When I, her free-spirited eldest, finally landed a 9-to-5, my mom let out a church shout: “I thought you’d never get a job with a retirement plan!” Previously convinced that I would artsy my way through adulthood, she promptly advised that I read Orman’s book. “Sock away just enough to make the company match for retirement,” she insisted. I complied, but was never convinced that I liked this bargain—after all, age 65 felt like a lifetime away. Surely that was too late to finally stop working for someone else? One thing this past year has hammered home for many of us is that we can no longer use our parents’ personal finance models to navigate this brave new world—in which student debt is high, job security is low, and women and people of color now have published pay gaps to support decades-long rumors of chronic under-earning. The welcomed rise of a new set of “money gurus” has made space for those of us who don’t look or think like Dave Ramsey to increase our net worth, improve money habits, and finally retire the term “retirement”—for good. These must-follow financial independence (F.I.) influencers are setting the pace for a more diversified personal money management community that corresponds with today’s realities. Since 2014, they’ve grown their podcast and YouTube community to over 225K subscribers intent on bridging the intersection between family, finance, and faith. Their show highlights different people’s stories of debt freedom, making the dream of financial independence more proximate. “We get numerous messages from people who look just like us and are encouraged and inspired that they can do what we’ve done, because we’ve shown them it is possible.” When asked about their retirement philosophy, they advise, “Financial freedom is when you have the ability to do whatever you want on your own terms without finances being a culprit or a hindrance to your desires. Retirement then becomes a choice and not a deadline.” Realizing that penny pinching was causing her anxiety, 20-something Paula set out to achieve financial independence, mainly through investing in real estate and ETFs. “I knew that I was never going to have a high paying career. I was so scared about my lifetime earning ability that I tried to cling to every penny as tightly as I could, but that led to chasing pennies at the expense of dollars,” she says. Today, Paula runs “Afford Anything,” an online community of nearly 13,000 members, who exchange everything from spreadsheets to stock tips to help average people reach their “F.I. number.” This personalized number is the amount of savings and passive income needed to feel like you have “enough.” Rather than bickering over the semantics of retirement, Paula encourages followers to define “enough” today and to go after it now. “From that point forward, you can do whatever you’d like,” she says. Her approach to retirement is to lead with simplicity: “When I used to think about the word retirement, I thought of old, wrinkled people sitting in a rocking chair. As I get closer to financial freedom, I see it completely differently. I see myself much younger, enjoying time with my family. Financial freedom means joy and happiness. It means finding creative ways to enjoy life without having to spend a ton of money.” “I also see financial freedom as a form of rest for Black folks. Our bodies have historically been used for labor,” she says. “Black women continue to be some of the most overworked individuals in our society. When we can achieve financial freedom, we can rest without guilt or financial worry. I define retirement as the point at which I will no longer work for my living. I fully expect to continue earning income when I retire early, but I will no longer have to work to survive.” Cinneah offers travel hack workshops and debt-freedom best practices as a blueprint to shorten the amount of time people spend in formal employment. She now sees this work as a personal quest to break generations of poverty in her own family and in others. If you’ve never heard of money stories, toxic money, and bad relationships with money, you should start with episode one and work your way through all 300 (and counting). Her personal finance journey started when she was in her 30s. Although she was a “successful” property millionaire and trained lawyer in the UK, she found herself a twice-divorced, single mom of two, struggling to maintain her reputation and her identity within the South Asian community. Determined to break a cycle of domestic violence, she overcame bad marriages and “energy blocks” to turn her whole life around. Her online community is all about accountability. Members set awe-inspiring goals that require outpacing cultural norms and decimating inherited money blocks. Kristy Shen and Bryce Leung wrote this generation’s veritable bible on “geographic arbitrage,” a financial freedom technique that entails earning in high value currency and spending in low value currency, a lifestyle that so many people covet in retirement. “We found a way to apply the principles of F.I.R.E. and combined it with digital nomadism. The result is a life that lets us travel perpetually and never have to worry about money. We want to spread the word of how to do this to as many people as possible.” Kristy and Bryce offer everything they teach free of charge on their “Millennial Revolution” blog, including a 60-part investing workshop. While respecting the intelligence of his clients, Gómez takes on the philosophy of “explaining things like I’m talking to my mother”—and driving home the importance of personal responsibility. He focuses on the emotional side of money, making his podcast Dinero en Español particularly empowering. He also reminds listeners to invest in therapy, being mindful of mental health while on the (often stressful) journey toward achieving the American Dream. To reach financial freedom, he advises never underestimating the power of clarity, particularly “about the things that you will give your money, attention, time, and heart (MATH).”
