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- [00:00]
A
Quite quickly after that, it fades, man. It's just a number. And so really the goal, the win is an accumulation of incredible memories with people that you love. And we had that moment of like, what if we just went from full time workers to part time workers? Could we do that? Could we afford that type of life? I feel like this is our version of financial independence. We have built up our wealth enough where we can own more of our time now and we can choose work that we enjoy and do it because we want to do it, not because we have to do it.
- [00:47]
B
What's up everybody and welcome to the Personal Finance Podcast. I'm your host Andrew, founder of Master Money Co and today on the Personal Finance podcast we are joined by our guest Andy Hill to talk about life after Coast Fire. If you guys have any questions, make sure you join the Master Money newsletter by going to MasterMoney co/newsletter. And don't forget to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or whatever podcast player you love listening to this podcast on it. If you want to help out the show, consider leaving a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or your favorite podcast player. And also give us the old thumbs up on YouTube if you're watching on YouTube. Now today we are talking about a topic that most people dream about but no one actually prepares for. What happens after you hit Coast Fire. So last episode we had a conversation with Andy Hill who is on the show today. Really excited to have him on the show today about his journey to Co Fire. But today we are looking at what does your life look like when your retirement is fully funded and your money can grow on autopilot? When your job shifts from grinding more to not messing up the math? And how do you use that freedom to actually own your time? My guest today knows this better than anyone else. So Andy Hill is back on the show, one of our only three time guests who ever been on the show. And his new book, Own youn Time is about designing a life where you work less, you live more and you build the kind of health, family and purpose that we all want. That's what we all want out of life. And so today we're talking about the next step. How do you move from Coast Fire on paper to coast fire in real life? And we're going to dig into practical tactical questions that people wrestle with every single day. Like how do you find balance between spending on the things that you want today and saving for your future tomorrow? How do you build a spending plan that actually can help you tactically achieve your goals, especially when it comes to Coast Fire. How do couples and families find harmony when they are planning all this out? And if you're behind on your retirement savings, what do you do in order to accomplish these goals? In addition, we're going to dive into the emotional side of Coast Fire. Like, what's it like once you reach that point and what does it feel like to actually slow down your savings or taper back your savings and what the moment actually felt like when Andy ran the numbers and realized he could become Coast Fire at any point in time. We're also going to talk about how Coast Fire opened up a bunch of new options for Andy where he has reduced hours, he can work on passion projects, he's working basically part time solopreneurship and eventually Andy's signature three day work week lifestyle. And then we'll close with how he structures those days, how he thinks about fitness lifestyle, his family. And of course we've got our rapid fire questions as well. So this is going to be a powerful conversation about money, lifestyle design and taking back your calendar. So without further ado, welcome Andy back to the personal finance podcast. It's 2026 and if you're still paying rent without Bilt, it's time for a change. BILT is the loyalty program for renters that rewards you for your biggest expense, which is rent. With Bilt, every rent payment earns you points that can be redeemed towards flights, hotels, Lyft rides and Amazon purchase plus so much more. And here's something new. Starting in February, BILT members will be able to earn points on mortgage payments too. So whether you rent or you own, you'll get something back. Personally, I'd redeem my built points towards a flight because getting rewarded for paying rent and then turning that into a free trip, now that's a win. Plus you can unlock benefits to over 45,000 plus partners like fitness studios, restaurants, pharmacies, even GoPuff Delivery. It's simple, paying rent is better with Bilt and soon owning a home will be better too. So join the loyalty program for renters today@joinbuilt.com Pfp that's J-O-I N B I L T.com Pfp make sure you use our URL so they know we sent you. So you just realized your business needed to hire someone yesterday. So how do you find amazing candidates fast? It's easy, you just use indeed when it comes to hiring, indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post seen on other job sites. Indeed's Sponsored Jobs help you stand out and hire fast. Your post jumps to the top of the page for the most relevant candidates so you reach the right people faster and it makes a huge difference. According to INDEED data, sponsored jobs posted directly on indeed get 45% more applications than non sponsored jobs. There are no monthly subscriptions, no long term contracts, and you only pay for results. In fact, while I've been reading this ad, 23 hires were made on INDEED Worldwide. There's no need to wait any longer. Speed up your hiring right now with Indeed and listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsor job credit. To boost your post visibility@ Indeed.com personal finance, just go to Indeed.com personal finance and support this show by letting them know you heard it here. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring Indeed is all you need. So Andy, welcome back to the Personal Finance Podcast.
- [05:52]
A
I am so glad to be back. Andrew, thank you so much for having me.
- [05:55]
B
So last time we talked about Coast Fire and we kind of went through your journey with Coast Fire. And so what I want to do today is kind of talk about the psychology of achieving Coast Fire and kind of leading up to what happens when you achieve Coast Fire. But then after, you know, what is life kind of like when it comes to Coast Fire and how do you design your life in a way that really is what you intended to do when you started off during this journey. And so I think for a lot of people out there, they are really interested in Coast Fire and kind of how to get there. And we kind of talked about that last episode. So if anybody hasn't heard that episode, go ahead and check that one out as well and then we'll dive into deeper detail about a bunch of other stuff here too. And you have a great book talk coming out that we or that has come out today that we were talking about here in the intro and so really, really excited for that too as we dive deeper into this. So I think one big thing to start off with here is that most people either overspend now or they over save for someday. How do you find the right balance between enjoying today and preparing for tomorrow? Because that's a big question I get a lot is people want to balance these two goals. They want to make sure that they can enjoy their time today, but they also want to make sure that they're saving for retirement and their future. How do you kind of find that balance?
- [07:04]
A
It's a great question and I think it's something that we are all seeking right you know, we want to do the right thing by planning for tomorrow, but then we also want to embrace the now and be in the present. Right? So this is the life question, right? It's for everybody. But I've balanced both of these. You know, I started my corporate career and, you know, I was spending all of the money because it was coming in, and I said, wow, this is really great. You know, I'm between. My wife and I were making, like, $130,000. Let's spend all of it. We're in our late 20s. That's great. You know, we're enjoying life. We're really living in the now. And then I started to realize the realities of parenthood, all the expenses that go into it. My wife wanting, you know, the. The nice family home and all that. I'm like, okay, well, you know, let's. Let's save up for that. Let's invest for it. But I'm working in this job that I really don't like all that much. How can I do all of those things and get the heck out of here? So I started down that super fire path where I'm saving way too much. So I guess to answer your question, I've done both. And it's. And it's finding that middle ground that works best for you is really the path that a lot of us should be seeking. Because there can be trouble in the extremes, right? If we spend it all, then that doesn't really help us for the future. And if we save it all, then it's, at least for me, a quick pathway to divorce and no friends and, you know, a little bit of a life of deprivation. So I've been trying to seek this middle way for quite a while throughout my path, and I think it's worth exploring for a lot of people.
- [08:37]
B
I think so too. And kind of finding that balance, I think for. For a lot of folks is thinking about some of your goals and some of the structures that you have in place. What's your why? And then kind of figuring out what are the things that you truly value and starting to go in that direction. So maybe you truly value, you know, playing golf. But in addition, you also want to make sure that you value your time because you really don't like your job anymore. So splitting it up between those two things can be something where you can really get a good balancing act going. So how can someone kind of build out a spending plan that lets them enjoy life today without sabotaging their future? Is there, like, a rule of thumb that you Use, do you just use like a standard budget, like a zero based budget or how do you kind of think about that?
- [09:12]
A
Yeah, you know, like you said, how I started out really with our conversations with people is think really deeply about that. Why? Or do some dreaming exercises where you're really like, what do I want out of my life? You know, what do I, where do I see myself five to ten years from now? And do that too. If you are married, do that with your spouse because your, your goals and dreams might be similar to your spouse. But if you don't share those goals and dreams, it's important to connect and make sure you're on the same path. Once you have that vision, once you have that desire to move forward, then yes, a zero based budget's a great place to start. What's coming in and, and where is it going? And based on where it's going, does that align with those dreams and values and goals that I have or my spouse has and are we moving in that direction? And that gap that you can create between your income and your expenses is really the power move to say, okay, let's use that gap to push towards those dreams and values. And so what I've found with regards to like a savings percentage, because I like to get kind of nerdy with these types of things, is I've done both, right? I've saved 0%, I've saved 50%. And depending on your income, saving 50% can be very painful, you know, for your life. It can feel like deprivation for a period of time. And if you make a ton of money saving a half of it, you know, no big deal, right? You could probably do that. But a lot of us in America like saving half your income is pretty difficult. So I again like to find that middle way. For me, saving around 25 to 30% of your income for an extended period of time can move mountains. It really can. It helped my wife and I go from a negative $50,000 net worth to over a millionaires in about 10 years. We were making around $180,000 per year during that timeframe. But saving that amount and then growing over time, and then now over the last five years, really just kind of letting go of the gas a little bit and enjoying a little bit more life. So I think if you can find that middle ground again. I keep coming back to this middle way, but I really think that's a smart plat, a path to move towards.
- [11:22]
B
And it's so funny that you say that 25 to 30% because that's exactly the range that I try to always stick in as well. And that's kind of what I did to get to my first million was in the 25 to 30% range. And I tell a lot of people out there who are just saving, you know, 5% of their income, hey, let's work our way up to trying to get to at least a minimum 20% of our income. And we can do this over time. Maybe it's taking up 1% at a time, but. But then once you get to that 20%, trying to get to that 25 to 30 is great. And then for a lot of people out there, if you want financial independence quickly, you really don't like the situation that you're in, then increasing that savings rate even more is going to have a dramatic impact on your Life. At a 50% savings rate, it's like 17 years is when you can retire. So there's a lot of really cool stuff, depending on the rate of return that the market gets. But there's a lot of cool stuff that you can do with your savings rate. And I completely agree with you, kind of finding that right balance for where you, you are in your situation in life, then you could take your foot off the gas a little bit. I remember, you know, once I started having kids, that's when I started to take my foot off the gas a little bit more. There was a lot more expenses also, but it was just one of those things where you can find those seasons of life and then you can, you can adjust your spending based on that. And I think that's really, really powerful. So I know you're a big fan of the book Die with Zero. And this is a book that I read and our book club actually right now is reading it in Master Money Academy and kind of going through some of the sequences that we have here. And it really kind of changed my outlook just on some certain things. And so how do you think about, you know, spending money when it comes to memories because you have a family, you have kids, and so you want to make sure that you're spending money on memories and things right now, but also balancing for retirement. So how did you kind of think about that and how did you weigh that trade off?
- [12:52]
A
Yeah, I think I lost my way a little bit during my, my buildup journey of my net worth and my investments, thinking that that was the goal, that number, that net millionaire net worth or, you know, hitting certain milestones. And you know, when I started to hit some of those milestones, it was neat. I looked at the numbers, I'm like, that's cool. Shared it with some friends, shared it online and things, you know, get some, you know, attaboy moments for myself, pat myself on the back. But quite quickly after that, it fades, man. It's just a number. And so I read Die with Zero, probably around that time frame when I hit that millionaire net worth. And it was like, really? The goal, the win is a accumulation of incredible memories with people that you love and experiences. And what can you do to sustain that type of lifestyle over the long haul? Because that is happiness, man. I got to interview this professor from Harvard who's been running the longest study of happiness over 80 years, the largest longitudinal study of happiness. And their results were two. If you want to have a long, happy life, of course, take care of your health, eat well. But then number two, create experiences with people that you love and be around them. That is the secret to this whole life of happiness. And it's like, oh my gosh, when I had that conversation with him, red dye with zero, and started experiencing some of these things for myself, it just was a light bulb moment saying, man, invest in those things. Maximize the family experiences, spend money in those areas. Actually adjust your budget in accordance with that being one of your top priorities. I love using budgeting systems that allow you to move around different items in your budget. You can physically prioritize things for your money and your time where you're saying, I want to spend more on these things that matter. So, yes, when you have that ability to continue to see how you can do that and if it doesn't happen right over time. But like any goal, if you can make 1% improvements each month and move towards that life that you want to have, it's amazing the results that can come of it over time.
- [15:11]
B
And it happens so much faster than I think a lot of people think they may be saying to themselves, well, how do I actually say for experiences? I'm just trying to get by those types of things. But then really, once you just start to put money towards that goal, even if it's small amounts of money, small amounts of money over time can grow to very large amounts of money. You just have to get the ball rolling and get started. And I completely agree with you. I read this study that came out as of recent that was interviewing people and said, what was your favorite childhood memories? And they looked back and they said, hey, these vacations that we went on as a family, that was the number one thing that people had of the best memories as a childhood. So I remember taking that information and trying to take action on that. So, like, for example, this summer my family and I, we're going to go on vacation for a month and a half to Europe just because I want to have those experiences with my kids. And so I've kind of changed the trajectory of where I want my dollars to go and kind of shifted it based on some of this stuff just with Diazero and some of the things that they've talked about there as well. So I think that's really, really cool the way that you have this structure with your family too. So another big thing question that we get is we know folks who will come to us and say, hey, I just kind of figured out and learned about, you know, how to get my finances together. I'm just getting started with my retirement savings and I feel like I'm late. I feel like I'm behind the cur. How do I kind of balance being able to enjoy life today but also saving for retirement in the future if I'm a little bit behind? What would you say to someone like that and. Or is there any strategies that you would use to think about this?
- [16:29]
A
Yeah, I would say if that person feels behind, but they like what they do for a living, you're in a good spot. Because I think at the end of the day, what we're all trying to do is just enjoy our everyday. For me, when I was in my corporate job, I'm like, oh my God, get me out of here. I don't want to do this anymore. I feel called to do something different. So I felt that stretch to save a lot more, invest a lot more so that I could leave. But if you're in a situation where you're like, nah, I kind of like my job. I got good benefits, I like what I do. Bless you. You know, that's fantastic. You have, you have the benefit of maybe saving and investing a little less than this aggressive amount of 30% or 50% or whatever you want to do. If you want to make some escape, you could save 15%, you know, you could save a lot less, but you still want to move towards retirement eventually. And with that difference, you, you know, spend more on your life now. Spend more on experiences. Don't delay that moment of, you know, spending time with somebody you love or spending time with your children or, you know, it's really about taking that money and investing it in time and experiences with people that you love. So if you can split that difference. But if you're like, oh my God, I also don't really like what I'm doing, and I want to have more time for experiences. I really like this middle path of coast fire because it gives you a shorter window to hit this milestone to say, okay, once I hit coast fire, I can take my foot off the gas a little bit. Maybe spend less time working at a job that I don't like, or maybe start my own thing where I can work less, have more time to do things that I enjoy and have that benefit. So I guess to answer your question, a. If you enjoy your job, fantastic. Like keep, keep rocking that. Enjoy it. Save and Invest Some like 15%, I think, is probably a good minimum.
- [18:20]
B
Yep.
- [18:21]
A
And then invest that other 15% in experiences and time with your friends and your family. Because, you know, we only get so much time on this. On this one precious life. So. And then the second with that would be coast fire. You know, go for it. It's a good goal.
- [18:35]
B
A hundred percent. And I think that's the. That's the way the move. That's the way to look at it overall. Because if you. All it takes is some planning. If you plan up front and you kind of figure out, okay, well, how much do I have left here? How much can I allocate towards my retirement and will that keep me on track to. To ensure that I retire on time in the want to. And all those different things, then you can tweak all the numbers based on just planning that out. And that's where, you know, coast fire, I think, comes into play for a lot of folks because it's not as difficult as maybe they once thought it was. And that's where I love how you. How much you talk about coast fire because it's just such a powerful tool that we have in our tool belt. So I want to talk about some of the psychology behind coast fire. Because I think some people out there, they struggle with certain areas of. Of coast fire and what that actually is like. So when you initially ran the numbers for coast fire and you figured out, hey, this is the number that I have to hit in order for me to be coast fire, you know, what did that feel like when you actually figured out, you know, hey, here's the number I need to hit and this is where I need to go.
- [19:28]
A
I remember that. I remember thinking, like, when can I stop saving for retirement? And that was. It was a. You know, it's always good questions to think at the end. Right. Like, start with the end in mind. Right. Okay. When can I stop doing this? Because I'm doing it Pretty aggressively right now. And I know it's important to save my retirement, but isn't there a stopping point? It's not like when I have a bajillion dollars when I'm 70, right? It's okay. Oh, I started finding results for that. There was a blog that I read, I think it was called Stop Ironing Shirts. It was a blogger back in the day, he had a fire blog. And then another group called the Fine Ears, they're fantastic. They started talking about coastfi. I'm like, what is this thing? And it started to be the answer. It started to say, wow, if I save and invest enough right now with time and compound interest, it'll take me to that goal without any further contributions. And now I know a lot of people will say, well, that seems pretty drastic to go from aggressive to nothing. So there's always a path down. You can say, hey, let me just take the match from my employer and let that be a good middle ground. But when I, when I realized that I had gotten close to it and I was pretty, you know, moments away from happening, I said, wow. The next question, next big question in mind is like, if I'm not investing that much for my retirement, what else could I be doing with my money? Or more importantly, what else could I be doing with my time? And so that was like a big epiphany moment. And for my wife and I, around the time this was like post Covid, we were having that, you know, moment in all of our brains at that time being like, wow, what a weird world we're living in right now. Like, it's more important than ever to spend time with people you love. And we had that moment of like, what if we just went from full time workers to part time workers? Could we do that? Could we afford that type of life? And that was a big question that we asked ourselves. We ran the numbers and it became a reality for us because we had already done some other big things before that became completely debt free, saved up a bunch of money in an fu money bucket to say goodbye to a corporate job that we didn't like, you know, enough of money in there too for my wife to try something new with her career. These other steps helped in addition to Coast Fire to creating part time work in our lives as opposed to full time work.
- [21:51]
B
I love that. And I think that is kind of the way I kind of describe Coast Fire is it's almost like if you've ever been body surfing or surfing in general, you kind of, you're kind of paddling as fast as you possibly can and the wave kind of picks you up and it just takes over and, you know, reach shore. And I think that's the of the way that I really see it for a lot of folks is you just have to do the heavy lifting up front and you have to paddle at the very beginning. And all of a sudden the wave of compound interest is going to take over in addition to time, and it's going to push you forward to where you need to get to. And I think that's really, really helpful for a lot of folks out there who have never thought about coast fire. And I know we get a lot of questions about it and it's just such a powerful tool to have in your tool belt, especially on the financial independence journey. The other night while the kids were asleep, I had one of those moments where I sat back and thought, wow, this is the life I always wanted. Not perfect, but meaningful. And it's full of life growth and purpose. And it reminded me how important it is to protect the life that we are building. And that's where policy genius comes in. They make it simple to handle one of the biggest responsibilities that we face, making sure our family is financially protected. And policygenius isn't a life insurance company. They're an online marketplace that lets you compare life insurance quotes side by side from top insurers. Their licensed experts don't work for one company. They work for you. They answer your questions, they guide you to the right coverage and handle the paperwork so you don't have to stress. Start the new year with clarity and security. Lock in your life insurance policy now. And with Policygenius, real users have gotten 20 year $2 million policies for just $53 a month. 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It shows you accounts, budgets, net worth goals all in one dashboard. I use it to review our December spending, set fresh budgets and build a monthly plan for that travel fund. It even gives me a weekly money recap and tracks our savings progress so we stay on pace. And now with Monarch's new AI features like their AI assistant and personalized insights, it's easier than ever to actually stick to your goals this new year. Achieve your financial goals for good. Monarch is an all in one tool that makes proactive money management simple all year long. Use code pfponarch.com for half off your first year. That's 50% off your first year@monarch.com with code pfp. Here's the big thing I think a lot of people, you know, struggle with is when you reach the point of coast fire and you get to that point in time mentally. You've been in this save mode for so long, you've been paddling for so long, and all of a sudden you get to this point in time where you can take your foot off the gas and you can let the wave kind of take over and push you to shore. How do you mentally get over that standpoint of, of saving? Did you just stop saving overall? Did you slowly taper down or how did you think about that?
- [27:29]
A
Yeah, I think it feels foreign to a lot of people. It felt very foreign to me because I felt like I had gained a superpower. Being like, wow, if you invest in index funds for the long haul, you could become a millionaire. I'm like, I feel like a genius. I did that. And for me to say, well, let me stop doing that was like, pretty difficult, right? But I think what made me feel good were two things. The first one is that I didn't all of a sudden just stop. You know, I think that can feel abrupt. It can feel odd for people. So what we did was just sort of ladder down. You know, we said, hey, we're investing 30% actually, for a period of time we were like 40%, things like that. We started to bring that down, you know, by 20, 10% at a time, and eventually got to about just saving and investing 10%. We went from 50% to 10% and that was a big change. But what we did on the number two of that is we started investing in experiences and the things that really brought us joy. So when we started to balance, like, okay, yeah, we're not investing 10 more percent towards our 401k or IRA or HSA. But with that 10%, we're going on this all inclusive trip to Cancun with the kids. And it's going to be memories. They're going to remember their entire lives, and it's going to be a blast. You know, I think if you could trade it for that, it's like you're moving towards something, not stopping something. Do you know what I mean? And so with that balance, you can say, does this feel good? And if it still feels odd, maybe pull it back a couple of percent, just say, hey, this month I'm gonna go from saving 40% to 39%. But with that 1%, I'm gonna start moving it towards things that bring my life more joy and happiness. And for some people, that might just mean more connections with people you love. Like, you know, I haven't really had a lot of money just to like, go out to lunch with friends in a while because I've been trying to work on this saving and, you know, aggressive savings goal. It's like, well, maybe connect with some friends for lunch with that extra 1% that you just dropped out of there, you know, and then make another goal. What's, what else is gonna be a part of that goal? So you'. You're moving away from, you know, making your 60s and 70s and 80s like the most secure multimillionaire world and more towards like, what can I do in my 30s, 40s and 50s to just make my life awesome so that when I am 60, I've already got an awesome life. I'm not sure I need to retire for much. You know what I mean?
- [29:54]
B
Exactly. And I'm such a big proponent of exactly what you said of kind of doing things gradually over time. So when it comes to anything, if you're going to, you know, cut out a bunch of things within your budget, I like to gradually reduce some of those expenses so it doesn't feel so painful. And the same thing goes, like you said, for reducing your, your savings over time. Once you hit that coast fire number, if you reduce it gradually, it's not going to feel as painful for especially the super savers out there and the folks who are really pursuing financial independence heavy. And I know we have a lot of them in our audience that are, you know, that the 50% savers, those folks are going to have a harder time mentally to get over this hurdle of, hey, I don't have to save as much anymore because they just are. It's ingrained in them. That's. It's what they want to do. And so for a lot of folks out there just learning to reduce this over time and then utilizing it, like Andy said, for different things that you've always wanted to do. Maybe it's experiences and trips or maybe it's smaller things like, like Andy said, you just want to go out to eat more. You want to be able to kind of experience life more. And so there's so much more that you can do there that I think is just really, really powerful for most of us to hear. And it's something where, you know, learning to spend, spending is a skill, and learning to spend some of those dollars that you were once allocating towards retirement, it's just going to take a little bit of time. And so that's why that gradual shift I think is really, really helpful overall. Now the cool thing about Coastfire is it opens up a bunch of different options for people. It's going to give you some time back, it's going to give you availability of capital back. And so what kind of options or what kind of things opened up for you once you reach coastfire?
- [31:17]
A
Yeah, I mean my life has changed a lot over the past couple of years. As I mentioned earlier, my wife and I decided to pursue a life of part time work and that means about 20 to 25 hours per week for both of us. So at one point she was working in corporate America. She even tried part time work in corporate America and it was just like, I think I don't want to do corporate America anymore. Like the email grind, the slack stuff, I just, I just want to work with my hands and when my day is over I want to be done like 5pm if that's when my day's over, I want to not be thinking about anything after that. I don't want to be emailing on the weekends. And so she went back to school to become an esthetician. So she stopped working for a while, used some of that FU money that we had set aside to go back to trade school and become an esthetician. And she really loves her part time life now. She works Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. And for me, I left my corporate career about five years ago and right away I didn't start part time. I wanted this, you know, a solopreneur thing to be super successful. So I essentially, you know, left that job, full time job, and created another full time job for myself. But I really enjoyed the work, which was a lot of fun. But progressively over the past five years I've moved down to working between 20 and 25 hours a week. I'm experimenting right now with crunching that time between Tuesday and Thursday. I'm going to start that next month and just see if I like having a three day work week and a four day weekend. Now the big problem that starts with that is like, okay Andy, you freed up your time, you have nothing on the calendar. How do you want to fill it? That goes back to the dreams and goals and values that we talked about at the beginning. Being like, oh well, I value being an athlete, I value being healthy. So oh man, okay. For me, over the past couple of months I've gone to the gym five Days a week. And I haven't done that probably since I was a teenager. And I feel so strong, I feel so healthy. I feel just more alive. It is amazing. So it's, that's like one identity that I'm leaning into athlete. Another identity that I'm leaning into more now is just being a better husband. You know, when I was deep into my corporate career, I was working 50, 60 hour weeks and then I'd come home, that stuff was still on my brain. I'd get the scary Sundays, you know, and then like, you know, we go into Monday and start all over again. I was not present with my wife, I was not a good husband, I'm not a good partner. And so now I'm leaning into making more dinners, cleaning the house, you know, spending more time fixing things around here, being there for her for morning coffee every morning. When we want to connect and talk about the week, we like to go for runs together on Mondays and Wednesdays. That's great. I also lean into being a father more like, hey, I want to be there when my son comes home from school at 3:30 and he's struggling with his math homework. I want to be there to help him see it through. To be there to ask me questions about life as a middle schooler, like that is really cool. And outside of those three important identities, I'm leaning into being a better son, spending more time with my aging parents, being a better friend, catching up with friends as they're going through tough times or just connecting and laughing and having a good time. And I'm looking forward to what else there could be in 2026. My wife, I and my wife and I just signed up for hip hop dance classes. Intro to hip hop dance classes. Like whatever this, it could be a, it could be a huge fail. I know my 13 year old daughter's always already making fun of me for it. But hey, you know, it's something that my wife wanted to do and we're just gonna goof around and have some fun with it. So it's just like opening up space and time for new identities in your life outside of worker.
- [35:10]
B
Exactly what I love about what you're doing and I can't wait to watch you do the soldier boy pretty soon. But what I love about what you're, what you're doing, I remember that dancing, that's still step for step. I could do the whole thing still. Maybe I'll do it on camera here. No, so, but overall I think that's just, you're just so intentional. With everything you do. And you're. You're intentional with your time and how you're spending your time. You're intentional with your energy, you're being intentional with your attention and where your attention is going, and you're being intentional with your business and how you want to, you know, structure your business in the way that you want to. Think about this, and this is so powerful for people in their lives, is once you start to get intentional about this stuff, you can absolutely change the trajectory of your life. Whereas Andy was in a job he didn't like anymore, he didn't want to be in the corporate world anymore, and so he was intentional about every single thing that he did. And all of a sudden, now he's building out this life that is exactly how he wanted it to be. And I think that is such a powerful lesson of, you know, just the progress that you've made over this time frame and just what you have done and how you've set your life up. And I think that's just so, so cool. So for you now, what does enough look like for you now? Are you, you know, happy, you know, doing work that you love, and then you want to, you know, save a little more to. To get to a certain point in time, or what does enough look like for you?
- [36:20]
A
Yeah, I mean, I am really happy right now, Andrew, and I'm not trying to, you know, feign happiness the way that I've continued to move towards these small tweaks over the years to say what feels right, what feels wrong. And even from a business standpoint, you could probably agree with me here. The more wealth and time ownership you have, the more you can say no to things that don't really fit for your life or the message that you want to put out there. So as funny as it feels to deny business connections and say, nah, it doesn't work for me, it also feels pretty great to know that you are moving towards a life that feels good. So, I mean, as far as looking in the future, I think our kids right now, they're in middle school, they're getting to that point where they kind of need us, but they kind of don't need us anymore. So I'm, you know, getting over that fact personally with. With my teen daughter. She's like, nah, dude, I'm good. Like, move on. Go do your thing. So for me, that's like looking back inside, being like, well, what is my thing? What am I. What am I going to continue to do? What am I going to do with my wife? What am I going to do personally, where I feel like I am giving back and having some purpose and service with my work for, you know, 20 to 25 hours a week and then exploring these other areas where I have different identities. So to be honest with you, I'm pretty happy right now. I'm going to experiment with this thing we got going on for a little while and see what adjustments we need to make and if, you know, if continuing to pursue full financial independence is something that I'm interested in in the future, maybe. But I feel like this is our version of financial independence. We have built up our wealth enough where we can own more of our time now and we can choose work that we enj and do it because we want to do it, not because we have to do it. And that feels pretty great.
- [38:17]
B
It really does. And there's no better place to be than kind of doing work that you enjoy, but also being able to have the balance, have the flexibility. That's the kind of the place that we, we all strive to get to. And I think that's just such a powerful, powerful message overall. So I want to shift gears here. I want to ask you some rapid fire questions that I, that I love to, to ask a bunch of our guests and then we'll dive into them. So. So if you were on a road trip and going to a gas station and you were gonna get snacks for that gas station, now this is not the healthy snacks that you would get if you did not care about calories.
- [38:44]
A
Or anything else out there. This is then good.
- [38:46]
B
What would you get? What would you get on that road trip for that gas station?
- [38:49]
A
Oh, man. Back in the day, and if I didn't care about health and calories and stuff like that, I'd get a whatchamacallit bar and a pack of Funyuns.
- [38:59]
B
I don't think I've ever had a whatchamacallit.
- [39:01]
A
Whatchamacallits are fantastic. I'm probably like a Dr. Pepper. This is like my 17 year old, like hit the gas stat.
- [39:08]
B
Exactly.
- [39:09]
A
I love it. Funs and a Dr. Pepper. There you go.
- [39:11]
B
What you call it? Funyuns and a Dr. Pepper. That's a great one. What is the greatest investment you've ever made? And it could be time, it could be money, it could be whatever you want.
- [39:20]
A
Oh, man. Cheesy as it sounds like, buying that Red Eye Spirit Airlines flight to go visit a new girl that I was interested in who lived in Los Angeles when I was dead broke, I had, I had more debt than I could handle. And I was not making a lot of money, But I had met this woman that was super great, but she lived all the way on the opposite side of the country. And I'm like, I'm going for it anyway. And so I found the middle ground again of buying the cheapest ticket red eye to go out there and spend time with her. And, man, that was the best investment that I could ever made because she became my wife. And we've been married now for almost 16 years.
- [40:05]
B
That's incredible. I love that. That's an amazing story. Who has had the greatest influence on your life?
- [40:12]
A
Probably my parents. Both in their own individual way. I love them so much. They are. I'm lucky enough to still have them in my life. They're both in their late 70s, so I am trying to spend as much time with them as possible in their late 70s and continue to create memories with them. Go for walks with my dad, go for. I'm going to go for lunch with my mom in about 45 minutes. It's just they're. They're fantastic, and they've. They've given me such a great life, and I feel indebted to them to give my children a great life, too.
- [40:43]
B
Incredible. What is the biggest thing you're going to do this year or over the course of the next year to level up your finances?
- [40:50]
A
I would say continue to monitor the time that I am using and maximizing it in the best fashion. I actually have a habit tracker app on my phone. After reading Atomic Habits, I'm like, I need to put this into practice. So I downloaded this habit tracker and I use it every day, multiple times a day, to make sure I'm moving in that direction. So continuing to diligently look at my time and make sure I'm using it according to my values.
- [41:16]
B
I love it. And then the last one is, what does wealth mean to you?
- [41:20]
A
Time freedom, time ownership. Owning your time and moving in the direction that feels right to you, not because somebody tells you to move in that direction.
- [41:28]
B
Well, this has been incredible. Andy, thank you so much for jumping on here. And where can people find out more about you, your book, and everything you have going on?
- [41:35]
A
Absolutely. Well, the book is out now today, which is fantastic. Andrew, thank you for having me out. It is called Own youn Time. You can find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or any major place that's selling the book. And if you want to listen to podcasts, my podcast is Marriage, Kids and Money. And you can find us@marriagekidsandmoney.com Absolutely.
- [41:53]
B
Well, thank you so much again, Andy, for coming on. We truly appreciate it.
- [41:55]
A
Thank you. Andrew. Thanks.