December 11, 2024

Financial Freedom in 3 Years (Cody’s FI Journey Explained)

22 minutes

Someone recently asked me: “How did you reach FI?”

I didn’t have a great answer for them that didn’t take 30+ minutes to explain.

So, I recorded a podcast episode outlining my entire FI Journey – all the numbers, all the income streams, all the expenses, year over year.

Below are the notes I created to guide the episode.

2016

Read the 4-Hour Workweek

Started my first real business, Arsenal Discs

Learned how to build a website, marketing, sales, networking, negotiations, pricing, product design… all the HARD way

2017

Discovered FI through Mr. Money Mustache

Started listening to podcasts like ChooseFI and Afford Anything

Read books like Simple Path to Wealth and Your Money or Your Life

Learned about side hustles, taxes, the 4% rule, etc.

Despite all this, didn’t really have any money since I was paying for college

Locked in job for July 2018, plan was to work 7-10 years to hit FI

2018

Went to CampFI in January and FI became “real”

Lived in Australia with lots of time on my hands and started side hustling after being unable to find a regular job

Blog launched in April 2018 to document my journey

Started working as a commercial RE lender in July 2018 once I returned to the U.S.

All-in comp was $80-85k

Knowing that FI existed was a blessing and a curse

Launched podcast in August 2018 (nothing else like it)

FinCon 2018 (CampFI on steroids) – met Grant and others

By the end of that year, I had tried a dozen new side hustles (blogging, podcasting, freelance writing, building websites, editing podcasts, affiliate marketing, digital products, etc)

Income: $44,000, Net worth: $75,000, Stock market: -6.24%

2019

Quit my corporate job on January 31, 2019 with $30,000+ saved

Side hustles were bringing in $1,200 per month, but my expenses were the same ($450 rent, paid off car, super frugal)

Financial Freedom book tour March-May of 2019

Teamed up with Julie to launch Gold City Ventures in June 2019

So many people asking for 1-on-1, wanted to teach at scale

Most of my time after that was spent working on Gold City Ventures

Practicing my craft to teach better

Managing a community, recording & packaging content, hiring people

Originally launched E-Printables, a blogging course, and a freelancing course

LOTs of learning lessons from this business

Income: $96,000, Net worth: $179,000, Stock market: 28.88%

2020

Went all-in on digital products (dropped blogging and freelancing from GCV)

Etsy shop, Shopify store, templates, etc.

Continued to live extremely frugally (spending less than $25,000/year)

Bought 3-unit house hack in September 2020

$235,000, we lived in the basement, rent $2,200, expenses $1,700

Bought duplex in November 2020

$170,000, rent $2,250, expenses $1,350

Bought 3-unit house hack in December 2020

$315,000, we moved to 1BR/1BA, rent $2,600, expenses $2,100

First house hack jumped to $3,000 in rent once we moved out

Income: $198,000, Net worth: $392,000, Stock market: 16.26%

2021

Started freelancing for Motley Fool (who acquired MillennialMoney.com)

Extra $10K/month, SEO, “thinking big”, awesome team

Bought triplex in May 2021

$245,000, rent $2,900, expenses $1,900

~$200,000 in down payments came from digital product income

Gold City Ventures continues to grow rapidly

Income: $403,000, Net worth: $1,035,000, Stock market: 26.89%

Financial Freedom!

Had RE making $3,000+ in cash flow, $500,000+ invested in the stock market

In addition to the semi-passive $20,000+ per month I was earning with digital products

Since I reached financial independence, I have continued to work on my main business, Gold City Ventures and invest 90%+ of my income into index funds and real estate.

Links from the Episode

CodyDBerman.com (previously FlytoFi)

The FI Show (first episode)

Gold City Ventures

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By Cody Berman and Justin Taylor

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