BiggerPockets Money Podcast - Ditch Corporate! Start Taking the “Slow” Path to Retirement w/Tae Kim | Life After FIRE

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

The “death march to FI” isn’t for everyone. If you’re tired of climbing the corporate ladder or lacking a sense of purpose at your W2 job, it’s not too late to escape the rat race and design the life you want, just like the “Financial Tortoise,” Tae Kim, did! In this episode of “Life After FIRE,” Tae returns to the show to discuss his move from the corporate world to a job that gives him the freedom and flexibility to travel, spend more time with his family, and actually enjoy the journey to FIRE. For years, Tae was dead set on achieving his goal of becoming a chief financial officer (CFO), but as he approached the summit, he realized just how much freedom and control he was giving up. So, he started implementing a plan to quit and pursue entrepreneurship instead! In four years, Tae went from making $0 on YouTube to over $250,000 per year. Today, he and his wife are comfortably coast FI, traveling the world, creating personal finance content, and continuing to save for retirement where they can. Stay tuned as Tae shares how he “reinvented” himself in his late 30s and the moment he realized he had “made it” on YouTube! In This Episode We Cover Why Tae quit the corporate grind right before reaching his lifelong goal Building a financial runway that allows you to pursue entrepreneurship Crucial financial steps to take before leaving your nine-to-five job How to start an online business that gives you financial freedom Why it’s never too late to “reinvent” yourself and design the life YOU want And So Much More! Links from the Show Mindy on BiggerPockets Scott on BiggerPockets Listen to All Your Favorite BiggerPockets Podcasts in One Place Join BiggerPockets for FREE Email Mindy: [e-mail] Email Scott: [e-mail] BiggerPockets Money Facebook Group Follow BiggerPockets Money on Instagram “Like” BiggerPockets Money on Facebook BiggerPockets Money YouTube Channel Tae’s YouTube Buy the Book “The Quitter’s Manifesto” Sign Up for the BiggerPockets Money Newsletter Find an Investor-Friendly Agent in Your Area How to Become a “Quiet” Millionaire and Avoid the Financial Guru Trap Connect with Mindy Connect with Carl (00:00) Intro (01:08) Tae’s Money Story (05:57) Quitting Corporate (10:51) “Making” It on YouTube (18:23) Expectations vs. Reality (24:20) Current Income & Expenses (27:58) Design the Life You Want! (30:49) Connect with Tae! Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-615 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, my dear listeners, as you may or may not know, my husband, Carl, and I have a new YouTube series on the Bigger Pockets Money YouTube channel called Life After Fire. And as a very special bonus, we're going to be airing episodes here on the podcast on Wednesdays. Without further ado, let's get into it. We are so excited to slow down today. We are joined by the Financial Tortoise Tay Kim. And we are so excited to chat through the lead-up to Taye, achieving financial independence and what life has looked like for him afterwards.

Let's get into it. Hi there. I'm Mindy Jensen. And I think I'm Carl Jensen. You think this is the Mindy. I'm Carl. He thinks on Life After Fire, where we talk about what happens after you reach financial independence. Why do we call this show Life After Fire? Because we're talking about and talking to people who are living their best life after reaching

financial independence. We also want to shout out to our listeners who may have come to know this series as the Living a Phi Life series. We are changing the name of the series to Life After Fire. Unbeknownst to us, there was another creator named Justin who had started a blog with the same name. So if you are interested in following his story, please go check him out at Living a Phi Life. And he spells Phi F-I-G-H. Like hi, but with an F.

Thank you so much for joining us today, Tay Kim. How are you doing today? I'm well. Thank you guys for having me. I want to jump right into it and get a lot. little bit of an overview of your story. What was your profession before you retired and how long did it take you to reach retirement once you discovered the concept of financial independence? I was a finance director for about 10 years. So this is in any corporation. Pretty typical role,

you have the finance department. So my role was financial forecast, projections, budgets. So in any company, you know, whenever the budgeting season comes around, you have that guy that comes around and says, like, hey, you can't spend that. Or like, hey, what are you projecting for your sales this year? Like, let's see if we can increase that, you know? So that was that pesky guy that used to go around everyone's office and nobody was looking forward to having a meeting with me. So I did that for about 10 years. Before that I, so I got my MBA and my pathway was like, I wanted to become a CFO one day. Like that was kind of like my aspiration coming out of business school.

So that was the path that I went towards. I, you know, like I decided that I wanted to, you know, become an expert in financial projections, just budgeting and all of that stuff within the corporate world. I did that for about 10 years. And then I think maybe, you know, about halfway through, you know, your goals change because your life circumstances change. So once my wife and I had, we had kids, we started to give ourselves permission to ask, like, hey, that initial plan that we set out when we're 30,

you know, now that we're, you know, in our mid-30s or getting close to 40, like, has that changed? And for me, I think what I realized was it did change. And what I craved more wasn't to reach the corner office, but I wanted more control. I want a more flexibility with my life. So that's when I got introduced into a lot of the FI concepts through Choose FI, through, you know,

bigger pockets money, through just, so many other great resources that are out there. And I had a good fortune of meeting Carl at Chautauqua in UK back in 2019. At that point, we've been kind of following the FI principles of just living below our means, saving as much as we can. So we were pushing ourselves at one point, you know, like saving half of our income. So, you know, essentially both of us were working. So try to live off of one income and save the other. So we were following those principles. I think right around 2021, 2021 COVID hit, I think that's when I started to get a little bit more itch to transition. So this is when I was also getting some exposure to the internet business world, the YouTube world.

And I had this inclination to, hey, maybe I can put my head in the lot and try to become a YouTuber or a personal finance YouTuber. So at that point, we hadn't reached FI from like a traditional perspective of 25 times, you know, our expenses. I would say we were like coast FI and, you know, we had enough cushion to be able to take some time away if we wanted to. You know, in discussion with Monica, who's my wife, we decided that, hey, you know, what's the worst that can happen? This thing doesn't work out and I just go back to what I did before. You know, that's a great place to be at. It's, you know, the American dream, right? Like both of us were well employed.

We were able to fund our living. We weren't financially struggling, so that was the American dream. We kind of mapped things out where we saved up about two years worth of cash. And we were doing that before. And essentially we said, hey, I'll give myself about two years to see if I can make this work. Because we didn't want to tap into our investments if we could. And then again, if worse came to happen, I would have taken a contract job or just gone back and gotten a full-time job. But I started YouTube channel Financial Tortoise.

And then, yeah, it just kind of worked out. So then thankfully, I'm able to generate enough income that covers our family's expenses. So I've at this point become an accidental digital nomad. So I have a funny story about your YouTube channel. I had started seeing your name a lot. And at the same time, Carl and I had met up with a friend in Denver. his name is Roger. He's a mutual friend of ours. And he said, oh, I've got a friend who's got a YouTube channel. You should talk to him. And in my mind, I'm like, a friend with a YouTube channel.

I bet he's going to be really awesome. And then it turns out, he's like, yeah, his name is take him. He's the financial tortoise. I'm like, I've been trying to get him on my show. Now, here I am. This was actually a couple of years ago before you had been on the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. But it was just so funny that he was like, I've got this friend with a YouTube channel. I'm like, okay, I bet that's going to be great. Now we need to take a quick ad break. Dear listeners, we really want to hit 100,000 subscribers on YouTube and we need your help. While we take a quick ad break, you can go on over to YouTube.com slash bigger pockets money and make sure you're subscribed to the channel. Stay tuned after a break for more.

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Audible has been a core part of my routine for more than a decade. I started listening years ago to make better use of drive time and workouts, and it stuck. At this point, I've logged over 229 audiobook completions on Audible alone, and I still regularly re-listen to the highest impact titles. Lately, I've been listening to Bigger Leaner Stronger for Fitness, the Anxious Generation for Parenting Perspective, and several Arthur Brooks' audiobooks that have been excellent for mental well-being. What makes Audible so powerful as its breadth. Beyond audiobooks, you also get Audible Originals, podcasts, and a massive.

massive back catalog across business, health, parenting, and more, all accessible in one app. If you're looking to turn everyday moments into real progress, Audible has been indispensable for me over over 10 years. Kickstart your well-being journey with your first audiobook free when you sign up for a free 30-day trial at audible.com slash BP money. Welcome back to the show. What are the process of actually leaving your job look like? That's something that I think a lot of people on the path are a little scared about.

Yeah, yeah. So I would say, I mean, if I was to kind of put a pin on where the, I guess, the percolating of thoughts, idea generation or even sparking the idea came about was probably five years before I left my job. One of my big roles was to present our projections for the next quarter to the board members. And then in our board meeting, like, I would be sitting right next to our CFO. So like I was the finance director. I had the team that we would run all the forecasts, make all the slides. and then she would be the one presenting the big numbers. And then if she had some questions about certain small numbers, she would reach over and ask me, and I would be like, point it out on the slide.

And then I had this kind of like, this realization that I was like, oh my goodness, if I work really hard for the next 10 years, and if I stay in this pathway, I would just like move one seat over. And then I would be sitting in her spot. And I would be pointing at the finance director and be like, hey, you know, and I was like, is that what I want?

So I think that was the first time where I asked. I asked myself, like, gave myself the permission to be like, is that, when I could see exactly clearly where my future was going to be for the next 10 years, I think in a way, that kind of scared me. And I was like, hmm, should I give myself the permission to imagine something else? And that's where I think this idea of starting a YouTube channel was, like, terrifying. I mean, I'm like a middle-aged guy. I'm like, I'm going to start a YouTube channel.

Like, that's what, like, these young hip kid, cool kids do, right? I think so then that's when the idea started generating. And that's when, you know, I went to Chautauqua. And I think I got exposed to the financial independence concept. And I was like, oh, okay, like this could be a lever that could help me to take new chances and new risks in life. Try new things. Because what's the, what's the, you know, like it's almost like you're operating with a safety net, right? It's like, what's the worst that can happen?

I just go back to what I was doing. So then it was kind of like, let me try this thing. And then it's not like the, the, even if I fail in it, there's not. nothing, there's nothing wrong. Like, I learned something new about myself. From a financial perspective, this is where I think my wife and I, following a lot of the financial independence principles, we would look at our numbers and be like, you know, I think, I think we had a kind of worst case scenarios. We would say, like, okay, like, let's say two years out, we spent all of our cash, and then, like, we had to start tapping into our assets. Like, what would the first

one be. I think we can tap into this one first. Okay, then. And then we would be like, dude, we have enough to last us for the next five, ten years. We'll be fine. And then again, we're probably not going to pull that lever because being conservative, we'll be like, we'll probably go find something else to cover the gap to, like, generate more income. Because we have creator capital that we can leverage. So I think when we mapped all those scenarios out, we're like, like, only thing that's holding me back is just my own fear. Just a familiarity with the path that I am heading towards. And that was the other fear too.

It's like, this is all I knew. I came out of business school. Every one of my friends are following these like pathways in different functional areas. Like it could be marketing or finance or HR, but we're all following this pathway. And for me to be like, I'm going to try something different was kind of like a new concept from me. So I think all those things percolated in my mind. And then I would say from start to finish from the day I left my job was about a five-year

process, both mentally getting myself ready and then getting ourselves financially ready so that we had these kind of like, okay, what are the levers that we can pull as we go down this journey? You said a lot of very important things here, but I want to reiterate a couple of them. For one, it cracks me up that you had this ambition to become a CFO, so you were a very ambitious person like, oh, I ever wanted to do a stain my Cuban code. But I was happy with that. So you wanted to be a CFO and then you discovered financial independence. And then you work your way into becoming a YouTube influencer, which cracks me up.

You said one line, I think, which was super cool. You said, I gave myself permission to imagine something else. I think this is so neat because the other thing you said is my worst case scenario was I could go back to whatever I was doing. I could go back to becoming a finance director. On the other hand, the world is open to you. the possibilities are limitless and endless. So it's okay if I fail.

I'm just back to what I was doing before, which was still pretty great. You made a great career for yourself. On the other hand, I'm going to experiment and try things, which is super cool. I think if most people did that and just took that little leap

that they would probably never go back to whatever they were doing before. Yeah, I think that's super cool. When did you realize you had made it and you were not going to go back to becoming a finance director? Again, like it was a hypothesis when I first started the YouTube journey. So I think I, as in the process of learning about financial independence, in the process of kind of envisioning something new for myself,

I think I was looking at a lot of different avenues. And I kind of landed on YouTube as this, I guess, vehicle in which there's a lot of traffic already coming in. And I think within the personal finance space, I mean, we all know there's a lot of like really smart bloggers within the personal finance space, you know, people who can write about all the back-end analysis that's been done in the 4% rule and they can explain it all, you know, like in a written format really well. But I didn't see a lot of that in the video world, in the YouTube world. So that's where I was like, you know, I don't mind talking from the camera.

Maybe this is something that I can kind of make a niche, but I knew it was going to take time. So I kind of committed myself to saying I'm going to make two videos a week, rain or shine. And then a lot of this is going to be a learning process because I just don't know the algorithm. I don't know how. I've never filmed myself like ever before. I never like owned a camera. So that I bought my camera literally like in the same month that I left my job and then just kind of learning how the thing worked. So then a lot of it was the learning process.

But then after about two years, I would say like 100. I think at that point I created like 150 videos. That's when I started to see some traction within YouTube where, you know, there was actually people watching, not like just, you know, friends and family members. And then it was able to, you know, generate revenue, starting to generate revenue. So I started to see some potential.

So, yeah, two-year was kind of like, okay, like I could see, it's kind of like the Rubik, you know, the Rubik's Cube. You know, at first I don't know what I'm doing. And after a little while, you're like, oh, I think I could see it. So when I started to see that pathway, I was like, like, all right, like, ongoing head, like, this is head-first. Like, I'm doubling down on this. But again, like, when I, that first two years, it was still a limbo.

I think I was giving everything I could to the YouTube game. However, I never left my day job with, like, any burn, like bridges burned. It was, like, I actually, when I left, I gave a seventh button notice. I hired my own replacement, like a new team members, kind of trained everybody. And then I always kept that back door open because I was like, well, there could be a chance. said I might need to come back. So, you know, kind of like managing all my risks. And I don't really tell anybody what I was doing, but I think I wanted to make sure that if I ever needed to, like, I wanted that assurance. It's pretty neat that you stuck with it for 150 videos. I wonder how

many potential bloggers or how many potential YouTubers or podcasters or whatever did 10 and gave it up. And all they had to do was give it a little bit more time and have a little bit more tenacity. One of my favorite quotes is overnight success is usually preceded by like years of hard work or something like that because that's true. I think very, very few people do something and become immediately successful. There's a lot of hard work to either build up the skills or to build up your audience or maybe to hit the algorithm. So kudos to you for sticking with it. I mean, I think that was the motivation. And yeah, the other motivation was like, I do not want to go back to what I was doing before.

Like, I got to make this work. That was the thing. Like, I was like, in back of my mind, I kept the back door open, but I was like, this is like only crack open, you know, at the worst case scenario. It's like, you know, break glass only an emergency. Like, I do not want to break the glass. I love that mentality because that is how you succeed. I, you said, I'm going to make two videos per week rain or shine. When Scott Trench and I were starting the Bigger Pockets Money podcast, we reached out to Brandon Turner,

who had been doing the Bigger Pockets Real Estate podcast for so long. We're like, what advice do you have? And he said, if you want to start a podcast, make an episode and release an episode every week for six months with no gaps ever, ever, ever. And I was like, oh, totally easy. And then there's that one day, that one week when you're like, oh, it's Tuesday afternoon. I got to record something for Thursday's release. but I also still have to have it edited and all these other things.

And, you know, it takes tenacity. It takes commitment. And I like how you say after 150 videos, I started to see traction. All the people that are out there making 10 videos and giving up, it's not an overnight thing. You're never going to have overnight success. There's that one kid that did the one thing and instantly it blew up. That's already been used up.

You're not going to be able to do that. You have to do like, what sets you apart? You are, you have said this. I'm not calling you a middle-aged man because I'm older than you, and I don't consider myself middle-aged. But you say you're a middle-aged man who wants to watch me. Well, you know what? There's a lot of other middle-aged people who want to learn from somebody who has some

sort of background, some sort of credibility. I'm sorry, 25-year-old YouTubers who are life coaches. I don't really take the same level of trust with what you've got. got to say versus take him who worked in corporate America finance for 10 years. I think that maybe you know a little bit more about finance. And maybe you don't. Maybe that 25 year old is some wonderkin who is going to just blow my mind with all this stuff. But there's people that are watching them for different reasons.

And there's people that are watching you. You speak to people that they won't speak to. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's one of the things I realize about YouTube is that it is kind of becoming the new mainstream media. And then everyone is like. my parents who are in their 70s are watching YouTube.

And there's a content about everything and anything you could think of. So it's kind of like, you know, I think it's easy to get, because of the algorithm, we only get served up certain type of content that might be more aligned to our watching habits. But then there's so many other people out there with different interests and different age group, different life stages. And there is a need and desire for those kind of content. So it's like, yeah, that's what's been fascinating to me. It's like I made one of the most interesting video I made, I mean, not interesting.

Like, one of the most interesting insights I saw about, like, YouTube watch habit was I made this video about backdoor Roth IRA. Like it was like the most boring thing ever for 15 minutes. I'm literally like, all right, this guy's backdoor Roth IRA. Let's let me kind of walk you through logging into my Vanguard account and you click on this. And then like, oh, you notice how you got to make sure you fund your traditional. And then like, I went through the whole thing for 20 minutes. I was like, I'm going to make this like super long. And then, like, to this day, like, there's, like, I think, like, 300,000 views on it.

People are, like, watching how to do a back to Rothair. And I'm like, it fascinates my mind. I'm like, who are these people? Right. I'm like, so there's an audience for everything. Yeah, that's what I realized. You just got to, like you said, you got to be consistent. You got to show up.

You have to think about your audience. Just serve them. You don't have to be like Mr. Beast. You don't have to be, like, all fashion, you know, like, let your personality shine. Let your expertise shine. And there is an audience that will appreciate that. We have to take one final ad break, but we'll be back with more after this. Tax season is one of the only times all year when most people actually look at their full financial picture,

including income, spending, savings, investments, the whole thing. And if you're like most folks, it can be a little eye-opening. That's why I like Monarch. It helps you see exactly where your money is going, and more importantly, where your taxed refund can make the biggest impact. Because the goal isn't just to look backward, it's to actually make progress. Simplify your finances with Monarch. Monarch is the all-in-one personal finance tool designed to make your life easier. It brings your entire financial life, including budgeting, accounts and investments, net worth, and future planning together in one dashboard on your phone or your laptop.

Feel aware and in control of your finances this tax season and get 50% off your Monarch subscription with the code Pock. What I personally like is that Monarch keeps you focused on achieving, not just tracking. You can see your budgets, debt payoff, savings goals, and net worth all in one place. So every decision actually moves the needle. Achieve your financial goals for good with Monarch, the all-in-one tool that makes money management simple. Use the code pockets at monarch.com for half off your first year. That's 50% off at monarch.com code pockets. You just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday.

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Thanks for sticking with us. Eight billion people on Earth, I think, and probably most of those having access to the internet. Yeah, there's someone for everyone. You could probably have the most ridiculous channel in the world. You could have a thing about porcupines and purple porcupines. There's an audience for that, yeah. So I'm kind of curious, before you left work,

did you have any ideas or thoughts of what life, post, and I want to say, I don't know, even though if retired is the right word, because and I actually hate the word retired, it's stupid. No one, if you look it up, it means to cease work. No one should cease work because work is where all our happiness and purpose and meaning comes from. We just have to do the right job of defining the work we want to do. So I'm not going to say retired.

What I'm going to say is life post formal job. Did you have ideas in your head of what life would be like and has it been what you expected or different? And if so, how? Yeah, I think for me, and I think for. a lot of people, it comes down to control, right? Like being able to control your life more. I think that was the biggest thing I realized I was craving was I had interest that I wanted

to explore at work. But then the constraints, the job description of the work kind of kept me in this box. There's things I want to learn, things I want to explore, things I want to grow. But it's, I'm only going to grow into the limit in which my job, you know, description allows me to. I think one of the exercise I actually did was before I left was if I could kind of envision what my ideal day, ideal week would look like, I kind of like mapped it out. And I think that really helped.

I was kind of like, okay, like I would be in full control of like when I drop the kits off, I get to work from this time to this time. I get to go work at whatever time I want to. I get to pick up the kids so we can go have dinner. Like I think I mapped that out and that became kind of like my, man, if I could do that, that would be amazing. Because to your point, Carl, like, I think work is very important. I think being productive, adding value.

creating something, being growing, I think it's such an essential component. Like I think for me personally, like, if I didn't have the YouTube channel where I have the ability to do cognitive work where I'm looking at a lot of data, synthesizing it, and then packaging it, and then sharing it to the world, I'm hoping that is helpful to the world. Like, I don't know, I feel like there would be this gap in my life, this, like, vacancy. So I like the idea that I have full control over my life. So yeah, I mean, I think that was one of the biggest, biggest benefit. It wasn't like aversion to work.

It was more like I want to control my life more. I want to control what I'm working on more. I want to pursue my interests and desires. Like if I want to read about this article, like I want to go deep into this. Like I don't want to, you know, go through the routine of having to, you know, write reports that no one's going to read or, you know, synthesize data that no one really cares about. That didn't really, like, excite me that much. So I think that was the biggest thing was the ability to have control over my life. Yeah, I think that's so important. And one thought I frequently had is, I'll turn it back on myself for a second. I actually liked what I did.

I loved writing code. I liked the thoughtful aspect of it yourself and these puzzles. And I thought that was great. But then all the other stuff that goes along with it, you don't have that many vacation weeks you have to work with. And for difficult people, you have to be there. You might have to be at a location, you might have to endure a commute, you're going to be there for a certain number of hours, you might have to start at a certain time, and wear certain clothes, it's all that stuff that goes around the job that, but I think a lot of us probably do like our core working if we could do it on our own terms, which isn't really realistic, but it's an interesting thought exercise, if nothing else. So it goes back to exactly what you said, having control

and having the autonomy. We're all still doing work. We're just doing it on our own terms. with our own rules. Yeah. And I feel like I would say if I'm comparing how much I'm working and the intensity, I feel like I'm working

way more than I did before in my corporate job. And I'm like, I think the intensity that I have, I feel like is a lot more, but it's self-motivated and self-driven. So then I'm like,

I want to work on this and then this is really interesting to me. But I feel like the amount in which I'm growing is at so much faster pace than when I was in my corporate job. do you, how many hours do you spend working now versus when you were working in your corporate job?

So, I mean, I think a typical, you know, like, I mean, 40 hours a week was the, in my previous job. I mean, but then the actual, actual work. So I think this is the other thing I realized after kind of moving up the corporate ladder was, I was spending less time on the work itself and I think I was spending more time on the politics. So then this is a joke around financial planning. like financial forecasting, it wasn't, the accuracy of the forecast didn't, wasn't as important as did everyone feel good about the numbers that were forecasting and projecting. So then I would spend more meetings before the final presentation, meeting with all the

stakeholders, getting, making them feel like they got their inputs in, they're all feel good so that by the time we get to that final meeting, it's not contentious that everyone's like, oh, yeah, the forecast looks good. Whether it's accurate, no one cares. Then next quarter, you know, next board meeting. So I think that's what we're going to be. So I think that's that that was the other frustration I was feeling was like the amount of time that we spent on trying to nail in these numbers wasn't as much. Maybe some people enjoy the politics side of it. I mean, I personally, I think that was also what was getting to me after a little while was I felt like I was massaging egos more than actually like digging into the analysis.

So that's one of the things I kind of really enjoy about the current YouTube job that I have in a way It's like I get paid to like just read books and articles all day and then like synthesize like I get to delve into what I'm interested in And then like be able to in a way like I feel like every YouTube video I make is kind of like a Like a term paper that I'm writing and then so then like I get to produce the the content I like And then I get to really like spend my energy on the things that I want to focus on. So I think that's that's been the real like Satisfaction that I've been I've been able to really enjoy with with my new job. Yeah. In terms of In terms of annual spending, how much income is your YouTube channel generating? It's a little flux right now because we're on the road.

So I'm talking to you guys from Bali, Indonesia. So it's hard to say. I would say it ranges from like low end to maybe like 70,000 to maybe high in 120,000. Like that's kind of like the baseline expenses for family of four. In Europe, it was costing probably a little bit more like 120,000, 150,000 maybe even at times. And then here in Bali, Indonesia is like maybe half of that. And then, yeah, YouTube channel, I would say, like, my first year, top line revenue, I think it was, so I would say the numbers.

The first year, I got zero. Like, I think I made $0. Second year, I made like $16,000. That was like a breakthrough year. I was like, oh, I'm making money online. This is crazy. Look at how rich you are. I know.

And then third year, I think I was maybe $100 something thousand, a little bit over. I think right now it's around like between $250,000,000. Yeah. Okay, so it's covering your expenses. Yes, yes, yeah. Even if you decide to travel around Europe. It does. Thankfully, yeah, it does.

And then, you know, I think one of the benefits of traveling right now full time is that we get to have a little more, a little bit more flexibility on if the cost seems a little too high in one place. We can travel to a different place. And then do you touch your investments, your retirement investments or your FI? money or do you just live off of the YouTube stuff? Yeah, thankfully we haven't had to. I mean, that was one of the levers that we had in our kind of a, in our sequence of like levers that we had to pull. But thankfully like that, we didn't have to pull that. So we were able to the first couple of years, um, my wife, she actually, she was, she was a former nurse. So she went part time. And then

that was enough to kind of cover the first year and then plus our savings. And then we were to stretch it out to the second year. So thankfully it's just kind of like, Our cash position, all of that kind of worked out for the transition, where my revenue started to generate enough income to cover our expenses. Are you still saving for retirement? Or are you, have you kind of stopped that? Yeah. I mean, so I have a solo 401K. We still have our, I have an HSA because I have a deductible healthcare plan.

We still have a Roth IRA. So yeah, I try to put away, I wouldn't say I'm like maxing it. I mean, the first three or two, three years, we weren't maxing it out. out, but I think I'm trying to put in as much as I can based upon the sequence of what's most optimal. So yes, yeah. The desire is I can put away more down the line because I think the other part of, you know, the FI is, I think it's, you know, like the life, as long as you maintain your lifestyle

expenses, you know, as long as you manage your lifestyle expenses, I mean, you're going to have extra income to be able to put away. So, yeah, the desire, the goal, we've been putting away and the desires to put more away down the line. I think you've done a really good job, building a great life. And I don't see many people who fail and fie. I have seen a couple who have gone back to their jobs because they just can't figure out anything to do with themselves.

And I think that's kind of sad. I think there's a lack of imagination there. But you, on the other hand, you've built a really cool life. As we're talking, you're on the other side of the world, showing your kids, you're doing the world school and you're giving them awesome experiences. So you've really built something cool. What advice would you give someone who's about to reach financial dependence, but might be nervous or apprehensive about leaving work? Yeah.

So I think there's two parts to, I see when people think about transitioning. I think there's a financial part. And I feel like with most people who are interested in the financial independent space or FI space, I feel like that becomes a less, less, I don't say important, but like a, like a, determinant. So I feel like, yeah, like you should look at your finances to make sure that what are, what are the levers that you can pull in order to design a lifestyle that, could imagine your future differently.

I think the second part is more of the identity and the emotion part. I think I spend more of my time doing that because if you asked me like five years before I left my day job is like what you, like I had this identity built for myself. I went to business school

on this pathway. When someone asked me, he's like, what do you do? That's the first question we asked each other. I'm a finance director. I want to be, I want to move up and I want to become a CFO one day. That's kind of like my aspiration.

and you find satisfaction in that, you find a sense of purpose in that. And for me to be able to be like, okay, like, what do you do now? And then first couple of years after I left my day job, that was hard emotionally, I think, because people would ask, it's like, what do you do? It's like, oh, I don't know, I'm just like a stay home dad. Or like, I was coaching my son's soccer team. It was like, oh, you know, I coach my son's soccer team here and there. But then I didn't, like, I was still struggling with that identity.

But I feel like you. I would encourage people to be okay with that struggle because that is part of the process of reinventing and redefining ourselves. That we're not defined by the one identity of our career. You will live multiple lives, especially in today's world, opportunities are abound and you don't know what you don't know. So I think it's okay to struggle. I would say, like for me, it was the biggest thing was like just giving myself the permission

to be like, okay, if I'm not this, then what am I? I don't know, but let me try. I just, we don't know what else is out there, you know? So then I think that's the other part is the last three to four years after I left my day job is being more comfortable without that prior corporate identity and then kind of redefining myself. You know, I call myself a financial YouTuber now, but five years from now, I'll probably be something else. And that's okay.

And that's part of life, you know, and that thing we should get comfortable with that. And I think the finances, the financial independence, the money is like the superpower you have that enables you to do those things, to take chances in life that most other people would just dream about, you know? Tay, I want to thank you for your time today. This was so much fun. Let's remind people where they can find you and the financial tortoise online. Yeah, so I have a YouTube channel. You can find me if you just Google Financial Tortoise. So I try to post right now I'm down to one video week. That's the tempo that I'm maintaining. So you can see my videos there.

I also I just started Instagram page So if you want to see some of my personal travels So I'm not doing any algorithm There is more Just posting family pictures

Of us in Bali So if you want to see some of that You can go to my Instagram Which is just Instagram Slash Financial Tortoise But yeah I mean my main platform Is a YouTube channel

And then you know If you want to learn about Some you know Pretty boring Index Fund strategies On how to build well slowly You can find me there Awesome. Tay, thank you again for your time. This was a lot of fun. And if you like this video,

please click the thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe to this channel for more inspiring fire videos just like Tate's. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Life After Fire. And with it, Mindy and I say goodbye.