Today we welcome Jay from Slowly Sipping Coffee to the podcast to talk about his reluctant path to FI, the amazing Mrs. SSC and a Fully Funded Lifestyle Change.
Podcast Episode Summary
- Our interview with Jay from Slowly Sipping Coffee
- How they came up with the name of their blog and how they’d enjoy ‘slowly sipping coffee’ in a more relaxed and free Friday morning
- The origin story of their Financial Independence journey: SSC googled and found Mr. Money Mustache
- SSC already had a spreadsheet where she tracked everything and believed they could retire at 45 before finding the concept of FI
- How Jay resisted the concept of financial independence because he thought living off $25,000 would be absolute deprivation
- The Lightbulb Moment where Jay finally saw the light and started believing in the spreadsheet
- They set up challenges to cut credit card spending and they reduced spending just by being intentional
- Eating food at restaurants was a huge portion of their prior budget that they were able to cut
- Costco can be a great way to save money or it can be an expensive indulgence
- How Mrs. SSC is the CFO of their household and the ‘best financial decision’ Jay has ever made
- How the possibility of layoffs made them consider their lifestyle and what that would look like in FFLC
- The psychological value of knowing they will ‘come out on top’ even if something bad does happen
- Have they spoken about Financial Independence and their blog in their real lives?
- How their friends, family and coworkers react to their FI plans
- Jay’s mentees and how he is trying to educate them on all things financial
- How to balance risk with a safe withdrawal rate – Mrs. SSC’s thought process as compared with Jay’s
- How you can always keep working due to fear and wanting to pile on your nest egg, but Mrs. SSC’s rebuttal to that
- You can get to FI without having a six-figure salary
- Hot Seat questions
- Favorite life hack: Roasting his own coffee
- Biggest financial mistake: Cashing out a 401k for absolutely no reason
- Advice to your younger self: Don’t spend more than you earn and don’t use student loans for additional expenses
Links from the show:
- Slowly Sipping Coffee
- Mr. Money Mustache
- The SSC Excel Tracking Spreadsheet
- The Lightbulb Emails at Slowly Sipping Coffee
- Goodbye Fire, Hello FFLC article on SSC
- Jay’s word document that he sent out to his mentee
- I don’t know how to invest and I’m afraid of making expensive mistakes by Paul Pant at Afford Anything
- Favorite blogs
- Favorite article: Paula Pant’s article referenced above
