In October of 2023, a single psychotic episode would change my life and catapult me towards a journey of financial independence and early retirement. Now I’m here, writing a blog to help future solo retirees reduce their reliance on money and therefore the size of their needed portfolios. Here’s how I found my way to “enough” and realized my financial independence.

When It All Fell Apart

I was 28 at the time, and my mental health was deteriorating at a rapid pace. I had no job, I was spending money impulsively despite my best efforts to control it, and I was beginning to doubt the fabric of reality. This all culminated in a wild, psychotic episode where I acted out in ways I dare not repeat anywhere in public, and I was quickly detained. Cops were called, lawyers got involved, and I was institutionalized in the psych ward of my local hospital. I was put on a variety of drug cocktails that were mixed in their effectiveness, and was in and out of the psych ward 3 times over the course of 2 months. Finally my providers and I settled on an antipsychotic that worked well for me and I have been stable ever since. It was here I was officially diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder.

Fast forward to March 2024, where I was in an outpatient program undergoing a Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) intensive program. I was engaging in a sort of gratitude practice for all that I had and the fact I was able to enjoy such good care and treatment. During that a single, lucid thought appeared in my head that would even further radically change my life: “You’re only here because you have money.” It was like the floor was pulled right from underneath me with a single, swift motion. I thought I was spiritually protected or some crap, but the reality of the situation was that the laws of nature, the laws of physics, and the laws of economics apply to me as they apply to anyone else. I wasn’t special like I might have implicitly thought. I realized quickly I had no income, and I was only housed because I live with aging relatives who will eventually die. If I couldn’t support myself by the time they passed, I was on the streets. This propelled me into action, and I was desperately on the hunt for a job, any job.

Because I was still involved in this DBT intensive outpatient program, a full time job wouldn’t work for me. It was also the case — and still is the case — that finding a full time job with benefits was very difficult and exceedingly competitive. Especially for someone like me with a joke of a patchy resume with huge job gaps everywhere. I read on Reddit that warehouse jobs literally hire anybody, and I eventually stumbled upon a FedEx Express hub near me. I applied to be a package handler part-time starting at $19/hr and the rest was history. I began working for them officially on April 15th 2024, and as of writing this post I celebrate my 2 year anniversary with them.

Seeing the Light: Becoming a Boglehead

During my early months working at FedEx I realized I needed to manage my money better but didn’t know to. I had hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto thanks to a bunch of early investments into Bitcoin I made back in 2013 - 2014. I had a problem that I didn’t realize was a problem back then: I was still in crypto. I spoke with my mom’s financial advisor and with him began moving some money out of crypto, but I was instead funneled into crappy investment products and expensive, managed funds. I thought I needed to defer to someone else to do something as seemingly complex as investments.

Come to first quarter of 2025, and I somehow stumble upon the Bogleheads philosophy to investing and I was hooked. In clear and easy English, they broke down the complexity of investing into very understandable and easy to apply principles. Just buy the whole market with broad ETFs. Don’t ever time the market. Time in the market beats timing the market. The stock market has gone up in real terms throughout history through even the worst of times. It was after reading through their wikis over a couple weeks that I was convinced to move the rest of my crypto out into broad market ETFs. In boglehead communities I found the VT index fund, and my crypto money found its home.

Defining “Enough”: How I Realized Financial Independence

Through the bogleheads community I found the FIRE movement (Financial Independence Retire Early). I voraciously consumed resources about how to calculate my FIRE number, estimating expenses for retirement, and proper safe withdrawal rates. Since I lived with family at the time — and still do — I recognized that my living expenses were artificially way lower than they would be if I had to support myself independently. I offhandedly looked at the cost of living around me in New Jersey and saw how expensive everything was, and just said “I guess I’ll need at least $80k to be comfortable”. I didn’t realize how much it would cost to actually live, I just assumed nice, round, high number. I also didn’t realize that earning $80k as a W-2 or a 1099 is vastly different than “earning” $80k in retirement. I naively thought since it would actually take $80k in gross earnings to live even a simple, modest life in New Jersey as a solo, independent earner that I would need the same in retirement.

I was hooked onto looking at my portfolio every day, seeing the daily swings of the stock market. Because my projected needs were so high, my FIRE number was subsequently very high, much higher than my current portfolio. I would feel frustrated and helpless that my FIRE number was just so far away. I was seeking a sense of ease and security now, not 20 years out, especially since I was still rocked by the realization I had while in that outpatient program. I was still driven by the fear of being homeless.

It was here that I shifted my thinking. What if there was a way to make my portfolio feel powerful today, not 20 years from now? What could $1M in liquid assets do for me today? Instead of my portfolio not being enough, what if my expectations were just too high?

It wasn’t until I actually ran the numbers and created line by line budgets for where I planned to live that I saw just how little it could take to actually live, not just survive. It wasn’t until I actually understood how taxes worked in my particular situation that I actually didn’t need anywhere near as much as I thought I did on an annual basis. And it wasn’t until I was honest about my current lifestyle and future lifestyle expectations that I was able to see that I didn’t really need to buffer for any lifestyle increases. I also took into account certain quirks of how my brain worked regarding lifestyle spending, namely the thinking of “if I’m spending a lot to live here, then I may as well spend a lot to enjoy it”. So with that logic, I understood if I chose a relatively cheaper place to live, then I wouldn’t feel the need to justify that high living expense with higher lifestyle spending. It was certainly true at the time as, as it is now, that my lifestyle was already modest. At a default state, I didn’t feel the need to spend a lot of money on fluff, so why pay a lot of money to live this already simple lifestyle?

There are just so many assumptions baked into daily life, especially now since I live in a car dependent suburb with my family. Those assumptions include, but aren’t limited to:

• owning a car
• having your own place (no roommates/housemates)
• living in a HCOL place like New Jersey
• shopping for fun
• eating out for fun
• groceries being super expensive

If I was able to eliminate these things or reduce them down to their barest minimum, I could lead a more intentional, purposeful, and fulfilling life, all while reducing my reliance on material things and spending money to be happy.

I wanted an external, authoritative number I could point to as a guidepost, and if I could keep my spending under this specific number, I would be living on as little as reasonably possible. As of 2026, that number is $26,030 per year. Read here if you want to see how I came up with this number.

Where I’m going from here

At the time of writing I’ve settled on Philadelphia for my ascetic, Lean FIRE retirement. That being because it’s much more affordable than New Jersey, plus it’s closer to family; I’m only an hour’s train ride away. That and in Philadelphia, I could reasonably afford the luxury of living on my own in a very modest studio apartment.

I see myself being solo for the rest of my life, partly because dating is hard and expensive, and I don’t expect a potential partner to be attracted to my intentionally anti-consumer lifestyle. They might just see it as restrictive and being cheap, whereas I see it as being abundant and free from desire. Thankfully this means I am allowed to live life on my own terms, and I don’t need to negotiate my lifestyle with anyone. It also means, however, that I need to take full responsibility for myself and my situation; I wouldn’t have anyone saving me or sharing the cost of living with me. Inflation really hurts in this case.

I’ll expand this further in my philosophy, but while my lack of spending might seem restrictive, I see it as being free from the desire to consume. There is a sense of liberation in not needing to spend so much to be happy, and I aim to need as little as possible.

My Asset Allocation

I currently use a 90/10 split between stocks and fixed income. Specifically 90% VT (plus a Target Date Retirement Fund at work), plus 8% VGIT (an ETF for intermediate term treasuries), with 2% cash in a HYSA. I debated going 98% stock and 2% cash given how low my current intended safe withdrawal rate is, but I think inertia is going to stop me there. I don’t feel like making the massive sale and then purchasing stock, then having to deal with it come tax time. I’d rather stay at this split and rebalance to that.

Conclusion

My hope with this blog is that I can show others, especially solo retirees, that you don’t need to spend a lot to live a happy, fulfilling, and secure life. I aim to break down the math of how this is attainable, even if you’re starting relatively late and even if you make relatively little (bottom quartile income). It may seem extreme that I’m choosing to live on as little as reasonably possible when I could easily live on more, but in that choice I gain so much more than any purchase can give me: security, peace of mind, and freedom knowing I can be happy without the drug of spending money. This blog is a chronicle of this choice, and an example of what you can do, too. This blog is also a commentary on who FIRE is really for, and while not everyone can do the “retire early” part, we can at least have the “financial independence” to live a dignified life in our elder years.

• See the math here.
• Read about why here.