The Personal Finance Podcast · Andrew Giancola

How To Design Your Dream Life with Andy Hill

·37 min·2 clips

Andy Hill says Coast Fire let him ask, “What else could I be doing with my time?”

1. The Personal Finance Podcast episode with Andy Hill focuses on life after Coast Fire and what “own your time” looks like in practice. 2. Host Andrew, founder of mastermoney.co, interviews Andy Hill, a three-time guest and the author of Own Your Time, because Hill has lived the Coast Fire transition. 3. The episode asks what happens after retirement is already funded and how to use that freedom without losing financial momentum. 4. Andy Hill says he and his wife first spent nearly all of their roughly $130,000 household income in their late 20s. 5. He then moved into a saving phase where 25% to 30% of income became his preferred middle ground. 6. Hill says that savings rate helped his family go from a negative $50,000 net worth to over millionaire status in about 10 years. 7. Andrew adds that his own path to a first million also came from saving 25% to 30%. 8. The conversation revisits Die With Zero and a Harvard longevity study on happiness that Hill references as support for prioritizing relationships and experiences. 9. Hill says the emotional payoff from reaching millionaire milestones faded quickly because the number was “just a number.” 10. He describes family vacations and other shared experiences as the kind of spending that creates lasting memories for his kids. 11. Andrew says he plans a month-and-a-half family trip to Europe, which he connects to those same memory-based priorities. 12. Hill tells listeners that if they are behind on retirement but like their job, they can save less aggressively and still keep moving forward. 13. He recommends a minimum around 15% for someone who wants to keep working in a job they enjoy. 14. Hill says Coast Fire is especially useful for people who dislike their current work and want a shorter runway to more freedom. 15. He describes his own Coast Fire realization as a moment when index funds, compound interest, and time made further contributions unnecessary. 16. Hill and his wife then asked whether they could move from full-time work to part-time work after becoming debt-free and building an FU money bucket. 17. The tone is practical and reflective, with Andrew using follow-up questions to turn Hill’s story into tactics. 18. The format mixes budgeting advice, Coast Fire psychology, and a rapid-fire closing segment about gas-station snacks. 19. People interested in Coast Fire, family tradeoffs, and calendar design would get the most from this episode. 20. People looking for market news, stock picks, or technical investing screens can skip it.

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Personal Finance Podcast