Be an Outlier. Interview Series | Meet Bryce, A Focused Minimalist’s Approach to FI/RE
Imagine being able to spend time with someone who’s living the life you want. Someone who’s living a life that most people only dream of. From traveling the world, to working remotely, to being financially independent and retired early (FI/RE)… and beyond. In other words, being an outlier!
In the second edition of our Be And Outlier interview series, we’re excited to talk with Bryce, who’s where we hope to be soon: FI/RE’d! Hearing his story and how he, as a retired engineer in management looks at the details in the process, is frugal, aspires to travel, and had supportive good role models along the way is inspiring. Read on to see him pull back the covers and share insightful advice as well as his bumps and bruises along the way.
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Be An Outlier Interview Series
After several years of sharing our story on Screw The Average (be an outlier.) we thought it was time to ask others about their story living outside of the norm. Considering our way of living isn’t the only or correct way of living, we’re excited to see what life others have chosen to live.
Being a digital nomad couple pursuing financial independence, retire early (FI/RE) while traveling and house sitting full time is a unique way of living. It comes with many adventures, times of pushing our comfort zones, and significant personal growth.
We’re two outliers among many more and this interview series seeks to spend time with others that look at the world a bit differently. We want to hear their stories, learn from their mistakes, and walk away with a few good pieces of advice.
We’re glad to have you join us on this journey!
Each interview is unique in that responses are done by our guests in their own voice/writing. We’ve done minimal editing to stay true to their personal stories.
Meet Bryce: A Focused Minimalist’s Approach to FI/RE
Having a website can be great as it gives you your very own little corner on the internet. However, it can also sometimes seem as if no one is listening and you’re just talking into the ether. But we’re fortunate to have readers who occasionally contact us and remind us that we’re not alone and we’re being heard. Bryce was one of those people!
Well, actually we first met Bryce because we spend a fair amount of time on Reddit. If we recall correctly, we first talked with Bryce via a post about Our Extensive Travel List to Prepare for Long-Term Travel where he asked a very insightful question about how to access two factor authentication codes if all of your devices (cell phone, laptop, etc.) were lost or stolen. Not only did we learn about a great tool (Protected Text) to ‘break the glass in case of emergency’, if you will, but it also led Bryce to our website and direct messaging us.
We chatted with Bryce about long-term travel, budgets, and FI/RE over email and definitely considered him a like-minded friend! So, last year when we finally found ourselves in New York City, we were excited to meet him and a few of his friends in person to walk around mid-town NYC.
The day turned gloomy and when it started to rain we had to cancel our picnic in the park plans, but that didn’t stop the great conversations!
We’ve since stayed in touch and have seen Bryce go from a 8-5 job to celebrating his early retirement. We’ll leave the details for him to share in the interview below, but trust us he has an interesting story with many lessons learned!
We’re excited to share his story with you and hope that you’ll be inspired with his approach to FI/RE.
Without further ado…
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Introduction
Tell us about yourself!
Bryce, age 41, divorced with no kids. I started as a Network Engineer out of college and eventually became a middle-level IT Director. I managed a company’s internal helpdesk in the Americas for a medium-sized financial data and software company, passing screens like this in the hallways to mess with my head all day, every day…
What did you do for work and what do you do for fun?
In 2020 I will be taking some time to decompress and put myself first.
After I sell my studio apartment I’d like to travel to warmer parts of the United States in my 2016 RAV4 Hybrid I’ve converted into a full-time camper. Beyond that, wherever the good weather and my RAV4 take me!
I plan to spend half my time hiking and backpacking while camping in the wilderness and the other half in big cities/towns visiting friends and taking in museums with my North American Reciprocal Museum membership. I will also take breaks to practice slow travel with a backpack overseas.
What life goals do you have?
Short-term: Take time to work out and refine my whole foods plant based diet, travel domestically, blog, journal, and tell myself it’s going to be alright. ;)
Mid/Long-term: Volunteer, find/rekindle meaningful relationships, travel internationally, and find purpose in my post-traditional work life.
Bryce’s Financial Independence, Retire Early (FI/RE) Journey
Why did you decide to pursue financial independence, retire early (FI/RE)?
Throughout college and during my early working years, I never found a career that excited me. I picked a career I thought I could make money and still enjoy, or at least feel accomplished.
Looking back, that probably was the right thing to do as even now in my 40s, I’m not sure what I would pick as a career if I wanted a better work/life balance while still earning a decent living, though leaning towards healthcare with the ability to work contracts while traveling and helping people at the same time.
“Early on I was satisfied but eventually the increased workload, a lack of work/life balance, and trouble dealing with office politics really affected me.”
I thought about leaving the company or starting a new career, but by that time my natural tendency to save more than I spent put me within earshot of early retirement. So after my divorce was finalized, I put my head down and pushed for ultimate freedom.
I wanted the freedom with regard to finances and time to experience the world, volunteer, learn new things, and explore a new sense of purpose.
I also had a major motorcycle accident in 2007 that left my body permanently beat up, and that combined with the loss of my Father a few years ago, made me all too aware that as I get older, certain doors in life close.
For those who may not know your story, could you walk us through your FI/RE journey?
My parents were great savers and they passed that on to me as a kid. My Mom was in the medical regulatory field handling the household finances and my Father was an economist. I’m sure there were lessons taught, but more so observations as I grew up.
I was also a lazy kid so I made my money last, generally saving up to purchase “big” material things like a boombox or Nintendo games!
I eventually made my way to a top engineering school and after finishing a paid internship, I walked away with a job offer as a Network Engineer that I used as leverage for other job offers. Building/selling desktop PCs to students and faculty on campus with a friend also helped collect additional job offers.
The internship and job offers reinforced my thoughts about Network Engineers being in demand and how careers in the computer field were going to pay well. I cranked as a Network Engineer and eventually was tapped to manage the company’s internal helpdesk in the Americas as part of a mid-sized, global company.
“I never did find a career I truly enjoyed, but I really loved helping people be more productive and introducing efficiency/savings in procedures, budgets, and sourcing for my team.”
I remember always being conscious to put in more hours than my peers and going the extra mile for my managers, but looking back work was getting to me even back then.
I had conditioned my management to always expect more from me and my work/life balance began to suffer. I remember asking the CTO early on if I could have an additional week of vacation instead of a pay raise (denied!).
Fast-forward a decade of successively purchasing larger homes, with a lot of discretionary spending on motorcycles, fast cars, outdoor gear, and I ended up marrying a woman who was very talented in her own career and put in tons of hours with a liking to buying things as well.
We had a nice house, a dog and a cat, nice furniture, tons of clothes, vacations, and a seemingly daily stream of deliveries from Amazon.
“But we also would get home late, eat a bit, then be sitting there like ships passing in the night while staring at our laptop screens, often working, until it was time for bed.”
We decided to part ways for a few reasons, one of which was my desire to retire early after searching for a way out of the rat race, and her being on her own path.
After selling the house and 99% of the crap I accumulated in the basement, we finalized a civil divorce in 2015, and I went full hog into FI/RE. I lowered all aspects of my living expenses, paid cash for a tiny studio apartment, and cranked my savings rate to 90% as I continued to put in more hours at work and receive additional compensation.
“I really enjoyed optimizing my life towards FI/RE and iterating on problems like healthcare and taxes until a solution came to mind. ”
I said to myself I would not purchase anymore work clothes and if my dress shoes had holes in them, I had better be retired by then as I wasn’t buying anymore! The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. ;)
I optimized everything in my life towards FI/RE with the motto “every little bit counts.”
So what finally told me to quit my job and retire?
I had technically reached FI/RE a while ago, but because the bull market wouldn’t quit (I would have rather retired during a recession) and I had one-more-year-itus, I kept working.
But a combination of ever-increasing work stress, my on/off relationship ending (in part to work stress/hours mind you), some upper management changes and my first real vacation in a very long time, overrode my insecurities about having “enough” and kick-start this next chapter in my life.
In terms of the dollars and cents of it all, I stayed at the same company for almost 19 years and received good performance reviews and increased compensation. I consider it a fair trade, I absolutely cranked for my company and management with regular late nights and being on a first-name basis with the cleaning crew, but I was paid market rates (but don’t ask me to calculate an hourly salary, that’s not pretty :p).
I did receive some stock/options early on that dwindled with time, but looking back a decent portion were squandered, some of which were used to purchase a townhouse that I lost money on. I also did things like hold large portions of cash in checking accounts paying no interest or left uninvested for long periods of time.
“It really speaks to the power of having a saver mindset and being conscious of lifestyle inflation to override a lot of your missteps.”
I was also fortunate, in fact naive, to not pay attention to the market during The Great Recession of 2008-09 and continued to pump money into the market with regular, automated contributions. I am now a truly passive investor, owning solely passive index stock/bonds funds..
Tell us about the day when you realized you’d reached FI/RE (or would reach FI/RE soon)?
Yes, by traditional terms my investments have reached 25x my annual spending to apply the 4% rule. I’ve actually extended that past 30x my yearly expenses depending on the style of living I end up practicing, as I was considering a FI/RE life for two at one point and my retirement needs to last more than 30 years.
I can fund my current and future lifestyle from passive investments alone and no future work is required. I don’t have specific dates, but looking back at Personal Capital where I track my investments and spending, the dates I could fund various lifestyles looked like this:
Jan 2016 - Full-time van life in the United States.
April 2016 - Split six months practicing “slow travel” internationally and six months doing van life.
May 2017 - Traditional, static life in my Co-Op studio in Connecticut.
Jan 2018 - Traditional, static life renting a one bedroom apartment in a medium cost of living (MCOL) city.
“If I’ve learned anything through the decades, it’s that I change over time and that I enjoy variety. So, having different budgets for different stages in my life was required. ”
I’ve also continued to work to fund a full knee replacement in cash when that day comes, as well as drive my withdrawal rate below 3% given the historic bull market and eventual sequential rate of returns risk.
I also suffer from Impostor syndrome so I’ve always tended to go the extra mile in whatever I put my mind to, and that includes saving for retirement to be extra sure of myself.
I track my spending/saving in Personal Capital religiously, so I certainly recognized when I hit milestones, as well as when I pondered quitting my job because I had FU money.
“So seeing my wealth grow was definitely comforting during a stressful career. ”
Now that you’ve FI/RE’d, do you plan on continuing to work (in some capacity) or would you be willing to work if a fulfilling opportunity presented itself?
I told my coworkers I’m not opposed to working in the future, but it will never be for money. If there was motivation to work for something other than money, perhaps for a cause or even social interaction, I’d be game.
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Challenges and Successes
What have been some of your biggest challenges in pursuing FI/RE?
My biggest challenges have been emotional and psychological in nature.
Once I learned about the 4% Rule I had the playbook on how to get out of the rat race. I had the math and the numbers.
“After establishing a retirement budget, I knew the size of my investments to get out of the rat race and I was militant in my saving, my research, and my execution. ”
My problem was being able to handle the work stress long enough to overcome my natural insecurities about not having enough and if I was on the right track as seemingly the one weirdo in the office walking away from a good job at age 41 in one of the richest counties in the US.
But establishing my “tribe” of friends in and out of the office, some of which used to stay late in the office to brainstorm about various FI/RE topics, really helped. Our whiteboard sessions were incredibly helpful to work through the mechanics of how things like a ROTH IRA conversion ladders or paying zero Federal income taxes worked.
I also struggled in my relationships and whether or not to combine finances, to fund a portion of their retirement, being on the same page in terms of savings vs. living, et cetera. It’s so important to be aligned with your partner about finances. There is no wrong answer, but you generally need to be aligned and have understanding.
What have been some of your biggest achievements in pursuing FI/RE?
I really enjoy optimizing processes and figuring out ways to achieve the same goal, but do it more efficiently.
This enjoyment worked well for me at work and in pursuing FI/RE. I liked how I could drive my budget lower by tweaking certain things (ex. where I lived, hypermiling, dry vs. canned beans, etc.) and lowering my withdrawal rate to provide additional security in early retirement.
Once I announced my retirement at work, the respect I’ve received from my peers was incredibly rewarding/validating. I worked with a lot of very smart people who I really respect and admire. Having them congratulate me, and some ask me how I did it, has been really rewarding.
Lastly, those who have achieved FI/RE like myself will reference the freedom it gives as a massive achievement. FI/RE isn’t about being restrictive and obsessing about money, it’s the vehicle that affords us the freedom to pursue activities, strengthen relationships, and whatever makes one happy. Really it’s about our most finite resource and the freedom to spend it as we choose, not money.
“In the grand scheme of things, I put my head down at work and saved and then saved some more on my journey to FI/RE, not a great thing to be remembered by on my tombstone. :p ”
I’m more excited about having the time and means to achieve goals I’m better aligned with going forward. Traveling, investing in my family, volunteering, and just establishing a sense of purpose that’s 100% mine, not something I need to carve out within the confines of a company I’m beholden to.
Being an Outlier
Did you tell your employer, coworkers, friends, and/or family of your FI/RE plans?
I shared it with my immediate family probably too much over the years (:p), and I shared my detailed plans with a very select set of friends and coworkers prior to formally telling everyone at the company.
There is always a risk in sharing at work and receiving backlash, though I never did.
“I formally announced my desire to retire to my senior director on August 29th this past year. I call that day my “leap of faith.” ”
My senior director wanted to discuss some organizational changes and I decided to make his decision easy by telling him I planned to retire after our review/compensation season that was coming up. It was a leap of faith because my director could have handled the announcement poorly and taken away a bonus I had worked for during the previous fiscal year. But he was great and said he could accommodate me if I delivered on a large project and stayed through the end of the calendar year.
I was elated and relieved to have this off my chest and the company and my colleagues were congratulatory the few months leading up to the New Year. I definitely shed a tear at times thinking about how I’ve spent most of my waking hours here in the trenches with my coworkers and I’ll miss them.
What would you say are misconceptions that naysayers or the media have about the FI/RE lifestyle?
Hrmm… I try to surround myself with positive influences so I probably ignore 99% of the mainstream with regards to FI/RE. But one thing I’ll mention is that the movement is freeing to me, not limiting. It all depends on what brings you happiness.
Sure I can afford to purchase a ton of stuff if I continue working until I’m 65, but that’s not what brings me happiness, my freedom and time does. Maybe it does for someone else? Who am I to judge, or maybe they are truly part of the small percentage of people who love their job (“but would you do it for free? No? Ah, gotcha.”).
But I think there was certainly a swell in FI/RE articles in the media awhile back and now perhaps there are equal amounts putting it down.
What’s one of the best and one of the worst things about being financially independent?
The best thing is the incredible relief I feel from no longer being under the thumb to increase my output with less resources and spend more time on things/goals/people I care about in my personal life.
“It’s incredibly freeing, but now that I have the freedom to do what I want, perhaps one of the worst things is answering the question of what to do with the rest of my life. ”
I realize that’s a first world problem, but when you have no responsibilities like work or family, all you have is time to get inside your head.
It’s been said you retire to something, not from something and that’s absolutely true. Traveling the world, volunteering, working for a cause… all desirable, but no one thing has jumped out at me. That’s an awfully tough question for me, but now I’ll have the time to sort it out and I’m thankful for that.
The other “worst thing” is the inevitable loss of contact with my co-workers. I’m extremely appreciative of the help they’ve given me over the years and late nights we’ve shared working together as well as sharing our personal lives. I’ll really miss some of them.
What’s your technical FI/RE strategy?
Equity glide path with an eventual 80/20 split between passively managed, whole stock/bond index funds. Though I admit to having too much cash on the sidelines still (don’t try to time the market like I did!).
“Dividends feel good in that they are like a paycheck with regular payouts, but given enough time they don’t return as much as whole market index funds.”
I considered real estate at one point, and while it can be incredibly powerful to leverage, I want a completely passive income stream while leading a nomadic lifestyle. Staying close by to fix properties and deal with renters, or paying a management fee while traveling, wasn’t something I was interested in.
Our tool box is full of resources! From travel hacking to house sitting, digital nomad jobs to privacy and security, financially independent retire early (FI/RE) to entertainment, plus travel hacking (credit cards, miles, points, and rewards), and much much more…
Advice and Lessons Learned
If you could do it all over again, what would you do differently on your path to FI/RE?
I would have been more mindful with my investing. I wasn’t actively picking stocks, but I let large stacks of cash sit on the sidelines in checking accounts for so long, especially during this last historic bull market.
“This next point is somewhat difficult to make because I guess I made it, I retired, but finding a way towards better mental health during the accumulation phase would have been beneficial. ”
It’s really been my personal hell. I’m not sure how I would have achieved this but if your readers are conscious of this while on their journey, it is certain to benefit them.
I’d also add that one should consider not only increasing their saving rate, but also increasing their income. Saving 50% of very little, is still very little. One should weigh the pros/cons of focusing on saving more vs. getting a better job, more education, or creating a side hustle.
What advice would you give to someone starting on their path to FI/RE?
Find your tribe of people to help support you on your journey.
Like-minded people who won’t look down on you for doing BYOD dinner at a friend’s house as opposed to always wanting to go to a restaurant type stuff. People who will whiteboard with you and dig deep so you all really understand the mechanics of executing FI/RE and ensuring you learn together.
Work on optimizing your big three first: housing, transportation, and utilities/household operations.
I see lots of posts on FI/RE-minded Facebook groups with people wondering if they should buy the cheaper toilet paper to save $0.30 a roll and I can’t help but wonder if these people really have their saving plan so optimized such that they’re down to optimizing which toilet paper to buy?!
Maybe they are, but when you start your journey to FI/RE, make sure you’re getting the biggest bang for the buck when it comes to the time you invest in researching, optimizing as well as weighing increasing your income vs. increasing your savings.
Whatever career you decide on, try to get as close to making the product or selling the product.
Most other areas are considered cost centers and companies naturally squeeze them the most over time. You’ll likely have a better work/life balance as well as compensation if you stay away from cost centers.
What’s your best money advice?
Unsubscribe from the millions of email lists pedaling “once in a lifetime” sales and mind-games about scarcity so you’re tricked into buying things you don’t need that you can always pick up later if you really need it.
Ooh, and turn off or get rid of your TV!
I used to buy sooo much stuff, little things here and there, because I thought it was a good deal I could not pass up. “12 oil filters for my car on sale? OMG, I better pick them up!” ….Then I sold the car a year later. “Why do I have 30 dress shirts? How did this happen?” Stuff like that.
“Buying things provides temporary happiness and we feel good when we think we’ve found a deal, as we’re better than the average shopper right? But in the end it’s short lived.”
The quote “you can go broke on good deals” comes to mind, and once I got off all the deal websites and email/mailing lists, it was out of sight, out of mind and on to more savings!
I’d also pick up a frugal hobby with your friends. Find the local hiking group or board games group on Meetup where you can get your social interaction on the cheap.
What tools and resources would you recommend?
Blogs
Podcasts
Forums
Tools/Calculators
yFIRECalc 2.0: The Retirement Calculator that Shows Why You Should Retire Early
The Crowdsourced FIRE Simulator (cFIREsim)
Post-Retirement Calculator: Will My Money Survive Early Retirement? Visualizing Longevity Risk
Looking for more tools, advice, and hacks?
Check out The Best Financial Blogs to Achieve Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) and don’t miss our Resource page where we list our favorites for everything from financial tools and business tools, to credit cards, travel and entertainment.
Don’t miss our Ultimate Gear and Packing Lists! Whether you’re traveling long-term or going on a short vacation, we'll show you how to travel with a single carry-on. We share our packing lists (his and hers!), packing tips, and our favorite gear. Plus, we discuss what we don’t carry and why!
Tell Us More
Do you have a blog that you want to share?
I have not written in my blog much since a family illness/death, but I plan to start back up with AntiGroundhogDay in this New Year with articles pertaining to FI/RE and travel.
I did make one post thanking my coworkers and jotting down my feelings when I retired.
Update: Since doing this interview, Bryce has written more on his blog!
Please tell us more!
“My blog will cover topics on financial independence, personal finance, frugality, travel, mental health, longevity, and my general wonderment about the world as I embrace a minimalist lifestyle as a nomad. I look forward to having the opportunity to get back to tinkering, volunteering, and learn from others along the way.”
What’s your favorite article?
Perhaps The Cost of Rushing because a lot of FI/RE topics have been covered many times, but the idea for this blog post came to me on my own.
Final Thoughts
Thank you so much Bryce for sharing a bit of your story with us!
A couple of things really stood out to us.
First, we very much appreciated the take away that it’s never too late to change one’s mindset. Bryce brought up many examples where his mentality and spending weren’t dialed in. But to see him today, FI/RE’d is proof that anyone can pivot at any point.
“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”
Second, while the destination is the the ultimate goal, the journey is incredibly important. While we might delay gratification, cut our spending more now to be able to spend more later, and sometimes work long hours in an effort to progress towards FI/RE, that doesn’t mean we need to be miserable doing it.
It certainly helps that we have each other (trust us, we consider ourselves incredibly fortunate) to have found a partner that’s like minded not only of FI/RE but of course life!. It’s the reason we live the way we do. We get incredible satisfaction from living a digital nomad, house sitting life that allows us to see the world.
Does our current lifestyle push out our timeline to reach FI/RE? Yes, of course.
Does not being miserable for the duration of the time it takes to hit FI/RE make it worth it? Yes, we firmly believe so!
Third, it’s clear that being detail orientated really helps when it comes to not only a plan, but also the execution of it. Understanding a concept is one thing, but knowing the details behind the curtain allows you to actually leverage and make things work for you. A perfect example is the knowing the tax code.
Fourth, this one has a special place for us. There’s a difference between being cheap and being frugal. Buying something of quality and using it till it wears out or breaks (wearing a pair of shoes for 18+ years anyone!) is different than buying something that’s simply cheap and may be destroyed quickly, not function as well as it could, or risks your health.
Finally, while Bryce didn’t talk about it much, it stood out to us that he had very supportive and good role models in his parents. We too know that we have gotten to where we are today in large part to the influence our parents had on us. So, shout out to our parents!
We’re honored to call Bryce our friend and we hope you enjoyed his story as much as we did!
