My Coast FI Story: Why I Chose to Deliberately Slow Down My Path to Financial Independence
In the end, I've realized that there's no rush, everything I'm looking for is right here.
You’ve likely heard of slow living:
“Doing things at just the right speed to curate a more meaningful and conscious lifestyle in line with what you value most.”
The slow movement has taken hold in many areas, from food to travel and everything in between. Slow living is all about intentionality—aligning your life and your values.
But did you know there’s a slow financial independence movement as well?
It’s a movement within the FIRE movement, full of people who’ve realized pursuing financial independence doesn’t need to be a rush. Good things take time, and FI is no different. I’m a member of the slow FI movement, and I’m using a strategy called coast FI or “coasting” to reach financial independence.
Let me tell you all about it.
When did I first learn about Coast FI?
I first heard about coast FI in August 2020, right around the time my daughter was born.
I was listening to the ChooseFI podcast, episode 229 featuring Jessica from The Fioneers. I was listening to Jessica explain this alternative strategy for financial independence that lets compound interest do most of the heavy lifting. The idea was simple: you save enough that your assets will grow into the amount you need to be FI in the future. Then, you can turn off your savings now and just focus on covering your living expenses while working flexibly.
It’s like riding your bike up a hill, and once you get to the top, coasting down the other side towards financial independence.
As a new dad, this felt like a perfect fit. Instead of continuing to hustle and grind at my current job and maximizing my savings to reach financial independence in the next ten years, I could downshift my career, work flexibly to cover my living expenses, and let my assets grow in the background. That meant I could be the family man I want to be right now, not ten years from now.
It’s funny how everything seems to hit all at once sometimes.
Around the same time, I had heard of this concept called 18 summers by Hal Elrod. Long story short, it’s the idea that as parents, you’ve got 18 summers before your kids are grown and gone. It put it in perspective for me that this time with my daughter is uniquely valuable. If I wanted to align my life with my values, coasting to financial independence felt like the perfect fit.
So I pointed my bike downhill and began coasting.
What did I do after learning about Coast FI?
Learning about coast FI sparked a series of conversations with my spouse.
We had been aggressively pursuing FIRE for a while at this point, which meant we were uniquely positioned to start coasting. The exact calculations escape me now, but we were roughly on track to retire comfortably in our mid-50s to early 60s without saving another dime. That, combined with our relatively low lifestyle costs, meant that we could make some serious work-life adjustments.
So I traded in my job for a combination of seasonal and freelance work.
Now I work for Intuit’s TurboTax from January to mid-April every year as a Tax Preparer and as a self-employed freelance writer year-round. This allows me to have incredible flexibility throughout the day, work from anywhere, and above all else—spend time with my spouse and daughter. I feel that I now get 80% of the benefits of financial independence without having to wait for full financial independence.
We also made an intentional decision to lower our fixed expenses.
Around the same time, we had been seriously considering a move to a slightly lower cost of living area about 3.5 hours south. The winters were harsh and long where we were living, and the desert to the south could offer us year-round sunshine. So, we pulled the trigger on the move, selling our house up north and buying a slightly nicer home for a lower price down south.
We also shifted from a 15-year mortgage to a 30-year mortgage in the process.
When we had bought our first home we were aggressively pursuing FIRE and we wanted our home to be paid off right around the time we would be achieving full financial independence. That meant a 15-year mortgage felt right for us, even though the monthly payments were much higher than a 30 year. But, with our new strategy, we determined that we were in no rush to pay off our mortgage, and lowering our fixed expenses was more of a priority.
Making that decision has been an excellent fit for us and has allowed us to prioritize freedom and flexibility now.
What does my career structure look like now? What does that enable me to do with my time?
My career has a unique structure, which allows me a unique level of freedom and flexibility.
I like to think of it in two distinct parts: seasonal and freelance work.
Seasonal Work
When I left my job to start coasting, I knew that I wanted a solid safety net or guaranteed income every year, but I wanted it to be flexible.
That’s when I found seasonal tax prep. Here’s how it works: I have the option to work for TurboTax every year from January to mid-April. During the tax season, I can work the required minimum of 20 hours a week or go crazy with it and work up to 70 or 80 hours per week, with everything over 40 hours per week counting as overtime. This means that every year, I can make a small, medium, or large amount of money doing tax prep, depending on what we need.
In addition, because I’ve been ranked as a top-tier tax expert for the last two seasons, I’ve been offered the chance to extend.
That means if I need to earn more for the year, I could extend my season till as late as October, guaranteeing myself work and income for an additional six months. I haven’t taken that option yet, but I anticipate it being available every year. This gives me incredible peace of mind knowing that I have my bread and butter work coming back every year, and it’s scalable depending on our income needs.
One of the biggest things I love about seasonal work is its definitive start and endpoint.
There is no way around it: tax prep can be difficult, repetitive, and sometimes stressful. But, I also really enjoy the work, and it allows me to help demystify a stressful part of many people’s finances. But, the beauty is that every year, I have a contract saying that my season starts on this date and ends on this date—sure, I have the option to extend, but I know I can be done when my contract is up.
Seasonal work is like the consistent, guaranteed aspect of my income. Now let’s explore freelancing.
Freelance Work
I do freelance work year-round, taking on various projects within the personal finance world.
For example, I currently write personal finance articles for a handful of companies, some as a ghostwriter and some under my name. In addition, I do a lot of content auditing, reviewing past articles from different authors to make sure the content is still accurate and updating it as needed. These projects range in pay, consistency, and volume, which is why I typically view my freelance work as more sporadic and less guaranteed.
I’ve had weeks where I sell ten articles and weeks where I sell none, which is why my seasonal work feels so valuable as the consistent and guaranteed aspect of my income.
But, as a freelancer, I love that I get to apply for various jobs or gigs, be creative with the services that I can offer, and in the end, I choose the work I do. And for now, the goal is to get to a point where I can cover our living expenses solely with my freelance work, allowing me to leave seasonal work behind if I want to.
But in the end, the real question is, what does this allow me to do with my time?
Last summer, we went on a 6-week road trip, starting in San Diego and finishing in Portland, Oregon, traveling along the pacific coast highway for most of the trip.
We had experiences and made memories that I will never forget—taking our daughter to see hikes, beaches, and towns all along the way. It was our second summer of 18 that we get with our sweet daughter, and we didn’t waste a second of it. And the cool thing is that we didn’t have to shut our income down to do it—I was able to continue taking on freelance gigs during the trip, writing from Airbnbs and coffee shops along the way.
At its core, coasting gives us ultimate flexibility.
From January to April, I can choose to grind hard, or take it easy and put in the minimum required hours. Then, the rest of the year, I am free to work from wherever I want, take on the amount of work I need, and do whatever else I want with my time. Or, if we need to earn more in a year, I can choose to extend my tax prep season, trading my free time and flexibility for additional income.
I love the freedom to choose each year based on our needs.
This summer, we’re going to France for a wedding, Wisconsin to stay with family, the Oregon Coast for a big family beach trip with siblings and grandparents, and a big group friends trip to Boston. We plan to keep making memories summer by summer, not letting this time pass us by and wondering where it all went, and coasting allows us to do that.
How do the finances work? Am I still saving? Or only covering my actual expenses?
I feel like this is where so many people get hung up on coast FI—they wonder: how can you just stop saving while you’re young and have time on your side?
The truth is, we still save—we just don’t have to. I know that if we didn’t save another dime, we would still be on track for a solid and comfortable retirement somewhere between 55 to 60. I am okay with that because I like the work I do, and honestly, I hope to be working well beyond my 60s because I love to create and add value.
But, I also really really love investing—like a lot.
So it’s hard for me not to save at all, so here is what we try and do: during tax season, I contribute to my Intuit 401(k). They are awesome and match 6% of my pay if I contribute 4.5% to my 401(k), so I make sure to get the full match. From there, my wife and I contribute to Roth IRAs for both of us, and if we have earned enough for the year to max them out, we do it—if not, we don’t. We don’t stress about it—it’s just an option we can take.
I’ve also set up a solo 401(k) through my freelance business, and at the end of every year, we decide whether we want to contribute or not, depending on our situation.
The great thing about this is that although we don’t have to save, we have the option to. That takes so much of the pressure and stress off our savings rate and lets us focus on living the lifestyle we want. Of course, some years, we will spend more on travel and living the life we want, which means we will save less or not at all—and that’s okay.
These are all intentional decisions we make based on our strategy.
Lastly, we make a monthly contribution to our daughter’s 529 plan because we are interested in setting her up for success by helping cover her college costs. That’s more non-negotiable for us, so we prioritize it accordingly.
Other than that, it’s fairly simple—we earn enough to cover our living expenses, and anything extra, we have the option to save if we want to.
I hope you’ve gotten value from my story and if you want to hear more about coasting, check out the following:
10 Reasons You Might Decide to Coast to Financial Independence Instead of Pursuing FIRE
10 Simple Steps to Begin Coasting to Financial Independence.