I’ve been medium-obsessed with the idea of early retirement ever since I discovered this little blog called Mr. Money Mustache a couple years ago.
Seriously, read it. You might get sucked in, and it’s OK.
The hero of the story (Mr. Mustache) retired at age 30 after a decade of working in the corporate world, living frugally, and investing wisely. If retirement is the ultimate goal of working your career, doesn’t it make sense to accelerate that process as much as you can?
The basic formula goes like this: once you have 25x your annual spending in invested net worth, you can theoretically live off growth/interest/dividends in perpetuity.
That’s an incredibly empowering idea, and like nothing I was ever taught about “retirement” growing up. All of a sudden it becomes a concrete goal instead of some nebulous 30-40 years-from-now concept.
Last year, I broke down my own annual spending in detail to see what it would take. (We spend around $40-45k a year.)
On today’s episode you’ll meet Jeremy Jacobson, who got out of the rat race at 37 and now spends his days traveling with his wife and soaking up new cultures and experiences — and blogging about financial independence.
I “discovered” Jeremy through a guest post he did over at BudgetsAreSexy, and was anxious to learn more about his story (and maybe selfishly get some early retirement advice for Bryn and myself!).
This is different from most episodes as it’s not necessarily about making more money, but rather being more conscious with the money you do make, and the freedom that can afford you down the road.
If you really want to geek out on this stuff, I highly recommend checking out his site, GoCurryCracker.com. Plus I like his haircut :)
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- Personal Capital (now Empower): Set-up a free account to begin tracking your net worth, get investment and allocation recommendations, and plan for your (hopefully early) retirement goals.
Learn:
- How Jeremy retired at age 37, despite living in a relatively high cost of living area (Seattle).
- A glimpse into their frugal lifestyle that allowed for a 70% saving rate.
- The 4% Rule.
- The kinds of investments Jeremy holds.
- How inflation and market swings may or may not impact your early retirement.
- Jeremy’s 100% legal way to pay no taxes. (Disclaimer: I’m not an accountant and didn’t fact-check this)
- Where the Go Curry Cracker name comes from.
- Jeremy’s #1 tip for Side Hustle Nation.
Links:
- GoCurryCracker.com
- Your Money or Your Life
- The Millionaire Next Door
- Alternative Investment Platforms
- Get Paid to Do Nothing
Jeremy was also kind enough to send me links to his most popular material:
- How we saved for retirement in 10 years instead of 40.
- The plan for never paying taxes again.
- All of our expenses.
Download the Free PDF "Highlight Reel" from this Episode
With all of my guest's top tips and resources included.
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Hi Nick,
What a cool share! RIGHT up my alley, as my wife Kelli and I retired to a life of island hopping through smart blogging, some 4 years ago. Like Jeremy we are budget conscious but not obsessed. We’ve been blessed to prosper nicely online through all types of income streams yet we live frugally too, to stretch out our dollars.
The thing most forget is that when you live in places like Bali or Thailand for months, the second your plane lands, if you’re earning income in USD or other strong currencies your net worth jumps 10 fold. Really! Because 1 USD = 13 K Ruppiah roughly here in Bali, today, and that means we can pick up dinner from the grocery story with sweets and a few bags of chips for 2 to 3 dollars. Not a misprint.
Of course we’re living in a Balinese hood, and we’re also not living high off of the hog, but we’re house sitting on a football field sized villa so I guess we are lol….and saving $70 or $80 K or more, in rent, living her for 6 months.
As for the 100% way to not pay taxes, after handing over some change to Uncle Same 2 days ago, I gotta find out what that’s about lol.
Thanks Nick and Jeremey, you rock!
Tweeting from sunny Bali.
Ryan
Bali is awesome, and crazy cheap. Our favorite meal there was $1 in a hole in the wall (literally)
Way to rock the Geoarbitrage!
Living the dream buddy :)
Thanks for stopping by!
….so does that mean that in order to live a freedom lifestyle based on an annual spend of 40k then I’d have to have 1 million dollars invested?! Am I missing something?
That’s my understanding.
Hey Budgie,
That’s the idea. For the details behind the sound bite, check out this post:
https://www.gocurrycracker.com/what-is-your-retirement-number-the-4-rule/
Thank you for this great collection of resources. I love seeing so many people working towards these goals instead of just assuming they have to work until old age. We’re still figuring out how to do it, on top of paying off a lot of consumer debt. But we’re staying optimistic and hustling like crazy.
Thanks Nick!
It was a lot of fun chatting with you and sharing our story, and also hearing about the Sandal Tax you pay in the Bay Area
And more importantly, can you pm me the contact info for your hair guy?
Everything is possible if you believe and “do the transformation work.” :-)