Gen Z Guide to FI

Hello internet friends and welcome to my “anonymous” financial independence blog! Gen Z Fire Baby is my diary of financial independence.

I haven’t met any other 23 year olds, in 2022, who are as turned on by a well made budget as I am. I always knew something about me was not normal in that sense but it took me a few years to get to that realization. Let’s take a figurative flash back to the 2012. 13-year-old me would come home and watch Wizards of Waverly Place or a telenovela while counting the money I’d stashed under my mattress. Every day, I did this but I never had any plans for that money. Counting it and knowing it was there gave me peace. That is where the romance with money started.

Fast forward to 2019, in the fall of my junior year of college, my uncle died. He was just about 60 years old and planned to retire that year. He was a medical doctor. A health obsessed & strict diet man. He had always been healthy and then one day, he collapsed and died. No warning signs. Actually, I am just realizing that today marks 3 years since he passed. Rest in Peace, Uncle T. But his death was a lightbulb moment for me. I had spent almost 3 years in college studying engineering because I love cash. I have no interest in engineering. Put me in a chemical plant and you should be expecting an explosion. I started thinking “there has to be more to life than eat, shit, work, pay bills & die.”And there is…

In 2020, right before the pandemic hit, I heard about FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early). I started watching Amon & Christina from our rich journey. A beautiful black couple living their best lives now in Portugal after retiring at 40. If they were able to make it, surely other people can make it too. So down the rabbit hole I went, searching for how the fuck I can make that happen for myself. A few months later at age 20, I came up with an elaborate plan to retire by 41. It involves a lot of budgeting, free alcohol, finding life hacks and saying no. My net worth is now currently $100,000 in 2022.

And the journey is just beginning. Let’s get that bread.

Amon & Christina’s blog – https://www.ourrichjourney.com/