Life beyond FI/RE

Sunday, 7:16pm - Taipei, Taiwan

Hello from Taiwan! 👋

Last week I wrapped up my month in Japan and flew back to Taiwan to hang out with family and just chill for a while. For the last two days, I’ve basically been in zombie mode, sleeping for 12+ hours a day.

I’ve since revived a bit, and I’m looking forward to feeling like a human again.

Today, I wanted to reflect on something that’s been on my mind for the last few months — life beyond FI/RE.

Wait—what’s FI/RE?

FI/RE stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early — a movement that rejects the traditional “work until you’re 65” path. Instead, you save and invest aggressively so you can retire decades earlier.

If you’d like to learn more, I’ve written before on FI/RE, including hitting the CoastFI milestone, which is when you’ve saved enough to “coast” to retirement at 65 without needing to add more savings.

My relationship with FI/RE

When I googled “Who is the richest person in the world?” in 8th grade, the second name that popped up was:

“Warren Buffett - investor.”

That was the beginning of a rabbit hole that became an obsession with learning everything I could about investing. Or as I liked to think about it, “making money without doing anything.”

Throughout high school, I diligently learned about the fundamentals of investing, reading up on the strategies of legendary investors like Warren Buffett, Benjamin Graham, and Peter Lynch. I learned concepts like P/E ratios, debt-to-equity, and value investing.

Then, as I entered college, I stumbled on the r/financialindependence subreddit, eventually consuming the “literary canon” of FI resources, including books like The Simple Path to Wealth. I realized that investing wasn’t nearly as complicated as I’d previously thought, and that with a couple tax-efficient decisions along with automations, I could easily create a system that would put me on track to be financially independent at a very young age.

Fast forward a couple years, and I landed my first “adult” job as a product manager at Intuit. I quickly put all the strategies I’d learned about in action. I watched eagerly as my net worth grew rapidly, doubling, tripling, and 4x’ing whatever savings I had prior to landing that job, thanks to the high salary, generous benefits, and a good stock market.

Eventually, I crossed the point of being “CoastFI”—after which I realized, “hey, I don’t have to keep doing this if I don’t want to.”

I sat on that knowledge for a while, and eventually put it to the test by quitting my job to go on a 1-year sabbatical to travel the world while seeking out inspiration for what I want to do next.

So how did that pan out?

Well, if you’ve been following along with the newsletter, you’ll know that I’ve been faithfully executing on my traveling over the last few months, picking up some new skills along the way from learning Muay Thai in Chiang Mai to learning Korean in Seoul.

I’ve since made up my mind to move to Japan next year in January 2026, with the intention of living there for at least three years. It’s always been my dream to live and work abroad for a few years as I immerse in a different culture and lifestyle. And for me, Japan strikes the right balance between having interesting opportunities available, a high general quality of life, and still having more to discover.

And financially?

It’s hard to believe, but during this trip I’ve learned that I can live on a lot less money than I expected — and somehow, my net worth has grown during the seven months since leaving my job.

Of course, a large part of this is simply luck. This past year has seen historic returns in the stock market, fueled by the AI boom. And I was fortunate enough to have held onto some individual stocks I bought years ago which heavily outperformed the market.

Eventually, I realized I was on track to reach FI much sooner than expected. But instead of feeling euphoric, I felt uneasy — like I was almost at the finish line but didn’t know what it was all for.

Money isn’t the end goal, it never was

I never cared much about the “raw number” of how much money I had. Instead, I cared about what it meant.

Reaching financial independence meant that I would never have to worry about paying rent, I would never worry about running out of money in old age, and I would never be tied to working a job I didn’t like.

In other words, I would have “F-you” money, and the ability to step away whenever I wanted.

Which is exactly what I did, with this sabbatical.

Over the last seven months, I’ve essentially been trial-running what retirement could look like, visiting country after country without being tied to an academic or work schedule.

I went to sleep whenever I wanted, and I woke up whenever I wanted. I stayed inside if I was tired, and I went on adventures if I wanted a thrill. I had bought myself enough time to live freely, without the responsibilities and constraints of a typical 9-5 lifestyle.

But as I continued to live freely, I increasingly felt a sense of dissonance as I looked at the world around me. While I was living it up, others were grinding to survive. Teenagers hustling to support their families. Seniors who never got the chance to go to college, stuck doing backbreaking manual labor.

I knew I couldn’t keep living like this forever.

I couldn’t in good conscience live a life of leisure without giving back to society in some way. And no, passively leaving assets in broad market index funds did not feel like a meaningful way of giving back to society.

Defining “purpose” and the meaning of life

Over the next few months, I wrestled with the idea of finding my “purpose.” What was it that would give me the motivation to live on, if not purely for survival itself?

I binged philosophy podcasts, read existential literature, and discovered some interesting blogs (a new favorite is More to That). At the end of it all, I felt a little comforted that people have been struggling with similar dilemmas for ages, but I didn’t feel any closer to figuring out what my purpose would be.

Then, I signed up for a one-month language program in Seoul.

During that program, I re-entered the world of structure and constraints. I had classes from 9am to 1pm, 2pm to 4pm. And I LOVED it.

I made friends who I hung out with nearly every day. I learned more about Korean history and culture beyond the shiny Hallyu exterior. And something about being on a shared journey with dozens of other students made me feel part of something bigger.

I realized that even though “learning Korean” probably wasn’t my “singular life purpose,” it did create an environment where I felt my day-to-day was purposeful.

Set smaller goals

If you ever find yourself in a similar position to me — lucky enough to have freedom but paralyzed by choice — here’s my advice: set smaller goals.

For me, that means that instead of thinking about “what’s my big contribution to society?”, I’m focusing on passing the JLPT N1 in Japanese, working on a side project to help with reading in a foreign language, and continuing to write this newsletter.

These projects have given me structure and quieted the existential anxiety that inevitably creeps up whenever I find myself “drifting.” I’m also making sure to set goals that are aligned with my values and interests—not just what others have deemed “important.”

After all this time, I’ve realized that maybe satisfaction doesn’t come from total freedom, but from choosing our own constraints.

Closing thoughts

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this article, consider sharing it with a friend 🙂

I’m excited to share more soon on how my other projects are coming along. For now, I’m just grateful to be sleeping in a room without 20 other people again.

Have an amazing week!

Until next time,

Tim