5일 전

One More Year: The Trap That Steals Decades From Smart People

#008 “Just one more year" is one of the most deceptively reasonable sentences in adulthood. It sounds smart. It sounds responsible. It sounds like exactly what a financially literate, level-headed professional would say. But underneath all that logic, in most cases, one more year is just fear dressed up as strategy. In this episode, I'm shining a spotlight on One More Year Syndrome - the pattern where smart, disciplined people keep delaying the life they've already earned. I break down why it happens, how to spot it early, and how to know when you're genuinely being strategic versus when you're just avoiding the blank page on the other side of work. I also hold my hands up. I'm currently in year two of my own One More Year - and I share honestly why I'm staying, what's strategic about it, and what's purely emotional. ------ What this episode covers: Why one more year almost never stays one year and how it easily becomes five or tenThe identity gap: why freedom is more psychologically confronting than workThe razor-thin line between choosing from clarity and choosing from fear (and why they feel identical in the moment)Why One More Year Syndrome isn't just a FIRE problem, it shows up the moment you have any financial breathing room at allMy personal reasons for staying one more year: identity, parenthood, and an evolving FIRE numberThe two kinds of readiness most people never build and why only one of them is about moneyA single question to ask yourself that cuts through the noise ------ This episode is for you if: You've hit or are approaching your number but something keeps holding you in placeYou keep finding rational reasons to delay a change you know you want to makeYou're not necessarily chasing FIRE but you have enough financial breathing room to make a shift — and you're not taking itYour spreadsheet says you're ready but the rest of you doesn't feel readyYou're starting to wonder whether your "one more year" is strategic or just comfortable ------ The question to sit with after this episode: If you froze your life exactly as it is today, is the only thing missing more money? Or is what's actually missing something else entirely? ------ 📩 Get the weekly email - one idea a week about money, identity, and what nobody tells you about life after financial independence. No fluff, no pitches. https://lifeafterenough.kit.com/newsletter

21분

2월 11일

Quick Take- Why Your First $100K Is Brutal (But You've Got to Do It)

It took you 13 years to save your first $100,000. It'll take 5 years to turn $500K into $1M. Same savings rate. Same investment returns. Completely different experience. This is the inflection point Charlie Munger wouldn't shut up about - and the most underestimated milestone in personal finance. Before $100K, YOU do all the work. Your discipline. Your sacrifice. Your willingness to keep grinding while progress feels glacial and everyone else seems to be living their best life. After $100K? Your money finally starts working for you. At 8% returns, $100K generates $8,000 a year - more than most people are even saving annually. That's when compounding stops being a concept in a spreadsheet and becomes the force that takes over the heavy lifting. The boulder you've been pushing uphill suddenly has momentum. In this Quick Take, I break down: Why the first $100,000 feels impossibly slow (because mathematically, it is)The exact timeline: how $100K to $250K compresses to 7-9 years, then $500K to $1M happens in under 5How compound interest fundamentally changes the experience of building wealth after six figuresWhy this milestone unlocks CoastFIRE - and how $100K at age 30 becomes $1.5M by 65 without another dollar savedWhy getting there fast deserves genuine urgency: longer hours, every bonus saved, delayed upgrades, even living with parentsWhat Charlie Munger really meant when he called this "a b*tch, but you've got to do it" If you're early in your FIRE journey, this is your permission - your mandate - to be unreasonable about reaching six figures. Make it your guiding star. Accept that this phase is hard, because it is. And if you're already past it? This episode explains why those early years felt disproportionately brutal and why everything seemed to accelerate later. You weren't imagining it. The math changed. The first $100K isn't glamorous. It's not Instagrammable. It's not passive income. But it is the foundation that makes everything else possible. Get there. Then let compounding take over. #FIRE #personalfinance #Investing #FinancialIndependence #CompoundInterest #WealthBuilding #MoneyManagement #FinancialFreedom #RetireEarly #SavingMoney #InvestingForBeginners #CharlieMunger

7분

2월 8일

Time Off Won’t Fix You (Here’s Why)

#007: What if the problem isn’t that you’re tired, but that you’ve never stopped long enough to actually question the life you’re building? In this episode of Life After Enough, I unpack what really happens when you step away from work. After taking a six-month sabbatical in 2025, I discovered something very unexpected and unsettling: time off doesn’t automatically bring clarity, peace, or purpose. In fact, the early stages can feel uncomfortable, disorienting, and even unsettling. However, that “messy middle” - the withdrawal from busyness - is where the real work begins. In this episode, we explore: Why productivity has become tangled up with self-worthThe emotional and psychological reality of taking a sabbaticalThe difference between burnout, escape, and intentional pauseSabbaticals vs career breaks vs “mini retirements”How to ask for time off without blowing up your careerHow to plan and fund a sabbatical realisticallyWhy re-entry to work can feel harder than leavingHow to keep what you discover instead of slipping back into old patterns This isn’t an episode about quitting your job or running away from responsibility. It’s about using time off as a tool - a rehearsal for the life you actually want to live when work stops being the centre of everything. If you’re mid-career, chasing financial independence, or just wondering “is this really it?”, this episode will challenge how you think about rest, success, and freedom. Freedom doesn’t start the day you quit. It starts the day you pause.

27분

2월 1일

Who Are You Without Your Job? (Identity After Enough)

Who are you when your job is no longer your identity? In this episode of Life After Enough, we explore one of the most overlooked aspects of financial independence early retirement (FIRE), and career change: identity after work. Many of us build our entire sense of self around our profession - our title, income, productivity, and status. But what happens when that role changes, disappears, or no longer needs to exist? Whether through burnout, redundancy, early retirement, FIRE, sabbaticals, or becoming a parent, work eventually stops being the centre of life and that transition can be deeply unsettling. Drawing on my own experience leaving corporate law, chasing extreme adventures, reaching my original FIRE number, and rebuilding a life beyond work, this episode introduces the idea of Identity Enough - the ability to build a resilient, multi-layered identity that isn’t dependent on a single job or role. In this episode, we cover: Why tying your identity to work makes you emotionally and psychologically fragileThe hidden trap of defining yourself by “escaping” your job and how it leads to the same placeHow identity collapse shows up after early retirement or FIREWhy financial freedom doesn’t automatically create purposeHow to build a portfolio identity that makes you anti-fragilePractical ways to experiment with identity without blowing up your life This episode is essential listening if you’re pursuing financial independence, questioning your career, planning early retirement, or wondering what life actually looks like after you reach “enough.” Money can remove constraints. But identity determines what you build next. Related episodes: Episode 3 - Enough Is Not the Finish LineQuick Take 1 - The Day After the Sabbatical

31분

1월 28일

Freedom Files #1: He Quit Law, Retired Early and Cycled Into a New Life

#FF001: What actually happens after you walk away from work? Not in theory or in spreadsheets. But in real life. Freedom Files is a monthly interview series inside Life After Enough where I sit down with people who’ve already stepped off the hamster wheel and ask the only question that really matters: What happens next? For our very first Freedom File, I’m joined by my good friend Simon - a former corporate lawyer who didn’t just talk about early retirement… he actually did it. Simon spent 25 years in law, working long hours, living globally, and doing everything “right” on paper. Then he reached financial independence, made the call, and walked away - for good. Since retiring, Simon has: Spent a year living in LombokIs heading to Canada to train as a ski instructorAnd is preparing to cycle around the world to raise money to protect threatened ecosystems 🌍🚴‍♂️ But this episode isn’t about the adventure highlight reel.It’s about: The moment Simon stopped thinking about leaving and actually resignedWhat it really feels like to give up a high-status careerThe identity loss no one warns you about after early retirementHow fear, comparison, and “one more year” keep people stuckAnd how to rebuild purpose, community, and meaning on the other side of work This is an honest, grounded conversation about life after enough - including the doubts, the recalibration, and the quiet confidence that comes from trusting yourself. If you’re: Financially independent (or close) but hesitant to pull the triggerBurnt out and wondering if there’s another way to liveCurious what early retirement actually looks like beyond the fantasy This episode will give you clarity, courage, and perspective. ⸻ 🔗 Follow Simon’s journey Simon is documenting his global cycling expedition and fundraising journey here: 👉 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simoncyclestheworld 👉 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@simoncyclestheworld ⸻ 🧭 About Freedom Files Freedom Files is a monthly interview series inside Life After Enough featuring real people who’ve redesigned their lives once work became optional. No hype. No guru playbooks. Just honest conversations about money, identity, purpose, and what comes next. If you enjoyed this episode, follow Life After Enough so you don’t miss future Freedom Files - and share it with someone who’s wondering if there’s more to life than the grind.

33분

1월 25일

The Debt Episode Nobody Wants to Record (Shame, Silence, and Starting Over)

#005 Debt isn’t just a money problem. It’s a time problem. An energy problem. A freedom problem. In this episode of Life After Enough, we talk honestly about debt - especially consumer debt - and why it steals your future long before the interest shows up on your statement. I share my own experience of mistaking high income and large credit limits for success, rotating through 0% balance transfers, and living in the gap between “I look fine” and “I’m barely staying afloat.” What finally changed wasn’t a spreadsheet, it was understanding what debt was actually costing me: confidence, optionality, and the ability to build a future instead of constantly paying for my past. This episode isn’t about shame, judgement, or quick fixes. Rather, it’s about: Why debt is emotionally loaded and psychologically stickyHow modern life is engineered to push capable people into borrowingThe difference between useful debt and freedom-eroding consumer debtWhy debt is rarely caused by one big mistake, but by slow, socially normal decisionsHow 0% cards and balance transfers quietly extend the problemWhy debt feels like a maths problem, when in fact its is really an identity problem We also walk through a clear, practical framework to help you reclaim control: Building a small but sacred emergency buffer so progress doesn’t collapseUnderstanding which “debt story” you’re actually living: habit, keeping-up, or structuralChoosing the right repayment strategy (snowball vs avalanche) for your psychologyCreating a realistic three-year window to clear consumer debt and unlock freedomKnowing when to seek professional help, without seeing it as failure Most importantly, we talk about what happens before the final balance hits zero. Real freedom starts earlier than most people think - that magic moment you stop hiding from the numbers, stop adding new debt, and start keeping promises to yourself. Debt freedom isn’t just a financial transformation. It’s an identity transformation! If you’re carrying debt and feeling stuck, this episode is your reminder that you’re not broken, you’re human. Getting your life back is possible, often faster than you think.

20분

1월 21일

Quick Take - The Cost of More

QT002 What would really happen if you got a 20% pay rise tomorrow? Would your savings rate go up…Or would your lifestyle quietly rise to meet it? In this Quick Take episode of Life After Enough, Nic breaks down the hidden cost of lifestyle creep and why it’s one of the biggest reasons people stay stuck chasing financial independence longer than they need to. Lifestyle creep doesn’t look reckless. But every permanent upgrade actually raises the price of your freedom. In this Quick Take, we explore: What lifestyle creep actually is and why it’s so easy to missHow spending just $1,000 more per year adds $25,000 to your FIRE numberWhy lifestyle creep turns into time creepHow “deserved” upgrades become invisible baseline costsThe psychology behind lifestyle inflation: exhaustion, autopilot, statusWhy FIRE plans fail when spending drifts without intention Practical takeaways: How to freeze fixed costs while income growsWhy automating salary increases is one of the fastest ways to buy freedomHow to run an “enough audit” using intentional spendingOne grounding question that reveals bad trade-offs:Would I trade more time at work for this? If you want to learn more about the math underpinning this: This episode builds directly on Episode 3 — FIRE 101: Freedom, Myths & Math, where we break down how your FIRE number works, why spending matters more than income, and how lifestyle choices quietly add years to your timeline. The core idea is that lifestyle creep feels like progress but it’s often just disguised delay. Choosing enough over more isn’t about deprivation. It’s about buying back time, flexibility, and peace. 🎙️ Quick Takes are short, reflective episodes designed to interrupt autopilot and help you think differently about money, work, and the life you’re building after enough. If this episode resonated, follow Life After Enough and share it with someone quietly paying the cost of more.

7분

1월 18일

The Number That Changes Everything: How to Know When You Actually Have "Enough"

#004 I hit my original FIRE number in 2024 - the one I’d been chasing for years - and the spreadsheet basically said: congratulations, you’re free! But I didn’t feel free. Instead I felt a kind of panic. Because almost immediately my brain went: What if it’s not enough? What if the future is more expensive? What if something unexpected happens? That’s when it clicked: financial enough isn’t just a number. It’s a relationship. A skill. A mindset. And most of us never learn how to build it. In this episode, we go deeper than the spreadsheets and talk about what “enough” actually looks like in real life. Its especially relevant if you’re the kind of person who keeps moving the goalposts, adding “one more year,” and calling it responsibility. We cover: Why hitting your FIRE number doesn’t always feel euphoric (and why that’s normal)The real reason “one more year” is so seductive and what it’s actually costing youHow lifestyle creep quietly rewrites your definition of enough without you noticingSequence of returns risk (and practical ways to build resilience: buffers, diversification, dynamic withdrawals)How to build emotional readiness alongside financial readiness, so the numbers can actually landA practical framework to define your floor and ceiling (stable vs “rich life”) and find your real enough in betweenWhy your FIRE number should evolve as you do, and explore why changing it isn’t failure, it’s growthA simple reality check to assess whether you’re financially and emotionally ready for freedom If you’ve ever thought, “I should feel safe by now… so why don’t I?” then this episode is for you. The goal isn’t to chase safety forever. It’s to recognise when you already have it, and then learn how to live from there. 🎧 Follow Life After Enough for the next episodes as we keep building the full picture: money, meaning, identity, and what happens after the number.

25분

Life After Enough

One More Year: The Trap That Steals Decades From Smart People

Quick Take- Why Your First $100K Is Brutal (But You've Got to Do It)

Time Off Won’t Fix You (Here’s Why)

Who Are You Without Your Job? (Identity After Enough)

Freedom Files #1: He Quit Law, Retired Early and Cycled Into a New Life

The Debt Episode Nobody Wants to Record (Shame, Silence, and Starting Over)

Quick Take - The Cost of More

The Number That Changes Everything: How to Know When You Actually Have "Enough"

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One More Year: The Trap That Steals Decades From Smart People

Quick Take- Why Your First $100K Is Brutal (But You've Got to Do It)

Time Off Won’t Fix You (Here’s Why)

Who Are You Without Your Job? (Identity After Enough)

Freedom Files #1: He Quit Law, Retired Early and Cycled Into a New Life

The Debt Episode Nobody Wants to Record (Shame, Silence, and Starting Over)

Quick Take - The Cost of More

The Number That Changes Everything: How to Know When You Actually Have "Enough"

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소개

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