5 Financial Habits that will Help Professionals Increase Career Freedom

Around 10 years ago, a Computer Programmer began a journey to achieve financial independence and retire early.

He started a blog to track his progress, but kept his identity hidden to avoid uncomfortable situations at work. He adopted extreme disciplines around his money and lifestyle. Expenses were cut to the bone, and he began saving 70+% of his income. Less than five years later, at the age of 34… he quit his professional job and retired. This man, known as “The Mad Fientist” is doing fine and thriving as an early retiree.

The Mad Fientist’s plan is a little extreme for most of us.

But we can take lessons from him and other members of the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) movement that will help provide the financial foundation for greater career freedom. Many professionals are limited in their career options because of their financial situations. Adopting these disciplines on even a small scale will help expand your options.

Get control of your family’s spending.

The Mad Fientist was maniacal about tracking his spending. He tracked exactly where each dollar went so that he could set a target goal for savings (twenty-five times his spending), and identify ways to cut back expenses. This discipline gave him an extreme level of control over his money and helped him plan and take action.

If I’m completely honest, there are times when I’m surprised about where my money is going.

“I’m still paying for THAT streaming service? I haven’t looked at it in months.” - Me

How closely do you track your spending? How much more control could you gain over your finances if you tracked them more closely?

Be content with spending less.

The Mad Fientist drastically cut his spending so that he could save 70+% of his income. That’s how he was able to achieve 25 times his savings in just under 5 years. And, for the most part, he was content living on 30% or less of his income.

“In fact, being frugal can be even more enjoyable than being a big spender, if you approach it in the right way.” – Mad Fientist.

What would it look like for you to adopt more of that attitude in your life? If you prioritized savings, what percentage of your income could you save? What could you do without to build an expense cushion that will give you more career freedom?

Take on as little “bad debt” as possible.

Personally, I define “bad debt” as borrowing for non-investment purposes. Credit card and auto loan debt are both good examples. The Mad Fientist started his FIRE journey debt-free, which was a significant advantage for him.

The problem with “bad debt” is that the interest adds to your spending, but without a return.

When you go into debt for something rather than paying in cash, you’re spending more for the same thing. There are times when this can’t be avoided, but the more you avoid it, the lower you spending will be. As discussed, the lower your spending is, the more money you can save. This leads us to…

Save more of your income

The Mad Fientist saved such a large proportion of his income, that he was able to retire early in less than 5 years. I’ll say it again. He built savings of approximately 25 times his expenses in less than 5 years. That’s hard for most of us to fathom.

On a smaller scale, imagine how much career freedom it would give you to know you could cover the next 12 – 24 months of spending without any income.

It would be much easier to take risks, wouldn’t it? How much do you spend each month, and how much would you need to save to achieve that kind of cushion?

Think differently about investment

The Mad Fientist quickly learned that traditional financial advice doesn’t apply to people who want to retire early. Traditional financial advice for the middle class is focused on retirement in your mid-60s plus or minus a few years. Members of the FIRE movement target their 20s, 30s, or 40s for retirement.

So, he dedicated significant time and energy to learning more about finances and investments.

He learned how to minimize his taxes, leverage retirement accounts to his benefit, and invest outside of retirement accounts. All of this learning helped him achieve his goals faster.

If you want greater career freedom in your life before retirement, think very carefully about your saving and investment strategy.

I’m not a financial adviser, so, I won’t give you advice on how to invest your money. The lessons you can take from the Mad Fientist here are a) the importance of learning more about investment and b) the need to question how standard advice fits your specific situation and goals.

I find the Mad Fientist’s story inspiring. Here’s a guy who figured out how to make money work to achieve the lifestyle that he wanted. While few of us will retire in our 30’s, there’s no reason why more of us can’t create financial foundations that increase our career freedom.?