The Three Levels Of Financial Independence: Because Money Is Only Part Of The Equation
Reaching financial independence is the holy grail of personal finance. But what does financial independence really mean? In this post I'd like to determine the three levels of financial independence.
That's right. Even in financial independence there is no one size fits all since everybody has a different desired standard of living. Some people are happy living a solo life on a boat. While others want to start a family.
The Meaning Of Financial Independence
As one of the pioneers of the modern day FIRE movement , been writing about achieving financial independence since 2009. I permanently left my job in 2012 at age 34 because I thought I was financially independent.
Contrary to what you may think, financial independence is not only about having enough money to cover all your desired living expenses. Financial independence also means being able to overcome your psychological fears to truly live free.
For example, I have peers who have millions in net worth. Yet, they still make their respective spouses work because they do not feel 100% financially secure. Common reasons include the need for health care coverage or their spouse's “love” for their job even though they'd rather be doing something else.
Here are the three levels of financial independence I've come up with. All three levels of financial independence should meet the following basic criteria:
1) No need to work for a living. Investment income or non-work income covers all living expenses into perpetuity.
2) Net worth is equal to or greater than the number of years left in your life X living expenses. For example, $3 million with 30 years left to live is FI if your living expenses are no more than $100,000 a year.
The Three Levels Of Financial Independence
As you work your way to financial independence, you'll find three levels to unlock. These are the fundamentals of FIRE .
1) Budget Financial Independence ( Lean FIRE )
If your household income is less than ~$40,000 a year, you are considered lower middle class. Don't be offended. It's just a definition based on millions of datapoints. The current official poverty threshold is an income of $25,000 per year for a family of four. It is $19,000 for a family of three.
If you are happy with living a lower middle class lifestyle, then you would need between $800,000 – $1,600,000 in investable assets returning 2.5% – 5% a year to replicate the $40,000 in gross annual income. Of course if you've been investing in the bull market, you've likely seen a higher return than 5%. But over the long run, it's best to stay conservative since downturns do happen.
Given the 10-year bond yield is around 4.2%, everybody should make at least 4.2% a year on their investable assets risk-free. If you're losing money during your financial independence years, you haven't been investing properly. The 10-year moves every day, which is why everybody should have a dynamic safe withdrawal rate in retirement .
This category of financial independence is interesting because there's a lot of tradeoffs the individual or couple still make.
Tradeoffs for being Budget FI or Lean FIRE
- Making one spouse work in order for one spouse to live the FI life.
- Moving to a lower cost area of the world instead of living where most of your family and friends are.
- Downsizing to a small rental, small house, or even an RV or van.
- Delaying or not having children, which can really hurt the FI budget.
- Taking on a part-time job.
- Aggressively working on your side hustle / passion project.
- Constantly telling other people how much you're worth due to insecurity.
- Relocating to another country to save money, such as how one woman retired with $600,000 and moved to Taiwan
Another thing I've noticed about people who retire early with less than $1 million is that they are often more anxious. They tend to show off their fabulous lifestyles more online. They also like to write about FIRE frequently if they have a blog.
The thing is, once you FIRE, there's no need to talk about FIRE so much anymore. You're just busy living your life.
Are You Really Financially Independent On So Little?
The question many people have in this stage is therefore: Are you really FI if you've got to do one or many of these things?
Many who work a day job argue no. But it doesn't matter because nobody can tell you how to live your FI life. If you don't have to work a full time job and can cover your expenses, you are Budget FI as far as I'm concerned.
Budget Financial Independence is where I found myself between 2012 – 2014. I was earning about $80,000 in passive income , which was more like $40,000 since I lived in San Francisco, and had negotiated a large enough severance to last for 5-6 years of living expenses.
Even with these numbers, I was still afraid that I had made the wrong choice leaving a job at 34. As a result, I tried to sell my house and downsize by 70%. However, nobody wanted to buy my house in 2012 thank goodness!
Further, my wife and I agreed that she work for three years until she turned 34 (hooray for equality) to give us enough time to figure out whether we could both leave the workforce. At the end of 2014, she negotiated her severance as well before her 34th birthday.
2) Baseline Financial Independence (Regular FIRE)
The median household income in the U.S. is about $68,000. $68,000 is therefore considered a comfortable middle class income If you didn't have to work for your $60,000 a year income, then life should be better, maybe even fantastic.
Based on a conservative 2.5% – 5% annual return, a household would need investments of between $1,360,000 – $2,720,000 to be considered financially independent .
Once you've got at least $1,360,000 in investable assets and no longer want to work again, I don't recommend shooting for an overall return much greater than 5%. You can carve out 10% of your investable assets to go swing for the fences if you wish, but not more. There is no need since you have already won the game.
Remember, once you've reached financial independence , you no longer have to save. Everybody striving for financial independence tends to save anywhere from 20% – 80% of their after tax income each year. This is on top of maxing out their pre-tax retirement accounts.
Therefore, if you're able to 100% replicate your gross annual household income through your investments, you're actually getting a raise based on the amount you were saving each year.
If you have 20 years left to live and only require $60,000 a year, having $1,200,000 can also be considered enough even if you make zero return. The only problem is that your purchasing power will decline by 2-3% a year due to inflation. The other problem is that you don't know exactly how many years you have left to live. Therefore, it's always better to have more rather than less.
Baseline Financial Independence Example
My blogging buddy Joe from Retire by 40, who is six years older than me, is a good example. He has enough money (~$3 million net worth), but is still finding it difficult to overcome the fear of not working.
Since 2012, every year, he questions whether his wife can join him in retirement. This is even though they have a $3 million net worth. He also has online income and passive income . Every year I tell him she could have retired years ago, but he's adeptly convinced her to keep on working.
He says his wife loves her work. But he also said his wife does work calls at 5 am and 11 pm as well. So I'm not so sure!
Related: Achieving A Two Spouse Financial Independence Lifestyle
3) Blockbuster Financial Independence (Fat FIRE)
This is a level of FI that I've been trying to achieve since I was 30 years old. I decided back then that an individual income of ~$200,000 – $250,000 and a household income of ~$300,000 was the ideal income for maximum happiness.
Some call Blockbuster FI, Fat FIRE or Obese FIRE. Fat FIRE is the determine that has become most popular today.
With such income, you can live a comfortable life raising a family of up to four anywhere in the world. Given I've spent my post college life living in Manhattan and San Francisco, it was only natural to arrive at much higher income levels than the US household median. Remember, half the country live in more expensive coastal cities.
These figures are partially due to a highly progressive tax code that was implemented in the mid 2000s. The government really went after income levels above these thresholds.
What's important to know about the three levels of financial independence is that they all require one ingredient: fear. Fear is the main ingredient necessary to help you reach fI.
Income Threshold For Maximum Happiness
I carefully observed my happiness level from making much less to making much more. Any dollar earned above $250,000 – $300,000 didn't make a lick of difference. In fact, I often noticed a decline in happiness due to the increased stress from work.
Using the same 2.5% – 5% return figures, one would therefore need $5,000,000 – $10,000,000 per individual and $6,000,000 – $12,000,000 per couple in investable assets to reach Blockbuster Financial Independence. In addition, it is preferable if your home is also paid off.
If you are generating $250,000 – $300,000 in passive income without having to work, life is good, really good. In 1H2017, I got to about ~ $220,000 in annualized passive income . But then ended up slashing ~$60,000 from the top after selling my rental house to simplify life. Therefore, I've still got a long ways to go, especially now that I have a son to raise.
Financial Samurai Current Passive Income For Financial Independence
Today, my passive income is around $270,000. It was about $380,000 until I blew up my passive income in October 2023 by selling stocks and bonds to buy a forever home in cash in San Francisco.
It's a comfortable amount of money, but it's not enough to 100% take care of our estimated $265,000 in living expenses for a family of four. As a result, I've got to use supplemental retirement income from writing books and online income to cover the gap. However, by 2027, I will have enough passive income again to be financially independence again. I've been working on building my passive income since 1999.
The way many people reach Blockbuster Financial Independence with income of $250,000 – $300,000 is through a combination of investment income and passion project cash flow. The wealthiest people I know don't depend on index funds .
Since FI allows you to do whatever you want, here's your chance to follow the cliché, “follow your passions and the money will follow” without worry that there will be no money. My passion so happens to be this site.
All Three Levels Of Financial Independence Are Good
Even if you find yourself in the Budget FI category, it's still better than working at a soulless job. Just getting rid of a long commute or a terrible boss makes Budget FI worth it.
Just make sure your financial independence number is real enough to take action. Otherwise, you're probably not even in the Lean FIRE / Budget FI category.
Most people who find themselves in Budget FI are either on the younger side (<40), don't have kids , or are forced to live frugally. I've found that in many cases, folks in Budget FI long to lead a more comfortable life. Therefore, they either get back to work, do some consulting, or try to build a business within three years to move up the pyramid.
The only way I've found to successfully overcome the fear of not working is by either negotiating a severance , building enough passive income to cover all your living expenses for at least 12 consecutive months, or trying out FI living first while your partner still works. Feeling comfortably FI doesn't just happen with a snap of the fingers.
There is this natural urge to still make financial progress by continuing the good financial habits that got you there in the first place. And wonderfully, the progress you make is like finding loose diamonds after you've already found a pot of gold.
Build Passive Income With Real Estate
Out of all the asset classes to reach financial independence, no asset has done more for me than real estate. By the time I was 30, I had bought two properties in San Francisco and one property in Lake Tahoe. These properties and their income streams gave me the confidence to retire early.
In 2016, I started diversifying into heartland real estate to take advantage of lower valuations and higher cap rates. I did so by investing $954,000 with real estate crowdfunding platforms .
With interest rates down, the value of cash flow is up. The pandemic has made working from home more common. With a rebound in corporate earnings and tremendous support from the government, I'm very bullish on real estate.
Take a look at my two favorite real estate crowdfunding platforms.
Fundrise : A way for accredited and non-accredited investors to diversify into real estate through private real estate funds. Fundrise has been around since 2012 and now manages over $3.5 billion for over 500,000 investors. The funds primarily invest in the Sunbelt region where valuations tend to be lower and rental yields tend to be higher. For most people, investing in a private real estate fund is the easiest way to gain real estate exposure.
CrowdStreet : A way for accredited investors to invest in individual real estate opportunities mostly in 18-hour cities. 18-hour cities are secondary cities with lower valuations, higher rental yields, and potentially higher growth due to job growth and demographic trends. If you have a lot more capital, you can build you own diversified real estate portfolio. Just make sure to thoroughly screen each sponsor before investing.
Both platforms are sponsors of Financial Samurai and Financial Samurai is a six-figure investor in Fundrise funds. Over 50% of my passive income now comes from real estate, my favorite investment class to build wealth and achieve financial independence.
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After you link all your accounts, use their Retirement Planning calculator. It pulls your real data to give you as pure an estimation of your financial future as possible. I’ve been using Empower since 2012. In this time, have seen my net worth skyrocket thanks to better money management.
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This may be an obvious item, but to establish FI, you should only use your non-retirement investable asset accounts, right? And you should exclude the net value of your primary residence since it does not produce income, correct? Do you include HSA accounts and 529 Plans or no? Thank you for your guidance here! -Josh
Yes, as the pioneer of the modern-day FIRE movement, the definition of FIRE is when your Passive Investment Income covers your Basic Living Expenses, and then, Desired Living Expenses if you want to Fat FIRE .
So it is your taxable investments (non-tax advantaged retirement accounts) which should be really boosted and monitored, while also saving as much as possible in your 401(k) etc.
See: Recommended Taxable Investment Amounts By Age To Retire Early And Comfortably
How did you find this post btw? Always curious to know. You can subscribe to my free weekly newsletter here for all personal finance related news and topics.
Thank you for this info! I listen to your podcast on my way to work and started listening to the ChooseFI podcast as well. I don’t plan on retiring early, just looking to have financial independence (which to me, means passive income covering my annual expenses). I have been maxing out my 401k plan quite a bit (I am a partner at an accounting firm and have been able to do more than the annual EE deferral cap of $23,000). But, now I am thinking I should keep more in my “Taxable (non-retirement accounts)” so I can use the passive income now. I have saved up a decent amount in non-retirement accounts, but nothing close to covering my annual expenses (still have a mortgage, another kid on the way and we pay for our own health insurance, etc.). Wife works for herself too, so there is no employer covered health insurance plans! May need to re-evaluate my funding of our retirement accounts, especially with the low tax brackets we currently have in this administration. Who knows what they will be by the time we hit 73 (currently 38). Thanks again!
In this article, we know that Levels Of Financial Independence. We have known that how would we financial independence. The article helps us to make financial independence and also helps the way to save money. In this article, we know the benefits of financial independence. That was a motivation article to become financial Independence.
Thoughtful article as always. I’ve saved $2.3M liquid (or $1.9M excluding IRA/401k) without a house after working for 9 years in tech.
My biggest dilemma is deciding which living standards I can accustom to after earning $500k/year for the last 3-4 years. I’ve spent $120k last year but that’s mostly due to travel expenses and rental both of which can be significantly lower if I move back to Asia where I grew up.
I probably need at least $80k/year which means I’d need at least $3M. But then would that be enough? Or would I end up regretting not saving more later?
Another dilemma is that I make way too much money right now to justify a retirement: $700k pre-tax and save $300-350k after tax per year. At this kind of income level, it’s really hard to justify that I should not work for another six or twelve months, which could add another quarter or third of million to my nest egg.
My current plan is to work at least three more years but my mental health may not hold up that long.
That’s a tough decisions set… I can see the dilemma and in you’re shoes I would be thinking the same… Is there a way you can increase your offsets mentally, say, hire a good coach, or set up some additional outside of work goals/challenges/passions?
I’m assuming you are on the sales side at tech?
I had this same dilemma. Was saving $250k per annum, but only needing close on 10% to support my lifestyle. Very atypical investment banker, but anyway, the mental issues were going to make me sick, so I quit. I’d have an extra $1m now, but I would’ve had other issues that may have caused my life to be cut short.
In the end, it’s just money, we’re our own worst critics, you have enough to do coast-FIRE and find something that you enjoy but wealth grows a little slower. That’s ok too, because you aren’t dead.
I have about 1 year’s worth of expenses saved. Hoping to get to 25x expenses by the time I’m 30. I’m currently 23 and just starting my first job out of college. I think I can definitely achieve that, but I’m nervous about performing well at work. Hopefully it all works out and I can choose to quit if I’d like early in life. I’m hoping I actually enjoy work, but I am thinking that is asking for too much…
Sam, agree with you! $20k/month is the comfortable FI target. How do you optimize your tax so that I won’t need to make $500k in pre-tax in order to get $250k after tax, social security and medicare?
One of the most important challenges here is to develop a dependable portfolio of non-equity investments to both provide a good rate of return and to insulate you from market swings. Other than rental property (which is a good one) hardly any financial planner or investment website touches on this.
Success in this area allows any investor/potential retiree to peg their rate of return better than if they are just relying on historical data regarding equity market returns.
Tom, How about examples? I’ll help ya out, notes, life insurance contracts….
Financial independence is when you plan your finances so well you do not have to worry about any future’s financial crisis. Financial independence typically means having enough income to pay your living expenses for the rest of your life without having to work full time.
My husband retired from the military after 20 years of service last summer at age 38 – his guaranteed income is appx $67k per year for life (tax free and subject to COLA), and he gets an additional $17k the next 4 years under the GI Bill while he’s in school. We have appx $450k invested, no debt, and guaranteed health insurance for life with no monthly premiums, $150 annual deductible and $3k annual catastrophic cap. We have one child, age 5, who will receive free college tuition if she attends a state University in our state of record. We do have appx $25k in a brokerage account for her for addtl college expenses. My husband is considering not working after he finishes school, or working a ‘fun’ part time job. We live in the Midwest, where cost of living is ok (much better than our last duty station in CA!). I work a ‘fun’ part time job bringing in about $1k/mo. Curious on your thoughts as to where this puts us. And, do we figure my husbands ‘pension + benefits’ in our networth?
Michael, Two kids, boys, one at state university for CompSci. RE at 53, FI since before that. Younger son understands value of money and will save and spend wisely. Older son, never got it.
We are closer to blockbuster than anything else on this post on a hard working engineers salary and a stay at home and raise the kids stretch a dollar, low maintenance wonderful wife! Oh, yea and rental properties and other non stock market investments.
I don’t understand how NOt having children hurts your FI??? It has been great for me!! Please explain. Because Anyone that I know who has children, has NO FI.
I like the idea that you are FI when you are no longer worrying about money. When your brain is free and you can spend your time as you please because you aren’t fixated on not having enough.
Hi Sam, This is Dan from Romania again. Me and my wife consider that a pasive income of 2000€/month.. so 44.000€/year would be great and we would consider financial independent in this case.. Having in mind that average income for a working person in Romania is ~8700$/year we consider that our target of ~2400$/household/month would be great because you can have an above average lifestyle.. Until you want to buy an Iphone 8 and you see it is 900$ :))) Right now,at 27,we are far away from our target, but we work hard for this. I wish to enjoy everhthing you have and to stress a little less with your financial situation because you are doing great. Keep up the good work.
Greetings from Romania, Diana and Dan
Nice way of putting it! I am more towards setting a year to retire early (and live within whatever means I could to reach that) but this yearly income does makes the picture clearer.
“Don’t be offended. It’s just a definition based on millions of datapoints.” I am not sure why but this line cracked me up haha.
I love this chart! I have seen a few different descriptions of the levels of FI but this one feels the most authentic. Personally I am targeting the Baseline FI by 50 with the hopes that I am running an empire that will allow me to catapult into Blockbuster. Great work as always!
Awesome breakdown!
I think it is hard for the majority of those who are seeking/building towards financial independence, to essentially turn the switch off. What I mean by this is that it is hard for them to ever feel “financially secure” because their whole life’s financial habits have been based on constantly earning/saving/growing their money. Based off of those deep ingrained habits, it is extremely difficult for that individual to suddenly change course and tell themselves they no longer need to keep growing their money.
I like how you say all levels of financial independence are good and then take it to the next level by breaking it into three buckets. It’s motivating to get to the top of the pyramid :) Nice graphic!
Similar comment to many above:
That 2.5% to 3% return should be post inflation, so you need to have approximately 4% to 5% nominal total return on your investments, otherwise you are eroding your capital and your financial independence will come to an end sooner or later.
On the other extreme, if you do not take capital gains into consideration when it comes to FI then that predisposes you to shun things like growth stocks, which are a significant passive income builder, not a speculative investment where you gamble just 5-10% of your net worth.
Another thought:
I’m just flexible in my living, so I jump from one FI level to another. I live the middle tier FI during periods when returns are good, and hunker down to budget FI when there are crises, or otherwise lower returns. It actually adds some spice in my living without endangering my FI.
I think I would be happy with budget FI, but I don’t have any kids to worry about and my wife works full time. I think as long as I can comfortably pay my share of the housing costs and pay for my (future) kids activities, I’d be comfortable driving older vehicles and living on a budget.
I think I am in that mindset because I am mostly excited about the idea of building up something new from scratch and not chasing a paycheck. So when I reach some level of FI that allows me to pursue new projects and new ideas I will be happy.
This definitely embodies the saying, “There’s levels to this $h*t.” I was aiming for the middle tier of financial independence, but now I’m asking myself why not go for the top of the pyramid. Even if I don’t quite get there I will likely add a nice cushion to the baseline. My goal is to diversify my streams of passive income between market investments, rental income, and small business income. Returns from all three should make me and my future family comfortable indefinitely.
Hi Sam, interesting post as always. I’m always very curious about how you arrive at your estimates. It would be great if you could show us the math! (actually I’m very curious about this in your 401k value post) Anyway, in this post you mention: “need between $800,000 – $1,600,000 – to replicate 40,000 a year in passive income” This is a bit bigger than the standard 4% approach. I can see that you are cautious, I’m just wondering about how I could replicate some of the math too.
2.5% – 5% returns once you are FI. Cheers
Blockbuster FI would be way more money then my HH would ever need. Eventually, Baseline FI & Budget FI can grow to Blockbuster numbers. I’m not going to worry too much about how many millions I have. As long as I am able, I’m down to work if I need to, but I know for sure that I am not going to work to save up $XM just in case.
Late to the game, Sam, but I like where you, J.D., and others are going with this line of reasoning. Understanding levels of financial independence and financial security are very much needed. I worry that our main message is a turn off to a lot of people because they can’t possibly fathom saving 25 times their annual living expenses or more. For a lot of people, just being able to spend slightly less than they earn and having a modest emergency fund is their idea of financial nirvana. It would be nice if we could somehow champion these people and show them that they are welcomed members of our community. Cheers.
Thanks for the post. Not to be negative, but want to stress importance of not “waiting” for FI. My parents have a passive income of about 500K/year and have had some health issues popping up recently. My dad lost his hearing in one ear and my mom is having a lot of trouble with her vision. Although having $$ makes dealing with some of these issues easier, it is important to remember how valuable your health is, because suddenly money doesn’t seem so important.
Do you feel your parents waited too long? If so, why do you think they couldn’t exit sooner?
I left at 34… which I feel is early b/c I was originally thinking about leaving at 40. But 6 years later, I have NO REGRETS!
See: The Fear Of Running Out Of Retirement Is Overblown
When you refer “Income” for retirement, how capital gains (or return on investment like 15.87% in 2017 in other blogs) would be considered?
Currently our expenses are quite high (to support both parents, living in NY) and I realized expenses in 2017 = appreciation of stock market + Income. so end of the year, our financial balance is same as last year which is not good.
so passive income you mentioned is only for cash flow you get from investment but not including any appreciation?
Once all non cash generating real estates are sold, then I could make expenses = income from investment but until then, I’d like to know how you consider gains.
I personally do not consider any capital gains or paper gains as part of my retirement income. Any capital gains are one off. It’s safer this way because it’s important to focus on building recurring passive income sources. Hopefully, my gains from my rental house sale in 2017 will be properly deployed to earn future income . But I’m not touching those gains for spending.
Folks can classify the way they wish. I just have a personal belief that the ideal withdrawal rate in retirement does not touch principal .
Your asset appreciation should lead to more financial safety and more investment income.
My wife and I are squarely at the mid-point of Blockbuster FI. I am 60 and she is 56. However, one thing I always have to keep in mind is that 54% of our portfolio is in tax-deferred accounts and at some point, we will have to pay the taxes on that. Realistically 1/4 to 1/3 of that money belongs to the government.
One of the things I’m working through right now is whether or not to start liquidating some of those tax-deferred accounts a little at a time over the next 10 years, pay the taxes with non-qualified money, invest the balances into Backdoor Roth IRAs and let that money roll tax-free from there on out.
My wife continues to work a really good sales job. I retired from corporate America in 2015 to work and consult with startups. I’m currently a co-founder of a healthcare software and services startup. I also have a pension that kicked in right after I turned 60 last October. Our combined incomes/pension are around 250K with our only debt being our mortgage which still has 7 years left @ 3.5%. I’m also thinking about paying a little extra toward principal to shorten the term to 5 years and coincide with when I turn 65.
Our plan is to continue on until I hit 65 when I can transition my healthcare to Medicare, our daughter will be out of college and almost finished with grad school and close to transitioning to her own healthcare plan which just leaves the need to cover my wife for another 3 years, unless she wishes to soldier on a little longer on the company plan.
Ah… a pension… you have truly found the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
At 60, what would you have done DIFFERENTLY when you were 40? Thx for the advice.
I retired at age 56 with budget/baseline FI, but I am now in blockbuster category (age 69). My investment accounts have done well and the house has increased in market value. Renting part of the home covers housing and transportation expenses, and my small pension covers basic living expenses. I withdraw money from investments for travel but reinvest most of the gains. I too am faced with heavy income taxes once I have to withdraw from tax deferred accounts. I have run spreadsheet projections for income, net worth, and income taxes to 2035 with various withdrawal plans and estimated net returns. Always come back to deferring tax as long as possible, spending down the taxable accounts first, while building up the tax-free account agressively. What I would do differently is learn to invest my own money at a younger age, buy a bigger better house at a younger age, and retire earlier.
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