{"id":585,"date":"2021-07-28T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-hitting-half-fi-is-more-like-75\/"},"modified":"2025-09-05T16:59:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-05T16:59:17","slug":"why-hitting-half-fi-is-more-like-75","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moneywithkatie.com\/why-hitting-half-fi-is-more-like-75\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Hitting \u201cHalf FI\u201d is More Like 75% [2025]"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I started thinking the other day about my borderline-concerning insatiable longing to be work-optional. After about three years of investing aggressively, I was roughly 25% of the way there. <\/p>\n

On one hand, that\u2019s pretty impressive\u201425% of the way to early retirement after just three years? Dope. That means (#math) only (3 * 3) 9 more years before the job is finished, right?<\/p>\n

Ugh.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written in the past about how the journey to FI begins as a very motivated, practically amphetamine-riddled obsession. <\/p>\n

Cutting luxuries out left and right, layering side hustles\u2026 it\u2019s all very exciting. <\/p>\n

Then, somewhere around the 25% mark (guilty), you\u2019re like, Damnit, it\u2019s still so far away<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I realized\u2014in one of my wee-hours-of-Sunday-morning reflection sessions\u2014that I didn\u2019t necessarily want to retire<\/em>, I just wanted the freedom to be an entrepreneur without any financial risk. So I did what any good money blogger would do\u2014calculated a new \u201cbaby FI\u201d figure, and posted about it<\/a>. (If you, too, are interested in becoming a work-optional, self-employed person with Stickittothemaneosis<\/a>, I highly recommend reading it.)<\/p>\n

But where does the math of FI help us out along the way?<\/h2>\n

As we\u2019re all hopefully well aware by now, compounding returns are the wind beneath our work-optional wings.<\/p>\n

At the risk of oversimplifying, that means that:<\/p>\n

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The more you invest, the faster it goes.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I always like to relate it to a snowball rolling down a hill. At the top when you\u2019re just starting to add snow, your tiny fledgling snowball won\u2019t pick up much speed. But before you know it, it\u2019ll have enough snow packed on that the weight of its own snowball body will be driving most of the accumulation and speed, regardless of how much snow you\u2019re<\/em> managing to pack on as you go.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t quite worked out the physics of how you\u2019d add snow as it rolls, but the metaphor stands.<\/p>\n

Time for an example<\/h2>\n

Obviously, I\u2019m claiming that half FI is actually more like 75% FI, when you look at it through the lens of time to FI<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

To help me prove this, I\u2019m going to enlist the help of my trusty Financial Independence<\/a> tab that\u2019s built into the Wealth Planner. <\/p>\n

For the sake of the example, our parameters involve a #RichGirl who\u2026<\/p>\n