BiggerPockets Money Podcast - Coast FI by 30 in a HCOL City (Here’s How He’s Doing it)

Episode Date: April 21, 2026

In this episode, discover how Eli, a 24-year-old living in NYC, is on track to hit financial independence and retire early—despite the city’s high living costs. His strategies and mindset shift challenge common perceptions about NYC being an obstacle to FIRE. To go beyond the podcast: Kick start your financial independence journey with our FREE financial resources - https://biggerpocketsmoney.com/ Subscribe on YouTube for even more content- www.youtube.com/biggerpocketsmoney  Connect with us on social media to join the other BiggerPockets Money listeners - https://www.facebook.com/groups/BPMoney Connect with Eli Saperstein: Sparks FI Group: https://chat.whatsapp.com/H2qxCTm6bZ40Dj72ORkLXg?mode=gi_t Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stresslessaboutmoney?igsh=ZHF5cjZnbm13dzdr We believe financial independence is attainable for anyone no matter when or where you’re starting. Let’s get your financial house in order! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mindy and I are so grateful for the following sponsors who make Bigger Pockets Money possible. When you want more, start your business with Northwest Registered Agent and get access to thousands of free guides, tools, and legal forms to help you launch and protect your business all in one place. Build your complete business identity with Northwest Today. Northwest Registered Agent has been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. They're the largest registered agent and LLC service in the U.S. with over 1,500 corporate guides who are real people who are real people who. know your local laws and can help you and your business every step of the way. Northwest makes life easy for business owners. They don't just help you form your business. They give you the free tools you need after you form it, like operating agreements, meeting minutes, and thousands

of how-to guides that explain the complicated ins and outs of running a business. And with Northwest, privacy is automatic. They never sell your data and all services are handled in-house because privacy by default is their pledge to all customers. Visit Northwest registeredagent.com slash money free and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at Northwest Registeredagent.com slash money free. You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast? Easy. Just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. That means you can stop struggling to get your job notice on other job sites. Indeed's sponsor

jobs helps you stand out and hire the right people quickly. Your job post jumps straight to the top of the page where your ideal candidates are looking. And it works. Sponsored jobs on Indeed, get 45% more applications than non-sponsored posts. The best part? No monthly subscriptions or long-term contracts. You only pay for results. And speaking of results, in the minute I've been talking to you, 23 people just got hired through Indeed worldwide. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed.com slash bigger pockets. Just go to Indeed.com slash bigger pockets right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash bigger pockets.

Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, Indeed is all you need. When I evaluate debt funds, I look for things like first position loans, personal guarantees, deep experience by the fund operator, low fund leverage, fast liquidity, and consistent returns. These are some of the reasons why I'm excited to partner with Pine Financial Group. Their fund six offers investors, exposure to real estate credit, largely for construction and rehab, with loans originated by an experienced originator with over $1 billion in origination volume. They offer investors an 8% preferred return paid monthly and a 70-30 LP split of everything over 10% paid annually. The lockup period is nine months with liquidity available within 90 days after that nine-month commitment. The fund is open

to accredited investors only. The fund's minimum investment is typically $100,000. But Pine Financial is able to reduce that minimum for bigger pockets money listeners to a minimum of 25 thousand dollars full disclosure i am personally invested in this fund through my self-directed ira pine financial is sponsoring this message and our podcast go to biggerpocketsmoney dot com slash pine p i n e please note that returns are not guaranteed and may vary based on fun performance oh and welcome to the bigger pockets money podcast we have a special week on the podcast last year we had paul ollinger on the podcast and he lives in new york city scott called out that achieving financial independence in a high cost of living area like New York City is nearly impossible. And the New York City community

said, uh, excuse me, Scott, no, it's not. Our audience is filled with smart people and they know how to make the most of an expensive city. This week, Scott and I are going to highlight four people's different stories working towards or achieving financial independence in the Big Apple. Today, we're talking with Eli. Eli is just 24 years of. old and already on track to hit CoastFi by age 30. And he's doing it while living in New York City. Eli argues that living in the city is actually accelerating his path thanks to unique opportunities and big city hacks you won't find in a smaller town.

Eli breaks down his personal numbers and story in today's episode. Eli, thank you so much for joining us and welcome to Bigger Pockets Money. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited to be here. A longtime listener, big time follower, was just listening to your book, right before the recording started. Oh, fantastic. Well, thank you so much again for all the support and for joining us.

And I think, you know, just as we discussed, I put out a challenge out there where I said, hey, I think that fire is probably less appealing, less popular, maybe less practical to pursue for folks living in New York City and Manhattan in particular. And a good chunk of people actually reached out to me and you were one of them. And so I'd love to hear, you know, a quick reaction to that. And then, of course, let's get into your story. I have definitely been described as somewhat contrarian. And I think that that really aligns nicely with fire because on the surface, absolutely, you are correct.

New York City is the worst place to fire or pursue financial independence or really have much of anything. But I think that fire is all about looking kind of beneath the surface and figuring out what actually makes things work, what actually makes things tick. And I calculated it that I would have a higher salary and that I can control my expenses. and that right out of college, I know that the most important thing is to pay off that student debt if it's above, you know, six to eight percent interest,

depending on who you hold like, as well as securing a high starting salary, because that is one of the single biggest determinants, at least in the traditional world, of whether your lifetime earnings, what that would look like. So for me, it was very important to secure, I would say, on the high end, and then control what I can control.

And thanks to fire, I feel like I've had a really solid control in that I have raised my earnings from 82,000 when I first started at my company to 91,000 within about six months. And my expenses are below 40,000. I would say over a year. And I would say that specifically, you know, the basics. I do like to spend money on Broadway.

So that is my guilty pleasure. Can you give us a breakdown of what your expenses look like on this income? Because I think that the challenge is not hard for people to understand, hey, there's a lot of really good income earning opportunities in New York City. But it's that keeping your expenses low means deprivation or is it possible? when you're living in in Manhattan or New York City. You're completely right. I would say the number one expense that people typically are concerned about is usually rent.

And I would say you can't necessarily house hack in the same way. It's much more difficult, I would say, buy a property in New York City than it might be elsewhere. And there's a huge, I would say, burden when it comes to regulation. But once you have rent, it's almost like unlocking the best credit card bonuses ever. So let's say people are usually not willing to pay $700 a month for an Mx platinum, but those who do recognize that there might be an extraordinary amount of benefits that are unlocked. To me, that's the same thing with rent. So my rent payment is $2,210, and that allows me to not have to pay for a car,

doesn't have to pay for, I don't have to pay for insurance, I don't have to pay for maintenance. I would say my travel is locked in at $134 a month. Groceries is something that in New York City is relatively more expensive, but I have been, I would say, living large. In addition to, I would say, keeping more, I would say, stricter dietary regulation. let's say groceries, I've been able to keep at $350 as a max. Many months, I don't even get to that point. I would say eating out $200. I would say shopping and miscellaneous, I just kind of have as an extra $250 buffer. I usually don't hit that. And I would say that your basics in New York City are

controllable. If you are not Ubering everywhere, if you are living with roommates, if you are focused on what you can control, you absolutely can control your base level of expenses. It's the luxuries that people feel that they're in New York City they should experience. I would say that that's really what knocks people's financial budget off course. Because if you're shopping at Trader Joe's or the local bodega, it's really not that expensive compared to living upstate. I grew upstate. I know that the prices are not that different. It's really about where you're go shopping, where you're spending your time. Everybody on the path to FI has to control their expenses. So that's not unique to New York. But there's this like, I mean, Scott and I don't live in New York and we both feel that New York is super, super expensive. You have listed a lot of really low monthly expenses in your budget. Do you feel like you're missing out on anything? Do you feel like, oh, I wish I could just loosen the purse strings a little bit and do this thing?

Or do you feel like you're really getting it all because you live in New York and there's so much to do? So what I found is with enough time, you can find almost anything you want in New York for free. Instead of focusing on, let's say, I'm going to, let's say, change my budget around. I'm going to figure out if I want a massage, I'm going to look at. what are all the different massage places what are the promotions that they're offering if I want to go see a Broadway show there are apps that show you which Broadway shows you can get pre-screenings to that you can actually I saw Angioli at front row center for free because I just looked on an app I saw a free ticket if I want to

go to a fancy restaurant and this is actually another thing that I really want to talk about which is in New York City there's so much people who want to live New York City and corporations and many of them I would say really focus on that and that means that if I want to try a new restaurant I can actually volunteer for my team and be like next time we plan a team dinner or something, let's go to a restaurant that I choose. And because I'm volunteering, I'm putting myself out there, I'm able to be like, oh, that restaurant that might be $500 a plate, let's figure out what the corporate discount will do. And basically it'll be taking control in that sense. So figuring out not just what is going to be

in my budget, what are the opportunities out there? Like, I have not paid for Starbucks over the past year because I'm the person who gets coffee for my team. And I basically get thousands of Starbucks stars. Those are kind of the little things that I have been doing to, I would say live New York City to the fullest. Remind us what your day job is? I do accounting, specifically auditing. What a surprise. I know. You do auditing here, and I assume this is you're a highly paid accountant in New York City. Great job out of college, it sounds like here. And how much food is provided by your employer on an ongoing basis in your situation? Significant amounts. For example, I'm about to approach

busy season, they are giving a per DM amount for coffee for restaurants. So if I want to get takeout and I want to choose a restaurant, I can get up to a certain amount paid for by the company. So that definitely does make the food budget significantly less and able to experience New York City for the fullest. I figured that was going to be the case. So as in second, how many hours would you say you're putting in on average and then on and off peak? I'm assuming you're talking about my job specifically. Yes. So that is a great question because there's billable. non-billable and as an accountant you know there's so many other things and I would say from a your money your life perspective I would say it's from about 8 a.m. till about 7 p.m. on off peak and when it comes to

peak season that's about three months that is potentially as much as you know 8 a.m. to 2 there are 2 a.m. nights their weekend sometimes so yes I would say from a typical job is significantly more than 9 to 5 However, there are also going to be times when you're working two days a week. For example, because it's a very seasonal type of job and that I'm working on with financial statements, it matters when the financial statements are put out. There were days when, you know, I'm studying for the CPA at my aunt's, you know, house or something like that where I'm like on the rooftop of my building and just enjoying because the job is very much when you're working, you're working hard, but they're also, you know,

paying for food, they're paying for a lot of things. And when they don't need you, like, you're not really doing it. crazy, silly, busy work, which is something I have appreciated. This makes sense to me. This is in line with what I understand, the life of peers who went into New York City investment banking or big for accounting or those, you know, big law, those types of careers in the New York City. Your life is work for, really during the week for the most of it, for these big chunks, right?

8 a.m. to 7 p.m. is a big day. That's a much longer day than I really ever worked, excluding some periods of time when I was CEO, I never, even during my CEO time, never got, had an 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. day, maybe one or two in the entire time running a pretty large company at bigger pockets. But that is a reality, I think, for a lot of very high income earner, very high potential folks who get these close to six-figure jobs right out of college in New York City. I guess the question I would have there is, I would imagine that, one, that's very conducive to accumulating money because you're spending all this time at work, you're getting a lot of pay, presumably a bonus, presumably a very large career trajectory,

and there's no opportunity to spend the money anywhere else. So there's not really a reason to live large in the chunk of time that's remaining. How do you think this will change in four or five years, though? Because if you keep on this trajectory, I imagine it's not going to be like you're going to get a 10% raise every year. It's you're going to get a 30 or 50% raise. And you're going to be earning multiple six figures by the time you're 30, you're 24 right now, I believe, right?

Maybe even more than that. Maybe approaching seven figures depending on how the trajectory goes by your mid-30s in this type of career. And will the perspectives begin to change at that point? How do you think that will evolve for you? Am I getting anywhere close to describing your reality? You are describing every single young person who's trying to figure that out because I actually started a community that I'm calling sparks because we're people who are just getting started into fire.

And we're kind of dealing with these issues where we're like, we don't know ourselves, we don't have a family, our fixed expenses are not certain. Like right now, I know that my life is going to dramatically change over the next five years. So how can I possibly plan? And I think that that's where I'm really thinking about the next endeavor and where I think of New York City as an arbitrage opportunity. I don't necessarily plan on living in New York City my entire life. I view this as a chapter and that the amount of money that I've accumulated is not necessarily meant to, for me personally, to continue to live life in New York City, continuing to live life on hard mode. I view that I can buy a house in, let's say the Georgia Eagle co-housing community.

That's that they're going for about 120,000. So that means if in one year I could buy the house outright. I kind of view another point is I'm working two to three jobs. I'm earning not that much money per job, but I would say I kind of also view right now as a learning experience and almost getting my PhD in accounting and getting paid to do it. So whereas many of my peers are in a PhD program with a stipend of 40 grand and barely covering expenses continuing to go into credit card debt, you know, continuing to have student loans and things like that, I view that I'm actually not in my earning years yet. I'm trying to figure out what I want to do. And look, the GenC has officially pushed out millennials when it comes to everyone writing articles calling them late. and everything else.

Whatever you do, it ain't lazy. Thank you. And I would say another inspiration is, I would say, also Hamilton, trying to work like I'm running out of time. And for better or worse, that has left an imprint on me. But I also want to push back a little bit on the assumption that you made, which is this is the longest, you know, maybe that you've ever worked up for me. I used to go to school six days a week, and every other Saturday, we would remain in school.

And I would be waking up at about 6 a.m. and I would be getting home at about 11 p.m. So for me, like that was a religious school where we had extraordinarily long hours. And I'll be honest, this almost feels easier in that I'm a lot more in control. I have a lot more things. And I'm only working five days a week and the occasional weekend. So for me, that that mindset shift, I definitely recognize is something that might be more unique to me. But I kind of view what I'm doing as a learning opportunity as supposed to work.

and I feel like once you're able to make work, not like that exhausting sounding sigh of what am I doing here, I'm trying to get to that fine number, what, like, I can't believe friend is due in the next month and it's figuring out, okay, I'm going to be seeing my friend, and I would say just about keeping busy, socializing as much as possible, and really having a clear picture of what life could look like.

My yearbook quote was, it is what it is, but is what it could be. And I think that that's what I'm trying to apply to, I would say work and fire. So I'm not really trying to calculate my trajectory. Currently, I'm trying to calculate when it's the optimal jumping off point of this current trajectory. I think this is super interesting here, right? So it's enviable, right? The strategy is I'm going to work crazy hours, although they're easy for me because I've been doing it since high school.

Which, by the way, I had a similar experience in high school. I just didn't, I'm only considering the time spent at work in that. My life was definitely, you know, my early to mid-20s, very similar to what you're describing here. terms of early mornings, out and about, but some of it was recreation, rugby or, you know, athletic pursuits and those types of things, not just work for me at that point in time. Now that I have a family, that's not something I'm willing to do or would be reasonable at this point. And so the strategy has to be, I'm going to earn so much, my earnings power is going to explode so much in this profession while I'm in New York, that it's going to give me these

options whenever I jump ship and move to a different geography here, or that I'll just earn so much that it kind of obviates the need to do all this other stuff, right? I'm like, it's going to be so much money that I can live a lavish lifestyle or a pretty, pretty nice lifestyle and invest through all my accounts and have plenty of money to build leftover and enjoy, you know, all the best things that New York City or wherever the area that I choose to live in has to offer. I think the traditional fire advice, the typical fire path, is not built for someone with that trajectory, right? Where I'm going to earn a lot and have high expenses in my early 20s, but then it's just going to explode so it's so high that it really doesn't make all this other stuff less important. Does that

jade your approach to fire or is it really just I'm going to accumulate and jump ship as soon as I possibly can at this point? So I used to joke that as a kid I wanted that my favorite subject was recess and that my ideal job was I want to be a retired philanthropist. Now I did not know about the fire community back then. But let me tell you that retired philanthropist dream is still alive and well. And I would say that you're right that many of my peers, I would say reject it and that they're looking, why am I going to stop when my ideal income earning years are just down the line? And I think that that's why they're terrified of AI because they need the current circumstances to remain the same.

Whereas I look at it as I'm using this opportunity to learn skills from out to the standard. Like big four is, I would say, a huge training ground for a significant majority of many different professions. Like the income component for me is it's a lot relative to my expenses. The way that I look at is if I were living in the suburbs, I would have more expenses, more things to worry about, more things to deal with. For example, nine to five in the suburbs includes an hour of commute, potentially even more. For me, like, my commute is 10, 20 minutes, and like that's something that I like, they have to worry about a car, car insurance, gas, fixing car. I actually just heard from my friend that, you know, she had to pick her car from the mechanic, and the bill was almost $4,000.

That's something that I will never have to worry about as long as I'm living in the city. Additionally, when it comes to the explosive income potential, I kind of see that as entrepreneurship. I look at fire as a way to get rich slowly and that is 20 years, which is still extraordinarily quick. I'm 24, so it doesn't feel quick. Like, for me, I feel like my biggest financial mistake is that I did not buy a house in 2008 when I was seven years old. Truly a struggle.

I view it that New York City, I'm able to control my expenses, I'm able to earn relatively more amount of money. My life is relatively simpler. And I have the additional component, which is, I made up an acronym for this, but basically, I just think that socialization, commute, and quality of life in the city is significantly better compared to trying to fire in the suburbs. When you want more, start your business with Northwest Registered Agent and get access to thousands of free guides, tools, and legal forms to help you launch and protect your business all in one place. Build your complete business identity with Northwest Today. Northwest Registered Agent has been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years.

They're the largest registered agent and LLC service in the U.S. with over 1,500 corporate guides who are real people who know your local laws and can help you and your business every step of the way. Northwest makes life easy for business owners. They don't just help you form your business. They give you the free tools you need after you form it, like operating agreements, meeting minutes, and thousands of how-to guides that explain the complicated ins and outs of running a business. And with Northwest, privacy is automatic.

They never sell your data. And all services are handled in-house because privacy by default is their pledge to all customers. Visit northwest registeredagent.com slash money-free and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at Northwest Registered Agent.com slash money-free. You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. How can you find amazing candidates fast?

Easy. Just use Indeed. When it comes to hiring, Indeed is all you need. That means you can stop struggling to get your job notice on other job sites. Indeed's sponsor jobs helps you stand out and hire the right people quickly. Your job post jumps straight to the top of the page where your ideal candidates are looking. And it works. Sponsored jobs on Indeed get 45% more applications than non-sponsored posts. The best part? No monthly subscriptions or long-term contracts. You only pay for results. And speaking of results, in the minute I've been talking to you, 23 people just got hired through Indeed worldwide. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to get your jobs more visibility at Indeed, dot com slash bigger pockets. Just go to Indeed.com slash bigger pockets right now and support our show by saying you heard about Indeed on this podcast. Indeed.com slash bigger pockets. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring, Indeed is all you need. When I evaluate debt funds, I look for things like first position loans,

personal guarantees, deep experience by the fund operator, low fund leverage, fast liquidity, and consistent returns. These are some of the reasons why I'm excited to partner with Pine Financial Group. Their fund six offers investors exposure to real estate credit, largely for construction. and rehab, with loans originated by an experienced originator with over $1 billion in origination volume. They offer investors an 8% preferred return paid monthly and a 70-30 LP split of everything over 10% paid annually. The lockup period is nine months with liquidity available within 90 days after that nine-month commitment. The fund is open to accredited investors only. The fund's minimum investment is typically $100,000, but Pine Financial is able to reduce that minimum for

Bigger Pockets Money listeners to a minimum of $25,000. Full disclosure, I am personally invested in this fund through my self-directed IRA. Pine Financial is sponsoring this message and our podcast. Go to biggerpocketsmoney.com slash pine, P-I-N-E. Please note that returns are not guaranteed and may vary based on fund performance. So will you fire in New York City, or do you think you will move geographically in a few years somewhere else? Like, what is your best guess?

I know that that's up in the air. You're 24. Life can unfold a million different ways. But what is the kind of like tentative plan? I feel so blessed that I have so many fire role models in New York City. So initially my plan was very much earn jump ship. And now I'm looking at these mentors of mine who are living in New York City. They're firing and they're able to take the fastest city in the world, right?

The one that never sleeps. And like take naps, relax, enjoy, right? In the middle of the day when everyone's at work, they're enjoying all the opportunities in New York City has to offer. You know, instead of waiting till the holiday season to enjoy whatever perks there are, they're able to really appreciate New York City at its fullest. And another component is, if I were to stay in New York City, rent increases significantly less compared to salaries because of, I would say, a lot of the regulations involved.

So while rent might be taking up approximately a little under 30% of my current pay, over the next 10 years, it'll be significantly less than that, just because of that delta between the two growth. So I can see myself potentially living in New York City. The thing is, I can't really see myself raising a family in New York City. And this is where I'm starting to think of fire as an evolutionary system. And that initially it was all about math. Then it moved to mental health, right? Like that's when we're talking about middle class trap, death march, all these, I would say terms to try to describe the feelings that we're experiencing. And I'm almost trying to think of the next stage is philosophy. Like what is the purpose of life? What are we

trying to optimize for because once we recognize that optimizing for money is not ideal like I don't know I could totally see myself living singly in New York City but I you know trying to figure out what what do I want in life and that's a question that I feel like is better answered to New York City amongst friends amongst many people with a variety of different experiences as opposed to kind of in my house hack in the suburbs not to throw shade but you know I can definitely see myself just you know never leaving the house because I never want to spend money whereas in New York city, it's almost like a sunk cost. And obviously that's not the best way to manage your finances, but, you know, it definitely seems to be working a little bit. I house hacked in the city of Denver,

but you would have called it a suburb. It is the city of Denver, but it's just it's not the same. Look, I could totally see myself getting a cabin near a ski lodge, you know, maybe working as a ski instructor for a time. But yeah, New York City, once you're in New York City, every other city's like, huh? I lived in Chicago. It's not nearly as big as New York, but it still had the same feel. You're right. I lived in the suburbs of Chicago and in Chicago itself. And there's a lot more to do when you're in the big city than there is in the suburbs. And yes, there's things to do in the suburbs, but I found myself driving to the city quite a bit. I don't find myself driving to the city of Denver so much just because it's a different time in my life. I've got my kids and, you know,

Longmont's pretty exciting. Back to New York. And, you know, Chicago was expensive. New York, when I visited feels expensive. What are some of the hacks that you have for keeping your expenses down, especially housing, which is according to the personal financial statement that you shared with us, and thank you so much for that. Rent is your number one expense by far. So what are some hacks you have for keeping all these expenses so low? I kind of view it that I'm going to spend on what I need and whatever I want, I'm going to try to either earn extra money. So whether that's the credit card bonuses, the bank bonuses, the sports, all these other ways, I view it that my salary is for my future and to cover my needs. If I wanted to do something fun, I need to figure out how to earn it.

I need to reward myself. So playing that game a little bit has definitely been extraordinarily helpful. I also think it's changing the terms of the game in that how can I find this thing for free or significantly cheaper? So for example, I have a rule that I will only spend $200 on Broadway a month. Now the question is, how many shows can I see for $200 a month? Whereas most people are spending $200 on a single Broadway ticket. I've seen, I have a little bit of a wall here, my little trophies. I've often seen as many as five Broadway shows in a single month. And I think that that's because I've put in the time to learn. And I recognize that there's almost a triangle in accounting when you think of something called the fraud triangle, which is like motive,

ability, and opportunity. Probably quoting that wrong. But I kind of think of it, there's cheap, quick and quality. So if you are a tourist in New York City, everything has to be quick. And you're only going to go for the quality. So already on that kind of triangle, you have to have two things, which then means it's very likely not going to be cheap. Whereas for me, because I can learn about it, right, I can learn when are the deals on, right? When is everything going to be cheaper? Right, what are the free promotions? So many things in New York City are free. Like so many of the best places, right, they literally, like in Broadway, they literally need the seats to be filled as much as possible. So I can log on to an app about 20 minutes before the show starts and I can find

tickets for, you know, $10, $20. And if you are planning your trip two months in advance and you are looking at the prices, those prices are not the same prices. They're not. Same thing when it comes to, I would say, restaurants. If you're going to be in the touristy section of Manhattan, it is very different than if you're in the all you can eat Chinatown section. There's someone in the New York City Fire community who has been an absolute inspiration when it comes to all you can eat. You know, like it's an ace acronym. And it's just the amount of food that you can eat for ridiculously low amount of money is mind boggling to me, but there are people who do it. This is awesome. It makes perfect sense. I probably could have done the same things here in

Denver to some extent and just never really thought it through. It's probably that much more powerful in a place like New York City to be able to do this kind of stuff. So that's incredible. What else besides restaurants and Broadway shows, do you or other people you know, what are they able to do to keep cost low? Fashion and furniture. New York City is incredibly, incredibly expensive when it comes to real estate for these big box stores. So let me tell you, that clearance section has something that might be $500 in a Nordstrom outside of New York for $9 because they're trying to get the quickest fashion out as quickly as possible in front of the people who are actually willing to buy.

So if they have something that isn't going to the front shelf, they're not necessarily going to ship it off to somewhere else. They're going to ship it to the clearance section. And New York City is like a fashion capital from what I understand. And you can find incredible things for incredibly cheap. if you're looking not in the front window. Additionally, when it comes to furniture, Facebook Marketplace, like I remember listening to a Choose FI episode where people talk about the alley will provide.

And I'm like, in New York City, if you are on a WhatsApp, there are WhatsApp chats, there's Facebook chats, there are like all these things where people, like there are building chats, there's a building email list where it's like, hey, I'm moving, here's all this stuff that I just need to get rid of, have it. And like, my desk is from there, my monitors, and like, this is like quality stuff. And again, I'm not really really going to get in clothing from these chats, but something that's like a kint of furniture or something that's like a cooking utensil, like something where, you know, you can clean it and it's going to be fine. There's almost no reason to be spending in these. I look at New York City is a showroom.

And whenever there's a showroom, there's usually a out-of-box opportunity. The alley will provide. The curb will provide. I will walk down, you know, we'll stay someplace and we just, we walk everywhere in New York or. we'll take the train one way and then walk back. But there's a really, really awesome furniture that I walk past and I'm visiting and I can't take it with me. I'm like, man, how could I get that home? Text me next time you see that. I will. Here's another thing I think people don't really get about New York City or at least I have a bias. I'm going to see if it's confirmed when you answer this question.

Let's say you lose your job, right? Or let your division shuts down. I know it's very unlikely in your particular situation. But let's say that your company goes out of business. They move on from you or your boss or just close your division. for some reason overnight. You're not expecting it. How easy would it be, relatively speaking, for you to get another job in the same sector at similar pay where you live? So I don't know the answer to that in that I have not done that for myself. I do know that I've been helping several of my friends find jobs. New York City is very difficult if you go about things in the traditional way. What I found, and this is where I would say I do have

some level of expertise about two years ago, which was I actually had seven jobs for fellowships and then realized I could make more money starting my own business. it's really about really just putting on public forums, hey, I'm looking for a job, not really doing LinkedIn easy apply. I really don't think that you can go into a place and be like, here's my resume. That simply will not work. You will not get past the security guards or the dormant or anything without a badge. But if you know someone, so I know that in New York City, there's so many public places. I got some of my jobs through Equinox, right?

Like I was just talking to people in the steam room. You know, I was that guy. And I actually ended up making more money between clients and the jobs that I found. right, like fellowship opportunities by speaking with people in public settings because of people in New York City, and this is one thing that I wish to one day be able to provide, they want a mentor. They want to say like, hey, what's this young whippersnapper doing? You know, like, how can I help them? Right.

Like, here's a push in the right direction. I think that in New York City, there's definitely opportunities to find jobs. I don't know if they will be equivalent jobs. I do think, though, that you will be able to find a job fairly quickly. if you are really putting yourself in, I would say, the position to meet the people who are hiring or know the people who are looking for people to hire. I think that online in New York City simply does not exist. That was where my bias would have been, and I think I need to check it a little bit here, but it would have been that New York City is relatively the best, I'm going to rephrase it to least bad,

based on what you said here, in terms of being able to find a replacement job of any major city in the United States in most fields. because in Denver, for example, you know, if the company that's hiring you goes out of business or doesn't have a job, it's not like there's like 150 other companies of that same type in the city that are hiring, right? You're going to have to get a remote job or you're going to have to do something that's a little bit different, and that could be a threat to your standard of living. But in New York City, I'd imagine there are dozens of firms that do very similar types of activities to the work that you're doing. And so you have a much better relative shot at getting replacement pay, if not full pay, having a small, reduction in pay if you end up losing your job. That would be that'll be my bias going into that

question. But it sounds like that's somewhat true, but but needs to be couched a little bit. There's a big networking component too. I also think that in addition to New York City, there's not nearly as much layoffs compared to people jumping ship. So what usually will happen is like they're, they're not going to give a bonus one year. And that's basically the sign, okay, if people don't leave, we're cutting jobs. So a lot of times people will leave. And they're usually going to leave for a higher salary because as you know like if you're staying at a job more than two, three, four years, you're usually getting paid significantly less than your counterpart. An example of this is like in my own firm like I've had conversations with people where they're shocked to see how much the starting

people are making now because when they first started it was significantly less. So in New York city there's a huge, I would say entry level component where there's entry level competition where firms are looking to hire and they're willing to pay relatively top dollar. And then I would say there's the secondary component when you are looking to, I would say, get to the next position and you're willing to reach for it and you've shown that you're capable. Because as I mentioned, the New York City work culture is significantly different than I would say other areas in the United States and I would say for good reason. But that's, I would say, a boon in the sense that companies are willing to pay because you have the New York City training versus other places. And this

is, I would say, just from some conversations that have had with recruiters. But yeah, you constantly have to be reaching out to recruiters. I would say to see what is my market level at. I can definitely say from my perspective, for me, the goal was to learn as much as I can and then reevaluate. I would say I'm definitely coming to a point where I'm going to be reevaluating in the near future. I would say after this coming busy season, and I can give an update, but I think that it's really about the recruiters. In New York City, they're the ones who are the gatekeepers to the job, the hiring managers. They're the ones who can point you in the right recruiters direction. friends with recruiters? Absolutely. So that is something where LinkedIn actually can be very helpful.

If you offer to buy a recruiter or coffee, they're usually going to be friends with you. I would say another thing is go to spaces where recruiters are going to be at. So there are so many colleges in New York City. There's so many job fairs that are open to alumni as well. And there's a lot of opportunities for plus ones. And there's a lot of, I would say, open houses run by corporations, run by different things and there are so many free events in New York City. Like there's a philosophy club in New York City. I made a recruiter there. You know, like that's not, you know, necessarily where you're going to typically meet someone.

But I would say in New York City, as long as you're not in your apartment, you might find a recruiter. You might find someone who knows someone. And I think in New York City, there's very much kind of this tacit acknowledgement that everyone's trying to do better because otherwise, why are you paying so much in rent? Like, what's the point? Like, if you're just kind of chilling, that that is a little bit counter to your long-term goals. Because New York City doesn't really make sense to be the place to relax and watch the sunrise and sunset, unless you have a nice fire portfolio and a couple of rentals. Because then you already beat the game, but if you're playing it, you're trying to speed run it.

I feel both proven wrong by you're clearly pursuing fire very successfully a young age, starting in Manhattan here. and I feel partially validated because my initial bias of, hey, if I'm living in Manhattan and I'm earning all this money, it's because I probably want to be the best in the world or among the best in my profession in this particular area. And New York City provides that, right? I can just focus on that. I can make so much money that it obviates the other issues in my life. And I can get the best bagel in the world around the corner, see the best show in the world around that corner, go to the best restaurant here for dinner on Tuesday.

and do everything in between. I can go to a sporting event. I can go to a show. I can go to the best shopping. I can go to the best fitness centers here and hang around with celebrities. They're all right there, if that's what I want here

because the city just provides that. And then I can just focus entirely on work. And it's all, as long as I have the money, able to be around me. It sounds like that is real. And that is a drawback or a constraint or a situation to deal with mentally when you're going through it.

But the opportunity to pursue fire is also there. and for those inclined to hustling and developing the skill of enjoying the city, fire in New York City also offers all of that. Maybe not on your terms. You know, maybe you've got to be flexible. I'm not going to be able to see the show on Friday night on a peak weekend. But I can see it on Tuesday and I can see it for $10 while I pursue fire and while I am fire in Manhattan.

Is that the right takeaway I should have from this conversation? I definitely think so. I think that when it comes to fire, New York City fire is going to look very different than most of what I've been hearing. And I would say one of the skills that I've developed in New York City is being able to listen to a podcast at four times speed. So it's very interesting to hear your voices at regular sound. I don't even think I can speak at four times speed. I can barely understand myself at two times speed. You are not the first person that has said that to me.

I listen to you at two times speed. You talk so slow. I would say if I were to be able to really drill down on what the takeaway is, fire is already. stream, right, compared to the huge majority of, I would say, America, even the world. It's a huge opportunity. And you are going to make choices that are going to be different than your neighbors. If you're pursuing fire in New York City, it can be that times 10, right, because you can have opportunities that you might not have elsewhere.

So I would say not to, you know, showboat or really, like, talk up New York City too much, but I really think that New York City has the most opportunity to really leverage. And I think that when you're young, that's when you should try to be getting as many leverage as possible and really figure out with the least amount of time, but the most amount of effort. What can I do? And I think that that's going to be rewarded more in New York City or a city in general as opposed to kind of the traditional advice, which I think is extremely valid, but in a different circumstance. So I would say the New York City challenge is how do you apply fire in New York City? And that's something that there's a wonderful community that a lot of people are doing. And I can definitely say that the New York City fire community has been absolutely incredible.

But that's also because I don't know any other fire community just yet. But I'm looking to get to know more. Well, love it. Thank you so much, Eli, for sharing all this. It really learned a lot here. And I think there's much more nuance to this than my initial dismissal of it a few months ago. Well, your initial dismissal is correct. But as you know, it's also ridiculous to be retiring before 65.

Fair enough. Yeah, so you were both right. Eli, congratulations and everything that you've achieved so far. And the fantastic jumpstart you have to your financial independence journey. Thank you for sharing it with us. I view that I'm standing on the shoulders of you and so many others who have been able to give me this knowledge. So like, thank you again, truly like I would probably be like every other New Yorker who's, you know, living paycheck to paycheck and credit card debt, if not for the fire community. So I think that applying to fire principles can help you no matter where you are, even in New York City.

Awesome. Okay. Okay. Okay. All right. That was Eli's story. And I was so excited for all the different tips he shared on how to reach financial independence in a bigger city. Eli, I am so thankful that you reached out to us to say,

excuse me, Scott, that's not true. You can reach financial independence in the big apple. If you want more financial independence information, head on over to biggerpocketsmoney.com and sign up for our newsletter. We send it out once a week on Wednesdays. We also have free resources, calculators, and templates to help you accelerate your financial independence journey. And we cannot wait to see you tomorrow for Wally Miller's bonus episode. on her unique financial independence story where her combined income has never been over $200,000 all while living in New York City. That wraps up this episode of the Bigger Pockets Money podcast.

He is Scott Trench. I am Bindy Jensen saying, see you soon, Raccoon. When you want more, start your business with Northwest Registered Agent and get access to thousands of free guides, tools, and legal forms to help you launch and protect your business all in one place. Build your complete business identity with Northwest today. Northwest Registered Agent has been helping small business owners and entrepreneurs launch and grow businesses for nearly 30 years. They are the largest registered agent and LLC service in the U.S.

with over 1,500 corporate guides who are real people who know your local laws and can help you and your business every step of the way. Build your business identity fast with North West Registered Agent and get access to thousands of free resources, forms, and step-by-step guides without even creating an account. Northwest makes life easy for business owners. They don't just help you form your business. They give you the free tools you need after you form it, like operating agreements, meeting minutes, and thousands of how-to guides that explain the complicated ins and outs of running a business. And with Northwest, privacy is automatic.

They never sell your data, and all services are handled in-house, because privacy by default is their pledge to all customers. Don't wait. Protect your privacy, build your brand, and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes. Visit Northwest Registeredagent.com money-free and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at Northwest Registeredagent.com slash money-free. When I evaluate debt funds, I look for things like first-position

loans, personal guarantees, deep experience by the fund operator, low-fund leverage, fast liquidity, and consistent returns. These are some of the reasons why I'm excited to partner with Pine Financial Group. Their fund six offers investors exposure to real estate credit, largely for construction and rehab, with loans originated by an experienced originator with over $1 billion. dollars in origination volume. They offer investors an 8% preferred return paid monthly and a 70-30 LP-GP split of everything over 10% paid annually. The lock-up period is nine months with liquidity available within 90 days after that nine-month commitment. The fund is open to accredited investors only. The fund's minimum investment is typically $100,000, but Pine Financial is able to reduce

that minimum for bigger pockets money listeners to a minimum of $25,000. Full disclosure, I am personally invested in this fund through my self-directed IRA. Pine Financial is sponsoring this message and our podcast. Go to biggerpocketsmoney.com slash pine, P-I-N-E. Please note that returns are not guaranteed and may vary based on fun performance.