Financial Independence, or FI, has been exhaustively written about (ChooseFI website or “the Simple Path to Wealth” by JL Collins). At its simplest level,FI is determining how much money you need to support your financial commitments, how much you need to support the lifestyle you want and saving and investing your way to that level. Once you dive a little deeper, it is more about being deliberate with your choices: choices of who to spend your time with, what to spend your money on, and what are your goals for your life.
None of this is rocket science and you won’t have to do exhaustive budgeting. It is really a decision that you need to make – do I want to have autonomy over my time at some point?
There are a lot of books we will discuss in this community, so we’ll start with number 2: Die with Zero, by Bill Perkins. This will revolutionize how you see the phase of life you are in. We will discuss this book’s ramifications in later posts.
Die with Zero discusses phases of life: The military service members are their late teens to early forties. This phase of life is a great time to be seeing the world, determining your purpose in life and starting a family. Because of your service, you have a stable paycheck and mostly stable needs – both preferred when figuring out FI. Additionally, there are some incredible levers you have, unique to your service which will set you up for success.
What’s not always viewed as wonderful about service are the sacrifices in choice of where to live, what exactly to do professionally, and deployments. While some see this as a bug, we will write why this is a feature … to be embraced.
Lastly, service has significant benefits which suit it perfectly for FI. Here are the wave tops: choice of state to be a resident, significant health insurance benefits, GI Bill, VA, and unique IRS coding for home ownership which can be a springboard towards financial freedom. Also, if you choose to service until retirement, your pension is an amazing part of your FI portfolio. If just these features of service are fully utilized, you should (no matter on rank) be FI by the end of your commitment.
The next post will expand a bit about the uniqueness of reaching FI while in military service. Looking forward to this adventure with you — MFG (military FI guy)