Financial Independence & Travel: From FIRE to Coasting
It’s impossible to talk about travel without talking about money.
Travel can be expensive, and it’s often a luxury, no matter how much it costs.
At some point I realized I wasn’t willing to live without it, and everything suffered when I didn’t make space for it. I promised myself I’d travel at least once a month. -That was three years ago.
Since then, I’ve been all over the country - for nature, concerts, and just a change of scenery. There was always something to make the trip memorable and exciting. These are some of my favorite memories over the past years.
While many of these were low key holidays, I was still asked constantly how I could afford this. And frankly, I did it without guilt: still saving and investing heavily for my retirement. I did this by following a financial independence movement called FI/RE.
For those not familiar with the FI/RE movement, you can catch up, here.
Financial independence to roam!
Related: Tips for Traveling with Anxiety and Depression
Managing my finances has empowered all my travel because I know I’m not jeopardizing my future by skipping over savings. I’m sharing my story because I find that every real story keeps me motivated, and I want to destroy the myth that you have to be rich or reckless with your future to travel!
About five years ago, after a string of disappointing - and sometimes nasty - clients, I knew I had to get out of the rat race. I couldn’t imagine doing what I was doing for 10 more years, let alone the 40 more that most people endure until retiring “early” around age 60.
As I began to research, a clear picture began to emerge: financial independence and early retirement: the ability to live off the interest of investments alone - no additional income needed. The idea was to basically take what most people spent their lives doing (saving for retirement) and condense it into a fraction of that amount of time through aggressive saving and investing.
Related: What is Slow Travel?
There are many paths to independence, but for the first ~3 years I followed a strict early retirement plan, acting like a miser in all areas of my life besides travel - saving as much money as possible. I was inspired by blogger Jacob Fisker, though I could never achieve his level of frugality.
During the third year, I realized I had to change. Living with chosen scarcity was grating to the nerves no matter how much leeway I gave myself with travel. Getting in touch with community validated my feelings with hundreds of stories of burnout, and I knew I had to make my plans work for me.
I decided to shift to a more reasonable iteration for my lifestyle: CoastFIRE. A plan focused on achieving a specific savings and investment amount; after which you only need income to cover living expenses to be able to retire completely at your chosen age.
I’m leaving some more complex financial calculations out, but if any of these idea intrigue you, I encourage you do to research online. There are hundreds of articles, podcasts, (audio) books, and more on the subject.
Related: 2020 Black Travel Buys
Regardless of which FIRE path I was pursuing, these were my key steps over the last ~5 years to traveling without jeopardizing my future:
track all income and spending on a monthly basis
save up 6-12 month emergency fund
max out 401(k), HSA, IRA, etc. government limits every year
save 30-50% of my income after automatic contributions to the above
Shifting from a FIRE to CoastFIRE plan earlier this year allowed me to quit my terrible job during the pandemic to work part time, focus on my mental health, and travel safely (more on this to come). Regardless of what path you decide to follow, it’ll take effort to wrangle your finances to make travel and adventure a sustainable part of your life.
Here are some of the beginner-friendly resources I’ve found on the topic: