Ask yourself 'What kind of life do I want to live?' and then 'How much money do I need?'.

Grant reached financial independence at the age of 30. But he was working 80-90 hour work weeks and was focusing more on the spreadsheets than actually enjoy the journey of FI. He's now published his first book and is touring the US to meet other people in the FI community, spreading what he's learnt over the years. His message is that FI is about living life on your own terms, and that you don't always need a million to be there.

You'll love his story.

We also chat about...

FIRE events 2019 The good and the bad of these FIRE events How Grant researched his book Why he decided to write a book Grant's book tour His book giveaway

Enjoy this chat with Grant, and please subscribe to us in iTunes if you enjoyed it!

Show notes and links from today's episode

Fyre Festival Documentary Chautauqua FI Above the Clouds Retreat Jim Collins Vicki Robins Afford Anything Our Next Life Millennial Revolution Alan Donegan Mr 1500 Montana Money Adventures ChooseFI Local Camp Mustache Camp FI Fincon Millennial Money Grant's book: Financial Freedom Book: Your Money or Your Life Mad Fientist Root of Good JD Roth Financial Samurai Fly to FI Financial Freedom website

Key takeaways from our chat with Grant 1 - The good and the bad of FI events At the beginning of the episode Gwen and J discuss the different FI events coming up in the year 2019 and their personal experiences in previous ones. All events include meeting very interesting and nice people. Chautauqua includes travelling abroad and getting to know 25 people for one entire week. The ChooseFI local groups are great to meet people in your own area. Camp Mustache is more superficial but you get to meet a lot of new people. Camp FI is an event with 40-50 people and is a great place to meet FI people in your region/state. Gwen and J recommend starting off with events in your local area before spending money on overseas events. 2 - Why it's worth writing a book Grant has both a blog and a book. He tells us he wrote the book because he needed accountability, and wanted to fully reflect on what happen. He's also been to a lot of money events that are complete scams, so he wanted to create something that had credible true information. His book is a physical product that covers money from end to end, and the amazing part is that he is able to get the books translated and send them to schools, to libraries and all over the world. For him it was simply an easier way to spread the message of FI. 3 - Beware of the addiction One highlight of Grant's FI journey is that he was working 80-90 hour work weeks in order to reach his goal. In 5 years he went from having an empty bank account to having over a million. This cost him a lot of work, which in the end he admits he might not have needed. He didn't need a million dollars, he argues that a 6 month emergency fund would have been enough. He says that FI can be a money addiction in itself - you're constantly focusing on the spreadsheet and hitting those numbers, but then never get to enjoy the money you're bringing in. This is why Grant says that FI for him is about living life on your own terms. Questions? Like or dislike? Leave us a comment! Want to support the podcast? Here are three things you can do. 1. Start tracking your net worth with Personal Capital using our link. It's free. 2. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel and get one extra LIVE episode from us per week. 3. Join our Facebook group and connect with other members of the FI community.