Intro/Outro: You know what it is. That's right. It's time to talk money with your money nerd and financial coach. Now tighten those purse strings and open those ears. It's the money talk with Tiff. podcast.
Hey, everyone. I, am so excited because I have Diana Miriam on the line. Now, Diana is an expert in phi, but just not any fi. When I. Financial independence, y'all. But coast phi. And so there's a myriad of different fis out there, and we've never talked about coast fi on the line, so. Hey, Diana, how are you?
I'm, great. Thanks so much for having.
Perfect. Perfect. Well, let's just hop right in. What is this coast fi? If you can just give us, just the brief overview of what it is and maybe an example of how that would play out.
Absolutely. Well, I think when I think about the fire movement and kind of the terminology that we use, which I get for people who aren't familiar with the fire movement, it may be a little annoying, like this kind of terminology that we use, where we're really just, trying to create some shared meaning against this kind of very niche movement. And a lot of people are familiar with traditional fire financial independence. Retire early. What we're doing is striving to, get to 25 times our
annual expenses in our nest egg. That is at the point that we say we're financially independent, we can quit our jobs if we want. we can retire early. That's kind of how people come up with their phi number, like that goalpost that they're striving for. So I think most people are kind of familiar with having 25 times your expenses. The 4% rule, all that kind of stuff. Where coast phi comes in is, I really kind of look at phi as a
spectrum, right? Kind of. there's milestones on the path to achieving 25 times your annual expenses. And coast Phi, to me, is one of those milestones. So I would say the first milestone is probably becoming debt free, right? That's a big one for a lot of people. That was actually my favorite part of my money journey, becoming debt free. Then you save your emergency fund, then you save your fu. Money, or peace out money for the polite among us. Right? And then there's this other milestone called
coastfi. And so a more direct answer to your question. It's at the point when you have enough in your investment portfolio where it is going to grow, ah, through the power of compound interest, to what you need later in life for a more traditional retirement. I like to think of it as front loading your traditional retirement savings. And the benefit to this is after you reach coast Phi, in theory, you're debt free. As far as, like, high interest consumer debt. You have your emergency fund. You
have your fu. Money. so you've got your kind of cash position, right, kind of settled. And then your traditional retirement savings are done. So, in theory, you really just need to cover your expenses each year until later in life, when you start drawing down on your portfolio. And what I like about Coast Phi is it allows you to kind of, take your foot off the gas much earlier in life. And just let compound interest do the rest of the work for you.
Interesting. Okay, so coast phi is when you pretty much fund your retirement account, but you have the option of continuing to work or doing whatever it is you're doing. And just keep doing that until it's time to start taking out from your retirement. Is that correct?
Right. So really, your only, financial need at that point of reaching cost phi is to cover your yearly expenses. And so, for someone like me, my expenses are super low. And so I'm able to cover them on just 4 hours of work a week. I tell people I retired from my corporate career because I'm not gainfully employed. Right. Like, 4 hours a week is basically a hobby at that point. And so I think it's a milestone on the
path. And it allows you to kind of make some big changes in your life a lot sooner than waiting until you have 25 times your expenses.
Diana, I love that. And I feel like it gives really actionable items for people to strive to. And it doesn't feel as daunting as, like, for instance, the 25 times and all of that stuff. So if people were getting started with Coast Phi, what are some tips or some things that they should keep in mind? it sounds like one of them is to make sure you know your numbers 100%.
I mean, when it comes to any financial planning, forecasting, even determining what is my fi number, you have to have a really good sense of what your expenses are now, because that's really the main point of data you have to work with. I think it's impossible at any stage of life, especially when you're really young, to know at any point, I have all the money I'll ever need for the rest of my life. I think early retirement and financial independence, it's kind of an optimistic,
act, right? Because you're basing your decisions on a lot of assumptions. And that's another reason why I like making moves. When you reach certain milestones versus waiting until you get to this goalpost of 25 times. Because what we see a lot in the fire movement is that that goalpost keeps moving as your circumstances of your life change. And so by kind of taking on some changes earlier, you kind of get to experience the freedom of financial independence without completely
pulling the plug. I think it's very jarring for people to go from working full time to not working at all. And they think that their bank account is going to give them permission to take these big risks. But what we see a lot of people talking about is like, I'm not ready for that. I'm not ready to go from full steam ahead
to completely stopping everything. And so I think by exercising some freedoms along the way, you get to kind of understand what it feels like to have more autonomy over your time versus pulling the plug later completely.
Yes. I love that. Personally, what I'm doing now, I'm like, I could totally see myself doing this forever for life. I don't see an end. And for people like me that are doing what they love to do, they're like, well, I don't want to retire. So that kind of gives us some hope. With all of the fluff out there about fire and all that stuff. it gives us some, attainable goalposts, that we can move, we can
strive for, and things like that. So I really like this concept of Coastfi, and I feel like this might be something that I want to strive for, in the meantime, in between time. So with that being said, since we're talking about financial independence, I did want to bring up. Because Phi is better with friends, right?
Absolutely. What's the point of retiring early if you have no one to hang out with?
We got to have friends. It just makes things so much better and so much easier to do when you have people around you that are going towards the same goals as you. So, with that being said, don't you have a conference for everybody that's going towards financial independence?
Yes. So I run the economy conference. We're going into our fourth year, and. Yeah. So the next event is in March of 2024. And really, the conference addresses two main problems that I see people face on the path to financial independence. The first is community. Right. A lot of people feel like fire is a lonely path. They can't talk to their friends and family about it, or
their friends and family think they're weird. And so to surround yourself with people who are thinking a bit differently about money and lifestyle design and that kind of stuff, I think is really helpful for people. I know for me, especially surrounding myself with people from the fire movement has drastically improved my path. the second issue that we solve is that when you first discover fire, a lot of us
are super gung ho. We lower our expenses, we increase our income, we come up with our investment strategy, and then you kind of like five to seven years in. I mean, it could take anywhere from five to 20 years for someone to reach Phi. So when you get in kind of like the boring middle where you're socking your money away or you're investing in real estate, and you kind of just get into this
boring middle that isn't very inspiring. And so I really look to bring in speakers and topics and programming that kind of fuel the fire and get you as excited about it as you were in the beginning. so, yeah, we've got a really broad audience. About 70% of our audience flies into Cincinnati for it. so it's definitely a national conference, not just a local event, and it's just a very empowering weekend. And it's really satisfying for me to see the friendships that are made, the people
finding a spouse. For instance, I think of couples that met at the event, and I'm just like, I so want to crash their wedding because I'm so excited for them. and people starting businesses together and traveling together, it's just really an exciting thing. And so, yeah, that is happening next march.
That is amazing. So if you all are looking for your significant, and I'm just kidding. But to your point, though, in all seriousness, I, remember when I first became privy to the whole fiery movement, and I read, your money or your life by Vicki Robin, who was like, the godmother of fire. And, when I did that, I was all like, gung ho. I was like, okay, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that, I'm going to do this, make sure I'm debt free by this time. And
I was just all in it to win it, right? And then I started fizzling out a little bit as life started happening and life started lifeing. I was like, ooh, is this really attainable? So I love that you have this conference, and you created this conference for people to get that spark back
or to learn more about it. So if people are listening and they're like, okay, I understand economy is for people doing the fire movement or what have you, what can they expect to learn and take away other than a significant other?
Sure. so I really try to bring in content. that's a little bit surprising, right? I want everyone, even to feel like they're walking away, learning something new. And so I'll give you an example. One of the biggest topics within the fire movement is, but what do you do about health insurance? Right? Everyone wants to know, when you retire early, what do you do about health insurance? I see it posted on the different Facebook groups and forums almost every day, and that is something that is very
widely discussed. but a couple of years ago for the conference, and this is just an example of the kind of content, I found a medical billing fraud investigator, and she brought attention to this $80 billion problem that nobody is talking about, which is medical billing fraud, which happens whether you have insurance or not. And so that is something that I haven't seen anyone discuss in the fire movement. What do you do when you get a big medical bill, even when you have health
insurance? and so that's the kind of content that I'm looking to bring to the conference. It's stuff that's a little bit unexpected and that you're not constantly hearing on the different fire blogs.
I think that is perfect. and that's why I asked that question, because the audience members that are listening, like, okay, I already know what the fire movement is. Why do I need to go? that gives some insight into the types of topics that may not be discussed on these fire blogs or fire podcasts or fire social media, because y'all are everywhere.
it may not be discussed. So I appreciate you coming on the podcast, discussing Coastfi and then also the economy conference, because, like I said, just from my own experience, it's really important to have like minded individuals around you, and in your corner. So if people are interested in finding out more about either coast fire or economy or anything fi related, how could they find you?
Sure, you can go to economyconference.com, and economy is spelled with an me at the end instead of an my little plan words there. But economyconference.com is where you can learn all about the conference. Check out our speakers and our programming. and for listeners of this show, I'm going to give you a 10% discount for tickets, with the coupon, code tiff, all caps tif will get you 10% off tickets. And the next event is March 15 through 17th of 2024.
March 15? That's my birthday. But yes, and I will make sure I have all of those links and information in the show notes because we love a good discount. Don't y'all? So thank you so much, Diana, for coming on the show today, and I hope to see you all at economy. Bye. Intro/Outro: Thank you for listening, joining and being a part of the Money Talk with TIFF podcast this week. You can check TIFf out every Thursday for a new Money talk podcast.
But if you just can't wait until next week, you can listen to previous podcast [email protected] or follow TIFF on all social media platforms at money talk with t. Until next time, spend wise by spending less than you make. A, word to the money wise is always sufficient.