April 07, 2020

From FatFIRE to LeanFIRE in a Month | Robert from Stop Ironing Shirts

51 minutes

Today’s episode features Robert from Stop Ironing Shirts.

Robert worked his way up the sales career path.

Then in 2019, he retired with over 28x his annual expenses.

Fast forward to today and he saw that shrink to 18x his expenses.

People often always wonder what it would be like if they retired just before a crash.

Now you have the opportunity to see how that looks first hand.

Listen, learn, and let us know what you think about Robert’s wild ride.

Episode Summary

Robert’s Journey to FI

Robert didn’t have much money growing up

He started noticing the people around him who did

Then he tried to reverse engineer how they got there

He contrasts how his grandparents had a structured career path and his parents didn’t

His dad did end up in sales which is where Robert first found the career path

Robert Finds His Career

He graduated high school in 2000

Robert thought he’d go into computer programming

That quickly changed when he hated programming

Then he got a department store job celling cell phones

This made him realize sales was for him

Robert goes over how sales have no politics or ambiguity in pay

It also means that you can make as much as you can perform

Robert Experiences His First Crash

Robert talks about his experience with the 2008 crash

He talks about how his 401k was less than his contributions even with company match

Then he talks about how you just have to keep plugging away when it’s dropping

Your earnings in a savings account simply can’t keep up with inflation

Robert Discovers FI

He talks about the life decisions he made once he discovered the FI movement in 2013

The canceled fancy hotels and tried to do some of their own home renovations

Some of those changes didn’t pan out but the overall path was clear for them

They looked and felt like they could retire around 5 years from that moment

In 2015 he had a good job opportunity and it locked him into three more years

The timing worked out pretty well but pulling the trigger was still scary

Crash Take 2

Robert now talks us through what life has been like during this latest crash

He went from Fat FIRE to Lean Fire in one month

Robert had also taken on a little side gig but was let go because of the turndown

He says at this point you just have to give up control

By this he means, just stay the course and don’t do anything rash

Robert also gives us insight into which individual stocks may or may not be favorable as we come out of this crash

Especially focusing on companies that are getting bailouts which hinder investors

And rest easy, Robert says he’s nowhere near considering full-time work

Key Takeaways

Sell Your Salary: Robert walks us through the high earning potential that sales brings

Trust the Process: Losing 10x your annual expenses in a month can be disturbing but Robert isn’t giving up on the process

Call to Action

Research some companies you’re interested in, you don’t have to make any individual stock purchases but it can be a fun exercise to vet companies that you may be interested in.

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Robert’s Information

Robert’s Website: Stop Ironing Shirts

Twitter: @StIroningShirts

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By Cody Berman and Justin Taylor

4.8

296296 ratings