Self-made millionaire and money coach: 'Time freedom' is more important than retiring early

Andy Hill is coasting.

The 44-year-old and his wife have built up a net worth north of $1 million, and for now, neither plans to add another dollar to their long-term investments. Instead, they’ll let their money to continue to grow, secure in the knowledge that they’ll have enough to retire by the time they get there.

The strategy is known as “Coast FIRE,” a variation on a movement short for “financial independence, retire early.” In the early days of FIRE, many of its adherents pursued a straightforward objective: sock enough money away in investments to be able to leave your job and live off of distributions from your portfolio indefinitely.

In 2016, shortly after Hill began a side gig hosting the“Marriage Kids and Money” podcast, he began to do exactly that, insisting that he and his wife save as much as they could in order to retire as quickly as possible. The resulting friction over money landed them in couples therapy, Hill says.

Hill emerged with a new outlook on managing money as a couple — a philosophy he shares in his new book, “Own Your Time: 10 Financial Steps to Put Your Family First and Escape the Corporate Grind.” The goal, he tells readers and clients of his financial coaching business, isn’t to get to the retirement finish line as soon as possible, but to secure your future while creating the freedom to spend on the things you value now.

How to pursue time freedom as a couple

That process, Hill says, with starts with encouraging couples to dream together rather than diving straight into numbers.

“Really most of the time should be spent on, what do I want out of my life? What do I desire for my dream life?” Hill says.

To narrow in on the answer, Hill urges couples to ask themselves some big questions, such as:

If I got a $5 million check in my mailbox tomorrow, and I didn’t have to worry about money anymore, what would I stop doing immediately?
What am I constantly worried about, and what can I do with my money to help me eliminate those worries?

Getting to the bottom of these questions as a couple can give you a roadmap of where to put your money first, says Hill. If your biggest worry is losing your job and losing your home, for instance, you might focus your joint financial energies on paying down your mortgage, he says. If your biggest dream with a windfall is guilt-free travel, you might prioritize building a vacation fund.

“It’s about starting from that position of dreaming and then sharing those dreams with your spouse, asking them to do the same, so that you can come together for some cool family goals that work for both of you,” Hill says.

For Hill, and for many of the couples he works with, the ultimate goal is what he calls “time freedom.” After putting enough money in your investment accounts to “coast” to retirement — an amount that requires some future projection that’s worth discussing with a financial professional — you can use money you would have been socking away to enrich your life, either by spending more on things you want or by effectively buying back your time.

“Do we want to inflate our lifestyle and just have more fun, or do we both want to work less?” Hill says.

Hill and his wife have taken the latter approach, using their financial flexibility to scale back at work. Hill’s wife left a job in marketing to return to school and now works part-time as an esthetician. Hill went into business for himself full-time in 2019.

“The year I left my corporate career, I was making around $180,000 per year working 40 to 50 hours per week,” he says. “This year, I’m paying myself $100,000 working 20 to 25 hours per week.”

Couples with this kind of extra time can use it to be more present parents and partners, focus on their health, care for aging parents and devote more time to hobbies and passions, Hill says.

“There’s so many other things that you can do with your life besides working,” he says.