How To Become Financially Independent

Introduction

I don’t want to spend too much time on this section but did want to at least talk a little bit about it.

What is Financially Independent Retire Early (FIRE)?

The FIRE movement is th.

The Big Picture

Something you realize the more you grow up is that we all have a limited time on Earth. Life is unpredictable. One day you can be healthy and totally normal. Next day you can be diagnosed with cancer. One day you could be driving on the road and suddenly BAM you get in a head-on collision. There's millions of examples of stuff like this happening everyday around the world and sometimes even close in your own local communities. But at the same time, we can't live life everyday like it's your last and we're in an active warzone.

Increase Income

The first step to becoming financially independent is to first increase your income. You can do that by getting a job and negotiating your offer.

I’ve always been appalled with how people say how much people say that money doesn’t matter in life. But the more I grow up, I realize that while money isn’t the most important thing in life (that being time and health), it does matter a lot in every other sense. Having money means you get to live a very stable life and don’t need to worry about basic things like affording rent, having food on the table, etc. Me being a first-gen American, I’ve been taught many tips by parents to save as much money as possible. I wanted to share some of these tips I learned over the years so that I have it for my own records when I look back on this.

Spending Less

Living a frugal life is one of the easiest ways to FIRE quickly. People in westernized countries have this illusion that they need to spend money on getting the latest things. You need to buy the latest gadgets, the latest fashion dresses, etc. Also companies are even pushing for planned obsolescence where they purposefully make things last not as long to keep consumers from buying new things. In this section, I’m going to detail the best money saving tips that I follow and how I’ve been able to increase my net worth quickly.

Living with Parents or Sharing Rent

The #1 way to save money is not live by yourself. Paying for a 1b1b unit is one of the most expensive things you can purchase each month. Instead of that, you should consider living with parents (if you still can) or finding roommates you can split rent/groceries/utilities with.

Cooking your own food

Instead of constantly eating out or Doordashing food, learn how to cook. Go to the grocery store and buy ingredients in bulk. Costco and Aldi are both great options for discount food and stuff like rice and grains are stuff you can buy in bulk. Buy veggies whole instead of pre-chopped and once you get home, chop it up and store it in airtight containers so that they last. Also for anything you cut, instead of throwing away old scraps, freeze them or compost them so you can reuse them for stock or use them as fertilizer to grow your own herbs at home.

Tips when Eating Out

Of course, not everyday you’re going to feel like cooking. There’s times where you may want a change or if you’re traveling you won’t have much of a choice unless you know someone in the area and they’re willing to take care of you for your entire stay. In that case, try going to events where they’ll give free food. When I graduated college, I still continued going to random free events on campus just because they had free food. Most of the time it’s Moe’s or Pizza which is fine every now and then. Of course health is the #1 priority so you don’t want to eat too much unhealthy food or supplement it with tons of veggies. Along the same lines, anytime you do go out, you should carry with you an empty lunchbox. This is one of the easiest ways to take advantage of free events. I’ve seen so many times how much food gets wasted during those events which is why I don’t feel bad doing so. So what I usually do is, I take an extra plate worth of food and then when I’m at a nearby table, I take out my empty lunchbox and fill it up with that. Then once I get home, I can keep it in my fridge or freezer to enjoy later.