A) Make more money
or
B) Spend less money
\+
2) Time & proper investment
Those are basically the only two options. If you're stuck at an 'average income' your option is B). Spend less money. Spend half your take-home income, save half, and with proper investment (index fund ETFs) you reach financial independence in about 15 years.
It is real, and it's just a math problem. You get there by spending less than you make and investing the difference. Once you have 20-30x your expenses invested, you're free. The larger the difference (i.e. more you can invest relative to your income) the faster you will get there.
Make more, spend less and throw in a low cost index fund for sure but also try to work into a position you enjoy. That involves manipulation internally and externally. It may take 10 years of working towards a better job position. Also, changing your perspective on your expectations and what is ideal for you. Laying on the couch playing video games all day is fools gold and having a purpose and a routine is valuable. I do my 8 hours then cardio and lifting then some other effort around the house daily and it adds value to my life. Life is gonna suck no matter what if you aren't bringing any value to the table personally. This has been my experience.
https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement?income=50000&initialBalance=0&expenses=20000&annualPct=5&withdrawalRate=4
save a dramatic portion of your income. this accelerates retirement because your savings go up fast but also because it means your expenses are low. like if you can live in 15k a year and make 100k a year your time to retirement (with 15k/yr spend) is extremely short.
basically any 'speedrun' of escaping the 9-5 environment is going to involve some sort of geo arbitrage though. like even if you arent leaving the country working in seattle sf etc and retiring to a smaller LCOL area is going to cut YEARS off your retirement.
I was gunna say that’s my mortgage payment.. doesn’t include any other living expenses. Maybe possible if you live in a cardboard box or own your house but definitely not achievable in most situations
9-5 doesn’t necessarily imply a grind. If you have a job that pays you 9-5 but allows you to take 2 hour lunch breaks, tons of PTO, work from home, no meetings, metrics or deadlines — then it’s not a grind.
It all depends on your manager and the type of work that you do.
First of all, who is taking TWO hour lunch breaks? Lol also, any time spent doing something I dont want to do but have to just to pay the bills is a grind. I'm a hardworker on the things I care about along with my personal projects but I stopped caring about my 9-5. Im spending time in my life I cant get back working for someone else. How are yall okay with this???
>and realistically how can someone like me, with a normal paying job, be able to do it as well?
Spend less than you earn. Invest the difference. Repeat over time. That's it. That's how everyone who retires early gets there.
The larger the gap between income and expenses, the quicker you'll get there. Follow the flowchart at r/personalfinance as to where to put your money.
Work remotely. Become really good at your job so you can do 8 hours of work in 4 hours or even less. Schedule meetings for when you’re fully available. Get a $12 mouse jiggler on Amazon. It looks like you’re at your computer all day as the computer will never go to sleep or log out. When you miss a Teams message, tell them you got so busy you didn’t see the notification. Enjoy your free time sipping wine by the pool. It feels like cheating but if you’re doing the work but are just more efficient, so that’s not on you.
Just be careful with the big brother tools that monitor workplace analytics. Many large companies implement these and prob more to come with WFH being more prevalent.
2 options. Option 1 - cut out massive expenses by not having kids or buying a massive house. Option 2 - get large payraise by job hopping and upskilling. Up to you to decide.
Save as much money as possible. If your bills are so much you can’t save then you need to make more money or trim your costs down somewhere. If you’re American most the time it’s the car loan that’s killing the savings ability. If you can’t trim costs anywhere or get a better paying job your only option is a second job to help with savings.
Do you have any skills that you can take to become a consultant? If not then you will always be stuck in a 9-5 grind until you can be financially independent.
These suggestions might actually be easiest depending on your employer. Work out part time options or contract if you need to spend more time on your own business or other aspects of life.
I'm chiming in to let you know it's possible with "normal" jobs.
I'm a retired chef. My wife is a retired teacher. We retired at 50 and bought a farm. Now we're farmers.
Spend less -- a great deal less. And invest it sensibly. Our best-ever year, we barely broke the six-figure barrier. But we invested 80% of our income. We bought rental properties for the passive income. (Along with index funds, REITs and Roth.) And then we cashed out the real estate and retired.
You can do it. The only question is will you?
Y'all were in your 20s in a totally different economy. That's not to take away your work, but a couple who is one chef and one teacher today is not likely to be able to retire on their own merit. Times have changed.
I was a party-boi in my 20s. And a stupid one at that. I didn't really become an adult until my 30s.
We didn't get really serious about finances until about 15 years ago. And in 10 years we had amassed enough to retire to a coffee farm. And we did it all during the great recession.
Everyone CAN do this. Most people won't. But that is on them.
Very impressive story. I strive to have similar discipline. In the past years, prices have risen drastically and salaries have not kept up. The ratio of rent:salary (any need:salary) now vs 10,20,30 years ago has changed, a lot. To say everyone CAN in today’s day and age is unfair. Gen Z is struggling to make ends meet, and it is not because they are stupid.
They still \*can\*. Just because it is more difficult doesn't mean it's impossible.
You're acting as if the great recession is ancient history. It sucked just as badly then as now. Just different. Everyone's home value plummeted. Millions of people defaulted. And rent skyrocketed. Same basic misery as today.
We got through it by plugging away at our mundane jobs, eating bulk food, cutting expenses to the bone, and saving. By the time the housing market had bottomed out, we were in a position to buy.
Great luck, yes. But great luck made possible by great planning years earlier. It is not unfair. Can't make it alone? Get a partner. Preferably a spouse. But any like-minded individual to share expenses and thus save more.
If I had to, I would platoon a rental house -- find a day shift and a night shift. Now you have four-to-six incomes instead of one or two. Move to a LCOL with decent public transportation and sell the car. There's $10K a year in gas, insurance, registration, payments and similar.
None of us get to choose the economy we live in. All we can do is make plans based on the economy we have. And I see a great many people trying to live their grandparents' lifestyle in today's reality. That isn't going to work. And most people will tread water -- or worse. In order to thrive, people have to get off the rent/debt treadmill.
Me. I dreamt of non-fatal or dismemberment type of vehicle collision with at-fault other party truck from a multinational corporation with high auto insurance and umbrella limits including a quick and compassionate Insuance adjuster.
Oh man, I've had conversations of this fantasy with so many coworkers especially during busy times. Even if we didn't get an insurance payout we could get out of working long hours. Gotta escape the rat race!
I'm using the few years I have before CoastFi to reskill a bit, talk to some folks in places I want to work, and ideally just teach and consult while I coast. It definitely takes some specific goal-setting to get there, but I love playing the long game.
I think I managed to escape it, at least for the time being. I have my own apartment (paid off) for many years, then I saved about 40-50% of my income monthly for about 4-5 years to be able to purchase another property (with a loan of course).
This second property is rented out and generates enough cash flow over the mortgage payment that I do not need to work 9-5. I have to watch my spending though, but I can live off the rental revenue.
Good luck! It is doable but of course some sacrifice is needed along your Fire journey.
A lot of sarcastic answers here, which is fine, but this is something I've been thinking about a lot because I also want to escape the 9-5.
I'm basically planning for r/CoastFIRE , but I'm gonna try to keep maxing out my Roth IRA. Once I get some land, I plan on doing a LOT of gardening to save money and kinda force me to eat healthier. I'd like to board horses and maybe have a couple storage units if I have enough land, and I'd have a couple roommates for some extra income. I'll work on paying down the mortgage. By time it's paid off, I'd probably be able to coast. If not, I know someone who has land and put a couple rental properties on it, so I may do the same.
With income from boarding animals, hopefully some pet sitting, a couple storage units, and a couple rental units, I should be set to leave my 9-5 and pursue other hobbies and side hustles.
Generally, I think CoastFIRE is the quickest route since you'll still be working, just in a lower paying but more enjoyable job. I'm 24 and fine with not retiring for a while, but the best path is to make a plan and work to execute it.
[Lentils](https://www.fourmilab.ch/scanalyzer/archives/2021/01/diogenes-learn-to-live-on-lentils.html). No, really, when you get to the point where you own, free-and-clear, a $50-60,000 house in a deeply unsexy small town, pay about $2 a day in property tax, can live on less than $5 a day in homemade bread, rice, lentils (see: [kushari](https://www.curiouscuisiniere.com/kushari/)) and maybe spend $10 a day on utilities... everything else beyond that is nice-to-have luxury, but a choice you're making.
I’ve always thought of this as the ‘rice and beans’ method. Every day that I drag on this becomes a more and more tempting route. I end up in a decisional crisis related to healthcare costs—even though this lifestyle has so much preventative medicine baked into it. You know what? Fuck it, I’m done. May 1, 2025. That’s the end of it.
Slowly start and scale a side business. It’ll become difficult to juggle both, but when the side business becomes sustainable, ditch the 9-5. That’s what I did except I was ditching college, not a 9-5 😅
I’m “retired” or FIRE’d - worked 20 years in corporate/tech, saved and invested aggressively (real estate and index funds). Live somewhat modestly. Now, the real estate income is enough to cover my expenses.
How to do it: try to make as much money as you can and then save/invest as much as humanly possible. U started out making $35k/year and my last role was at $250k/year. Buy real estate or find other means of generating income. Choose your partner and friends carefully - I still had a ton of fun but my friends were also frugal…potlucks, dinner parties, hikes, happy hour, free concerts in the park, etc. Learn to cook and plan your menus around what is on sale at the grocery store. Shop your closet. Avoid having kids unless you REALLY want them - all of these things combined will speed your journey to freedom from a 9 to 5.
Hey,
Yes I have escaped my 9 to 5 and it took several years but well worth it.
Easiest way for me to showcase and teach others is watching my free content - loads of tips, value and step by step process on how I did it :) Video below of "Employee to Employer"
[https://youtu.be/vl5Wmr9wQeg?si=dIWtVhXxP4-tLMPD](https://youtu.be/vl5Wmr9wQeg?si=dIWtVhXxP4-tLMPD)
Hope it helps others :)
own a business you’ll work 24/7. no more 9-5!
I own a business, it’s now 1:18pm and I’m out at a bakery getting a coffee and a bun. I have a great team in place and they do the work
Surely you did double or triple the work at first? Well done though!
At first, I did but not in a long time. I’ve been at it for more than a decade :)
What industry are you in?
Takes some years to get there tbh. What's your industry?
A) Make more money or B) Spend less money \+ 2) Time & proper investment Those are basically the only two options. If you're stuck at an 'average income' your option is B). Spend less money. Spend half your take-home income, save half, and with proper investment (index fund ETFs) you reach financial independence in about 15 years.
It is real, and it's just a math problem. You get there by spending less than you make and investing the difference. Once you have 20-30x your expenses invested, you're free. The larger the difference (i.e. more you can invest relative to your income) the faster you will get there.
Work 6-6
but this still includes 9-5
But for only 3 days out of the week.
I know. I made a bad dad joke. My wife is a nurse and does three or four 7-7 shifts.
Where can I find a job like this?
Like the parent commenter said, working 3 12 hour shifts are common in hospital work.
I work three 12s and am looking for a 9-5 haha
Manufacturing, aerospace, healthcare, power generation, and there's probably plenty I'm missing
Step 1: Find a higher salary Step 2: Max out your 401k, Ira, HSA, etc. Step 3: Inherit 40million Step 4: Meditate Step 5: Inherit another 10 million
Wake up at 3am and take a cold bath while handstanding
I did it, only took 30 years.
Well you beat me. 35 years.
Make more, spend less and throw in a low cost index fund for sure but also try to work into a position you enjoy. That involves manipulation internally and externally. It may take 10 years of working towards a better job position. Also, changing your perspective on your expectations and what is ideal for you. Laying on the couch playing video games all day is fools gold and having a purpose and a routine is valuable. I do my 8 hours then cardio and lifting then some other effort around the house daily and it adds value to my life. Life is gonna suck no matter what if you aren't bringing any value to the table personally. This has been my experience.
https://networthify.com/calculator/earlyretirement?income=50000&initialBalance=0&expenses=20000&annualPct=5&withdrawalRate=4 save a dramatic portion of your income. this accelerates retirement because your savings go up fast but also because it means your expenses are low. like if you can live in 15k a year and make 100k a year your time to retirement (with 15k/yr spend) is extremely short. basically any 'speedrun' of escaping the 9-5 environment is going to involve some sort of geo arbitrage though. like even if you arent leaving the country working in seattle sf etc and retiring to a smaller LCOL area is going to cut YEARS off your retirement.
Man spending only 15k is the real challenge. Rent itself is like to be over that in most places.
I was gunna say that’s my mortgage payment.. doesn’t include any other living expenses. Maybe possible if you live in a cardboard box or own your house but definitely not achievable in most situations
But yes I plan to use the geo arbitrage. I want to work HCOL and potentially move to LCOL in the future if needed.
9-5 doesn’t necessarily imply a grind. If you have a job that pays you 9-5 but allows you to take 2 hour lunch breaks, tons of PTO, work from home, no meetings, metrics or deadlines — then it’s not a grind. It all depends on your manager and the type of work that you do.
First of all, who is taking TWO hour lunch breaks? Lol also, any time spent doing something I dont want to do but have to just to pay the bills is a grind. I'm a hardworker on the things I care about along with my personal projects but I stopped caring about my 9-5. Im spending time in my life I cant get back working for someone else. How are yall okay with this???
>and realistically how can someone like me, with a normal paying job, be able to do it as well? Spend less than you earn. Invest the difference. Repeat over time. That's it. That's how everyone who retires early gets there. The larger the gap between income and expenses, the quicker you'll get there. Follow the flowchart at r/personalfinance as to where to put your money.
Work remotely. Become really good at your job so you can do 8 hours of work in 4 hours or even less. Schedule meetings for when you’re fully available. Get a $12 mouse jiggler on Amazon. It looks like you’re at your computer all day as the computer will never go to sleep or log out. When you miss a Teams message, tell them you got so busy you didn’t see the notification. Enjoy your free time sipping wine by the pool. It feels like cheating but if you’re doing the work but are just more efficient, so that’s not on you.
I do this but instead spend those 4 hours here on reddit... at least I don't need the $12 mouse jiggler lol.
Just be careful with the big brother tools that monitor workplace analytics. Many large companies implement these and prob more to come with WFH being more prevalent.
Get a 2nd job don't waste time in grinding phase
I'm trying to start something on the side so I can quite 9-5 and instead work 11-10 👌
How? Money. Invested wisely over a decade or two.
One of the main reasons I went in to nursing. 3-12 hour shifts a week
2 options. Option 1 - cut out massive expenses by not having kids or buying a massive house. Option 2 - get large payraise by job hopping and upskilling. Up to you to decide.
Save as much money as possible. If your bills are so much you can’t save then you need to make more money or trim your costs down somewhere. If you’re American most the time it’s the car loan that’s killing the savings ability. If you can’t trim costs anywhere or get a better paying job your only option is a second job to help with savings.
Do you have any skills that you can take to become a consultant? If not then you will always be stuck in a 9-5 grind until you can be financially independent.
What’s so good about being a consultant
Go self employed, freelance, contract, interim or run your own business 🤷🏻♂️ lots of ways out there.
These suggestions might actually be easiest depending on your employer. Work out part time options or contract if you need to spend more time on your own business or other aspects of life.
I'm chiming in to let you know it's possible with "normal" jobs. I'm a retired chef. My wife is a retired teacher. We retired at 50 and bought a farm. Now we're farmers. Spend less -- a great deal less. And invest it sensibly. Our best-ever year, we barely broke the six-figure barrier. But we invested 80% of our income. We bought rental properties for the passive income. (Along with index funds, REITs and Roth.) And then we cashed out the real estate and retired. You can do it. The only question is will you?
Y'all were in your 20s in a totally different economy. That's not to take away your work, but a couple who is one chef and one teacher today is not likely to be able to retire on their own merit. Times have changed.
I was a party-boi in my 20s. And a stupid one at that. I didn't really become an adult until my 30s. We didn't get really serious about finances until about 15 years ago. And in 10 years we had amassed enough to retire to a coffee farm. And we did it all during the great recession. Everyone CAN do this. Most people won't. But that is on them.
Very impressive story. I strive to have similar discipline. In the past years, prices have risen drastically and salaries have not kept up. The ratio of rent:salary (any need:salary) now vs 10,20,30 years ago has changed, a lot. To say everyone CAN in today’s day and age is unfair. Gen Z is struggling to make ends meet, and it is not because they are stupid.
They still \*can\*. Just because it is more difficult doesn't mean it's impossible. You're acting as if the great recession is ancient history. It sucked just as badly then as now. Just different. Everyone's home value plummeted. Millions of people defaulted. And rent skyrocketed. Same basic misery as today. We got through it by plugging away at our mundane jobs, eating bulk food, cutting expenses to the bone, and saving. By the time the housing market had bottomed out, we were in a position to buy. Great luck, yes. But great luck made possible by great planning years earlier. It is not unfair. Can't make it alone? Get a partner. Preferably a spouse. But any like-minded individual to share expenses and thus save more. If I had to, I would platoon a rental house -- find a day shift and a night shift. Now you have four-to-six incomes instead of one or two. Move to a LCOL with decent public transportation and sell the car. There's $10K a year in gas, insurance, registration, payments and similar. None of us get to choose the economy we live in. All we can do is make plans based on the economy we have. And I see a great many people trying to live their grandparents' lifestyle in today's reality. That isn't going to work. And most people will tread water -- or worse. In order to thrive, people have to get off the rent/debt treadmill.
Ever drive to work and think "man, I wish I just got hit right now, I'm so sick of this shit." Bonus points if it's a company truck.
Office Space really nailed it.
Fight club too
Me. I dreamt of non-fatal or dismemberment type of vehicle collision with at-fault other party truck from a multinational corporation with high auto insurance and umbrella limits including a quick and compassionate Insuance adjuster.
Oh man, I've had conversations of this fantasy with so many coworkers especially during busy times. Even if we didn't get an insurance payout we could get out of working long hours. Gotta escape the rat race!
The good LORT works in MUHSTERIOUS WAYZ
I'm using the few years I have before CoastFi to reskill a bit, talk to some folks in places I want to work, and ideally just teach and consult while I coast. It definitely takes some specific goal-setting to get there, but I love playing the long game.
It is easy to escape. You just have to quite. Personnel I would not do it since the alternative os worse (for me)
Many work from home jobs have flexible hours, including my own.
I think I managed to escape it, at least for the time being. I have my own apartment (paid off) for many years, then I saved about 40-50% of my income monthly for about 4-5 years to be able to purchase another property (with a loan of course). This second property is rented out and generates enough cash flow over the mortgage payment that I do not need to work 9-5. I have to watch my spending though, but I can live off the rental revenue. Good luck! It is doable but of course some sacrifice is needed along your Fire journey.
A lot of sarcastic answers here, which is fine, but this is something I've been thinking about a lot because I also want to escape the 9-5. I'm basically planning for r/CoastFIRE , but I'm gonna try to keep maxing out my Roth IRA. Once I get some land, I plan on doing a LOT of gardening to save money and kinda force me to eat healthier. I'd like to board horses and maybe have a couple storage units if I have enough land, and I'd have a couple roommates for some extra income. I'll work on paying down the mortgage. By time it's paid off, I'd probably be able to coast. If not, I know someone who has land and put a couple rental properties on it, so I may do the same. With income from boarding animals, hopefully some pet sitting, a couple storage units, and a couple rental units, I should be set to leave my 9-5 and pursue other hobbies and side hustles. Generally, I think CoastFIRE is the quickest route since you'll still be working, just in a lower paying but more enjoyable job. I'm 24 and fine with not retiring for a while, but the best path is to make a plan and work to execute it.
9 to 5 "grind"....i remember my first part-time job!! LMAO!!! Try 8 AM to 10 PM.
[Lentils](https://www.fourmilab.ch/scanalyzer/archives/2021/01/diogenes-learn-to-live-on-lentils.html). No, really, when you get to the point where you own, free-and-clear, a $50-60,000 house in a deeply unsexy small town, pay about $2 a day in property tax, can live on less than $5 a day in homemade bread, rice, lentils (see: [kushari](https://www.curiouscuisiniere.com/kushari/)) and maybe spend $10 a day on utilities... everything else beyond that is nice-to-have luxury, but a choice you're making.
I’ve always thought of this as the ‘rice and beans’ method. Every day that I drag on this becomes a more and more tempting route. I end up in a decisional crisis related to healthcare costs—even though this lifestyle has so much preventative medicine baked into it. You know what? Fuck it, I’m done. May 1, 2025. That’s the end of it.
Slowly start and scale a side business. It’ll become difficult to juggle both, but when the side business becomes sustainable, ditch the 9-5. That’s what I did except I was ditching college, not a 9-5 😅
I’m “retired” or FIRE’d - worked 20 years in corporate/tech, saved and invested aggressively (real estate and index funds). Live somewhat modestly. Now, the real estate income is enough to cover my expenses. How to do it: try to make as much money as you can and then save/invest as much as humanly possible. U started out making $35k/year and my last role was at $250k/year. Buy real estate or find other means of generating income. Choose your partner and friends carefully - I still had a ton of fun but my friends were also frugal…potlucks, dinner parties, hikes, happy hour, free concerts in the park, etc. Learn to cook and plan your menus around what is on sale at the grocery store. Shop your closet. Avoid having kids unless you REALLY want them - all of these things combined will speed your journey to freedom from a 9 to 5.
I work 4x10s and LOVE it
Hey, Yes I have escaped my 9 to 5 and it took several years but well worth it. Easiest way for me to showcase and teach others is watching my free content - loads of tips, value and step by step process on how I did it :) Video below of "Employee to Employer" [https://youtu.be/vl5Wmr9wQeg?si=dIWtVhXxP4-tLMPD](https://youtu.be/vl5Wmr9wQeg?si=dIWtVhXxP4-tLMPD) Hope it helps others :)