In today's episode, you'll hear from Lisa who writes over at Mad Money Monster.

She started off life poor, had a bad first relationship, then discovered Financial Independence.

Lisa was in her 30s and went in full force cutting out all her expenses.

It turned out to be too harsh and she shifted her mindset to FI/OR.

This is Financial Independence / Optional Retirement and she breaks that down for us.

Listen, learn, and let us know what you think.

Episode Summary

She grew up poor so she was always fascinated with money

Once she had her kid she really knew finances were important

Then she meets her current husband and they start to close on their big dream home

Lisa talks about how the home was way out of their price range

Luckily the inspector found black mold in the house

This meant the deal fell through and they avoided huge debt

Lisa was in her mid-30s in 2015 when all this happened

Growing up Poor

Then Lisa talks about her upbringing in a 400 sq ft trailer

She does note that it was in a great school district

Most of her classmates lived in big nice houses

Neither of her parents graduated high school

Justin and Lisa talk about how to fit in when you don't have money

One of the big things was spending a little to get name brand clothes

Since they lived in such a small house their family was doing ok

They weren't living on super thin margins but they weren't saving anything

FI Journey

Lisa already had her undergrad, masters, and career started before finding financial independence

She had been saving for retirement since day one but no extreme focus

Lisa steps back in her story to cover a relationship that fell apart earlier in life

She ended up leaving their house with nothing

Lisa actually owned a home that she rented to her parents but didn't want to stay there

So she ended up renting another apartment

Then we step back to what life looked like when she really discovered Financial Independence

The day she discovers it, she goes into work and maxes out her 401k contribution

Then they started cutting everything

No weekly pizza or coffee dates, nothing was off-limits

FI/OR - Financial Independence Optional Retirement

Lisa goes over the 5 big points of this idea of FI/OR

Pressure is off - you don't have to be extreme and retire super early for no reason

Makes work more fun - FIRE made work seem daunting, focusing less on it made work fun

Scale back / Stop Side Hustles - these are just second jobs and it can grind you down

Gives You Options - now you can focus a little more on the things you love vs rapid spending

Lisa's original goal was to stop working in 2021 and just do nothing

Then she started thinking about kid's college/wedding, vacations, mom's care

Now Lisa is rethinking her timeline and moved it to 2025-2030

She and her husband currently have blogs and rental properties

She also admits she could never just retire and do nothing

Key Takeaways

No money? Spend it anyway: Lisa talks about how important having nice clothes was for her self esteem growing up poor

It's ok to slow down: Obviously Lisa has pivoted and changed her plans and she sounds so much happier with optional retirement.

Pick a Partner: We discuss how being cheap is destructive to relationships and the environment

Call to Action

Slow down a little, spend some time and money on something you love and avoid deprivation.

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