Hey there, Tom here.

Did you know that the average American thinks they need about $1.46 million to retire comfortably?

They also think they’ll retire around 65. But countries are already starting to push the ‘official’ retirement age to 67…

BUT let me ask you a question 👉 What if it’s possible to potentially retire decades earlier than what’s advertised? 🤔

And I’m NOT talking about the kind of retirement where you sit on your bum, watching re-runs on TV all day.

I’m talking about the kind of retirement where you spend your best years living the kind of life you want to live. Less work stress, more travel, time for your hobbies, family, and fitness…THAT kind of retirement.

This isn’t a pipedream. It’s fully possible if you know which strategies to use.

And so…Welcome to the wonderful world of Coast FIRE 😎

I’m going to explain exactly how this lifestyle strategy works, why it’s the fastest way for buying your freedom, and how I’m personally using it to travel the world right now, working on whatever projects interest me at the moment.

This is a juicy one. Let’s dive in 👇

Ready to transform artificial intelligence from a buzzword into your personal revenue generator

HubSpot’s groundbreaking guide "200+ AI-Powered Income Ideas" is your gateway to financial innovation in the digital age.

Inside you'll discover:

Download your guide today and unlock a future where artificial intelligence powers your success. Your next income stream is waiting.

Get Your Guide

Traditional retirement planning is broken.

Housing is unaffordable. Cost of living is outpacing wages. People are BNPL-ing DoorDash orders to get by.

No wonder so many folks are either YOLO-ing into crypto or just giving up on the idea of ever retiring comfortably.

But there's a better way…and it doesn't require striking it rich or living like a monk for 20 years.

It's called Coast FIRE, and it's the exact strategy I've used to regain locational and financial freedom over my life in my twenties.

Let me explain how the math works and what this is all about 😎

FIRE = Financial Independence, Retire Early.

The core idea 👉 invest early and aggressively, hit a target number, and let your portfolio cover your living expenses for the rest of your life.

Most FIRE math comes from the 4% rule — the idea that you can safely withdraw 4% of your portfolio per year without ever running out of money. In simple terms: once you've saved 25x your annual spending, you're financially free.

The problem?

Most versions of FIRE require a brutal amount of savings and sacrifice, which is exactly why so many people hear about FIRE, get excited, then quietly give up.

PLUS if you want to do things like travel or buy a property, saving up 25x your annual cost of living quickly racks up.

However, there’s more than one kind of FIRE strategy out there. Let me lay out some options 👇

Here's how the numbers shake out depending on your lifestyle and approximate annual spending figures:

🔹 Traditional FIRE — Spend $70K/yr → need $1.75M saved

🔹 Lean FIRE — Spend $30K/yr (super frugal) → need $750K saved

🔹 Fat FIRE — Spend $100K/yr → need $2.5M saved

🔹 Coast FIRE — Save a chunk early, downshift your career, and let compound interest do the rest while you work on lower-stress side hustles and projects to cover your bills

Notice the pattern? Traditional, Lean, and Fat FIRE all require $750K–$2.5M saved before you can stop grinding entirely.

That's a decades-long slog for most people…which is exactly why Coast FIRE stands out. It doesn't play by the same rules.

Coast FIRE flips the traditional model on its head.

Instead of saving until you never have to work again, you save one big number early, then let time and compound interest quietly do the heavy lifting while you shift into lower-stress, more flexible work.

Here's the math that makes this click:

🎯 Goal: Let’s say you want to actually retire at 65 with a $1M portfolio, assuming a 7% annual return.

If you can manage to invest $150,000 by age 35, that money grows to over $1M by age 65, even if you never add another single dollar to it.

That's the power of time. Once your nest egg is locked in and compounding on autopilot, everything changes:

Compared to Traditional or Fat FIRE, Coast FIRE is dramatically more attainable, and it lets you start living freely way sooner.

Now, investing $150,000 by age 35 is no small feat. This is above-average for people’s net worth at this age bracket.

BUT this is why I write about topics like creating micro-income streams or starting one-person businesses.

I cover ways to create exceptional circumstances and outcomes for people. This isn’t average, and it’s not easy. But it’s absolutely possible with dedication and time. Plus, this pursuit can genuinely change your entire life.

And when you add a touch of WiFi Wealth and geo-arbitrage into the mix, this whole system gets even wilder 😎

Coast FIRE gets you halfway there. Stack remote income + geo-arbitrage on top of it, and things get absurd.

💵 Here's why: earning $3,000/month online barely moves the needle if you're living in an expensive Western city. But take that same income to plenty of other places on earth, and it buys you a genuinely great quality of life; nicer housing, way less financial stress, and total freedom over where you live.

And when you need less to live on per month, you can save more aggressively. Your total FIRE number also plummets because you need far less in your portfolio to cover your living costs.

This is exactly how I've built my own life over the past several years while living in cities like Medellín, Cape Town, Cluj, Chania, Phuket and plenty of other places.

I skip Canadian winters, I've been self-employed for years, and I've never had a boss telling me how to spend my Monday mornings.

And earning that kind of income isn't some pipe dream. There are more paths to it than ever before thanks to the internet:

The honest truth?

More people (especially young adults) are going to choose this path over the next decade.

The rat race isn't working. People are burned out, and they're tired of following a playbook (degree → job → grind until you're dead) that doesn't lead anywhere good.

Coast FIRE + WiFi Wealth =

✅ The freedom to live anywhere

✅ Flexibility in how you make money

✅ Peace of mind knowing your future is secured

✅ The time to actually enjoy your life now — not just grind toward some far-off finish line

Granted, it takes time to develop an online income stream that can make $2,00 - $4,000 per month to cover your living costs in certain regions around the world.

But this path is possible. I’ve done it, and I’ve met hundreds of other people doing the same thing throughout my travels.

Plus, you can pull of Coast FIRE without being a digital nomad 😂 The same logic applies when you move to a lower cost of living area in your home country and simply downshift your life after establishing your nest egg.

Again, not easy and something you can do overnight. But in my experience, this is the single fastest path to buying your freedom. And it sure beats working in the same cubicle until you’re 65.

Here's your homework this week: pull up a compound interest calculator and run your own numbers. Figure out your personal Coast FIRE target. Then start reverse-engineering the kind of lifestyle you actually want to live.

I’d also love to hear your thoughts on Coast FIRE or even FIRE in general…Is it for you? How does it fit into family life? Let me know what you think 😊

I’ve mentioned FlexJobs several times at WiFi Wealth, but that’s because I’ve used it to find freelance work in the past and think it’s one of the better remote job platforms out there.

With FlexJobs, you can find high-paying, remote opportunities across dozens of industries.

This includes part-time and full-time roles. And FlexJobs’ team hand-screens jobs to get rid of fake listings and ghost jobs.

I also like FlexJobs since many jobs have salary or hourly rates shown upfront, so you don’t have to waste time applying to gigs that don’t pay enough.

If you want to save time, avoid scams, and find legit remote opportunities, I’d give FlexJobs a try.

Just note this is a paid job board. There’s a $2.95 trial for 14 days. After that, it costs around $29 per month depending on your plan.

I’d personally use it for 1-2 months, put in the effort to apply to numerous jobs, and then get out of there once you find a remote gig. Worth the cost in my opinion for how much time it saves.

💻 Check out remote listings on FlexJobs!