For many people pursuing financial independence, the end goal is very simple in theory: save enough money so that work becomes completely optional.
But for Andy Hill, 44, a family finance coach and podcaster (1), this idea has become a little less drastic over time — and, he says, much more realistic for regular families trying to make it all work.
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He started following the classic FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) The playbook is to save aggressively with the goal of potentially walking away from work decades ahead of traditional deadlines. But as lives, costs and priorities evolved, he moved toward a more flexible approach, called coast fire. This means you save aggressively for a while, until you have enough to “conserve” for several years until retirement, when you no longer need to save, because of the returns and compound interest you have accumulated on earlier investments.
He said in an interview with (2) Business Insider (2) that the Coast Fires, which he calls “f–you money”, are a “cheat code” for the tandem fire movement.
And for Hill, that mixup didn’t just change her financial plan on paper — it changed the day-to-day feeling of working, saving, and having choices in a way she hadn’t experienced before.
Coast Fire and what is the ‘F-U Fund’?
Coast Fire is essentially a lighter, less all-or-nothing version of fire planning.
Instead of trying to save every extra dollar until you move away from work completely, you do the heavy lifting early in your career – building a solid investment base – and then, at some point, switch gears.
Once you get to the “enough” number in savings, you stop aggressively putting money into retirement accounts. You still work, but you’re no longer in full accumulation mode. Your investments are left to grow over time, while your paycheck gets spent on all the things life throws at you – housing, kids, travel.
For Hill, that number was about $550,000 invested by age 40. From there, mathematics takes over. Business Insider reports that with an estimated long-term return of about 6% per year, the portfolio could potentially grow to about $2 million without adding another dollar.
And compared to traditional FIRE, where the goal is often to completely replace your income much sooner, the onshore approach can take a lot of pressure off savings goals.
But the part that really changed things for Hill’s family financial plan was what he calls his “F–you money.”
This is not a technical concept – it’s just their term for cash assistance. It’s like an emergency fund, in that it’s kept somewhere safe like a high-interest savings account. But it is enough to give you the ability to walk away from a job or situation that is no longer working.
Hill told Business Insider that there came a time when he was stuck in a stressful corporate job — earning a solid income, but feeling like quitting wasn’t really an option. That mismatch between income and freedom inspired them to create a buffer that they felt was big enough to give them not just security, but confidence.
So their “F-U” goal was simple: accumulate 12 months of living expenses in cash before making any big career moves, giving them enough runway to step back and try something different without immediately worrying about how the bills would be paid.
By 2020, he and his wife Nicole had both reached their Coast Fire goals and fully built their FU fund. And according to Hill, that’s when things really started to feel different.
“The year I left my corporate career, I was making about $180,000 a year working 40 to 50 hours a week,” he told CNBC’s Make It (3). “This year, I’m paying myself $100,000 by working 20 to 25 hours a week.”
So even if income may have been lower on paper, the trade-off was clear: more control over time, less pressure, and a work arrangement that actually fits into their family life – something that a growing number of people say they find harder to achieve as everyday costs are rising faster than salaries in many industries.
How to Build an Initial Cash Cushion
Hill emphasizes that saving the “F-U Fund” doesn’t mean living on rice and beans or cutting out every joy from your life. In fact, he believes this approach may backfire for most people.
When savers become too tight, too fast, financial decisions often get worse, not better.
“There are a lot of other things you can do in your life besides work,” he told CNBC.
Instead, he relies on a few simple habits that are easy to repeat and actually stick with over time.
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keep the funds somewhere safe. The point is not to chase returns or show off. It’s just to know that the money is there and ready to use if life suddenly changes.
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Hold monthly money meetings. Simply put, it’s regular check-ins with your family to see where the money is going, what’s going on, and whether your spending still matches your goals. It doesn’t need to be any more complicated than that. This keeps everyone on the same page instead of guessing from month to month.
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Zoom out and see the big stuff first. Think: housing, transportation, and food. “The big expenses matter the most,” Hill said. business insider. “These are some hard questions to ask yourself: Do I really need this house? Do I need these cars? Are they helping me get to where I want to go?” This is especially relevant now. whether inflation Having cooled off from 2022 highs, prices are still significantly higher than a few years ago – and many households are realizing they simply can’t survive the reduction in fixed costs.
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Find space to really enjoy your life: Hill rejects the idea that financial freedom should feel like a constant restriction. If every decision becomes about cuts, eventually the whole thing starts to seem unsustainable.
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Increase income as last part. “We really need to figure out how to combat inflation by increasing our incomes,” he said. This may mean asking for a pay raise, going after a promotion, or taking on extra hours if they are available. Additionally, he suggests focusing on extra income — but not necessarily on reinventing yourself. Start with the skills you already have and find out how they can earn you more outside your 9 to 5.
For Hill, the point of all this isn’t to leave work as soon as possible. This is to ensure that you don’t get stuck in a job just because you have no other options. And in his view, that’s really where the “cheat code” comes in.
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