Are you on a similar path as Stephen? We’d love to hear about your FIRE plan in the comments below.

I would love more interviews of people on the FI journey. Maybe those in 40’s.

Watching at age 24- frustarting we don't get introduced to financial literacy in school or college but so grateful the internet has spawned so many sources of inspiration for people to put out info like this. I'm determined to work on a FIRE plan.

Yeah this is a new direction in this channel, but it’s actually great to see the real people talking about their own pathways. I love the channel and please keep up.

I managed to reach this goal at age 42. I have zero debt, so living on $4000 a month is a piece of cake.

This can be done! I am 52 and will be retiring in three months. This young man is doing almost exactly what I did. Thanks for posting this!

pretty sure this is your best episode besides anything with Karsten...gj as usual you two...please never stop this podcast even when Eric RE's!!!

This is a great segment super nice to see how people at different incomes, in different jobs, and different backgrounds are working towards the same goal! Keep these segments going 🙏

This was a great interview, love the entire series, keep up the great work. Love Eric's comment at the end about how difficult it must be for single people to make this journey. I'm currently 57 and have been on this FI journey alone but as I get closer to my date I am really happy that I won't be working into my 70s like a lot of my friends.

Loved this interview, very nice to hear from someone with a regular salary and pursuing FIRE solo. My wife and I are also in our 30's, about 5 years into pursuing Coast FI, hopefully about 3-4 years away from both of us working part time. Keep up the great content!

great interview 🔥

Fabulous work guys! 51 here, and working hard for that FI target!

Your channel is great! Thank you for bringing Stephen and his pensioners path to us...the defined benefit pension is a core component of both mine and my wife's FIRE path. It is great to hear how another pensioner is going about it, how he is preparing for FI with the pension in addition to traditional investments to bridge an early retirement (as is also our goal). Real great episode.

Wonderful!

Thank you guys! I love the fact you are showcasing actual people pursuing FI! Go Stephen! It’s a a wonderful goal to have, if anything the pursuit of FI opens many doors and opportunities. Really cool, I think that’s where the real value is…As for me, I would love to hear the stories and strategies of folk who actually made the finish line and FIRE’d like Jason and myself…Like I said earlier it’s hard to start drawing down assets after a lifetime of savings…Math and strategies is one thing, but the stories of the ones who walk the talk is golden..!To be honest I feel it’s crickets for us early retirees, and for myself, I would love to hear those who pulled the trigger like myself. I understand we are in the vast minority but would love to hear those stories and strategies, it’s one thing to be academic, it’s another to live it..! Go Relaxi Taxi!

Man, I wish it were possible to have a complete series of these interviews, although I suspect it's not easy to get that many actual FIRE people to divulge such details on camera.

Thanks guys for the content. I browsed the comments and didn't see anything on the 457 plan part but I might have missed it. In general the 457(f) plan has the lump sum or the 10 equal installments. And usually the 457(f) is not contributed to by the participant but instead contributions come directly from the business entity. 457(f) plans are usually for highly compensated non-government related occupations. 457(b) plans are usually for hospitals and state/federal government employees like universities. The 457(b) only has contributions from the plan participant and is same limits as a 401k/403b. Once you permanently leave the employer from the 457(b) you can access it penalty free at any age and the majority if not all of those plans have no lump sum/equal installment requirements.

PI Guys, thank you for the great post. Next Post could you recommend your top 3 F.I.R.E books/resources that helped each of you. (newbie)

This sounds so similar to our story (at his age.). The Good Spouse was a public school teacher -but in a high cost area. Like Stephen, our plans changed with marriage, children, (historic) home ownership, and health issues. We had a sports team full of children, a "spouse in the house" while the children were young, a life-altering disability, and long (domestic) vacations every summer. We made the commitment to retire at the earliest possible date. Outside of that commitment, we made some great financial decisions and some really crappy ones. When your exact salary is a matter of public record (like teachers in my area), it is really easy to be up front about the numbers. When we needed to sign the documents declaring the actual retirement date, we ran some very specific numbers-stay another year? All told, our take home pay would be the same, thanks to an incentive tied to our "early retirement declaration."

I can relate very strongly to all of this! Hopefully, I have about 6 years to go (maybe less with accumulated sick leave) for a full pension equal to almost the entirety of my current expenses (since about 25 percent of my salary has been going towards saving/investing). This episode is so much appreciated because it fills three huge gaps in the FIRE discussions: 1.) People who are not huge earners. 2.) People who still have a pension and don't have to rely entirely on their investments aside from Social Security (we hope) and 3.) Public sector workers who aren't federal (the few FIRE discussions geared towards public sector workers seem to be geared towards the feds). I've been watching your channel and appreciate the discussion, but especially this one. Thank you for this and for your excellent channel! 👏

I love the bit at the end about taking control. One thing I am sure my kids are sick of hearing me say by now is that money buys you choices. Plans change and life happens, but given Stephen has a plan and is actually doing the work, he should end up in a great position, regardless of what life throws his way.

Fellow educator from CA here. Your guest may want to look at being an administrator in California. Starting salary for administrators in public schools in the Inland Empire is $120,000+ on year one. CA does have a higher cost of living than other states, but your guest is from NY and has figured out how to live with less. If you’re willing to look around a little, you can live with 30k in many cities around southern California. It may require jumping a couple loops, but this option would allow your guest to stay in public education, with a very similar state retirement system, and a much higher salary. Hope that info helps. Good luck! 👍

30 years ago in my early 20s when my friend began teaching me about money and compounding growth via the Bogle method, I was blown away by its potential power. The takeaways I remember most about that learning were to live below your means, "be the market," and have the discipline to maintain your strategy over decades no matter what the market was doing. Three decades later as I approached my early retirement, I had lunch with that friend. He said I was the only one he'd taught about money who had seen the strategy through. I think Stephen has the gumption and discipline to see it through too. Stephen, I'd only add this: Don't forget to live now, because you don't know what tomorrow will bring or what your life will be like when your 55. Be ready and willing to roll with life's twists and turns, and adjust your strategy accordingly. Good luck, Stephen.

Awesome interview!

I always enjoy this podcast, and found the latest episode especially interesting, probably because I felt I had a lot in common with the speaker. I appreciated hearing about Stephen's journey and in particular his comments about college, which was so aligned with my thinking (and experiences), and helpful as my son is currently applying to colleges. He is also considering an expensive out of state school compared to a state school, so Stephen's comments really spoke to our concerns about whether it is worth it to pay the much higher tuition (I don't think so). There were so many great nuggets of financial info that is definitely worth listening to. Thanks again for a great episode!

My wife works as a nurse with a union, with a great pension. I work in the private sector that I will be laid off one day unless I keep moving up. My target is to retire at 55 when my wife is eligible for early retirement with ~$3M outside the pension. If we reach the goal at 50, gonna be tough to decide whether she takes out another 5 yrs vs not We'll see how that goes.

What an impressive young man! Wow.

Thank you for your content, as always. Stephen is on a early, successful path. I hope he has a opportunity to travel again soon to Asia or Latin America. I expect he may find that his economic discipline and intellectual curiosity are both rewarded with a trip to Thailand or Costa Rica, as examples. His current savings will go a long way in either geography and his FI imagination might be further unlocked. Thank you again.

On a similar path want to retire at 55. But now I want to check on what it looks like withdrawing from my 457b at 55

Thanks for the interview. This was so interesting for me. I also work in higher education and my target age for retirement is 54, but I only realised I could potentially retire early in about the last 5 years (I’m 48 tomorrow). If I had known this at 30 I could probably retire already, but can’t imagine having a plan for that long with the discipline required. In some ways I’m glad I didn’t have this realisation earlier and some things that weren’t my choice mean that I happen to have enough money (except I can’t access it till 60 😂).

He is doing some very good things. He’s living below his means, and he’s thinking about his future. He’s very fortunate to have a DB pension plan - that’s a huge benefit. Just think about what you have to earn/save to give yourself 45% (guaranteed) of your final salary for the rest of your life. You just have to love your work, the people, and your employer to stay for 25+ years!

I think even with the pension, it’s worth it to move out to the private sector. Retirement at 54 with $1M for a Gen Z? I think it’s not going to be enough.

Very interesting, I would love for you all to reinterview him when he’s married and has a kid as I imagine his goals and perspective will be wildly different 😂. I didn’t truly understand how expensive having a child was until I had one 😩😂, my daughter’s monthly daycare cost is MORE than my rent and I live in NYC (HCOL).

I’m heartened by Stephen’s story. High savings rate mean fewer things, but life can be fun on a budget.

Do u do an Architecture channel?

Thanks for asking Stephen the clarifying question about his savings rate. On “gross” or on “net” is often left out of the conversation and as an analytical it bugs me. For whatever it’s worth, I’m currently saving over 50% of my gross, and over 80% of my net. I’m toward the end of my career and my wife and I are empty-nesters, so we are blessed to be able to save most of what I earn toward retirement (in 17 months).

Society needs workers to function. One piece of the equation that isn't being discussed is, what happens if/when everyone decides "I don't want to work anymore"? The labor force will be constrained and prices will skyrocket (we're seeing signs of this now) and your planning/numbers will become worthless. Once you're out of the workforce for 10yrs, and you find yourself out of money and have to re-enter it, you'll have lost 10yrs of compound growth and your employability will be significantly less. The impact of this "trend" can be extremely harmful to a society. Where are you going to go on vacation or out to eat if no one is working? This is an extreme example, but makes the point. I applauded living below your means, and setting goals to retire early, I'm doing that myself, however, I'll be working a few years longer to avoid any chance of running out of money. Life and circumstances change fast, and if you get behind it's extremely difficult and sometime impossible to catch-up. Of course no one wants to work, but it's necessary to have a functioning society. Time in the market and saving rate is the key. Exiting the workforce extremely early can be devastating to your life! you only get one shot at this and you only have so much time, there are no do overs. Be careful, don't get blinded by the illusion you see on the internet. I'd rather work 5 more years and live like a king then retire super early and have to eek by for the rest of my life and hope nothing bad happens.

$1 million as a goal today is likely $3-$4 million when he hits mid-50s.

My only critique if I were to give one is he could probably move to the private sector and make more money than he is now.

This guy needs a fun side hustle. Would save him 10 years of work potentially.

32 yr old here. I had the same realization 2 yrs ago, during the pandemic, found Our Rich Journey, bigger pockets money podcast and all these podcasts that sent me down a rabbit hole. We are now 27 months into our journey. Completely agree wirh him, saw some coworkers retiring after 45 yrs in my company, I love where I work but I could never imagine myself being there all those years. It was eye opening to see somebody being at my employer more time than Ive been alive 🥲

It's great to see people with more "average" salaries! Every time I see people like this on FIRE podcasts, blogs, or forums, I feel like I'm seeing someone in the same place I'm in. For the pension: my husband and I have almost always worked in the public sector, and my previous job had a 401a that was vested from day one, which is part of why I went with it over other education jobs. (My husband has the same type of 401a to this day.) I switched to a job with a pension relatively recently, and the vesting period is long. So we make the best of working for the state and invest heavily in our 457b accounts. All this to say that if you want to work in the public sector, you absolutely can find jobs that use 401a/401k/403b accounts instead of pensions. But if your dream job has a pension with strict vesting rules instead, see if you have access to accounts like a 457b. :) Our 457b accounts don't have the "one lump sum or ten installments" set-up; instead, it's "one lump sum or tell us what percentage you want, but we take that evenly from all of your asset classes." So you can't say, "I only want this taken from the bond funds;" it takes it evenly from all of the funds in your account.