For me, being someone
who's in the FIRE
community is about
freedom. I love what I
do. I still don't want to
do it for the next 30
years of my life.
65 seems like a really
weird, arbitrary time to
retire, so why don't I
just change that number
to 40? Or 35 or 37?
Hi, I'm Amberly. I'm 34
years old and I achieve
financial independence in
February of 2022.
I've really only made
between $13,000 and
$20,000 a year up until
five years ago.
And when I got my first
job with $50,000 a year,
I realized I can save so
much money. So I
continued to keep my
expenses really small.
I only spent $1,300
a month back
then, so I had a lot of
leftover money. And to me
that was like the first
time I could really
pursue FI.
I've recently had a child
seven weeks ago and that
has changed things short
term now I spend about
$3,400 a month when it
comes to personal
expenses. I support my
partner while we're
working through a visa he
can't work and it's been
a year. And so that's all
dependent on me to
provide for my family.
I have been able to spend
and get whatever we need
for our child without
feeling extremely
stressed. We're still
saving almost 70% of our
income because we have so
much coming in and our
expenses are low even
with these crazy extra
expenses from our child.
My current finances are
two 401(k) accounts that
total $119,000.
A taxable brokerage
account with $55,000.
A Roth IRA with $37,000
in it. Two HSAs that
total of $12,000.
A 529 education account
for our kid, which is
$9,000. One company stock
account, which is $6,000.
Truthfully, I can be
completely FIRE right
now. I only need a total
of $40,000 a year to
cover every single
expense that I have.
So that's $1 million in a
brokerage account or the
cash flow that I
currently have, which is
$6,500 a month.
But it turns out I don't
think $40,000 is enough.
I'm going to continue
with my day job for the
next 3 to 5 years, put
another $140,000 to
$200,000 away into a
taxable brokerage
account. And by that
time, in 3 to 5 years, my
entire liquid savings
will be about $750,000.
With cash flow from houses
on the side, that will be
plenty of enough money
for me to feel
comfortable quitting my
job and walking away.
For me, there are some
scarcity mindset when it
comes to finances.
I grew up very poor and
so a number will never
satisfy that little hole
in my heart that feels
like I am never going to
be secure enough.
When it comes to
finances. I could work
ten years and that
wouldn't be because of
finances. That would be
because of my insecurity
about money.
So I always thought I'd
follow a traditional
path. I would go to
university, get married
to like my high school or
university boyfriend,
have some kids, get a
house in Ottawa. And all
of a sudden one day I
decided that I was not
going to apply to
university. I had made a
decision that I was going
to become a millionaire.
And so that drive to do
more, be more and have
more has been a huge
defining factor in my
adulthood.
Ended up working at a
tech company where I was
a project coordinator.
I was making $52,000 a
year, more than double my
parents what they had
made.
One of the ways that I
found that I could
exponentially change my
journey to FIRE instead
of wait 15 years of
saving my paycheck at
50%, I could buy real
estate and make money off
of real estate. My
partner and I decided to
move in together and
purchase a house, which
is always a risky
endeavor.
I started renting it out
in May of 2019, then
started doing short term
rentals shortly after.
For my second property,
someone approached me
about purchasing it from
the seller directly.
I only had $60,000 at the
time, and so I was in a
pinch and needed to
figure out where I was
going to find $40,000.
So I was able to take
some money out of a
HELOC out of my current
property that I was
living in to finish that
down payment off. And
then it took me about a
year to pay back that
$40,000 HELOC.
Which is going to be our
family home.
And I only put 5% down
because I wasn't planning
on buying a property and
had been putting all my
money towards my
brokerage account and not
my savings. So that one
is a lot less than I
actually would feel
comfortable with. But we
made it work.
Hi, everyone.
Welcome to FinTalks.
We are talking healthcare
today. Amberly Grant
Finance is actually in
the negative because I
run around the country
going to speaking events
and speaking at different
places like Austin,
California, Minneapolis.
I never see myself fully
retiring like the FI part
of FIRE is actually what
I'm going for, that
freedom to do whatever I
want. And what that looks
like to me is bike riding
to the grocery store,
hanging out with our new
kid, having my family go
on traveling, like going
on vacation to other
places or living abroad
for a little bit.
So that's something that
fire will bring us is
that we can have the
flexibility to be
wherever we want.
It makes us have a lot of
freedom and the ability
not to feel too much
stress on a day to day
basis.