{"id":41,"date":"2021-05-31T15:29:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-31T15:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/an-experiment-in-mini-retirement-whats-baby-fi\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T17:03:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T17:03:21","slug":"an-experiment-in-mini-retirement-whats-baby-fi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/an-experiment-in-mini-retirement-whats-baby-fi\/","title":{"rendered":"A Thought Experiment in \u201cMini\u201d Retirement: What\u2019s Baby FI?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

\n

I had an interesting realization surface the other day: <\/p>\n

\n

My entire strategy thus far on my journey to true financial independence (where my investments create enough passive income to live on, and work becomes optional) was to work high-paying gigs (regardless of passion or enjoyment) and hit the magic number ($1M alone or $2M with a spouse \u2013 allowing for a $40,000 or $80,000 drawdown respectively, tax-free and every dollar available for spending) in as little time as possible<\/strong>. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Because of my save rate and projected increase in income, I was on track to hit $1M in less than 7 years \u2013 that lands me right at age 33. <\/p>\n

\u201c7 years? F*** yeah! I can do that.\u201d <\/p>\n

Fast-forward 6 months of grinding 80 hours per week, working Saturdays, waking up at 5, and constantly feeling behind.<\/em><\/p>\n

Guess what? 7 years doesn\u2019t feel like it\u2019s going to fly by anymore. <\/p>\n

Could I muscle through it? Sure. Will<\/em> I muscle through it? Maybe.<\/p>\n

But a big part of striving for financial independence is living an intentional life<\/strong> \u2013 clarifying what it is, exactly, you want \u2013 and in my discovery phase, I asked myself: Do I want a million dollars? Or do I want control over my time?<\/em><\/p>\n

Unequivocally, it\u2019s not about the money. The money is just what you use to buy the time.<\/p>\n

Where I am now: 25% of the way toward FI<\/h2>\n

As I write this in 2020, my net worth is hovering somewhere around $260,000, which means I\u2019m a little more than 25% of the way there.<\/p>\n

Nobody talks about the weird in-between phase of cranking toward FI. It\u2019s this weird high in the beginning \u2013 you feel like you\u2019ve discovered the secret to life<\/strong>, and the adrenaline high is powerful enough to make you swear off your nail appointments and non-happy hour-priced cocktails forever. <\/p>\n

But then there\u2019s this period that comes later<\/em> \u2013 after your first few, big milestones \u2013 where suddenly, you look out at the horizon, and you realize \u2013 shit, that\u2019s still really<\/em> far away. Sure, it\u2019s happening! Sure, the more you invest, the faster it grows! But damn, there\u2019s nothing like working your ass off, investing like a crazy person, and looking up and going, \u201cOK\u2026 only<\/em> 7 more years!\u201d<\/p>\n

The point is, it\u2019s a marathon, not a sprint \u2013 so my, \u201cIt\u2019s cool, I don\u2019t need time, sleep, a social life, or balance \u2013 I\u2019ll work four jobs until I\u2019m 33 and then chill,\u201d plan started to look (and feel) like it was losing the plot. <\/p>\n

FI is about optimizing for happiness<\/h2>\n

\u2026and for me, a big source of the happiness that I feel day to day comes in those quiet moments \u2013 the rare afternoons where meetings get canceled. Saturday mornings where I can take Georgia to the park and not immediately rush home or risk being late for something. Friday nights when I can rest on the couch, watch a little TV, and ignore email, knowing I\u2019m (mostly) free for the next 48 hours. <\/p>\n

The more I started to notice my joy in the simple moments, the more I wondered if maybe there were a less extreme way to achieve what I\u2019m trying to do.<\/p>\n

Simply working fewer corporate jobs and making less money didn\u2019t feel like a great<\/em> answer, since it would still require me to be tethered to a work station from the hours of 9 to 5 every day, 5 days a week. Whether I\u2019m responsible to one employer or three might make the days themselves a little less chaotic, but it didn\u2019t quite solve for the \u201ctechnically required to be sitting at a desk all day\u201d thing. There may be less work, but my time wouldn\u2019t be mine.<\/p>\n

And sadly, I feel too much loyalty, obligation, and corporate guilt to half-ass my work \u2013 if my name is attached to something or I\u2019m a member of a team, I take my responsibility to people too seriously for the answer to be, \u201cCare (and try) less.\u201d <\/p>\n

The birth of the \u201cmini retirement\u201d concept<\/h2>\n

There was one moment specifically where I remember feeling a little silly. I was talking to a friend who owns her own small business, works her own hours, and genuinely enjoys<\/em> her day to day life. If I had to guess, I bet she makes anywhere from $3,500 to $5,000 per month, depending on her client load. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo\u2026 why are you working so much? What are you trying to do?\u201d She asked me. \u201cKatie, what are you saving for<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

I launched into my monolithic explanation about financial independence. Early retirement! Endless vacation! No responsibilities! Control over your time! Mission-driven work! Purpose!<\/p>\n

She seemed confused. <\/p>\n

Frustrated, I changed my approach: \u201cI just want to be able to do whatever I want all the time,\u201d I said, probably expressing my obsession with FI in the simplest terms I had found yet. <\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t about financial<\/em> independence. It was about independence. I was sure she would get it. <\/p>\n

\u201cHm,\u201d she replied, \u201cWell, I guess that makes sense\u2026 but I already do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

A thousand records scratched. Cars crashed. Air horns sounded. <\/p>\n

\u201cI already do that.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

She was right. She did. She slept until 8. Took yoga classes in the morning. Had a few clients in the afternoons. Enjoyed her evenings. <\/p>\n

Split-screen that leisurely, balanced life with my (chosen) day-to-day:<\/p>\n

Crawl out of bed at 5:30. Take the dog out. Post on Money with Katie and work through DMs until 6:30. Make a playlist. Teach a fitness class from around 7:30 to 8:30. Rush home, shower, and throw on clothes in roughly 20 minutes for meetings from 9 to noon. Take the dog out, eat some food, and answer emails over lunch. Dive back into meetings from 1 to 5, then finish up any unfinished tasks until around 7. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s hardly any time for serendipity, true creative bandwidth, or \u2013 frankly \u2013 relaxation and enjoyment.<\/p>\n

(I know \u2013 boohoo, bitch, let\u2019s throw it back to the industrial revolution where people wasted away in factories for 30 cents a day, waist-high in meat scraps. You don\u2019t \u201crelax and enjoy\u201d your day? You don\u2019t \u201chave creative bandwidth\u201d? Cry about it and shut the f*** up!)<\/p>\n

I get it. But hey, it\u2019s 2020. We can have craft sushi delivered to our door in 20 minutes and people are physically adhering longer eyelashes to their faces. We\u2019ve evolved, and so have my expectations. <\/p>\n

The truth is, I was so jealous of this friend\u2019s lifestyle but so unwilling to admit it to myself because it meant my 7-year path would feel even longer and harder by comparison. I felt better by imagining her lifestyle as my eventual reward for my hustle, but still, her voice rang in my head:<\/p>\n

If I could just\u2026 have that now, would I?<\/p>\n

Is there another way?<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s a mini retirement (or, \u201cbaby FI\u201d)?<\/h2>\n

Well, a mini retirement basically leverages the same 4% rule that drives traditional FI \u2013 but in a slightly different way. <\/p>\n

While calculating real, true, adult, triple-XXX financial independence helps you figure out how much of your total income you\u2019d need to invest over time to retire completely, \u201cbaby FI\u201d \u2013 a term I\u2019m coining right here, right now \u2013 is predicated on the idea that you will still have some<\/em> income \u2013 just not the multiple-six-figure, four-job chaos you were roped into before.<\/p>\n

In truth, it\u2019s really just shortening the timeline on small business dreams \u2013 still with lower risk, but not totally<\/em> risk-free. <\/p>\n

When you\u2019re totally<\/em> FI, your projects don\u2019t have to produce any<\/em> money \u2013 your assets do that for you. Your work is utterly optional.<\/p>\n

But with baby<\/em> FI, your investments only have to produce some smaller, predetermined amount of your expenses (or, realistically, maybe none of them \u2013 maybe your business or pet project does that \u2013 but the investments still grow in the background).<\/p>\n

For example, my monthly expenses right now are approximately $2,500 for me alone. At true FI, that\u2019s a FI number of $750,000 (which is, obviously, lower than my actual goal of $1M, which is bigger to build in some buffer \u2013 and because we might as well go for seven-figure gold, right?). <\/p>\n

If I were approaching this with a \u201cbaby FI\u201d mindset, I\u2019d say, \u201cAll right \u2013 my business needs to produce somewhere between $1,250 and $2,500 per month, and my investments may need to provide up to <\/em>$1,250 per month at the most.\u201d Extrapolated over a year, that would mean the \u201cannual expense\u201d number my investments need to provide for is $15,000, and the FI number is $375,000 \u2013 $375,000 would spin off $15,000 of returns per year safely, give or take, thereby producing at least half of what I\u2019d need to cover my expenses. <\/p>\n

Considerations for baby FI \u2013 what\u2019s the worst that could happen?<\/h4>\n

In this thought experiment, we\u2019re talking about leaving traditional work when investments reach $375,000 \u2013 enough to spin off returns that can cover roughly half your monthly expenses (obviously, if your spending situation is different, this equation nets a different result \u2013 it highlights well why keeping your spending low is so crucial to providing you with options<\/strong>, and I\u2019m going to take this opportunity to shamelessly plug the Budget Like a Millionaire Masterclass<\/a>), instead of plowing through to invest the full $1M and walk away from earning completely, cold turkey. <\/p>\n

This means you need to somehow produce at least <\/em>enough to cover half your monthly expenses (or, preferably, all of it) with a business or project of choice, but you (probably) won\u2019t have anything left over to add<\/em> to your investments.<\/p>\n

This begs the question: What\u2019s the worst thing that could happen?<\/p>\n

Well, the obvious potential risk is that your project or earning avenue of choice won\u2019t produce half (or all) of your expenses. But let\u2019s set that aside for a moment, because there\u2019s a massive potential upside<\/em>, too: After all, most FI people end up making more<\/em> in early retirement because they finally have the freedom to pursue their passions as adults without risk or full-time employment. Since it is my sincere belief that most financially independent people have a decent shot at out-earning their prior corporate selves, we\u2019ll take the intermediate approach:<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s pretend you do make enough to cover roughly 75% of your monthly expenses. This means your investments provide for the other 25%, assuming you aren\u2019t able to cut back on spending or scale your income in any way. <\/p>\n

25% of $30,000 per year is $7,500. Your investments would have to provide you with $7,500 per year. Since $7,500 is only 2% of $375,000, you\u2019re well<\/em> under your safe withdrawal rate of 4%, and your investment will continue to grow despite you not adding anything to it. <\/p>\n

But by how much?<\/p>\n

Assuming your withdrawal increases by 3% per year because of inflation and your average return is 7%, your drawdown looks like this:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"

This is an amended version of the Financial Independence tracker that lives in the Wealth Planner.<\/p><\/div>\n

\n

As you can see, 38 years from now, you won\u2019t be withdrawing $7,500 \u2013 you\u2019ll be withdrawing $22,389, because that\u2019s $7,500 adjusted for 38 years of inflation.<\/p>\n

But hey, that\u2019s all right \u2013 because your baby FI portfolio grew to $2.7M on its own without you adding another dollar and continuing to withdraw 25% of your monthly expenses, assuming your business or project (or a subsequent one) was never able to produce more than 75% of your monthly expenses.<\/p>\n

To me, this is a rather compelling worst case scenario<\/h2>\n

Because sure, $2.7M in 38 years from now isn\u2019t the same thing as having $2.7M today (our $7,500 > $22,389 is the perfect example of that), but there are plenty<\/em> of people who work dead-end jobs they don\u2019t enjoy for their entire adult lives who are on track to retire with less than $2.7M. <\/p>\n

The fact that you could walk away from \u201creal\u201d work as soon as you hit $375,000 and make a go of your own business and still<\/em> end up with more than most Americans when you\u2019re of traditional retirement age even if your business never takes off and it only ever makes enough to cover 75% of your monthly expenses<\/strong> (that\u2019s $1,875, in this example) using the example we did today of a $2,500\/mo. lifestyle (in 2021 dollars), I\u2019d say that risk level is pretty damn low. <\/p>\n

$1,875 is less than $500 per week. <\/p>\n

Why does this work? How <\/em>does this work?<\/h2>\n

Well, it works for a few reasons:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • \n

    Most people live most of their lives in a state of perpetual drift. They make more money over time, so they spend more money over time. Rarely do we take a step back and ask what our monthly expenses could<\/em> be if it meant we got to spend our lives doing the work that mattered to us. <\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    Usually when we look at our incomes, we want to have enough to be able to save and invest some after we\u2019re done spending. In this example, our income only needs to cover our basic expenses \u2013 because the \u2018saving and investing\u2019 hard part is already done. That\u2019s why a job that makes less than $2,000\/mo. (in this example) is adequate.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n

  • \n

    Compound interest is insanely powerful. It\u2019s the magic that powers financial independence principles, and this example is no different. After all, if our $375,000 were in savings<\/em>, this would be a different story. You\u2019d run out of money a couple decades in, instead of ending up with nearly $3M despite not adding another penny. <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    What\u2019s the catch?<\/h2>\n

    At first, I thought the catch would be that $2.7M wouldn\u2019t be enough in \u201creal\u201d retirement once you started to actually draw down the full 4% \u2013 and keep in mind, $2.7M in 38 years is roughly the same thing as having $870,000 today, so it\u2019s not the same. <\/p>\n

    But when I crunched the numbers and did a drawdown where you started today with $1,000,000 and withdrew a full $40,000 per year for 38 years, you ended up with $2.2M. Now, detail-oriented readers will notice that I increased the withdrawal to a full 4% for the $1M example \u2013 but that\u2019s because that\u2019s the intent of waiting to leave until you have the full million. You grant yourself the reward of a full 4%, tax-free withdrawal. <\/p>\n

    Still, the point stands \u2013 leaving traditional work with $375,000 and working in some capacity you enjoy to produce at least 75% of your monthly expenses, or $1,875 per month (if your monthly expenses are at or around $2,500\/mo.), actually leaves you with more<\/em> after 38 years than waiting until you hit the full million and completely throwing in the towel on earning \u2013 not less.<\/p>\n

    Conclusion: Baby FI may have some merit<\/h2>\n

    If you\u2019re planning to pursue a business idea or passion project that has strong proof of concept (that is, you\u2019ve already seen it can make money) anyway, it may not make sense to plow through to hit your full FI goal. To figure out what your FI goal is based on your current salary, save rate, and spending habits, you can use the Financial Independence Tool for an easy plug-and-play situation or simply follow the same methodology outlined in this post. <\/p>\n

    Just keep in mind the tool will tell you your FULL financial independence number, not the baby FI middle-ground we discussed today.<\/p>\n

    Update from 3 years later<\/h2>\n

    Hello! Late 2022\/early 2023 Katie here to check in. It turns out my plan (to take my side project full-time after reaching a particular net worth) worked out the way I hoped it would. Call it survivorship bias, but it makes quite a bit more than my old corporate gig did. <\/p>\n

    It\u2019s gratifying to see my \u201cmini retirement\u201d thought experiment yield real-life results. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
    \n
    \n Check out the tool
    \n <\/a>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I had an interesting realization surface the other day: My entire strategy thus far on my journey to true financial independence (where my investments create enough passive income to live on, and work becomes optional) was to work high-paying gigs (regardless of passion or enjoyment) and hit the magic number ($1M alone or $2M with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":178814,"featured_media":2426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"si-template-single-post-income.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-41","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-financial-independence","tag-income"],"yoast_head":"\nA Thought Experiment in \u201cMini\u201d Retirement: What\u2019s Baby FI? - Money with Katie<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/an-experiment-in-mini-retirement-whats-baby-fi\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Thought Experiment in \u201cMini\u201d Retirement: What\u2019s Baby FI? 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