[FIRE] How Average People Can Reach FIRE Without a High Salary
Hello, this is the laid-off investor dad.
The topic for today is,
Can an average-income employee achieve financial freedom?
That is the question.
If you are thinking,
"I can't do it because I don't have a high income"
"It's pointless because I have little money to invest"
If you think that way, please watch until the end.
Actually, the real key to determining financial freedom is not just your annual income.
⇩ I turned this article into a slide-based video! Click here ⇩
If you ask AI,
"Is financial freedom possible even with an average income?"
and it replies,
Manage your expenses.
Increase your savings rate.
Invest for the long term.
Reduce your risks.
You get a very rational answer.
Of course, that is correct.
But I believe there is one more important perspective.
Conversely, then,
does a high income guarantee financial freedom?
Certainly,
the amount you can put toward investments increases.
The speed at which you achieve it may become faster.
However,
even with a high income,
there are people who still worry about money.
The reason is simple.
The ability to earn money and
the ability to save it are different things.
What makes a big difference in investing is not
just how much you earned.
It is not just that.
The deciding factors are
when you started,
how much you invested each month,
and
how long you kept it up.
This is it.
The mechanism of compound interest becomes more powerful the more you have time on your side.
In the United States,
stories of people who have built significant wealth
while working on an average income often appear.
They have something in common.
They do not live flashy lives.
They invest a portion of their income.
They continue for a long period.
And,
they do not exit the market.
It is not about special talent,
but about staying on the ride of capitalist growth.
This is the major reason.
Once you start accumulation investing,
there is something important.
That is,
to forget about it.
Daily stock prices.
Monthly price fluctuations.
The fear during a market crash.
If you worry too much about these,
long-term investing will not last.
In investing,
"The wealthiest people are the dead ones"
is a common saying.
This is because,
I didn't sell along the way,
and kept riding the wave of growth.
What is necessary for financial freedom is,
not earning more than the average annual income.
That is not it.
It is for you, as you are now,
to create an amount you can invest.
And,
to make time your ally.
Even if it is just 10,000 yen a month,
when you add 10 or 20 years of time,
it becomes a powerful force.
I myself,
am not a special investor.
My parents were not wealthy either.
I was an average Japanese office worker.
I ruined my health at work,
and at 53,
I also experienced being laid off.
In life,
you never know what will happen.
That is exactly why I felt
creating a system where money works for you,
instead of you working for it,
is important.
Currently,
I am focusing on index investments
like All Country or S&P 500,
and continuing with automatic monthly contributions.
Due to experiencing a decrease in income and layoffs,
my wealth building,
is taking longer than planned.
However,
if I hadn't started investing,
there is a view I would never have been able to see.
That is,
the feeling of anxiety about money gradually decreasing.
The sense of security in being able to have hope for the future.
Starting today, you too,
can start within the scope of what you can do right now.
Please try becoming an index investor.
Please ride the wave of capitalist growth.
Financial freedom,
is not just for a select few high-income earners.
By making time your ally,
and continuing to take small actions,
there is a future that will come into view.
Reduce your financial anxiety,
and even with an average annual income,
let's aim for a free and peaceful life.
⇩ Click here for the video related to this article ⇩
This is a video based on a true story about how to recover even with a lower income.
⇩ Click here for the English slide explanation video for this article ⇩
How Average People Can Reach FIRE Without a High Salary
Slide 1
Hello everyone, this is Restructuring Investment Grandpa.
Today’s topic is,
Can an average-income employee achieve financial freedom?
If you think,
“I don’t earn enough, so it’s impossible.”
or,
“I don’t have much money to invest, so it won’t matter.”
Please watch until the end.
Because the truth is,
financial freedom is not decided by income alone.
Slide 2
I asked AI,
“Is financial freedom possible with an average salary?”
The answer was very logical.
Control your spending.
Increase your savings rate.
Invest for the long term.
Reduce unnecessary risks.
Of course, these are correct.
But I believe there is another important perspective.
Slide 3
So let’s ask the opposite question.
Does a high income automatically create financial freedom?
A high income certainly gives you more money to invest.
And it may help you reach your goal faster.
However,
many high-income people still worry about money.
The reason is simple.
The ability to earn money and the ability to keep money are different skills.
Slide 4
What creates the biggest difference in investing is not only,
“How much money did you earn?”
The most important factors are,
When did you start?
How much did you invest every month?
And how long did you continue?
This is where the real difference is created.
Slide 5
Compound growth becomes stronger for people who use time as their advantage.
In the United States,
there are many stories of people who built large wealth while earning average incomes.
They have something in common.
They avoid a flashy lifestyle.
They invest part of their income.
They continue for many years.
And they stay invested.
Slide 6
They did not succeed because they had a special talent.
They succeeded because they continued riding the growth of capitalism.
When you start regular investing,
there is something important you need to remember.
That is,
forget it.
Slide 7
Do not watch stock prices every day.
Do not worry about every monthly movement.
Do not panic during market crashes.
If you focus too much on short-term changes,
long-term investing becomes difficult.
There is a saying in investing,
“The greatest investor is often a person who has passed away.”
Because they never sold.
They stayed invested and benefited from long-term growth.
Slide 8
Your greatest asset is not a high salary.
It is time.
You don’t need to become rich overnight.
Even investing a small amount every month can become powerful when combined with 10 or 20 years.
Small actions become big results.
Slide 9
I am not a special investor.
I was not born into a wealthy family.
I was an ordinary Japanese office worker.
I experienced health problems because of work.
And at the age of 53,
I also experienced job loss due to restructuring.
Life can change suddenly.
That is why I realized something important.
Slide 10
I needed a system where money could work for me.
Today,
I continue automatic investing mainly through index funds like,
the global stock index fund,
and the S&P 500.
Because of income reduction and job loss,
my wealth building has taken longer than expected.
Slide 11
But if I had never started investing,
I would never have seen this view.
The feeling that money anxiety slowly becomes smaller.
The sense of security that allows you to have hope for the future.
Financial freedom is not only about becoming rich.
It is about creating peace of mind.
Slide 12
Starting today,
do what you can within your own situation.
Become an index investor.
Ride the long-term growth of capitalism.
Financial freedom is not only for people with high incomes.
It can become possible for people who use time as their advantage and continue small actions.
Reduce your money worries.
And create a free, calm, and peaceful life even with an average income.
Thank you for watching.