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What They Don’t Tell You About FIRE with Andy Hill! - Money Guy Show | Wave AI Podcast Notes

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What They Don’t Tell You About FIRE with Andy Hill!

Money Guy Show

Wed Jan 28 2026

Ask Money Guy | January 27th, 2025

Summary

Money Guy Show – Episode Summary

Episode Title: What They Don’t Tell You About FIRE with Andy Hill!
Date: January 28, 2026
Hosts: Brian Preston (B), Bo Hanson (Bo), Reby (A)
Guest: Andy Hill (C), family financial coach behind Marriage, Kids, and Money

Episode Overview

This episode dives into the realities and hidden truths of the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement, featuring Andy Hill—a financial coach, podcaster, and new author of "Own Your Time." The conversation explores how FIRE principles apply to families, especially parents, and discusses nuanced perspectives on financial independence, Coast FIRE, and the broader importance of balancing wealth with happiness and time. Listener questions further illuminate practical approaches to FIRE, wealth management, and family finance.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introducing Andy Hill and "Own Your Time"

[00:06 - 03:28]

Andy Hill is introduced as a major voice in financial coaching for families, with over 10 million downloads across his platform.
His book, Own Your Time, aims to provide parents and busy families with a step-by-step blueprint for gaining more freedom and margin in life, beyond just money.
Andy’s main message: Building wealth should go hand-in-hand with building happiness and meaningful family connections.

“We forget to dream...we did that when we were kids all the time...So we have to dream. We have to take that time, 15 minutes, just to write down, where do I want to go? Who do I want to be?”
— Andy Hill [03:06]

2. Andy’s Journey Through FIRE and Finding Coast FIRE

[03:28 - 07:32]

Andy recounts the emotional toll of the “messy middle”—time and money both stretched thin.
He describes experimenting with various movements (Ramsey, Debt Free, FIRE) before settling on Coast FIRE as the best fit for his family.
Traditional FIRE was too aggressive for Andy and his wife; it required too much sacrifice during important life years, leading them to prioritize work they enjoy on a part-time basis.

“We don’t need to stop working to be happy. We need to just find work that we actually enjoy.”
— Andy Hill [05:17]

They reached Coast FIRE ($500,000 saved by age 40), allowing them to scale back work and focus on family, health, and joyful experiences.

3. Coast FIRE Explained

[06:09 - 07:32]

Coast FIRE is when you’ve saved enough in investment accounts so that, with no further contributions, compounding alone can carry you to a comfortable traditional retirement.
Andy and his wife now work part-time, having reduced expenses dramatically after becoming debt free and paying off their mortgage.

4. Real-World Myths & Rules of FIRE – “Follow It or Forget It” Game

[09:23 - 25:16]
Andy and Bo react to common FIRE “rules”:

a) Save 25x Expenses (“Rule of 25”):

Both say “Forget It.”
Andy: For most Americans, 25x is too aggressive—a less rigid target (20x) can suffice, and bridging strategies work, too.

"While it sounds like you're being led to a great destination, you might lose a lot of important things on that path."
— Andy Hill [11:19]

b) Eliminate Debt Before Investing:

Nuance is key. High-interest debt: yes. But low-interest (mortgage, student loans)? Not necessarily. Take advantage of employer matches.

c) Have As Many Side Hustles As Possible:

Both disagree. Side hustles are fine for season or specific goals, but overdoing it can hurt health and relationships.
Bo shares an example of a client whose side hustles distracted from their main earning potential.

d) Always Maximize Tax-Advantaged Accounts First:

Split opinion. Andy favors it for behavioral reasons (keeps savings disciplined), Bo says it depends, especially for early retirees who need liquid funds.

“Whenever we talk about investing or saving, I’m always a big proponent for—for what? Not just saving and investing because it’s smart...put a label on it.”
— Andy Hill [20:58]

e) Invest Only in Low-Cost Index Funds:

Both largely agree, but Bo says certain asset classes or advanced portfolios may benefit from active management.

5. Listener Q&A: Applying FIRE and Family Finance

[25:16 - 59:24]

a) How to Know You’re Ready to Retire (Stan M.)

[26:16]

Andy’s four steps before leaving corporate:
1. Test side hustle for passion and earning potential
2. Build up “FU money” (at least one year’s expenses)
3. Supportive spouse
4. Honest self-reflection about what you want
Bo: Use both emotional and mathematical long-term planning. Model cash flows, stress test against market downturns, and ease into retirement (e.g., simulate monthly “paychecks” from investments).

b) Saving Tips for Parents in the Messy Middle (HTBO 1529):

Andy: Don’t just cut, cut, cut—align spending with values and focus on creative ways to raise money (selling unused items, negotiating bills).
Bo: Buy in bulk, focus on experiences over things, and remember that joyful family moments need not be expensive.

c) Should High Savers Cut Back Contributions? (Foo Faithful):

Andy: If your projections are sound, use reduced savings to enjoy life now—think in terms of what you gain (joy, time, experiences) by saving less.
Bo: Never leave free employer match on the table, but it’s okay (and sometimes advisable) to slow down aggressive saving for greater balance in life.

d) Are We Coast FIRE? Young Couple, Big Savings (Kung Fu Panda 11):

Andy: You probably are at Coast FIRE, but don’t over-prioritize maximizing wealth at the expense of living joyfully, especially in your 20s.
Bo: At 26, expenses and life can change rapidly—stay flexible, don’t coast too early, and reassess as major life events unfold.

e) Healthcare for Early Retiree Families (Abby Lim 4365):

Andy: Buying family coverage on healthcare.gov worked; it’s a business/family expense that’s predictable once planned.
Bo: Factor in both premiums and out-of-pocket costs; sometimes paying directly makes more sense than insurance (e.g., dental).
Bo notes creative approaches: part-time work with benefits, planning for all scenarios (including “worst case”).

f) Psychological Challenges: Identity After "Retirement"

The “FI, Next Endeavor (FINE) Movement” emphasizes planning what you’ll do after financial independence. Not doing so can lead to anxiety and depression.

"If you get to a point where you do retire and you haven’t thought about what that next venture is, that can be a point of anxiety and depression…”
— Andy Hill [53:50]

g) Should We Move for a Nicer Neighborhood (Jakester2003)?

Both caution against exceeding the 25% housing rule; suggest exploring alternatives (adding pool to current house, joining clubs, renting extra space) instead of taking on more debt/stress.

“There are so many gray areas between staying in the house you’ve always been in and getting the house with the pool.”
— Andy Hill [56:13]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“It’s not about stopping work—it’s about finding enjoyable, meaningful work and letting your money create options.”
— Bo Hanson [05:35]
“Just because you started the race fast doesn’t mean you can coast the whole way.”
— Bo Hanson [44:11]
“Personal finance is personal. Create your own situation because it’s not going to be a repeat for everybody.”
— Andy Hill [52:56]
“Don’t give up a comfortable now for a potential comfortable future.”
— Andy Hill [39:11]

Important Timestamps

00:06 – Intro and Andy Hill’s background
01:02 – “Own Your Time” and book philosophy
04:00 – Andy’s personal experience with FIRE movement
05:35 – Why Coast FIRE works for families
09:23 – “Follow It or Forget It” FIRE myths game
25:16 – Listener questions start
26:39 – Leaving work, how to know you’re ready (Stan M.)
31:45 – Saving tips for parents in the “messy middle”
37:49 – High savers: Scale back?
42:34 – Young savers: Can they coast yet?
48:23 – Medical/dental for FIRE families
53:02 – Identity and FIRE: Planning your “Next Endeavor”
55:09 – Moving for “more house”—balancing wants and financial safety
59:42 – Where to find Andy Hill and “Own Your Time”

Resources & Where to Find Andy Hill

Own Your Time now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble
Marriage, Kids & Money: marriagekidsandmoney.com
Marriage, Kids & Money Podcast, YouTube

Final Thoughts

This episode offers a candid, experience-based look at what pursuing FIRE really means for modern families, especially parents. Andy Hill’s practical insights highlight the importance of balancing aggressive savings with life satisfaction, being realistic about goals, and personalizing your approach to financial independence. The hosts and Andy emphasize flexibility, communication within families, and the need to plan for both the numbers and the emotional aspects of changing life stages.

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Transcript

A (0:06)

What they don't tell you about fire. With our very special guest, Andy Hill. We are. Well, you should say this next part.

B (0:13)

Ruby, I am so excited to have Andy Hill here with us today. Man. How are you doing?

C (0:19)

I am fantastic and I'm so glad to be here. Thank you so much.

B (0:22)

This is going to be fun. So for those of you that are not familiar and do not know, Andy Hill is the family financial coach behind Marriage, Kids and Money, which is a platform dedicated to helping families build two things, wealth and happiness. Right. And it's nice when those two go together.

C (0:38)

Absolutely.

B (0:39)

The team was telling me 10 million podcast downloads and views.

C (0:43)

Oh, yeah.

B (0:43)

So it's not like a small little thing. You're reaching a lot of people, talking to a lot of folks.

C (0:47)

You know, as you guys know, as you do these things for long enough, the views start to gather.

B (0:51)

The views start to gather. You've been featured in CNBC, Forbes, MarketWatch, Kiplinger's NBC News, and you got an exciting thing going on right now. What's going on in your world right now?

C (1:02)

I just launched my first book this week, which is fantastic. It's called Own youn Time, and it's dedicated to those families out there that are looking for that wealth and happiness and also feeling the pinch of not having enough money, not having enough time. So this book is a blueprint that helps people walk them through those steps to say, how do I get some more margin in my life? How do I get some more breathing room? Because I'm feeling so claustrophobic right now in the situation I'm in. So it's not a quick one hitter process. It's a long stretch for how you're going to do this, but we've built it in a way where it's a step process so you can improve 1% at a time.

B (1:44)

So when you're saying that, the thing that immediately comes to my mind is messy middle. We talk all the time about folks that are like, at this crossroads of you have very little discretionary time and very little discretionary money. It all happens together. Is this book built specifically and written for like folks in the messy middle, or is it broader than that? Like, it's really for anyone who wants to own their time?

B (28:42)

But I think a lot of people don't realize it could be. It doesn't have to be a switch on or off switch. Another thing, Stan, I would tell you to do, obviously what was great is Andy kind of walked through some of like the psychological triggers. I think you can go through some mathematical triggers too. And this is what we do for our clients. Before we ever say, hey, you're clear, check the box, you can make it. We actually do a long term cash flow analysis. You said, hey, I believe that we can live off a two and a half percent withdrawal rate. Well, in reality, in practice, when it comes to how people live, it's most often not two and a half percent chunks every single year. Because inevitably there's that year that you have to replace the car and there's that year that you have to do the wedding and there's the year that you're going to do the travel. And so what I would do is I would map out what I really think from 36 right now. And I'm really thinking about stepping away. I'm really thinking about retirement. Have I accurately depicted what my life is going to look like in a best case? Not best case, in a best thought out scenario from 36 all the way out to age 95 with those contingencies, you said, I got four kids. Have you accounted for four colleges, any number of weddings, any number of first homes, whatever, whatever those things are that you want to do. Have you put that into a plan? And then have you actually stress tested that plan? Have you said, okay, what if we go through a below average market environment? What's my probability of success of actually being able to make it through this? So I think you can combine both the qualitative measures that you said with the quantitative data, and then when you do it, try to change as few things as possible. We find for our clients all the time, they get really uncomfortable. They're like, man, okay, what am I gonna do when my paycheck stops? I say, hey, we're gonna Start a paycheck for you. You tell us what day you want it to happen. You want it on the third of the month. Okay. On the third of the month, X dollars will hit your checking account, and you budget and treat it the exact same way. And if you can do that, I think it does help you sort of ease into what it's like to actually be retired, actually be financially independent.

B (44:11)

She was in this situation, like, hey, I've been doing this and I've saved up. My answer to you, Kung Fu, is, are you in coast fire? We don't know enough yet. And I'm going to argue it's possibly potentially even too early in the journey to be able to assess that. Because you said that right now your burn rate is $7,000 a month. And it's great that you have a handle on that. I can tell you for me personally, my burn rate at 26 looked very different than my burn rate at 36. Right. There's a lot of life there that happens. And in order to be coast fire, what you have to do is you have to reverse engineer. You have to figure out, okay, what's the pot of money I need at the end of this journey? Right. And that pot of money is going to be based on what you're spending at that time in your life. Well, for a 26 year old, if you're pre home, pre kids, pre job, change, pre all these things, there's a good chance that a lot of those things are going to change. The analogy that I always use is just like, I'm not a big runner. I do, I do run, but I'm not a big runner. You know, I like to pick things up, put things down. But if you, if you're going to run a marathon, you're going to run a 5K or any distance and you take off in the first, you know, 800 meters, first half mile and you're like running a five minute mile, you're like, holy cow, my marathon time is going to be incredible. My flight is going to be incredible. Well, just because you started that way does not mean that that's what the rest of the journey is going to look like. You haven't gotten far enough in the race to make that assessment. Now if you're almost at the end, right? If you're, if you're on your last half mile and you've been averaging a five minute mile pace, well then yeah, you can have some assurance you're going to be able to finish the race at that level for you at 26. This is one of the reasons why we say if you can save 25% of your gross income, we have a great deliverable. If you go to moneyguy.com resources that says how much can you save save or how much should you save if you can save 25% of your gross income right now. You're going to give yourself maximum options and maximum flexibility. Now there's a chance you've already got 320,000 invested, so you should go again to moneykai.com resources, play with our wealth multiplier and see what that 320 can turn into by the time that you retire. But does that mean that you should just coast on that level? I don't think you have enough variables yet. So I would consider just like you said, maybe you don't have to have a 30% savings rate. Maybe it's 25, maybe it's 20, maybe it's even 15. You'll have to assess that. But I don't think you can say, oh, I'm just going to take my foot off the gas. I don't think you're far enough along in the race. I don't think you've done enough of the heavy lifting yet to be able to coast. Now if you're married, no kids, not going to have kids, already got a home and you know, your expenses are locked in, I guess perhaps it's a different story, but just most 26 year olds I know are not at that place.