The Importance of Flexible Spending in Early Retirement Planning

This chapter emphasizes the importance of tracking spending to differentiate between necessary and discretionary expenses. The hosts share their experiences and visual data to illustrate how a flexible approach to budgeting can enable individuals to retire with lower savings targets while still meeting their needs.

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If you want to retire early, the Mad Fientist is your guide. For over a decade, Brandon, more commonly known as the “Mad Fientist,” has been running simulations, experiments, and exercises to discover which road to early retirement is the fastest. Now, in his forties, Brandon has time to reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and his regrets on the sprint to early retirement and financial freedom. And he’s also got a new update that’ll make your early retirement journey smoother.

After tinkering with the beloved and rarely challenged 4% rule, Brandon decided it was time to sit down and calculate how much you really need to retire early. For decades, financial freedom chasers have been breaking their backs, trying to have as much stashed away as possible to enjoy their well-earned time off from work. But, it turns out that this number might be overinflated, and you can retire with much less than you think. That means your early retirement timeline just got a LOT shorter.

In this episode, Brandon will describe why the 4% rule may be a bit too rigid, how to ensure you’ll have enough during early retirement, what to do during a market crash or correction, and why spending thousands of dollars on a coffee machine isn’t such a bad idea. If you want to maximize enjoyment in early retirement, instead of building a big bank account you probably won’t use, stick around!

In This Episode We Cover

Early retirement rules of thumb you MUST know when on the path to FIRE

The 4% rule and why you DON’T need to follow it to a tee

Retirement withdrawal rules and how much to spend during a crash/correction

The skill of spending and what Brandon regrets most from pre-FIRE life

Tracking your expenses and why knowing your costs is CRUCIAL to early retirement

And So Much More!

Links from the Show

Mindy on BiggerPockets

Scott on BiggerPockets

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