Achieving FI/RE Isn’t Just for High Earners
As part of our Women’s History Month series, Cinneah (the founder of Flynanced) and I co-hosted a series of incredible roundtable discussions with some of our favorite women in the personal finance space with the goal of fostering rich intersectional conversations around money.
Evelyn Barrios is a high school life science teacher and creator of Maestra on FIRE. When she is not teaching students about science she is educating others about FIRE through her own journey. Here’s what she had to share about strategizing for FI/RE. (You can watch the full recording of the roundtable discussion, We Choose FI/RE, here).
FI/RE Isn’t Just for Tech Bros
I first discovered FI/RE when I came across a click-baity article from a tech bro that achieved FI/RE by age 30. I thought it was really cool but I quickly dismissed it as something that was not for me because I'm also on a debt payoff journey. I thought, “I don't even have my money together. How can I think about FI/RE?”
Last year when COVID hit, I went to @HeyBerna’s seminar. Naseema from Financially Intentional came on and talked about her debt payoff journey. In her seminar Naseema spoke about her experience paying off a million dollars in debt, creating actionable steps to pay off debt, and best of all achieving financial independnece. Additionally, as a nurse she talked about her podcast, Nurses on FIRE, and how she inspires nurses to pursue financial independence. A concept I had once dismissed was being brought up again! It was so refreshing to know there are other people - not just tech bros pursuing FI/RE!
I was so inspired I immediately thought, “I could totally do this. I'm going to put it out in the universe that I'm going to achieve FI/RE.” I began researching, reading books, watching webinars, and videos. As a lifelong learner I thought about how I could talk to others about my personal experience and pass this newfound information along to family, friends and others looking for inspiration in achieving financial independence just like I was. I wanted everyone to know that financial independence was not just for tech bros like I once thought. Most of all, I wanted to make sure that I kept myself accountable in my own journey especially since I was still in a debt pay off journey. Thus my journey began as Maestra on Fire.
How Do I Achieve FI/RE?
Once I knew I wanted to achieve FI/RE I had to figure out how to get there. As a teacher, when you plan for your students, you teach with the end goal in mind, keeping in mind that students are all at different levels. I applied what I do in education to my own personal finance journey knowing that my journey was going to look a little different from others.
The first thing I looked at was my expenses. Once I figured out what my expenses would be in retirement I used the 4% rule based off the Trinity Study to figure out my retirement number. The number I need to retire is $1,000,000. Now that I had a number, my next tangible step was to figure out how to get there sustainably. I say sustainably because I don’t have a 6 figure salary. Saving 80% of my income is not possible so I can’t plan to retire in 5-10 years.
The second step was to figure out the amount I needed to invest in. I ran across a calculator that allows you to input your FI/RE Number to figure out how much you need to contribute monthly in order to reach that number over the desired number of years. The calculator helped me figure out that if I invest $2,500 a month over the next 15 years I should be able to reach my goal! (Assuming ~8% return on investment and adjusting for inflation).
Lastly, I began to seek ways to invest in vehicles already available and capitalize on benefits offered. In addition to a Roth IRA, I made sure to include my 403b in my wealth building journey. Increasing my contributions and taking advantage of my employer match in an already vested account meant a portion of that $2500 contribution would be covered by my employer! Despite being in debt, operation FI/RE was in full motion!
Knowing that I put myself on a path where I am building wealth in a way that is sustainable for my lifestyle, all the while paying off debt has been an absolute life changing decision. I may be what many consider the “slow path” to FI/RE, but it's still nonetheless a path to financial independence.
Next Steps
Watch the full recording of the roundtable discussion, We Choose FI/RE, here.
Follow Evelyn on Instagram @maestraonfire
About Evelyn:
Evelyn Barrios is a high school life science teacher and creator of Maestra on FIRE. When she is not teaching students about science she is educating others about FIRE through her own journey. Throughout her FIRE journey she has been able to pay off over $16,000 of debt over a 10 month period all the while investing. Even though Evelyn is going through a debt pay off journey she is on track to reach FI/RE by 47.