The FI Show - Financial Independence Optional Retirement | Lisa from Mad Money Monster

In today's episode, you'll hear from Lisa who writes over at Mad Money Monster.

She started off life poor, had a bad first relationship, then discovered Financial Independence.

Lisa was in her 30s and went in full force cutting out all her expenses.

It turned out to be too harsh and she shifted her mindset to FI/OR.

This is Financial Independence / Optional Retirement and she breaks that down for us.

Listen and learn all about side hustles and let us know what you think.

Episode Summary
She grew up poor so she was always fascinated with money
Once she had her kid she really knew finances were important
Then she meets her current husband and they start to close on their big dream home
Lisa talks about how the home was way out of their price range
Luckily the inspector found black mold in the house
This meant the deal fell through and they avoided huge debt
Lisa was in her mid-30s in 2015 when all this happened
Growing up Poor
Then Lisa talks about her upbringing in a 400 sq ft trailer
She does note that it was in a great school district
Most of her classmates lived in big nice houses
Neither of her parents graduated high school
Justin and Lisa talk about how to fit in when you don't have money
One of the big things was spending a little to get name brand clothes
Since they lived in such a small house their family was doing ok
They weren't living on super thin margins but they weren't saving anything
FI Journey
Lisa already had her undergrad, masters, and career started before finding financial independence
She had been saving for retirement since day one but no extreme focus
Lisa steps back in her story to cover a relationship that fell apart earlier in life
She ended up leaving their house with nothing
Lisa actually owned a home that she rented to her parents but didn't want to stay there
So she ended up renting another apartment
Then we step back to what life looked like when she really discovered Financial Independence
The day she discovers it, she goes into work and maxes out her 401k contribution
Then they started cutting everything
No weekly pizza or coffee dates, nothing was off-limits
FI/OR - Financial Independence Optional Retirement
Lisa goes over the 5 big points of this idea of FI/OR
Pressure is off - you don't have to be extreme and retire super early for no reason
Makes work more fun - FIRE made work seem daunting, focusing less on it made work fun
Scale back / Stop Side Hustles - these are just second jobs and it can grind you down
Gives You Options - now you can focus a little more on the things you love vs rapid spending
Lisa's original goal was to stop working in 2021 and just do nothing
Then she started thinking about kid's college/wedding, vacations, mom's care
Now Lisa is rethinking her timeline and moved it to 2025-2030
She and her husband currently have blogs and rental properties
She also admits she could never just retire and do nothing
Key Takeaways
No money? Spend it anyway: Lisa talks about how important having nice clothes was for her self esteem growing up poor
It's ok to slow down: Obviously Lisa has pivoted and changed her plans and she sounds so much happier with optional retirement.
Pick a Partner: We discuss how being cheap is destructive to relationships and the environment

Call to Action

Slow down a little, spend some time and money on something you love and avoid deprivation.

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