This week we are discussing some of the underlying principles behind the FIRE Movement – Financial Independence Retire Early by focusing on tips and strategies as outlined by Grant Sabatier in his book Financial Freedom. Grant was able to achieve financial freedom in his life by the age of thirty. Within 5 years he had gone from a net worth of zero to over a million dollars. How did he do it? and how can we start implementing some of his strategies in our lives to increase our chances of financial freedom and early retirement?

GRANT SABATIER PLAN TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM – 7 Steps

Step 1 – Figure out your number. How much money do you need to reach your financial freedom?

Step 2 – Calculate your net worth. The single most important number you need to track. 

Step 3 – Radically shift the way that you think about money. 11 different ways to think about money.

Step 4 – stop budgeting and start paying attention to what maximises your savings. Budgeting reinforces the scarcity mindset… focus on maximizing savings.

Step 5 – Hack your 9-5. Use it strategically. Calculate your value, negotiate a raise, increase benefits, find a higher paying job.

Step 6 – Start a side hustle and diversify your income streams. It’s never been easier to start a side hustle. Pick, launch.

Step 7 – Invest money as early and as much as possible. Focus on investments and get the highest returns with the least amount of risk.

More than anything, this book is about freedom. Freedom with less stress, more options. Financial freedom means different things to different people and need vastly different amounts. 

Financial freedom to you may be debt free, living off passive income, some monks feel free without any money and a community instead. Ultimately, financial freedom comes down to what kind of life you want to live, where you want to live it, what you value and what brings you joy.

Financial Freedom 7 Levels

1. Clarity – when you figure out where you are and where you want to go.
2. Self-sufficiency – when you earn enough money to cover your expenses on your own.
3. Breathing Room – when you escape living pay cheque to pay cheque.
4. Stability – when you have 6 months of living expenses saved and bad debt (like credit card debt) repaid.
5. Flexibility – when you have at least 2 years of living expenses invested.
6. Financial Independence – when you can live off the income generated by your investments forever work becomes optional.
7. Abundant Wealth – when you have more money than you will ever need.

1. Money is unlimited, time is not. Don’t waste time.
2. Traditional approach to retirement has three main problems: it doesn’t work for most people, you end up spending the most valuable years of your life working for money, and it’s not designed to help you retire as quickly as possible.
3. Compounding exponentially increases the value of your money over time. The earlier and more you invest, the faster your money will grow. The KEY to fast tracking financial growth is making and investing as much money as early and as frequently as you can.
4. Inflation causes prices to go up for most staples like housing, transportation and food – but there are ways to minimise the impacts of inflation so you will need less money and can let your investments keep growing. 
5. Don’t differ your dreams into the future. The top 2 regrets of those facing the end of their lives are “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me” and “I wish I hadn’t worked so hard”.
6. The vast majority of finance advice out there is focused on helping you maximize whatever limited money you already have. Focused on frugality, scarcity. Doesn’t acknowledge that money is limited only if you don’t try to make more.
7. The relationship between money and time is not strictly linear. If you want to make more money you don’t necessarily need to sacrifice more time to do so.

What does your financial freedom look like to you? Create a vision of your future.

Where are you? Who are you with? What are you doing? What does it look like? Take a few minutes to write it down. What does a great day look like to you? Why is it so great? Why does it bring you joy?

check out the websites: millennialmoney.com and financialfreedombook.com for more information.

I also recommend Vicki Robin’s book “Your Money or Your life”.

Also check out more info about the Trinity study here. Noting the formula for financial freedom is classically to save 25 x your annual expenses and then increase your compounding interest rate to as high as possible (generally 7%) and have a withdrawal rate of 4% per annum.