Category Archives: Self-Made Millionaires

Comics and Comic Book Reviews, Financial Independence, Retirement, Self-Made Millionaires

What would you do with $1 million dollars in your 401k?

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“Thomas Edison’s last words were “It’s very beautiful over there“. I don’t know where there is, but I believe it’s somewhere, and I hope it’s beautiful.”
― John Green, Looking for Alaska

Happy Saturday! It’s the last day of May 2025. As I write this, I am closing in on $500,000 in investments.

It made me take pause and reflect on the journey I had been on to get to that number.

The sleepless nights wondering how I was going to pay the bills and how I would afford to pay for retirement was over. Even with a return of investment of less than the stock market average of 10 percent over the last 30 years, I would still hit the $1 million nest egg milestone before I retire. So it made me think, what would I do with $1 million dollars of investments?

With that type of money, if you wanted to, you could buy a house with cash depending on where you want to live. This includes places inside and outside of the United States.

The cheapest places to buy a house in the U.S. include states like Iowa, West Virginia, and Mississippi, as well as cities like Scranton, PA, Weirton, WV, and El Paso, TX. This year, West Virginia has the cheapest homes in the country, with an average house price of $146,578. Several countries also offer affordable options for buying a house outside the US, including Colombia, The Philippines, Italy, Nicaragua, and Mexico.

I even heard Italy was letting people buy homes for $1! That’s a pretty sweet deal! Bravo, Italy. It makes me want to pack my bags and say ciao bella!

Even if staying in the U.S. is what you want, you do have options on where you live and what you do in retirement.

That is enough scratch to start a business, travel the world, start a charitable foundation for college scholarships or to help donate to meals on wheels. The possibilities are almost endless.

I may not be able to give away billions, but I sure could start a college scholarship fund for underprivileged kids with $10,000 starting capital for $500 each one towards books or other education related expenses. Maybe I could do something for medical students and start a scholarship that pays for med school application fees or supplies.

The point is that you have options. Many options. Especially, if you have a paid off home and no debt.

I remember Dave Ramsey saying that most people acquired their first million by consistently investing in their 401k’s and paying off their primary residence. In addition, the people they did a study on became millionaires from five professions: teaching, law, management, accountant, and engineering. So if your in one of those five fields, then you got a real good shot kid of being a becoming a millionaire.

Just taking stock of myself, I did pay off the personal and auto loans. Then redirected that money to my savings and investments. The auto loan was $450 and the personal loan was $333. The goal is to get to a savings rate of 50 percent . I then want to direct my attention to paying off my mortgage and having no home payment. That allows me to be in the driver’s seat of my future time after punching the clock.

So what would I do with all that free time and one million dollar nest egg? I think I will start a second career. What would I do if money was no object. Maybe voiceover acting. I was told once I had a great voice for radio! I was also once a background actor for a Hollywood movie. I could expand my creative pursuits outside of blogging.

I could teach personal finance and home economics at the local library.

I could backpack through Europe.

To be specific, I could buy a first-class ticket to London, stay at the Ritz Carlton or Savoy and have high tea while also taking in the sites of places in the Ian Fleming novels and have my martini shaken not stirred. I could visit the home towns of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens.

Maybe I will go to visit the fictional town of Stars Hollow from the show Gilmore Girls.

In the book “The Count of Monte Cristo,” Edmond Dantès (the Count of Monte Cristo) lives in several locations. He lives in Rome and Auteuil, outside of Paris. The author of the book, Alexandre Dumas, also built a mansion called Château de Monte-Cristo in the French countryside, which was a real place. Maybe, I’ll go for a looksee.

“What is the point of being alive if you don’t at least try to do something remarkable?”
― John Green, An Abundance of Katherines

The point is to have goals and have some fun. Go on adventures. Dream big. Hard work should be rewarded. It can take decades to build a million-dollar portfolio. Live a little. The most successful retirements are the ones of which people retire to something.

To quote the author John Green, “The way I figure it, everyone gets a miracle. Like, I will probably never be struck by lightening, or win a Nobel Prize, or become the dictator of a small nation in the Pacific Islands.” However, I can fly to Paris on a Monday, have high tea in London on Wednesday, and stay at the Palace in New York City like Serena van der Woodsen in Gossip Girl.

You can check out my post on the show called Money Advice from Gossip Girl.

My miracle may not have been to live next door to Margo Roth Spiegelman like the protagonist in the book Paper Towns in which the quote is borrowed from, but I still can create my own miracle. The gift of free time and financial freedom. A life that is well-lived and leisure that is earned.

So with all that said, the question you are to ask yourself, “what would you do with a million in retirement?”

Would you sail around the world?

Would you visit the Louvre in Paris, see the pyramids in Egypt?

Or maybe you would try out your Spanish language skills you learned on Babbel in Spain or Barcelona?

Or would you visit the beaches in Rio?

As for me, maybe I will visit all the places The Chipmunks went to see in the 1987 film The Chipmunk Adventure.

I could buy a Porsche 911 with cash.

I could rent out a beach house on the California coast.

I could stay at the same hotel as James Bond in Montenegro.

I could buy a season ticket to see the Yankees or the Knicks play.

I could buy a ticket to ComicCon in San Diego and go meet my favorite actors from the Marvel Comics films. (Just FYI…I got to meet Orlando Bloom aka Legolas from Lord of the Rings at a comic convention and he was an absolute gentleman!)

I could buy a front row ticket to a concert.

I could fly in to whatever city they decide to visit to get my replica Book of Shadows signed by the cast of Charmed!

Yes, I’m a comic nerd, sue me.

I even have a Betty and Veronica fridge magnet. Yes, from the Archie Comics. Maybe I’ll have a lost weekend like they did on Riverdale and dance the nite away at a club in Vegas. I might even steal Veronica Lodge’s dance moves!

I once flew in to ATL for a day just to go to Six Flags over Georgia!

I have never swam with the dolphins or run with the bulls. However, I did get to meet the iconic actor Val Kilmer and got to be in a Hollywood movie as an extra! Both were pretty cool.

I once even decided on a whim to take the train to New York on a weekday afternoon so I could sip cocktails at the Plaza Hotel.

Just know whatever it is, it will be epic!

About The Author

Miriam started Greenbacks Magnet in 2016 to keep a scorecard of her goal of $1M in investable assets. Armed with a Master in Management (MiM) and a calculator, she teaches readers how to achieve financial independence while also helping them learn how to smell the roses along the way. The palpable response she got from sharing her personal finance goal in a public speaking course at Georgetown University encouraged her to share her story and teach finance on her website. She invests in AI companies as artificial intelligence is the new iPhone of the moment as she likes to invest in companies that are disruptive.

Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Self-Made Millionaires

Her First $400K

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As I write this, the Biden Administration has extended the payment pause on borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan for another 6 months.

Might I offer a suggestion: take that money and put it into a rainy day fund or invest it in an index fund (VTSAX) or individual stocks (The Trillion-Dollar Club such as MSFT or META).

Now that I have offered my savings and investment advice, let’s talk about how I got to my first $400K.

They say the first $100K is the hardest. I remember from years ago a time when Drake tweeted that. Don’t remember? That’s cool. I have a copy of his tweet for you to see below.

Well, my money target was higher since I figured I’d go big or go home.

I made my target $400K.

I totally borrowed that title from Her First 100K blog, but I am sure Tori Dunlap will not mind if I borrow it if it helps motivate people to become financial independent.

Although I have a six-figure compensation package now (salary + benefits), it did not start off that way.

You will not believe some of the jobs I have had on my path to becoming a self-made woman millionaire. Let me share 4 of them with you here.

1. Waitress ($2.65 per hour + tips) – Back when I was still in high school I did a summer job as a teenage waitress at Shoney’s. It wasn’t glamourous, but the tips were pretty good. Some days I could clear $50-$100 bucks a night! That’s some good money to a teenager. And the menu there was huge. There was no way I could remember it all. I mean who do they think I am. Sheldon Cooper. I do not have a photographic memory. However, lucky for me, this restaurant had a buffet so it basically sold itself. I was mostly there to bring drinks and the check. It was physically demanding though as it required you to stand virtually all-day. I did get 50% off any food I wanted and the cooks in the back were great. This is my foundation on what it takes to earn a $1. Like Britney Spears says, “work b*tch!”

2. File Clerk/Loan Analyst ($28,000/year) – I was still working my way through college when I got this job. I answered an ad and went in for an on-the-spot job interview and got the job! Essentially, I helped maintain loan documents and helped manage bank customer accounts at a credit union. This job would set me up for what was to come, which was my foray into lending and finance.

3. Night Auditor ($20 an hour + tips) – This was another job I got from answering an ad on Indeed. They were offering $18 but I negotiated $20. Never underestimate the power of negotiation ladies! And the funny thing is when I actually started doing the job, I did so much work that I really should have been making $25 at least! You have answer phones, check-in guests, keep the hotel lobby clean, manage guest complaints and do point-of-sale transactions for the hotel market by the front desk. Then there was the lounge at the hotel that was a mini nightclub that was open until 2am! We did have a few celebrities come through, but I mostly just stayed at the front desk. And did I mention I worked overnight from 11pm – 7am! However, it was fun overall because I had a great coworker. I even had a guest tip me $100 for calling him a cab. Sweet!

4. Associate Director (over $80,000k+/ year) – After college, I applied for another job in lending. Basically, counseling families on how to navigate the financial minefield that is financial aid. I also completed two Master’s degrees and started this blog on the side while doing my job. This blog is my side hustle and it did start to generate some income eventually. However, when asked by Business Insider for the article they published on me, I declined to go into details.

All these jobs helped put me on the path to where I am today, which is female millionaire.

Every time I earned more, I invested more.

I started with a fistful of dollars and turned a small $5,000 investment in Apple into an investment portfolio over $400,000!

The next leg of the journey is $500,000.

Blogger Interviews, Celebrities and Money, Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Self-Made Millionaires

How this FIRE blogger got featured on Business Insider

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Testing…1, 2, 3. Can you hear me out there? You listening? Good. Ah yes, I remember it like it was yesterday.

One of the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) Bloggers that I had been reading was featured in Forbes. I remember thinking how did he do that. Well, when you go from $0 to $400,000 in seven years that does tend to get people’s attention.

The thing that really stood out to me was that he actually got to $400,000. I just knew if he could get there, then he could get to $1 million.

That blog was called Budgets are Sexy.

I had the pleasure to not only meet J. Money, or J$ for short, in-person just a few years after that article, but also got to interview him on this blog. He’s one of the most coolest and down-to-earth finance dudes you will ever meet.

Over the years, he has given his advice on how he basically went from nothing to something.

He regularly talks about his net worth on his blog and does not shy away from telling you about the highs and the lows of building wealth.

He even did a post on how he lost over $60,000 in the market in one month!

His transparency is why people gravitate towards him. He tells it like it is. He walks it like he talks it.

One of the best pieces of advice he gave me on the road to $1 million was to max out your retirement accounts. All of them. And if you can’t do that, then save as much as you can.

What J$ didn’t know is that his blog lit a spark for me.

If he started with nothing and could go to almost half a million dollars, then I could too.

We like to call J. Money the Godfather of FIRE blogging because he started back when it was just a small niche in 2008. There is even a joke on his site where he is called the Miley Cyrus of Finance! Ha!

All jokes aside, I was paying attention. Budgets are Sexy is the personal finance blog in which it is Greenback’s Magnet yardstick for building wealth. Like Visa, his blog is everywhere my blog wants to be.

Therefore, after reading that Forbes article, I decided at that moment that I wanted to get to $400,000 too!

So I put my head down and went to work. At one point, I was investing 25 percent of my income. I lived off rice and kale. No avocado toast for me. I wanted that sweet taste of freedom.

Every spare dime was put to work in my brokerage account.

This blog is also how I keep myself accountable to reach my financial goals. It didn’t matter if I had holes in my shoes, I kept walking in then until they literally fell apart. Nothing went to waste. I was reading 10 to 20 books on personal finance a year.

I paid off my car $450 payment in 2009. Then my personal loan that was costing me $333 a month. All the hard work and sacrifices paid off when I saw that my balance had grown from $50,000 to $375,000. Then within a few months, I was at over $402,000!

That’s how your girl eventually ending up getting the greenlight to be a story featured on Business Insider.

It also got picked up by some other sites like Yahoo and AOL.com.

I am still increasing my annual contributions every year. I won’t stop until I reach my target: $1 million dollars!

The one crazy thing I noticed in the comments section is that there were many folks saying that $1 million will not be enough to retire.

I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I simply was sharing how I set a goal and was working on reaching it. Man, that really knocked me over. Nevertheless, I recovered quickly. You have to have thick skin once you decide to put your name or work out there.

Unlike George McFly, I can handle rejection. The point of the story was to help and inspire not to hurt and discourage.

I felt like 50 Cent on that interview he recently did on the Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast where he says his first record deal with Shady Aftermath netted him $1 million and Dame Dash says that ain’t no money. Huh? When you go from nothing to $1 million, you bet your a$$ that is a sh*t ton of money.

However, I digress. I just put my head down and went back to work.

No wonder people practice stealth wealth! Regardless of all the naysayers, I am still working toward my goal. Next stop on the million-dollar tour is $500,000. After that, it is $750,000. And of course, $1 million.

If being on Business Insider taught me anything, it’s not to let anything or anyone trip you up on the road to your dreams. It’s great to be acknowledged and to talk about your goals, but it’s even better to actually live out your dreams.

Self-Made Millionaires, Wealth

How Deadpool & Wolverine actors inspired me to invest

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Photo Credit: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

As I write this, Deadpool & Wolverine just hit theaters mere days ago on July 26, 2024. It destroyed the weekend box office and broke records with an eye-popping $441 million-dollar opening weekend. That is just massive!

Not too surprising though for a movie that had the backing of one of the biggest movie and production companies in the world, Disney Studios and Marvel Productions. It was reported that Disney dropped $200 million as the budget and another $100 million for marketing.

The movie even went as far as to market to the first 100 ticket holders to receive the movie poster pendant as a way to sell tickets.

Genius in my POV!

What I am here to talk to you about today is what I learned from both actors, not in front of the camera, but what they do on their off time. Namely, investing.

Long before Ryan Reynolds went from party pimp in 2002’s Van Wilder to merc with a mouth in 2016’s Deadpool, he started putting his money to work investing in startups and these companies can be disruptive. The biggest by far was in Mint Mobile.

It was reported that T-Mobile struck a deal with Mint Mobile to purchase it for $1.35 Billion in 2023.

Courtesy of Yahoo! Finance

Reynolds, as a 25% owner, his stake would net him $300 Million. That’s probably more money than he’s made from his entire acting career! And his catalogue is pretty huge as he’s been starring in television and film for 30 years.

His involvement as a celebrity spokesmen caused a huge spike in customer interest and gained the company 12x the customers it had prior. That is more traction and eyeballs gained on them than they got with a $5 Million dollar Super Bowl ad.

He put Mint Mobile on the map and gave them access to a bigger audience just through his 45+ million followers on social media platforms alone.

And Hugh Jackman is no slouch either. Over his decades long career, he had made large paychecks in film, most notably as his Marvel character, Wolverine. He reportedly went from making $500,000 to over $20 Million playing the X-men fan favorite.

However, he did not just let that money sit in the bank. He invested a gobsmacking amount in real estate. Celebrities can actually make more money from endorsements than sheer talent alone. According to publications like the New York Times and New York Post, he is speculated to own approximately $50 Million in real estate in America and Australia.

New York Post: Celebrity Real Estate

He too has endorsed products such as Keurig and for luxury retailer Montblanc.

Although talent has gotten them where they are, their investments keeping working for them long after the camera stops rolling.

Investments don’t need to take a 15-minute smoke break, drink water, go on vacations or sleep. They are working around the clock. Making you money while you sleep.

Learning that is when I put a ton of my focus into investing. I have looked into both entrepreneurial pursuits and being an avid investor. The truth is being an entrepreneur can make you rich, but investing is how you stay rich.

I figured even if any business I ever starts fails, I would still have my investments.

I chose to work on having $1 Million in investable assets so that if I ever choose to walk away from work one day, then I would have the option to.

That’s why I started investing in Google, Apple and more recently AI stocks.

I am closing in on $400,000 in investments. At this rate, the earning are becoming quite considerable and I could hit my target of $1M in less than a decade. If I can get a 10% return on that, I could cross into the multi-millionaire territory in an additional 7 years.

Having $2 Million in investable assets is no small feat.

Since, it’s reported that only 9% of Americans achieve a $1 Million Dollar stock portfolio. You know how many make it to $2-3 Million or more…around 3%.

You would be in the small minority of Americans with a million in investable assets.

One of the tips and tricks I used to build my stock portfolio was to trim 10% of the top of all major purchases and invest the difference in the stock market.

If you budget $3,000 for a European trip, take $300 off the top and invest that in Google or the VTSAX.

Need a new washing machine.

Instead of spending $1,000, trim $100 off the budget and redirect that to your Roth IRA.

Considering that only around 26% of households have saved $100,000 for retirement, means you can definitely aim for this goal and likely reach it. That’s one in four households. Great odds.

However, once you get to $500,000 in retirement savings, this number of households goes down to 9%. You are now in a small minority. Going from a rather large majority of 26% to 9% is the difference of $400,000.

There are now more folks than ever that owe that in mortgages than they have saved for retirement.

I aim to be different. I want the elusive brass ring…to be a millionaire.

I won’t stop until I become part of the double comma club.

It’s a sorority that I have been pledging to become a member of for years.

I figure with enough time, grit and determination I could become that card carrying member. It is an elite club. The barrier to entry remains strict, but not impossible.

You have better odds of getting into this club than you do of being accepted into Harvard with its super low 3.2% acceptance rate.

You can do.

It’s like rapper and actor Master P said; “product outweighs talent.”

@earnyourleisure

When it comes to monetizing your talents, having a product is key 🔑 You can watch the full Assets Over Liabilities interview feat. Master P on Revolt TV’s YouTube Channel. #masterp #talentisoverrated #businesstips

♬ original sound – Earn Your Leisure

For example, Warren Buffet made $700 Million in dividends from his investments in 2022.

He has never made a winning shot in an NBA playoff game or had a hit record.

All that came from earnings off his capital investments.

You just invest your money into companies or products that you can’t live without and watch your money grow taller than Shaq!

Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Retirement, Self-Made Millionaires, Wealth

Coasting to FI: Compounding my way to Coast FIRE and $1 Million

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Reading, Read, Peaceful, Woman, Dusk

“One minute of patience, ten years of peace.”  – Greek Proverb

“Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.” —John Quincy

It was a hot summer day. Same as any other. I was busy working as usual.

I have been working so hard since I was like 5 years old. That was the age that I decided I was going to be rich.

I used to go outside and play on the playground every day. Those were some of the most important days of my life. I learned so much on the playground. The virtue in helping others, sharing, caring, making friends, solving conflicts and exercise.

Nothing came easy. You had to earn every inch when playing sports with other kids whether it was jumping rope or running. You played to win.

I was always pretty good at academics so I put a lot of my energy into that. I figured that could be my path to riches. It turns out I was right.

I was working 8-hour days and studying up to 8 hours a day in college. At one point, just a couple years ago I was reading 25-50 books a year.

I had a hunger for knowledge; especially, personal finance.

Once I learned what compound interest was, I knew I found my road to wealth. I would save and invest money consistently until interest would do the rest for me on my journey to $1 million dollars.

I had been grinding it out so long that sometimes the days blurred and I feel asleep at night from pure exhaustion. Then one day I looked up and realized I had made it to Coast FIRE.

Coast FI refers to saving enough to “coast” to financial independence. This allows participants in this version of FIRE (financial independence, retire early) to take jobs with less stress or pay due to reaching a certain amount of money needed to retire earlier than age 65.

Coast FIRE is a sub-genre of this early retirement movement. This version calls for having enough invested or saved so that without adding another penny of contributions to your retirement portfolio it will still grow to fully support retiring at a traditional retirement age. Your nest egg, simply put, has reached a tipping point so that it will “coast” to the target amount needed for retirement.

People who have successfully achieved their Coast FIRE (like me) still need to work, but they only work to cover current living expenses – not to build up their savings or investments for a future retirement.

The thing about Coasting to FI is that you must first do this before you can get to any of the other versions of complete financial independence; never having to work again – such as Fat FIRE, Lean FIRE, or Barista FIRE. Where compounding does the heavy lifting for you.

FIRE requires you to save up at least 25 times your anticipated annual spending and you have got a 97% or better chance of that money lasting at least thirty years. 

Fat FIRE typically means a budget of $100,000 a year, which requires a retirement savings of $2.5 million.

Lean FIRE typically involves being frugal and living in a lower-cost area, or even other countries with a lower cost of living with a budget of $30,000-$50,000 a year, which can require a retirement savings of a minimum $500,000 to $750,000.  

Barista FIRE is a hybrid between Fat FIRE And Lean FIRE. Barista FIRE is being able to retire before the conventional age of 60+, but taking on a part-time job for supplemental income and potentially health insurance. You will need to have at least $1 million in retirement accounts.

Coast FIRE requires you to save a certain dollar amount that will allow you to coast to FI such as saving $200,00, which will allow you to coast to $1 million in 15 years with a 10% rate of return.

 Coast FIRE formula for determining how large the participant’s nest egg must grow would begin with a regular FIRE number (estimated in the example below at 25 times annual spending of $50,000). In the formula below, note that “Years to grow” is an exponent.

25 x $50,000 / (1 + annual growth rate)Years to grow = Coast FIRE number

Suppose someone estimates they need 30 years to reach their Coast FIRE number and an average annual growth rate over those 30 years of 7%. The calculation would then be:

$1,250,000 / (1 + 0.07)30 years = $164,209

In this example, the Coast FIRE number would be $164,209, which would grow over 30 years (given the above-stated estimates) to the target figure (or regular FIRE number) of $1,250,000.

I like to use the $1,000,000 target for my estimate. The calculation would then be:

$1,000,000 / (1 + 0.07)30 years = $131,367

If you want to retire sooner, then just see what a different target number will do or by shortening the number of years.

For example, $1,000,000 / (1 + 0.07)20 years = $258,419. That means your Coast FIRE number would be $258,419.

Once you reach this dollar amount, you could stop investing in your retirement accounts and reach $1 million in 20 years. The higher the compound interest rate, the quicker you are able to get out of the rat race.

Once I hit $300,000 in cash and investments, I knew that with a 10% rate of return that it could turn into $1 million in 12.5 years.

$1,000,000 / (1 + 0.10)12.5 years = $303,802.

Paying off debt faster and more aggressively plus investing those funds and more could allow folks like me to get to $1 million in less than a decade.

I can now put on my eye mask, kick back and coast to $1 million. If I can do it, then anyone can.

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I started with $0 in retirement savings. I started stashing money into my 401(k) and then opened a Roth IRA to start saving even more.

If you want to coast to FI, then let compound interest do the heavy lifting for you, save $100k because the first $100k is the hardest, and allow it to coast you to $1M in 30 years.

Happy wealth coasting!

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Celebrities and Money, Credit Cards, Financial Freedom, Financial Independence, Investing, Retirement, Saving, Self-Made Millionaires, Wealth

Suze Orman’s FIRE Protection Plan During The COVID-19 Crisis: $5 Million And A 3-Year Emergency Fund

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English: Writer and TV finance expert Suze Orm...
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Here is Suze Orman’s FIRE protection gear: $5 million dollars to retire early. Really? Do tell. Care to elaborate. Absolutely.

It was around late 2018 that I heard talk of Suze Orman’s thoughts on the FIRE movement.

The rumblings in the financial blogsphere was that when Suze was asked her opinion about the FIRE movement on the Paula Pant podcast Afford Anything and she says, “I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.”

Suze told Paula Pant that $2 million isn’t enough for early retirement. At a 4 percent withdrawal rate, that’s $80,000 per year, which she says isn’t enough to protect you “when the floods come.”

“If you only have a few hundred thousand, or a million, or two million dollars, I’m here to tell you … if a catastrophe happens, if something happens, what are you going to do? You are going to burn up alive.”

The “Suze Slapdown” of ’18 was coined. And I thought watching WWE Smackdown was tough. Whew! They ain’t got nothing on Suze when it comes to laying the smackdown on finances.

She made headlines for saying that people who buy a daily latte are “peeing $1 million down the drain as you are drinking that coffee.” On Suze’s watch, spending at Starbucks SBUX is a no-no.

Let’s not drop out of corporate America on a whim and stop working. Get back to work.

Check out the tweet below that 2020 Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders tweeted out last year to see what I mean.

Suze Orman’s the sky is falling attitude about retiring early is not so far-fetched now during the coronavirus.

For anyone who isn’t up to speed on the FIRE acronym, it stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early. I am all for Financial Independence (FI).

This is me. Financial Independence: count me in!

Retire Early: slow down tito!

The focus of FIRE is to retire early by stopping the corporate grind and ending the rat race in your 30s or 40s, and not 55 or 65.

However, I am not yet ready to be put out to pasture. Luckily, other leaders in the FIRE movement gave some clarification and said that FIRE is not about stopping work, but finding your passion and earning passive income streams that keeps the money flowing.

The goal is to live life On. Your. Terms. So, I thought to myself okay. I can live with that.

Saving 25 times your current income and then retiring before age 40 without continuing to make money is risky.

The notion is that you can then afford to live off of your savings by limiting your withdrawals to just 4% of your assets each year.

Meaning if you earn $75,000 a year, then you need to save about $1.9 million before walking away from work. Money that was supposed to last starting from age 65, now has to starting from age 35.

I think what got Suze in an uproar was when an audience member asked her about her plans on FIRE that was posted on MarketWatch.

The millennial had caught the FIRE bug and she was looking to hang it up within two years.

“Well, how much money do you have?” Orman asked. “Two or three million?”

No.

“A million?”

No.

“$250,000?”

Yes, but with some debt.

“Really?” Orman could only shake her head. 

“Don’t talk to me about it. If that’s what you want to do, go ahead. But 40 years from now, I hope you remember everything I’ve said.”— Suze Orman, on retiring in your 20s

According to Suze, “time is the most important ingredient in your financial recipe.”

As financial blogger Mr. Money Mustache put it bluntly: “In the interview, Suze Orman goes on and on about what might go wrong, and how you need an incredible amount of money saved to protect you, just in case. But this thinking is completely backwards – money will not cure your fear, as megamillionaire Suze proves so clearly. Most high-income people are still within just a few paychecks of insolvency, because it is possible to blow almost any paycheck, simply by adding or upgrading more cars, houses, and vacations. Physical health FIRST: Salads and barbells every day, no goddamned excuses.”

Real estate financial expert and FIRE member Coach Carson posted some great advice on Suze’s opinion: “As Paula said after the interview, we should all make a practice of listening deeply to others (especially if you disagree). If you can reserve judgment temporarily, you can always learn something.”

Coach Carson says time not money is the most precious thing we have. The biggest regret is time wasted when people are on their deathbed. People do not wish they worked more or spent more time in that cubicle or corner office.

Very true. Washington Post financial columnist, Michelle Singletary, also weighed in on the interview. She says “let’s also put this debate in perspective. Many people aren’t saving enough to retire at all – early or late.”

I remember when my portfolio hit $100,000. It took half the time to get the next $100,000 and zoom to $200,000. Next stop, $250,000. That’s right a quarter of a million.

Then I was looking to moving on up like The Jeffersons to the tune of $300,000, $400,000, $500,000 and beyond. I only move forwards. I never look backwards. I could still work for another 30 years if I want to. Without putting in another penny, if I let this money ride I could have between $1 million and $2.6 million dollars. And that is if I stop investing. There is no way I am doing that.

I live for today. I live in the moment. I stop and smell the roses. I enjoy the present, but save like I am going to live forever.

Stop worrying about the world ending today. It’s already tomorrow in Australia. – Charles M. Schulz, creator of the Peanuts

I like to plan in advance. I have a plan to create a plan.

“If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters – 204 if you’re in Japan.”― Claire Cook, Seven Year Switch

If I want something, then I go get if. I get off my duff and go make it happen. Don’t complain. Go do something about it. To quote Mindy Kaling, “We are all just a treadmill and six laser hair removal treatments from being Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively.”

Ask for credit when you don’t need it. Credit dries up like tears in a recession. That’s just my two cents. Back in the 2008-09 recession, they cut my credit lines in half. Overnight *poof* half my credit limits were gone. Like a puff of smoke.

https://twitter.com/mjp2520/status/1243680590941097985?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Eembeddedtimeline%7Ctwterm%5Eprofile%3Amjp2520%7Ctwcon%5Etimelinechrome&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.greenbacksmagnet.com%2F%3Fp%3D2455%26preview%3Dtrue

The thing is that work gives us something to do. It lets humans be productive.

If you have $1.5 million at age 65, you have a much shorter retirement to spend on versus at 37.

What really makes the difference is that by age 55-60 many people are empty nesters, own a home, and already own most of their possessions.

You have a lot less things to buy because you have what you need already.

When you are 35, you may still have no kids, are just starting, or have a young family. You have costs that are still rising like inflation.

Empty nesters are not worried about paying for college. Its paid for. That’s in their rear-view. Juniors 529 is spent.

If you are still raising kids, it is likely you will need a decent income and a job. Kids cost…a lot. Most people are still buying homes, cars and having kids well into their 40s these days.

One of the biggest expenses that a job helps subsidize is healthcare.

Financial blogger Financial Samurai puts this into perspective: “Just know that once you get to your target number, you might find that your needs have changed. Life is unpredictable. A job helps you subsidize health care costs that are increasingly becoming a racket IMO, but it would help reduce our $2,380/month health care bill. However, I am grateful for every day.”

You want to retire early. Here is what Suze has to say.

Orman: “It would have to be in the millions . . . You need at least $5 million, $6 million.” (She later says $10 million to account for taxes.)

FIRE proponents fired back at Orman that she has it all wrong.

Really? When a government shutdown causes people to be in soup kitchen lines, then I beg to differ. Here were some of the things I read online during the 35-day government shutdown last year:

  • “I only have $1.06 in my bank account. I don’t know what I am going to do.”
  • “I can’t pay my bills.”
  • “I can’t afford groceries.”
  • “I’m scared I won’t be able to pay my rent or mortgage.”
  • “I can’t miss one paycheck.”

Not even one check? Even I try to keep a minimum of $10,000 in the bank at all times in savings. Just in case sh*t happens. I need that rainy day fund because when it rains it pours. Keeping a 3-6 month rainy day fund is what helps me sleep at night.

Now to be fair, the FIRE movement is about saving and investing your money. The more, the better. If you are practicing FIRE, then, in theory, you should be able to weather any storm.

Meanwhile, Orman isn’t sweating her emergence as somewhat of a villain in the FIRE community.

Now that COVID-19 has swept across the globe, it looks as if Suze may have been on to something when she always says, “hope for the best, but always plan for the worst.”

On one of her most recent podcasts she stated that a lot of her advice on saving that eight-month emergency fund has come to roost. She now thinks you need a 3-year emergency fund.

I have always been more about FI than RE because no matter what happens in this world, I know one thing to be sure; you will always need money in the bank.

Now I’m going to sign off on this post the same way Suze Orman ended her show on CNBC every night, “now you stay safe.”

So until next time…please be safe.