In this episode of the Good Life Guys, we interview Financial Independence blogger Barney Whiter aka The Escape Artist.

Barney has been writing about financial independence, lifestyle optimization, philosophy, and psychology – with great humour and flair – on his blog since 2013.

I (Stephen) discovered Barney’s blog in mid-2018 and devoured the whole thing over a few weeks. I read many sections twice and shared the most inspirational posts with friends and family.

So as a huge fan of Barney’s work it was an honour and very exciting to have him on the Good Life guys podcast.

Stumbling On Financial Independence

Barney is most famous for writing about FIRE (Financial Independence/Retire Early). He is a leading member of the UK FIRE community.

We began our discussion with a brief exploration of what FIRE means. 

In 2013 Barney stumbled across the Mr Money Moustache blog. MMM is a Colorado-based software engineer who saved hard, lived a non-materialistic lifestyle and reached financial independence at age 30. MMM’s story resonates strongly with Barney because it mirrored how he had been living for two decades. 

By saving half of his income from his lucrative accounting job in the City of London Barney had amassed a substantial ‘wealth snowball’. And when he read MMM’s story and applied MMM’s mathematical equations to his own finances Barney realised that he had already reached financial independence!

What Is Financial Independence? The 4% Rule

Financial Independence is reached when you have enough money put away in savings and investments that you can live off 4% of the total each year. 

‘The 4% Rule’ (or the 4% safe withdrawal rate) states that if you withdraw only 4% of a portfolio of stocks and bonds every year the portfolio’s value will last in perpetuity.

An example of the 4% rule is… if you need £20,000 per year, a portfolio worth £500,000 (£20,000 being 4% of £500,000) will supply you with your £20,000 forever. 

Full financial independence is reached when you can live off 4% of your portfolio’s value. And financial independence is a natural precursor to retiring early.  

FI Provides the Freedom to Focus on What’s Most Meaningful

Different people aim to achieve financial independence for different reasons. But ultimately it always comes back to a universal desire for freedom. Freedom from unwanted responsibility. Freedom from the need to hand over the vast majority of our finite hours on this planet in the building of someone else’s dream just so we can pay the bills.

Financial freedom is a means to living a more meaningful and enjoyable life on your terms. Allowing you to do more of what is important, meaningful and enjoyable and far less of what isn’t.

A Question of Values

Contrary to popular belief, the most important learning to be done in your quest for financial independence has nothing to do with investing strategies and