Joney Talks!

Will you take the slow or the fast lane?

In today´s episode, we will have a double interview where I will speak with my friends Jessica from the Fioneers and with Ms. Purple from A Purple Life. They are both taking different approaches to Financial Independence and we will explore how they are working towards reaching their goals and see which way could be more fitting for you.

Ms. Purple is taking the more aggressive route by saving up to 80% of her take-home pay, increasing her income, has relocated to a cheaper city and has cut costs drastically. This will allow her to retire at the young age of 30 (!).

Jessica from the Fioneers has started her journey already in her early 30s but she is taking a different approach by adjusting her lifestyle and even switched to take a part-time job instead of making as much income as possible now to retire faster. She aims at retiring in her early 50s but focuses on living her best life today and adjusting her lifestyle along the way.

After listening to the episode you will see that both guests embrace similar values but that they are just taking different paths.

Which path to FI would you choose? The fast way or the slow way?

Listen here.

…or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

This episode is for you if you are curious about reaching FI in general, and want to hear real-life stories from people achieving it in different ways.

Here are my quick takeaways from this episode

• There are several ways to reach FI.
• Taking the slow FI approach will allow you to make decisions to make your life. better and to take hold of financial freedom along the way to FI.
• Reducing your costs drastically such as not owning a home and not owning a car. will help you keep expenses low and hence reduce your “FI number”.
• Your FI number is 25 times your yearly expenses (or 300 times your monthly. expenses). So if your monthly expenses are 1500 EUR, your FI number is 450 000 EUR.
• The faster you want to reach FI, the more aggressive you will have to be with your savings (Purple is saving 79% of her after-tax income and Jessica´s are around 50%).
• This was a surprise to me but apparently, when you reduce your work-time you will reduce your expenses as well.
• Jessica and her husband bought a condo in Boston and in the end, they are saving costs vs. if they would be renting, so it can make sense to buy your home when pursuing FI.
• The people around you are usually supportive of your lifestyle change but they may not get it :). As Jessica wrote in her article on busyness (which to me applies in Europe as well), our lives revolve around our careers/ jobs and people may not understand if you intend to get less “busy”.
• You do not need to be busy all the time, Jessica prefers to use her mental energy on the things she cares about. Do not do a lot of activities because you feel you should do instead of wanting to do them. Be minimalistic with your time and redefine priorities.
• Your path to Financial Independence does not need to mean deprivation, it is all about finding creative ways to spend less while still enjoying life.
• Personal finance is personal, find what works for you.
• From Purple: Analyze your spending and make sure all the things you buy bring you happiness and if they do not leave them out (you can re-adjust later). Take the time to go through that analysis. Do all you can to live an awesome life now and later. Do not wait to be happy now!
• From Jessica: Make sure you cover your expenses with your income. If that is not the case, look at what can you do to either increase your income and/or reduce your expenses. Once you can cover your expenses: Take a look at what you can do to improve your life today. Run the numbers, figure what you want out of life and figure out how to pursue that now (this could also mean slowing your path to FI even further).

Who are the Fioneers?

Jessica is the co-founder of The Fioneers, a personal finance blog focused on financial
independence. She currently lives in the United States. When not writing for her blog, she works part-time in human resources for a non-profit organization. Jessica is the creator of the Slow FI concept. Instead of retiring early, she wants to utilize the financial freedom she gains to live a happier and more fulfilling life now. She also hopes to one day put her corporate HR experience into practice doing career discovery and salary negotiation coaching. You can contact her through her website, on Twitter or Instagram (@TheFioneers), or join her private “Slow FI Enthusiasts” Facebook Group.

Who is Ms. Purple?

A Purple Life recently turned 30, lives in Seattle, works in marketing and has written about her journey to financial independence over the last 5 years at APurpleLife.com. She is striving to retire from her full-time job in 2020 to eat her way across the world. She has been able to accelerate this goal by increasing her income through job-hopping and decreasing her spending with domestic geo-arbitrage. You can connect with her through her contact page or via Twitter.

RESOURCES 

• Article on Purple’s 7000 $ Plane Ticket : I Don’t Regret Spending $7,000 On A Plane Ticket
• Article on Busyness by Jessica: Busyness is not a virtue
• Instagram: The Fioneers and A Purple Life
• Favorite books:  Your Money or Your Life and Designing Your Life

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