In 1984, London Life Insurance Company introduced the idea of Freedom 55, an attempt by the insurer to inform Canadians of what it took to retire at a relatively young age. I grew up with this concept, and the tagline stuck with me – so much so that I named my retirement plan Freedom 43.
To make Freedom 43 a feasible plan, I needed some FIRE. The concept of FIRE, Financial Independence, Retire Early, has been around for about 30 years. However, it has been made popular in more recent years by millennials, who are looking to live “their best lives.”
I began my academic career at the University of Manitoba in 2008. Early in my career, I started reading about the FIRE movement. The main idea behind FIRE is to save aggressively while working, with the goal of accumulating a significant nest egg. When the nest egg is large enough, one can leave full-time employment and live off of calculated withdrawals from their savings.
I was intrigued by the concept. I have always been a saver. I am not a fan of mindless consumption. I value experiences over stuff. Much of this aligned with the core values held by FIRE proponents. I was also in a position of earning a relatively high level of income, while working a demanding job and raising a young child which often did not provide much free time to go out and spend my hard-earned money.
I wanted to see what FIRE would look like for me, so I did what every good accountant does, I set up a spreadsheet! I looked at my income, considered my expenses, and came up with a plan that was workable for me. Some FIRE proponents are hard core. However, there was no way that I was selling my car and biking to work to save money on gas, or forgoing entertainment and dining out, or not going on vacation, in the pursuit of early retirement. My budget allowed for these things, but with established limits. My conclusion from my spreadsheet was that my plan looked promising.
Mr. Schultz, my husband, was a skeptic. So, I decided to get a second opinion. The Winnipeg Free Press used to run a weekly column called Money Makeover, where people could write in with their financial questions or concerns and receive advice from a financial professional. I contacted the author of the column and requested a makeover. I was interviewed for the article and passed along my spreadsheet for review. Subsequently, my Money Makeover was published on January 5, 2013. The overall conclusion of the review was that my plan was feasible.
I decided to go for it! I was not sure at the time if I would actually retire early, but it was certainly a nice plan to have in my back pocket. I set my overall goal to retire at age 43, thus the term Freedom 43 was coined. In order to achieve this goal, I established my annual savings targets and started to save, save, save!
I achieved my goal in 2020, and retired from full-time employment on June 30, 2020! More details on how I achieved my Freedom 43 goal to follow – stay tuned!
Life Lessons 