Liz Frugalwoods on how to retire in your 30s and achieve financial independence by being frugal.
Part of living wildly is having the means to pull it off. Traveling and buying gear can add up. On the show, we’ve interviewed dumpster divers, minimalists and people with side hustles galore. But today we present a new financial take on living wildly.
Author Elizabeth Thames, aka Liz Frugalwoods, is the voice behind the blog and new book, Meet the Frugalwoods. Liz and her husband did everything they were supposed to as young adults: they attended a good state college, graduated and got good jobs. But as millennials working 9-to-5 jobs for non-profits, they knew there was something beyond the daily grind. Instead of just working harder and harder, they instead used extreme frugality so they could retire in their early thirties.
Liz’s wild idea: To live frugally so she and her husband could achieve financial independence and spend more time hiking, homesteading, and doing what they love.
Today, Liz and her husband have two daughters and live on a sixty-acre homestead in Vermont. They still spend money on things like farming equipment (which doesn’t come cheap), and she works on her blog only by choice, not because she has to.
Instead of making more money so they could have more, they just spent a lot less in order to achieve financial independence. This mindfulness about money led them to a unique, amazing outlook on life, and one that I found motivating. In our conversation, Liz shares some great tips for living frugally and also talks about the psychology of what going with less has done for her own self-esteem. We also get deep into the power of gratitude and privilege, and how having less materially has helped her get more out of life.
Listen to this episode if:
- You want to retire early and achieve financial independence.
- You’ve ever dreamt of living on a lot of land.
- Getting outside and going hiking gives you peace of mind.
- You want to quit your job.
- You have a five year or more goal.
- You want to have kids but think they are too expensive.