money can grow at more than four percent per year which is the amount you can safely withdraw from your savings if you're using the rule of 300 not a financial advisor however I've always invested consistently into the S P 500 which is an index fund that includes the top publicity traded companies in the USA which is historically averaged a return of eight percent per year I mean if you were to invest 200 per month for 45 years which equates to a hundred and eight thousand dollars an average return of eight percent per year then you would have a total of one million fifty four thousand nine hundred and seven dollars that's the power of compound interest but where can you start investing well it's a lot easier than it was back in my day as you can do it all from your phone there are various different apps I'll leave some of the links down below one of my favorites is light year and they are also kindly sponsoring today's video light year is looking to give every European low cost and convenient access to the world stock markets and they're really great at what they do the app is super user friendly making it perfect for both Advanced and novice investors light year is available on mobile and web platforms allowing for a smooth investment process and research the platform has 3 000 stocks and ETFs from the UK us and across Europe including ones that track the S P 500 which I mentioned earlier and there's more on light year you can also earn interest on your uninvested money in three currencies the euro dollar and pound if you're watching this from the UK the Eurozone or Hungary you can download and start using light year today use my code tillbreed and receive a 10 fractional share after making your first investment but let me remind you investing always carries a risk and the value of any investment can decrease as well as increase variable 5 tax the more money you earn the more money the government will try to take off you this is why you really need to use the tax loopholes to your advantage this is kind of like your fuel tank leaking if you don't plug the holes then you'll have nothing left by using tax advantage accounts such as Roth IRAs and 401ks in the USA and Isis in the UK you can reduce the amount taxes you owe on your income and Investments these accounts allow you to invest and avoid paying tax on the money you make but the amount you can put into these accounts is limited every year so I strongly suggest that you fill these up as soon as possible and now you're ready for step three execute your plan just like you need to address your driving style based on the road conditions and traffic you need to adjust your approach to managing the variables in order to execute your plan successfully put simply the following techniques will help you become a better driver firstly develop an Roi Obsession when I was growing my wealth I was hyper focused on making sure that everything I bought at least made me back the money I spent on it a good example of this nowadays is the MacBook Pro it's a great tool that can allow you to make far more money back than you spend on it however if you just play games on it then you'll have to save all that money up again the hard way think about how you can use everything to make you more money that way you'll never have to start from zero more than once secondly measure your progress make a habit of setting clear money targets every month I remember not only doing this but also sharing them with one of my friends I did this because I wanted him to keep me accountable if I missed a Target it's actually been revealed that this improves your chances of achieving a goal by 65 thirdly stay cash poor a lot of people might not agree with me on this one but I think if you save too much money in a simple bank account then you get too comfortable I know I perform best when I'm on the ropes and have a lot of pressure to succeed by keeping myself cash poor and investing all of my money back into my index funds and businesses I was able to motivate myself to earn more and remain flexible not stuck in my old Comfort Zone in the old ways this concept is also known as paying yourself first as you prioritize your Investments and then pay your expenses which is money going into other people's pockets put simply invest first then full yourself to find the other money you need now for the people that have made it this far here's why you might not want to retire traditional retirement was created to help encourage older people to leave the workforce and make room for younger people however retirement can lead to a loss of purpose and drive and many people find themselves getting ill or losing motivation I discovered this first hand as I had enough money to retire in my late 20s I took a couple of weeks off and was tired to lose the will to live I lost purpose and that's when I started looking into two different options the first I'm calling micro retirement this is a concept where you take a break from work for a short period of time to pursue personal interests and travel with the intention of returning to work afterwards it's different from traditional retirement as it's not a permanent state of not working but rather a way of taking a break from work and returning to it later the idea is to break up the years of work with periods of leisure and Adventure allowing for a more fill in life overall now even though this sounded better it still wasn't for me I feel like wasting my time doing something I didn't want to do that's when I came across the second alternative option lifelong retirement for me retirement means freedom so I don't have to do anything unless I absolutely want to that's why I built business around doing what I like to do day to day if I don't like doing something then I just hire someone else to do it I'm sure some people have already commented if he's actually retired why is he making his YouTube videos the answer is that I genuinely enjoy doing it who wouldn't like filming videos and helping people out whoever said money doesn't make you happy hasn't given enough of it away and I think that's even more true for giving away knowledge if you'd like to know seven passive income ideas you can start right now then watch his next video but don't click on it just yet make sure to subscribe if you want to grow your wealth okay I'll see you over there

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How To Retire In 15 Years (Starting With 0$)

in a world that often ties success to climbing the corporate ladder and retiring at a standard age the fire movement stands out as a revolutionary approach offering a pathway to financial Independence and early retirement if you're intrigued by the idea of Breaking Free from the traditional work to retirement model let's explore the three fundamental questions that will guide you on your journey to fire so if you're wondering what exactly you need to do to retire earlier and how much money you actually need you come to the right place we're also going to talk about something of particular importance at the end and it's how you can be prepared if things don't go as planned in the end we're going to answer all these questions in this video today so stay tuned but before we get to the main topic of the video first of all welcome back and if you're new on our Channel we are the finance nerds and we try to help you to fix your finances and spread our knowledge in saving money budgeting and investing and if you like the video and want to support us hit the like button on this video number one what do you have to do to follow the fire movement the first step on your fire journey is embracing the core principles that Define this movement at its Essence fire is about taking control of your finances living intentionally and making strategic decisions to build a future of Financial Freedom mastering the art of frugality to follow the fire movements you must become best friends with frugality start by scrutinizing your spending habits create a detailed budget outlining your monthly income and expenses identify areas where you can cut back without sacrificing your quality of life and opt for needs over ones cook at home and resist the urge to keep up with extravagant Lifestyles establishing your savings rate goals fire success hinges on your ability to save a significant portion of your income set clear savings rate goals aiming for at least 25 to 50% of your earnings the higher your savings rate the faster you accumulate the funds needed for financial Independence regularly revisit your budget and savings goals to stay on track investing wisely for growth saving alone won't get you to fire you need the power of investing develop a well-balanced Investment Portfolio that aligns with your risk tolerance and financial goals diversify your Investments across stocks bonds and real EST state to maximize growth potential understand the basics of compounding interest and let your money work for you calculating your financial Independence fi number the Cornerstone of the fire movement is your fi number calculate this by determining your annual expenses and multiplying them by 25 this number represents the amount of money you need to have invested to cover your living expenses indefinitely knowing your fi number gives you a tangible goal and a clear end point for your journey and embracing a minimalist lifestyle simplify your life to amplify your journey to financial Independence Embrace a minimalist Lifestyle by decluttering your living space and cutting down on unnecessary expenses the less you need the easier it is to reach your fi goals re-evaluate your possessions and ask yourself does this bring me joy or is it a financial burden number two how much money do I actually need understanding the financial aspect of the fire movement is crucial to setting realistic goals and expectations the answer to this question lies in your lifestyle expenses and the vision you have for your postretirement life creating a detailed budget to determine how much money you need for fire start with a comprehensive budget categorize your expenses into fixed and variable essential and non-essential include everything from housing and utilities to entertainment and dining out the more detailed your budget the more accurate your estimate of postretirement needs will be estimating your annual expenses your fi number is directly linked to your annual expenses calculate how much money you spend in a typical year including all necessities and discretionary spending be honest and realistic about your lifestyle choices remember fire isn't about deprivation it's about optimizing your spending to align with your values multiplying by 25x rule once you have your annual expenses multiply them by 25 this multiplication factor is derived from the 4% rule a principle suggesting that you can safely withdraw 4% of your Investment Portfolio annually without depleting it your fi number is essentially 25 times your annual expenses representing the amount needed to sustain your lifestyle without a traditional job adjusting for inflation inflation is a silent wealth eroder factor in a conservative estimate for inflation when calculating your fi number this ensures that your money maintains its purchasing power throughout your retirement consider historical inflation rates and consult with financial experts to make informed adjustments evaluating health care costs don't overlook Healthcare expenses in your fire calculations research Health Insurance options and account for potential increases in medical costs as you age understanding and planning for healthcare expenses ensures that your fire plan remains robust even in the face of unexpected health chck Alles number three what kind of backup plan can I create if things don't work out as planned while the fire movement provides a road map for Financial Freedom it's crucial to acknowledge that life is unpredictable creating a solid backup plan ensures that you're prepared for unforeseen circumstances building an emergency fund an emergency fund is your financial safety net before aggressively pursuing fire ensure you have a robust emergency fund that covers 3 to 6 months worth of living expenses this fund provides a cushion in case of unexpected job loss medical emergencies or other unforeseen events diversifying income streams relying solely on your Investment Portfolio for income can be risky consider diversifying your income streams by exploring sight hustles freelancing or part-time work these additional streams not only boost your savings rate but also act as a buffer if your Investments face temporary setbacks continuously up updating your plan flexibility is key in the fire Journey regularly review and update your financial plan to accommodate changes in income expenses and market conditions a dynamic plan allows you to adapt to unforeseen circumstances and make informed decisions to safeguard your financial future staying agile in the job market if early retirement doesn't unfold as planned staying agile in the job market is a valuable backup strategy keep your skills relevant maintain professional Networks and be open to opportunities that align with your goals a temporary return to Workforce can provide a financial boost if needed exploring alternative living arrangements consider the role of housing in your fir plan downsizing or exploring alternative living arrangements such as house hacking or co- living can significantly reduce expenses being open to adjusting your living situation adds another layer of flexibility to your backup plan continue learning and adaptation the fire journey is an ongoing process of learning and adaptation stay informed about financial Trends investment strategies and lifestyle adjustments that may enhance your plan the ability to adopt to changing circumstances is a Hallmark of successful fire practitioners embarking on the fire journey is a bold and empowering Choice by adhering to the principles of frugality strategic savings and intentional investing you can unlock the door to financial Independence remember the fire movement isn't a riged set of rules it's a customizable framework that empowers you to shape a future where financial decisions align with your values and aspirations and if you think living below your means is H wait until you know these five Frugal Living ways from one of our most popular videos on the right if you enjoyed this video give it a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe to our channel for more empowering content like this we hope to see you on the next video

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