How To Design Your Dream Life with Andy Hill

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1:14Get 12 months special financing on installed carpet projects right now at the Home Depot. Offer valid March 12th through March 29th, 2026. Exclusions and additional Charges may apply. For licenses, see homedepot.com slash license numbers. Quite quickly after that, it fades, man. It's just a number. And so really the goal, the win is an accumulation of incredible memories with people that you love. And we had that moment of like, what if we just went from full-time workers to part-time workers? Could we do that? Could we afford that type of life? I feel like this is our version of financial independence.

1:54We have built up our wealth enough where we can own more of our time now, and we can choose work that we enjoy and do it because we want to do it, not because we have to do it.

2:14What's up, everybody, and welcome to the Personal Finance Podcast. I'm your host, Andrew, founder of MasterMoney.co. And today on the Personal Finance Podcast, we are joined by our guest, Andy Hill, to talk about life after Coast Fire. If you guys have any questions, make sure you join the Master Money newsletter by going to MasterMoney.co slash newsletter. And don't forget to follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, or whatever podcast player you love listening to this podcast on. And if you want to help out the show, consider leaving a five-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast player.

2:46And also give us the old thumbs up on YouTube if you're watching on YouTube. Now, today we are talking about a topic that most people dream about, but no one actually prepares for. What happens after you hit Coast Fire? So last episode, we had a conversation with Andy Hill, who is on the show today. Really excited to have him on the show today about his journey to Coast Fire. But today we are looking at what does your life look like when your retirement is fully funded and your money can grow on autopilot? when your job shifts from grinding more to not messing up the math? And how do you use that freedom to actually own your time?

3:20My guest today knows this better than anyone else. So Andy Hill is back on the show. One of our only three-time guests who have ever been on the show, and his new book, Own Your Time, is about designing a life where you work less, you live more, and you build the kind of health, family, and purpose that we all want. That's what we all want out of life. And so today, we're talking about the next step. How do you move from Coast Fire on paper to Coast Fire in real life? And we're going to dig into practical, tactical questions that people wrestle with every single day. Like, how do you find balance between spending on the things that you want today and saving for your future tomorrow?

3:57How do you build a spending plan that actually can help you tactically achieve your goals, especially when it comes to Coast Fire? How do couples and families find harmony when they are planning all this out? And if you're behind on your retirement savings, what do you do in order to accomplish these goals? In addition, we're going to dive into the emotional side of Coast Fire. Like, what's it like once you reach that point? And what does it feel like to actually slow down your savings or taper back your savings? And what the moment actually felt like when Andy ran the numbers and realized he could become Coast Fire at any point in time.

4:26We're also going to talk about how Coast Fire opened up a bunch of new options for Andy, where he has reduced hours. He can work on passion projects. He's working basically part-time solopreneurship and eventually Andy's signature three-day workweek lifestyle. And then we'll close with how he structures those days, how he thinks about fitness, lifestyle, his family. And of course, we've got our rapid fire questions as well. So this is going to be a powerful conversation about money, lifestyle design and taking back your calendar. So without further ado, let's welcome Andy back to the Personal Finance Podcast.

4:56So Andy, welcome back to the Personal Finance Podcast. I am so glad to be back, Andrew. Thank you so much for having me. So last time we talked about Coast Fire and we kind of went through your journey with Coast Fire. And so what I want to do today is kind of talk about the psychology of achieving Coast Fire and kind of leading up to what happens when you achieve Coast Fire. But then after, you know, what is life kind of like when it comes to Coast Fire? How do you design your life in a way that really is what you intended to do when you started off during this journey? And so I think for a lot of people out there, they are really interested in Coast Fire and kind of how to get there.

5:32And we kind of talked about that last episode. So if anybody hasn't heard that episode, go ahead and check that one out as well. And then we'll dive into deeper detail about a bunch of other stuff here, too. And you have a great book talk coming out that we or that has come out today that we were talking about here in the intro. And so really, really excited for that, too, as we dive deeper into this. So I think one big thing to start off with here is that most people either overspend now or they over save for someday. How do you find the right balance between enjoying today and preparing for tomorrow?

6:02Because that's a big question I get a lot is people want to balance these two goals. They want to make sure that they can enjoy their time today, but they also want to make sure that they're saving for retirement in their future. How do you kind of find that balance? It's a great question. And I think it's something that we are all seeking, right? You know, we want to do the right thing by planning for tomorrow, but then we also want to embrace the now and be in the present, right? So this is the life question, right? It's for everybody. But I've balanced both of these. I started my corporate career and I was spending all of the money because it was coming in and I said, wow, this is really great.

6:39Between my wife and I, we're making like$130 ,000. Let's spend all of it. We're in our late 20s. That's great. We're enjoying life. We're really living in the now. And then I started to realize the realities of parenthood, all the expenses that go into it. My wife wanting the nice family home and all that. I'm like, okay, well, you know, let's save up for that. Let's invest for it. But I'm working in this job that I really don't like all that much. How can I do all of those things and get the heck out of here? So I started down that super fire path where I'm saving way too much. So I guess to answer your question, I've done both.

7:16And it's finding that middle ground that works best for you is really the path that a lot of us should be seeking. Because there could be trouble in the extremes, right? If we spend it all, then that doesn't really help us for the future. And if we save it all, then it's, at least for me, a quick pathway to divorce and no friends and a little bit of a life of deprivation. So I've been trying to seek this middle way for quite a while throughout my path. And I think it's worth exploring for a lot of people. I think so, too. And kind of finding that balance, I think, for a lot of folks is thinking about some of your goals and some of the structures that you have in place, what's your why, and then kind of figuring out what are the things that you truly value and starting to go in that direction.

7:56So maybe you truly value playing golf. But in addition, you also want to make sure that you value your time because you really don't like your job anymore. So splitting it up between those two things can be something where you can really get a good balancing act going. So how can someone kind of build out a spending plan that lets them enjoy life today without sabotaging their future? Is there like a rule of thumb that you use? Do you just use like a standard budget, like a zero-based budget? Or how do you kind of think about that? Yeah. Yeah. You know, like you said, how I started out really with our conversations with people is think really deeply about that why or do some dreaming exercises where you're really like, what do I want out of my life?

8:35You know, where do I see myself five to 10 years from now? And do that, too. If you are married, do that with your spouse, because your goals and dreams might be similar to your spouse. But if you don't share those goals and dreams, it's important to connect and make sure you're on the same path. Once you have that vision, once you have that desire to move forward, then yes, a zero-based budget's a great place to start. What's coming in and where is it going? And based on where it's going, does that align with those dreams and values and goals that I have or my spouse has? And are we moving in that direction?

9:10And that gap that you can create between your income and your expenses is really the power move to say, OK, let's use that gap to push towards those dreams and values. And so what I've found with regards to like a savings percentage, because I like to get kind of nerdy with these types of things, is I've done both. Right. I've saved zero percent. I've saved 50 percent. And depending on your income, saving 50 percent can be very painful for your life. if it can feel like deprivation for a period of time. And if you make a ton of money, saving a half of it, you know, no big deal, right? You could probably do that.

9:45But a lot of us in America, like saving half your income's pretty difficult. So I, again, like to find that middle way. For me, saving around 25 to 30 % of your income for an extended period of time can move mountains. It really can. It helped my wife and I go from a negative$50 ,000 net worth to over millionaires in about 10 years. We were making around$180 ,000 per year during that timeframe, but saving that amount and then growing over time. And then now over the last five years, really just kind of letting go of the gas a little bit and enjoying a little bit more life. So I think if you can find that middle ground again, I keep coming back to this middle way, but I really think that's a smart path to move towards.

10:31And it's so funny that you say that 25 to 30%, because that's exactly the range that I try to always stick in as well. And that's kind of what I did to get to my first million was in the 25 to 30 % range. And I tell a lot of people out there who are just saving 5 % of their income, hey, let's work our way up to trying to get to at least a minimum 20 % of our income. And we can do this over time, maybe it's ticking up 1 % at a time. But then once you get to that 20%, trying to get to that 25 to 30 is great. And then for a lot of people out there, if you want financial independence quickly, you really don't like the situation that you're in, then increasing that savings rate even more is going to have a dramatic impact on your life at a 50 % savings rate.

11:04It's like 17 years is when you can retire. So there's a lot of really cool stuff depending on the rate of return that the market gets, but there's a lot of cool stuff that you can do with your savings rate. And I completely agree with you kind of finding that right balance for where you are in your situation in life. And then you can take your foot off the gas a little bit. I remember, you know, once I started having kids, that's when I started to take my foot off the gas a little bit more. There was a lot more expenses also, but it was just one of those things where you can find those seasons of life and then you can adjust your spending based on that.

11:32And I think that's really, really powerful. So I know you're a big fan of the book, Die With Zero. And this is a book that I read. And our book club actually right now is reading it in Master Money Academy and kind of going through some of the sequences that we have here. And it really kind of changed my outlook just on some certain things. And so how do you think about, you know, spending money when it comes to memories? Because you have a family, you have kids. And so you want to make sure that you're spending money on memories and things right now, but also balancing for retirement. So how did you kind of think about that?

11:59And how did you weigh that trade-off. Yeah, I think I lost my way a little bit during my build-up journey of my net worth and my investments, thinking that that was the goal, that number, that millionaire net worth, or hitting certain milestones. And when I started to hit some of those milestones, it was neat. I looked at the numbers. I'm like, that's cool. Shared it with some friends, shared it online and things, get some attaboy moments for myself, pat myself on the back. But quite quickly after that, it fades, man. It's just a number. And so I read Die With Zero probably around that time frame when I hit that millionaire net worth.

12:38And it was like, really, the goal, the win is an accumulation of incredible memories with people that you love and experiences. And And what can you do to sustain that type of lifestyle over the long haul? Because that is happiness, man. I got to interview this professor from Harvard who's been running the longest study of happiness over 80 years, the largest longitudinal study of happiness. And their results were two. If you want to have a long, happy life, of course, take care of your health, eat well. But then number two, create experiences with people that you love and be around them. That is the secret to this whole life of happiness.

13:29And it's like, oh, my gosh, when I had that conversation with him, red dye with zero and started experiencing some of these things for myself, it just was a light bulb moment saying, man, invest in those things. Maximize the family experiences. Spend money in those areas. actually adjust your budget in accordance with that being one of your top priorities. I love using budgeting systems that allow you to move around different items in your budget. You can physically prioritize things for your money and your time where you're saying, I want to spend more on these things that matter. So yes, when you have that ability to continue to see how you can do that.

14:07It doesn't happen right over time, but like any goal, if you can make 1 % improvements each month and move towards that life that you want to have, it's amazing the results that can come of it over time. And it happens so much faster than I think a lot of people think. They may be saying to themselves, well, how do I actually save for experiences? I'm just trying to get by those types of things. But then really, once you just start to put money towards that goal, even if it's small amounts of money, small amounts of money over time can grow to very large amounts of money. You just have to get the ball rolling and get started.

14:36And I completely agree with you. I read this study that came out as of recent that was interviewing people and said, what was your favorite childhood memories? And they look back and they said, Hey, these vacations that we went on as a family, that was the number one thing that people have the best memories as a childhood. So I remember taking that information and trying to take action on that. So like, for example, this summer, my family and I were going to go on vacation for a month and a half to Europe just because I want to have those experiences with my kids. And so I've kind of changed the trajectory of where I want my dollars to go and kind of shifted it based on some of this stuff, just with Diary Zero and some of the things that they've talked about there as well.

15:08So I think that's really, really cool, the way that you have this structure with your family, too. So another big question that we get is we know folks who will come to us and say, hey, I just kind of figured out and learned about how to get my finances together. I'm just getting started with my retirement savings. And I feel like I'm late. I feel like I'm behind the curve here. How do I kind of balance being able to enjoy life today, but also saving for retirement in the future if I'm a little bit behind? What would you say to someone like that? And or is there any strategies that you would use to think about this.

15:37Yeah, I would say if that person feels behind, but they like what they do for a living, you're in a good spot. Because I think at the end of the day, what we're all trying to do is just enjoy our everyday. For me, when I was in my corporate job, I'm like, oh my God, get me out of here. I don't want to do this anymore. I feel called to do something different. So I felt that stretch to save a lot more, invest a lot more so that I could leave. But if you're in a situation where you're like, nah, I kind of like my job. I got good benefits. I like what I do. Bless you. That's fantastic. You have the benefit of maybe saving and investing a little less than this aggressive amount of 30 % or 50 % or whatever you want to do if you want to make some escape.

16:19You could save 15%. You could save a lot less, but you still want to move towards retirement eventually. And with that difference, spend more on your life now. Spend more on experiences. Don't delay that moment of spending time with somebody you love or spending time with your children or, you know, it's really about taking that money and investing it in time and experiences with people that you love. So if you can split that difference, but if you're like, oh my God, I also don't really like what I'm doing and I want to have more time for experiences. I really like this middle path of Coast Fire because it gives you a shorter window to hit this milestone to say, okay, once I hit Coast Fire, I can take my foot off the gas a little bit, maybe spend less time working at a job that I don't like, or maybe start my own thing where I can work less, have more time to do things that I enjoy and have that benefit.

17:18So I guess to answer your question, A, if you enjoy your job, fantastic. Keep rocking that, enjoy it, save and invest some, like 15%, I think is probably a good minimum. And then invest that other 15 % in experiences and time with your friends and your family, because, you know, we only get so much time on this on this one precious life. So and then the second with that would be Coast Fire, you know, go for it. It's a good goal. 100%. And I think that's the that's the way to move. That's the way to look at it overall, because if you all takes some planning, if you plan up front and you kind of figure out, OK, well, how much do I have left here?

17:52How much can I allocate towards my retirement? And will that keep me on track to ensure that I retire on time in the way that I want to and all those different things, then you can tweak all the numbers based on just planning that out. And that's where, you know, Coast Fire, I think, comes into play for a lot of folks, because it's not as difficult as maybe they once thought it was. And that's where I love how you how much you talk about Coast Fire, because it's just such a powerful tool that we have in our tool belt. So I want to talk about some of the psychology behind Coast Fire. I think some people out there, they struggle with certain areas of Coast Fire and what that actually is like.

18:24So when you initially ran the numbers for Coast Fire and you figured out, hey, this is the number that I have to hit in order for me to be Coast Fire. What did that feel like when you actually figured out, hey, here's the number I need to hit, and this is where I need to go? I remember that. I remember thinking, when can I stop saving for retirement? It's always good questions to think at the end, right? Start with the end in mind, right? Okay, when can I stop doing this? Because I'm doing it pretty aggressively right now. And I know it's important to save for my retirement, but isn't there a stopping point?

18:54It's not like when I have a bajillion dollars when I'm 70, right? It's like, oh, I started finding results for that. There was a blog that I read. I think it was called Stop Ironing Shirts. It was a blogger back in the day. He had a fire blog. And then another group called the Pioneers. They're fantastic. They started talking about Coast Fire. I'm like, what is this thing? And it started to be the answer. It started to say, wow, you know, if I save and invest enough right now with time and compound interest, it'll take me to that goal without any further contributions. And now I know a lot of people will say, well, that seems pretty drastic to go from aggressive to nothing.

19:31So there's always a path down. You can say, hey, let me just take the match from my employer and let that be a good middle ground. But when I realized that I had gotten close to it and I was pretty moments away from happening, I said, wow, the next question, next big question in mind is like, if I'm not investing that much for my retirement, what else could I be doing with my money? Or more importantly, what else can I be doing with my time? And so that was like a big epiphany moment. And for my wife and I around the time, this was like post COVID. We were having that, you know, moment in all of our brains at that time being like, wow, what a weird world we're living in right now.

20:14Like it's more important than ever to spend time with people you love. And we had that moment of like, what if we just went from full-time workers to part-time workers. Could we do that? Could we afford that type of life? And that was a big question that we asked ourselves. We ran the numbers and it became a reality for us because we had already done some other big things before that, became completely debt-free, saved up a bunch of money in an FU money bucket to say goodbye to a corporate job that we didn't like, enough money in there too for my wife to try something new with her career. These other steps helped in addition to Coast Fire to creating part-time work in our lives as opposed to full-time work.

21:00I love that. And I think that is kind of the way I kind of describe Coast Fire is it's almost like if you've ever been body surfing or surfing in general, you're kind of paddling as fast as you possibly can. And then the wave kind of picks you up and it just takes over and then you reach shore. And I think that's kind of the way that I really see it for a lot of folks is you just have to do the heavy lifting up front and you have to paddle at the very beginning. And all of a sudden, the wave of compound interest is going to take over in addition to time, and it's going to push you forward to where you need to get to.

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