561: What Happens if High Expenses Extinguish Your FIRE?
Description
You did it; you achieved FIRE! After over a decade of hard work, you’ve reached financial independence and can retire early. You’re making more money than you spend from passive income, work-optional, and life is good. But your dreams are starting to change. Maybe you want to spend more on experiences, build your dream house, or move to a higher-cost-of-living area. Now, your expenses are starting to creep up, and your FIRE is about to burn out. What do you do, and is it wrong to return to work?
Caitlin Muldoon has had to ask herself these questions. After grinding for fifteen years, she finally reached her FIRE goal—$10,000 per month in passive income. In her current lifestyle, she’s saving money every month, but as she moves into her dream house and expenses start to rise, her passive income may not be enough. Does this mean that Caitlin is no longer financially independent?
Today, Caitlin is sharing her full FIRE story with us. How she went from one house hack and a HELOC to a six-figure generating real estate portfolio, the struggles she had with leaving her job, realizing that her expenses would jump after her husband quit, and why retiring early isn’t always the end goal.
In This Episode We Cover
What to do if rising living expenses are about to extinguish your FIRE
Turning your primary residence into a passive income-generating portfolio by using HELOCs
How intentionally saving money can massively propel your wealth and get you to FIRE much sooner
Why you DON’T need to quit your job, even after you reach your FIRE number
Advice for anyone who wants to build a rental property portfolio with today’s high interest rates
And So Much More!
Links from the Show
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Do You Know Your FIRE Number? Here’s What That Means
00:00 intro
01:56 Starting Salary and First Home
04:01 Rental Investing and Finding FIRE
07:13 Thoughts of Quitting
08:05 Real Estate Portfolio Timeline
13:58 Savings Rate and Reinvesting
15:47 Using HELOC to Buy Rentals
20:31 Achieving FIRE, But...
24:07 Rising Lifestyle Expenses?
31:55 Advice for FIRE
36:32 Connect with Caitlin!
Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-561
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