Eric Freeze:
So, without further ado, I just want to welcome Steve. So, for those that don't know your story, Steve, could you just share a brief overview of your journey to financial.

Eric Freeze:
Independence and maybe even share some of.

Eric Freeze:
The early financial decisions that laid that.

Eric Freeze:
Foundation for your early retirement?

Steve Adcock:
Sure.

Steve Adcock:
No problem. First of all, thanks for having me on, Eric.

Steve Adcock:
And, you know, I was the guy who graduated from college, set foot in.

Steve Adcock:
The office, and I would say on.

Steve Adcock:
Day two was when I really knew.

Steve Adcock:
This isn't going to work for me. There's no way I could spend the next 50 years of my life, like.

Steve Adcock:
The best years of my, like your.

Steve Adcock:
Most productive years of your life, just robotically going into an office every single day. Now, I was 24 at the time. I had no idea about, you know, financial independence or early retirement or saving and savings or investing. I didn't. I had nothing figured out.

Steve Adcock:
Nothing. So don't think I was just this ultra genius.

Steve Adcock:
Yeah, exactly. Who just had everything figured out in his early twenties. No, I made every mistake in the book.

Steve Adcock:
But what I did know is I.

Steve Adcock:
Didn'T want to do this for the rest of my life. Now, I worked in information technology.

Steve Adcock:
I was a software developer, which means two things. One, you get paid extremely well. Two, they drain the life out of you.

Steve Adcock:
And when I say they, I mean it.

Steve Adcock:
Companies and just the business in general.

Steve Adcock:
Nobody ever comes up to anybody who works in it and says, you know.

Steve Adcock:
Steve, I just wanted to let you know everything is working.

Steve Adcock:
You're doing a great job. The systems are all up. Everything is just perfect.

Steve Adcock:
So, thanks.

Steve Adcock:
I don't think that's ever happened in my entire career. The only time anybody ever wants to talk to you is when something's broken.

Steve Adcock:
And it needs to be fixed five minutes ago. So, all of that being said, I.

Steve Adcock:
Worked a high paying career in a field that I didn't really enjoy. I thought I was going to, but I didn't.

Steve Adcock:
I really, really didn't.

Steve Adcock:
So over the years, I would say probably I spent the first ten years.

Steve Adcock:
Or so living like a normal person.

Steve Adcock:
Where I earn an income, and I spent the income.

Steve Adcock:
I had the house in the suburbs. I had the corvette.

Steve Adcock:
I had the brand new Cadillac CTs.

Steve Adcock:
I had the Yamaha R1 sport bike. Basically everything I wanted to buy, I.

Steve Adcock:
Could pretty much do that.

Eric Freeze:
So is that where Steve on speed came from?

Steve Adcock:
Exactly. See, I always have to explain what that. What? The source of that reference has nothing to do with drugs.

Steve Adcock:
I just liked going fast and the.

Steve Adcock:
Hence the on speed. I totally should have changed that handle. Earlier, but that, that ship has sailed. Yeah, it works. So I found.

Steve Adcock:
About ten years after.

Steve Adcock:
I started my, my career, I was spending like a drunken sailor. I was having fun most of the time. But then it finally started to hit me.

Steve Adcock:
Late twenties maybe, I don't know, maybe about 30.

Steve Adcock:
There is this day, there was a Saturday where I walked out into my garage and I just reached up to.

Steve Adcock:
Open up the garage door as I.

Steve Adcock:
Normally would, without even thinking about it.

Steve Adcock:
But for some reason, I didn't, I.

Steve Adcock:
Didn'T open up that garage door. And I looked at what was in my garage again. The Cadillac, the Corvette, the Yamaha R1.

Steve Adcock:
Sport bike, and it's like, what the hell am I doing here? I have all of these things that I thought I could buy because I.

Steve Adcock:
Was successful and they make me happy.

Steve Adcock:
And that's just what, you know, what you do as a quote unquote professional.

Steve Adcock:
But I still wasn't happy. I still wasn't satisfied. I wasn't content with what I was doing. So that's the first time, the first opportunity I gave myself, I guess, to.

Steve Adcock:
Admit that something is seriously wrong and.

Steve Adcock:
I had to make some serious changes.

Steve Adcock:
Now, um, I stumbled on, and if you are a personal finance person, especially.

Steve Adcock:
A fire blog, financial independence, retire early.

Steve Adcock:
Kind of person, you've probably heard of.

Steve Adcock:
The name Mister money Mustache. I found his blog. He and I, I mean, we did the same sort of thing. He was a software developer, made good money, same kind of lifestyle. So I really connected with his story and I read about the things that.

Steve Adcock:
He would do in the, how he.

Steve Adcock:
Was building his future. And it's like, well, if this guy.

Steve Adcock:
Can do it, I make similar money, I can probably do it too. So I went from the earn and spend portion of my life to the earn and save and invest portion of my life. And when you start investing in your.

Steve Adcock:
Early twenties, I was investing the bare minimum, but at least I was investing.

Steve Adcock:
Man, that adds up so quickly over those years.

Steve Adcock:
For sure, for sure.

Eric Freeze:
So one thing I like to just.

Eric Freeze:
Get clarified upfront, what would you define as the difference between financial independence and then early retirement? Because I think in my head, those are two different things. Would you agree?

Steve Adcock:
Those are very different things. Very different things. And they do get, get lumped together because of the term fire. You say it together like, as it's one thing, so you, you have to do one and then the other. But they are, like you said, two very different things. Financial independence just means that you can live, you can quit today. If you work a job, you can quit today and work and live the.

Steve Adcock:
Rest of your life without working another.

Steve Adcock:
Job again and still never run out of money. So through capital gains or through appreciation of whatever assets you own, you can just live out your life without a job.

Steve Adcock:
You are independent from having to earn an income.

Steve Adcock:
That's the fi part, which is great.

Steve Adcock:
That should be everybody's goal. Without exception, every single person on the face of this earth.

Steve Adcock:
That should be their goal.

Steve Adcock:
The fi part, now, the re part.

Steve Adcock:
Is definitely not going to be for everybody. That's the early retirement part. So once you achieve fi, once you have this money, all these investments, if you don't want to work, that's where re comes in. You quit your job and you live the rest of your life doing whatever you want to, gardening, going to the gym, whatever. It doesn't matter. Traveling the world is literally your oyster.

Steve Adcock:
That's taking that next step to quitting your job.

Steve Adcock:
And that's ultimately what I did. I hesitate to even call myself retired at this point, because one of the.

Steve Adcock:
Things that I learned after quitting is.

Steve Adcock:
How many opportunities there are out there, both money making and also non money making, to get involved and just do stuff. Because you have to feel productive. You have to feel like you have some kind of purpose in this world.

Steve Adcock:
So if you just quit with nothing.

Steve Adcock:
Out there, nothing to do, there's only so many hours you could sit on the couch and catch up on Netflix, ladies and gentlemen. There really is. And you're going to.

Steve Adcock:
It's interesting to use the term burnout.

Steve Adcock:
In relation to sitting on the couch and doing nothing, but it really is.

Steve Adcock:
That you kind of get tired of doing nothing. So if you don't have that next step, that next quote, unquote, career, even.

Steve Adcock:
If it doesn't involve money whatsoever, you.

Steve Adcock:
Have no business retiring early.

Eric Freeze:
Well, I think you see so many.

Eric Freeze:
People that hit that 65 age that retire and sitting around do nothing. And I mean, deteriorates so quickly. Right.

Eric Freeze:
You know, so I agree.

Steve Adcock:
Yeah.

Eric Freeze:
If you're not challenging yourself, challenge your mind.

Steve Adcock:
Yeah, exactly.

Steve Adcock:
And when you're. It's one thing when you're 65, but.

Steve Adcock:
I mean, if you can get out.

Steve Adcock:
And do things, I mean, even as a 65 year old, seven year old, whatever, that's always good. That's always good to be active. But especially if you're doing this in.

Steve Adcock:
Your thirties or forties or fifties, man.

Steve Adcock:
You gotta do something.

Steve Adcock:
You can't just sit there or you're going.

Steve Adcock:
I mean, there's several articles that prove that early retirees die younger, die earlier.

Steve Adcock:
And it's not because you retired early.

Steve Adcock:
It's because you retired early with nothing to do. You have no purpose. You have no reason to even get up in the morning.

Steve Adcock:
That is what you need to avoid at all costs.

Eric Freeze:
That's amazing.

Steve Adcock:
Yep.

Eric Freeze:
So one thing I really appreciate about.

Eric Freeze:
Your story and a lot of your content on X is you didn't start.

Eric Freeze:
Some profitable business venture. You didn't win the lottery. You weren't born into money or given some big inheritance.

Eric Freeze:
You leveraged a nine to five to build wealth.

Eric Freeze:
And I think you'd probably agree there's a lot of shade in the online world throwing at nine to five jobs. So what would you say to the people whose narrative is, you can't retire.

Eric Freeze:
Early on a nine to five?

Steve Adcock:
Watch me.

Steve Adcock:
People do it all the time. I know. I am very involved in the fire.

Steve Adcock:
Community, and very few of the people that I know retired early because they built up this million dollar business and sold it.

Steve Adcock:
Very few. The vast majority, vast, vast majority of.

Steve Adcock:
The people who I know in the.

Steve Adcock:
In the fire community and just read blogs, don't, don't take my word for it. Do some googling, for God's sakes. Just do some research here. The majority of the people work nine to five jobs now. There's nothing wrong with starting your own business. There's nothing wrong with being an entrepreneur. I'm an entrepreneur now, but I never was before. So there's nothing wrong with that.

Steve Adcock:
But don't just assume that you have.

Steve Adcock:
To start your own business to retire early. Or don't just assume that you have to run your own business to get rich. Yeah, you're probably not going to make $100 million working a nine to five job.

Steve Adcock:
I get that. But guess what?

Steve Adcock:
You don't have to make $100 million to retire early either. You can work a nine to five.

Steve Adcock:
Job just like the majority of the people do, and if you make the.

Steve Adcock:
Right decisions over time. And those decisions include saving like an emergency fund, saving for short term goals, saving for long term goals, as well as investing in appreciating assets like stocks and bonds and real estate and even crypto. When you make those decisions, you are going to set yourself up to retire way sooner than you probably thought you're.

Steve Adcock:
Going to be able to.

Eric Freeze:
Yeah, you kind of touched on a little bit.

Eric Freeze:
Um, just like your transition from, you know, spending to, all right, we got to save. So clearly, I mean, your habits changed. Right. Um, so what were, what were some of those early habits that you changed? I mean, aside from blowing everything on everything else, but. And then two, I think, on a follow up to that. Like, how did you sustain that?

Eric Freeze:
Cause I think people start strong sometimes.

Eric Freeze:
But then get discouraged when they see their friends doing XYz and they want to do XYZ and they fall off.

Eric Freeze:
The wagon, for lack of a better term.

Steve Adcock:
Yeah.

Steve Adcock:
Yeah. Your motivation tends to fizzle out.

Steve Adcock:
And for us, I just wanted it bad enough.

Steve Adcock:
I wanted early retirement. I wanted to quit what I was doing more than wanted to go out drinking with my coworkers. That's really what it came down to.

Steve Adcock:
And in through, you know, the first.

Steve Adcock:
1012 years of my career, that wasn't the case. It was the opposite. I would rather go out and have fun than save and build a future for myself.

Steve Adcock:
But, you know, especially when I got married to my wife, now we have.

Steve Adcock:
Two incomes, so she worked.

Eric Freeze:
She.

Steve Adcock:
She's a rocket scientist. An actual rocket scientist.

Steve Adcock:
Wow.

Steve Adcock:
And now it's like, okay, we have two it incomes. We were making $220,000 combined in 2012. So that's good money today. That was amazing money, for sure. Exactly. So, 212.

Steve Adcock:
Geez.

Steve Adcock:
I mean, what are we going to do with that? We had two choices. We could, one, live like rock stars, just spend the majority of it, do nice things, go out to nice dinners, vacations, vacation home, a boat, whatever. Or we can save the majority of.

Steve Adcock:
What we earn so we can do.

Steve Adcock:
What we actually want to be doing.

Steve Adcock:
For the rest of our lives.

Steve Adcock:
Long story short, we obviously picked the second one.

Steve Adcock:
And there was a time, and this.

Steve Adcock:
Wasn'T necessarily an easy change.

Steve Adcock:
It took.

Steve Adcock:
It took time to fully implement, but we were saving 70%. That's seven 0% of a $220,000 combined income.

Steve Adcock:
We lived or we saved, well, invested.

Steve Adcock:
Rather, 100% of my salary, and we.

Steve Adcock:
Lived on half of my wife's salary. And that adds up really quickly.

Steve Adcock:
And the other thing we do, most people do.

Eric Freeze:
Right?

Steve Adcock:
Exactly. Exactly. And the other thing we did is.

Steve Adcock:
We tracked, just like, you can't lose.

Steve Adcock:
Weight or it's hard to lose weight.

Steve Adcock:
Without tracking your calories.

Steve Adcock:
It's hard to build wealth and spend less without tracking where your money is going. You just gotta do it. It sucks. I know it sucks, but it's 100% required because you are not going to make better decisions. Just magically start spending smarter if you don't know where your money is going to begin with. So take some time, go through your bank statements, go through your credit card.

Steve Adcock:
Statements, and categorize your spending.

Steve Adcock:
Just put it in, like, food, clothes, gas, entertainment, whatever. Just categorize all of your spending for a few months just to get a baseline.

Steve Adcock:
You don't have to judge yourself.

Steve Adcock:
This isn't supposed to be some, some highly stressful kind of thing. Just record the numbers, write them down. Doesn't matter. Don't even think about it.

Steve Adcock:
Just, just categorize them for now.

Steve Adcock:
That's going to give you a good baseline in terms of where you're spending the majority of your money.

Steve Adcock:
And I'm going to almost guarantee you.

Steve Adcock:
That you're spending way more money in areas that you thought were just, you know, a little bit here, a little bit there. But let me tell you, my friend, just like those cookies that are sitting on the counter and you take a drive by bite every now and then, those calories add up and those, and.

Steve Adcock:
That spending adds up over time.

Eric Freeze:
You hit that nail. I mean, I worked with coaching clients and it's amazing. Just the lack of knowledge and awareness of the numbers that they have. Right.

Eric Freeze:
You know, I absolutely had one that you told me one number, what they.

Eric Freeze:
Thought they had for debt, and it.

Eric Freeze:
Was $200,000 more than that.

Eric Freeze:
$200,000 more. I mean, that's how far off, I mean, they were tracking in their head and they thought they had it.

Eric Freeze:
But you know, that's crazy.

Eric Freeze:
It's, yeah, it was insane.

Steve Adcock:
That's crazy.

Eric Freeze:
Yeah.

Steve Adcock:
I mean, that, that really goes to show you how important tracking your spending is. Just having a picture, whether you use a tool like personal capital or something, whatever, doesn't matter what it is, or if you're a spreadsheet person, that's fine.

Steve Adcock:
To, or hell, a pen and paper. Thats cool.

Steve Adcock:
Just have it there. Have it written down. Have it so you can look at it and just see these numbers and that kind of visibility. Without question, without fail, that visibility is.

Steve Adcock:
The first step to making better decisions with your cash.

Eric Freeze:
So I want to jump back to your it career. I mean, day two, you hate it, right?

Eric Freeze:
You know, you hate it.

Eric Freeze:
But you continued on for like 1015 years ish.

Eric Freeze:
So I think in that, what I see, I mean, you identified there was.

Eric Freeze:
Some marketable skills there, right. But they didn't necessarily align with your passion.

Eric Freeze:
So how would you go about recommending.

Eric Freeze:
Or what would you recommend to people as far as finding something like that that's marketable, that can accelerate their financial.

Eric Freeze:
Growth and then putting that over, chasing a passion like, you know, career in.

Eric Freeze:
Art history or something.

Steve Adcock:
Exactly. So this is the other side of the coin. Yes.

Steve Adcock:
I didn't like what I did. It drained the life out of me. In some ways, I get it, but.

Steve Adcock:
But there's a huge but.

Steve Adcock:
That is what enabled me to quit.

Steve Adcock:
My job at 35, that high paying job.

Steve Adcock:
I cannot.

Steve Adcock:
I cannot stress this enough. Do not make your passion a career.

Steve Adcock:
Because for the most part, your passions just aren't going to pay the bills. Like, your strengths will. Your strengths are more like hardcore.

Steve Adcock:
They're math, they're science or problem solving.

Steve Adcock:
These are the things that companies need. They don't need photography. They don't necessarily need someone who's really interested in art or history. There's nothing wrong with those subjects. Don't get me wrong, but when you're thinking about building a career, and especially choosing your major, if you're a young person.

Steve Adcock:
My advice is to pick the highest paying career field in a subject that you're good at, then leave your.

Steve Adcock:
Passions for the nights and the weekends. My passion is photography, but I can guarantee you I wouldn't have made 120 g's being a photographer. There's absolutely no way that was going to happen. I made 120 g's because I follow my strengths. That's what most people do. Now, there are exceptions.

Steve Adcock:
You could always find people out there.

Steve Adcock:
In a post about this on Twitter all the time, and somebody invariably comments, oh, yeah, I follow my passion. I make $500,000 a year.

Steve Adcock:
Well, that's great, but you're about 2% of the population, probably, that.

Steve Adcock:
I pulled that number out of my backside. But based on my experience in this.

Steve Adcock:
Field, that percentage is very low.

Steve Adcock:
Of people who follow their passions and.

Steve Adcock:
Make stupid money versus the people who.

Steve Adcock:
Follow their strengths and make really good money. And then they get to pursue their passion without having to turn that into.

Steve Adcock:
A full time job like you could.

Eric Freeze:
That's why there's a turtle with your camera.

Steve Adcock:
Photography is your thing. Yeah, exactly. And not just take pictures, not worry about it. Or if you're into art, you can.

Steve Adcock:
Draw a picture and don't worry about.

Steve Adcock:
Having to sell it or find clients. I mean, that's making money from your passion turns your passion into a job.

Steve Adcock:
And it no longer is your passion.

Eric Freeze:
Yeah, it's no fun.

Steve Adcock:
So follow your strengths and let your passions ride on the.

Steve Adcock:
On, on the side so you continue to enjoy them. But you also make a lot of.

Steve Adcock:
Money doing what you're good at.

Steve Adcock:
Yeah.

Eric Freeze:
All right, so along the way, I.

Eric Freeze:
Mean, you clearly made significant lifestyle changes to be able to set aside 70%.

Eric Freeze:
Of your income, you know, and I.

Eric Freeze:
Know, I mean, you eventually, I think it happened after you retired, you went into the airstream and then went off grid.

Eric Freeze:
Right, but that's. Right. What, what would you say are some maybe smaller scale lifestyle changes that the.

Eric Freeze:
Average person that's not willing to sacrifice.

Eric Freeze:
You know, the comforts of, you know.

Eric Freeze:
A home and et cetera, et cetera, could make to.

Eric Freeze:
Just to have an impact on their financial health?

Steve Adcock:
Yeah, that's a good question because I'm certainly not suggesting that you need to sell your house and move into a trailer.

Steve Adcock:
That worked for us for a few years.

Steve Adcock:
It's not going to work for most people. Totally get it.

Steve Adcock:
Totally get it.

Steve Adcock:
But most people can make changes today. But again, I have to come back to this.

Steve Adcock:
It all starts with tracking, because you're not going to know where to start.

Steve Adcock:
If you don't know where you're spending.

Steve Adcock:
So these little things that add up, the coffee, the desserts, the alcohol at restaurants, instead of just getting water, those things add up. And if you're conscious of those things, then you can start making better decisions. You can start saving more money and then reinvesting that money into something that's actually going to make you a better person, going to make you a richer.

Steve Adcock:
Person, make you a more experienced person. So, like I said before, alcohol in restaurants, bad news.

Steve Adcock:
I've done it before. I'm not speaking to you like this person who's never made these. These mistakes. I've made them all.

Steve Adcock:
Believe me, a lot. Alcohol in restaurants is a big one.

Steve Adcock:
Buying coffee, I mean, yeah, that's fine, whatever. If that really brings joy to your.

Steve Adcock:
Life and you just.

Steve Adcock:
That just gets you going in the.

Steve Adcock:
Morning, okay, I get that. But for a lot of us, it's just a habit.

Steve Adcock:
It's just the routine that we just kind of go through. We don't even think about it. Yeah, there's free coffee in the office, but I like this coffee better. Or at least I think I do. I'm just used to it.

Steve Adcock:
Those expenses add up, too.

Steve Adcock:
Going to the movies again, it's fine as long as you moderate it.

Steve Adcock:
Everything is fine in moderation.

Steve Adcock:
So get that pen and pad out. Figure out where you're spending money, then start to cut back incrementally.

Steve Adcock:
No.

Steve Adcock:
Slowly but surely, rein in some of the spending on the. Especially on the discretionary items, like those entertainment related expenses.

Steve Adcock:
Those things will add up over time, and you will become a, let's say.

Steve Adcock:
A more financially savvy person in the process.

Eric Freeze:
All right, so clearly, financial journeys are rarely smooth, right?

Eric Freeze:
So can you maybe share an experience after you made that switch that I'm on this journey, I'm going to get financially free, where you maybe face the unexpected financial challenge.

Eric Freeze:
And then how did you navigate that? What did you do to manage that?

Steve Adcock:
The only financial challenge we saw was just not being able to quit even sooner.

Steve Adcock:
I mean, my wife and I were pulling down 200 g's. I mean, there really wasn't much.

Steve Adcock:
Okay.

Steve Adcock:
I guess the biggest one was like.

Steve Adcock:
That initial switch from living like normal.

Steve Adcock:
People to living like abnormal people, living like people who just want to quit tomorrow. And we have to do everything we possibly can to get there.

Steve Adcock:
Like spending almost no money on things that weren't required.

Steve Adcock:
So we only gave ourselves like $50 a month for restaurants. Now that's like one meal. Back then it was maybe squeak out to cancel the cable. We didn't do all these streaming services. We were spending just very, very little money.

Steve Adcock:
So getting over that initial hump of.

Steve Adcock:
Making that transition from spending money on those things to not spending money on those things. Yeah, that took a couple months to get used to. But I will say one thing, that once you start this new, you know, financially healthier lifestyle, you'll find that the.

Steve Adcock:
Things that you spent money on didn't.

Steve Adcock:
Don'T really matter as much as you, as much as you probably thought they did. At one point, I thought I could.

Steve Adcock:
Not live without ESPN, but we canceled cable, and I'm still here.

Steve Adcock:
I'm living. I didn't really miss it at all. It was something that was nice to.

Steve Adcock:
Have, but I didn't really have to have it.

Steve Adcock:
And after a couple months or even.

Steve Adcock:
A couple weeks, really, of living without it, it was no big deal.

Steve Adcock:
And again, it's because we had that.

Steve Adcock:
Goal, the goal of early retirement.

Steve Adcock:
That was our goal. That was the light at the end of the tunnel.

Steve Adcock:
So I think if you don't have.

Steve Adcock:
That light, if you don't have that goal, the purpose for saving, the purpose.

Steve Adcock:
For investing, then you're going to be a lot less likely to save and to invest. And that was my problem earlier in my career. I didn't like my career, but I.

Steve Adcock:
Didn'T really have a goal of early retirement. I was just saving the bare minimum.

Steve Adcock:
Because I thought that's what you did.

Steve Adcock:
That's what you were supposed to do.

Eric Freeze:
You checked that box, right?

Steve Adcock:
Exactly. Right, exactly.

Steve Adcock:
I was just checking the box, but I didn't have a reason to save more. So for you, it may not be.

Steve Adcock:
Early retirement, but it should be financial.

Steve Adcock:
Independence, or it should be putting your kids through college or should be, you know, moving to, you know, a country, overseas. Well, whatever that goal is to you, the important thing is to have that goal and know what that goal is. Write it down on a piece of paper and plaster it to your refrigerator. Keep it in the forefront of your mind, because that's why you are. You are making some of these decisions. That's why you're not buying season tickets to some sporting event for $10,000 a.

Steve Adcock:
Pop or maybe even more.

Steve Adcock:
I don't know what, what that costs. I've never done it. That's why you're not buying the boat. That's why you're not buying the Corvette, even though you probably could afford it, because there's something better out there. There's that. That goal that you just. That you need to get to. You need to hit that goal.

Steve Adcock:
And that's going to keep you way.

Steve Adcock:
More focused than just saying, I'm saving for the future.

Steve Adcock:
I'm investing for, you know, 60 years down the line, 50 years down the line. That might work for a while, but you're probably not going to stay motivated.

Steve Adcock:
Unless there's something tangible in your future.

Steve Adcock:
That you're saving for.

Eric Freeze:
Robert, I just want to highlight something.

Eric Freeze:
You just said, which was keeping those goals up in front of your face.

Eric Freeze:
Right.

Eric Freeze:
I mean, because so many times, and I'm guilty of it. Like, I've written down the goals, you know, the beginning of the year.

Eric Freeze:
I mean, like a beautiful student of.

Eric Freeze:
You know, gold cracking, and I shove it in a drawer, right? And then, like, six months later, I open the drawer. I'm like, oh, wait.

Eric Freeze:
Oh. It's like, oh, yeah, forgot about this goal. But, um. So, yeah, I mean, I think it's.

Eric Freeze:
Critical that you keep them in front.

Eric Freeze:
Of your mind, because if you're not reviewing them, I mean, I would almost say daily.

Eric Freeze:
I mean, it's hard to keep that. That focus, that motivation focused on that goal.

Eric Freeze:
So, keeping in line with goals. So, you know, a lot of my audience is married. You know, I mean, so aligning financial goals with the partner can be difficult, right?

Eric Freeze:
So, yep.

Eric Freeze:
I mean, everybody's got different risk tolerances.

Eric Freeze:
And backgrounds and upbringings.

Eric Freeze:
So how did you and your wife align on your financial goals?

Eric Freeze:
And what was that conversation like when you said, hey, I mean, was that.

Eric Freeze:
Something you both came into it with, that desire?

Eric Freeze:
Did you go to her and say.

Eric Freeze:
Hey, I think I want to do this?

Eric Freeze:
Do you want to get on board? I mean, what did that look like?

Eric Freeze:
And how did you align on those, that future direction?

Steve Adcock:
Believe it or not, my wife liked her job.

Steve Adcock:
She didn't want to quit. I was the one who wanted to quit.

Steve Adcock:
So there was a big difference between.

Steve Adcock:
My goals and her goals coming together into marriage.

Steve Adcock:
So the way it worked, and I highly recommend this for everybody, even if you are already on the same page.

Steve Adcock:
Is talk with your spouse, with your significant other about what you want, what.

Steve Adcock:
You see in your future. The more you do that, the closer.

Steve Adcock:
You'Re going to get, the more you're.

Steve Adcock:
Going to understand their goals, their perspectives, and the more they're going to understand yours.

Steve Adcock:
So, in our case, after dinner every.

Steve Adcock:
Single day, pretty much every single day.

Steve Adcock:
We would take the dogs for a.

Steve Adcock:
Walk around the neighborhood. And what did we do on those walks? We talked about our future. We worked backwards from what we wanted.

Steve Adcock:
We both had the traveling bug, right? We wanted to see different parts of the country.

Steve Adcock:
So initially, we were like, well, what if we just sold the house and we rented an apartment for six months here? Rented apartment for six months there, and that's how we saw the country. And we told my dad that, and.

Steve Adcock:
He'S like, you guys are dumb.

Steve Adcock:
You're gonna be moving every six months. That's gonna be a pain in the ass. Why don't you just get a train? Yeah, why don't you just get an.

Steve Adcock:
Rv and take your home with you and say, oh, that's a brilliant idea. So then it's like, okay, that's.

Steve Adcock:
That is going to be our goal.

Steve Adcock:
We want to quit so we can travel. And the way we're going to travel.

Steve Adcock:
Is in an rv. How much money do we need to buy the rv?

Steve Adcock:
Okay, x amount, it was like 40.

Steve Adcock:
I think we paid $42,000 for our airstream used.

Steve Adcock:
The new ones are way more.

Eric Freeze:
Yeah, they're insane.

Steve Adcock:
Add. Add 150 grand to that or something like that, depending on what you get. But anyway, we. Okay, so we need about 42,000 to buy. Campgrounds are $15 to $20 a night. Maybe we stay.

Eric Freeze:
Maybe we.

Steve Adcock:
Boondock on BLM land, Bureau of Land Management land out in the west, which.

Steve Adcock:
Means you can camp for free as long as you bring, you know, your.

Steve Adcock:
Water, your solar power, you know, that. That kind of thing. So we worked backwards, and we just figured it out based on all of these conversations that we would have every single night. So we went from, I want to retire. My wife says, no, I kind of like my job to coming together and.

Steve Adcock:
Figuring out that sweet spot where we.

Steve Adcock:
Can both satisfy our travel itch, our desire to see the country in a way that worked for us, in a way that worked for our finances. And that just made us both really, really excited about what was going to happen in the future. And the more we talked about that, the more it was in our heads. Like, we wanted it more and more every single day.

Steve Adcock:
And with that constant reinforcement, we were almost never tempted to go out to.

Steve Adcock:
Dinner the extra time or to buy this or to buy that, that. We don't really need the watch, the new $300 air Jordans or I don't even know, know if they're, they're air Jordans anymore. Whatever. But you know what I'm talking about. Those impulse buys, those extra expenses just kind of, we just brushed them aside because we knew what we wanted. We were both on the same page, and we wanted it more than spending.

Steve Adcock:
Money on some of those extras.

Steve Adcock:
Yep. That's awesome.

Eric Freeze:
So clearly life doesn't change after you've reached financial independence.

Eric Freeze:
So what does it typical day look.

Eric Freeze:
Like for you now? And, I mean, what are your financial goals now? What are you working towards?

Eric Freeze:
I mean, what's your, your mission in life?

Steve Adcock:
Well, we get up around six. Um, I, we do some email, social media, that kind of thing. Until about 7730. I do duolingo. I'm trying to learn Spanish. So we take some time to just, we're separated during this, during this time. So she does her thing, I do my thing. Um, my wife got into real estate.

Steve Adcock:
She got her real estate license. So she's a realtor now. So she can kind of set her own hours, but also kind of not. So she's doing that on the side. One of the great things about fi.

Steve Adcock:
You can just try things and see what works. If it sucks, don't do it.

Steve Adcock:
But if it's great and you make.

Steve Adcock:
Some money, continue doing it.

Steve Adcock:
That's all good.

Steve Adcock:
So we walk the dogs around 730. We come back, we go to the gym.

Steve Adcock:
We have a little on site gym.

Steve Adcock:
Here on seven acres, in a little outbuilding here with a little cable machine and a bunch of dumbbells and some weight plate. So it works just great, great for us. And then after that, we just kind of do our own thing. I do a lot of writing on, on my side. She does some real estate on her side most of the day. That's what happens. Sometimes we come together for, for lunch. We watch something, like we stream something on HGTV or something, and then we go back and do our separate things.

Steve Adcock:
Happy hour starts around four till five. Then we have dinner at five because we're old, I guess we have dinner early, and then we again go our separate ways, we all, we stream different things. So it's really just a bunch of doing whatever we want, which is. Which is. Yeah, which is really nice.

Steve Adcock:
Really nice.

Eric Freeze:
Yeah, that sounds great.

Eric Freeze:
So let's, I mean, you touched on the gym. I want to hit that because I know that's been a part of your journey. I mean, since then, I mean, you've lost a lot of weight, you've gotten fit.

Eric Freeze:
I mean, how has, I mean, financial.

Eric Freeze:
Independence fed into that?

Eric Freeze:
Because, I mean, I'm guessing that when.

Eric Freeze:
You are working crazy hours, I mean, I have a background in it as well, so I get the hours. And, I mean, you don't pay attention.

Eric Freeze:
To your health and fitness at that point.

Steve Adcock:
Exactly.

Steve Adcock:
Exactly.

Steve Adcock:
And to my credit, I did work out.

Steve Adcock:
At least when I was, when I worked a full time job, it was usually in the afternoons. Now we, we work out in the mornings because it just works better for our schedule. But I did work out.

Steve Adcock:
But, yeah, I mean, when you're at.

Steve Adcock:
The office, coworker comes by and says, hey, let's go out to lunch. Oh, I couldn't say no. It could not impossible for me to say no. Even if I brought my lunch, it's sitting right there. I'm not going to say no because I'd rather go out and actually enjoy join myself outside of the office. So, yeah, those things really do add up with the calories and also the expenses.

Steve Adcock:
But, yeah, once you no longer have.

Steve Adcock:
That, once you're no longer in an.

Steve Adcock:
Office and you are fi, and maybe.

Steve Adcock:
Even early retired, you can really focus.

Steve Adcock:
On the things that are important to you.

Steve Adcock:
And in our case, it is fitness. Since September of last year, I'm down almost 50 pounds.

Eric Freeze:
Wow.

Steve Adcock:
And I haven't lost an ounce of strength. And you know what that means.

Steve Adcock:
That was all fat.

Steve Adcock:
Yeah.

Steve Adcock:
And you are probably, you probably are carrying around, and me included, more fat than you, than you think, and you need to lose a little bit more weight than you think. But once you start getting into this and start prioritizing those things, the weight starts to fall off, you start to feel better about yourself. You start to get more confidence, and if you are still working a full time job, that confidence really bleeds over into what you're doing in the office. And I'd be surprised if that confidence.

Steve Adcock:
Didn'T set you up to take that next step.

Steve Adcock:
If that's what you're looking for, whether it's a raise or a promotion or even looking elsewhere, switching jobs for another.

Steve Adcock:
Opportunity, there's zero downside to focusing on your health, because not only does it.

Steve Adcock:
Make you look good physically, make you feel good physically, but it's going to make you perform better at the office. It's going to make you more emotionally healthy and stable. Mentally healthy and stable.

Steve Adcock:
And let's face it, it's kind of.

Steve Adcock:
Cool to be walking around in a.

Steve Adcock:
How should I put this?

Steve Adcock:
In a sea of normal people as.

Steve Adcock:
I was and still am in many.

Steve Adcock:
Ways really fit.

Steve Adcock:
Or muscular.

Steve Adcock:
Yeah.

Steve Adcock:
Yeah, exactly.

Steve Adcock:
Like, this is what I'm working for.

Steve Adcock:
I don't want to be that overweight person, and I'm not because I worked.

Steve Adcock:
My ass off to get there. I know that comes across as maybe arrogant or kind of, I don't know, rude, but that's, that's just the way it is.

Eric Freeze:
Well, that's the thing. I think recently, within the last five years probably.

Eric Freeze:
I mean, I recognize that tie to health because if you don't have your.

Eric Freeze:
Health right, you don't have anything else. I mean, you can't perform, like you.

Eric Freeze:
Said, best at work. You can't perform best at home with.

Eric Freeze:
Your wife and your kids, and you.

Eric Freeze:
Don'T have that energy. So it ties in as kind of that core of everything.

Steve Adcock:
But.

Steve Adcock:
I remember this quote like it was the first time I read it, like it was yesterday. A healthy person has many different wishes.

Steve Adcock:
But an unhealthy person only has one.

Steve Adcock:
I dont remember who said that, but that really stuck with me.

Steve Adcock:
And its so true.

Steve Adcock:
Yeah, definitely.

Eric Freeze:
Ive seen that one as well. So that hit home the first time I saw it.

Eric Freeze:
Mm hmm.

Eric Freeze:
All right, so just to wrap up, what would you just kind of close out with your best piece of financial.

Eric Freeze:
Advice that youve ever received that you could give to inspire people to clean up, get on this path.

Steve Adcock:
My dad told me that some people.

Steve Adcock:
Are on the ten year plan and.

Steve Adcock:
This is right after college, so I did not take his advice.

Steve Adcock:
But looking back at it, it was brilliant.

Steve Adcock:
The ten year plan is you basically live like a college student or close to that for ten years. So you're making good money, whatever it is, you are saving your emergency fund three to six months, maybe some short term savings here and there for, you know, family vacations and things like that. Then you're investing the majority of the rest. You do that for ten years, you just, you buckle down, you say no to a lot of things. It's hard. I get it.

Steve Adcock:
But for ten years, if you can do that for a decade, guess what? You have potentially the rest of your life to start saying yes to the.

Steve Adcock:
Things that you never did, that you never.

Steve Adcock:
Yes. Said yes to, and your whole life.

Steve Adcock:
Opens up, whether it's in your thirties or forties or even fifties. I consider retirement at 55, early retirement. You don't have to retire in your thirties for it to be early retirement. And once that happens, once you're at that point where it's like, okay, I'm.

Steve Adcock:
Done now I could start saying yes.

Steve Adcock:
Now I can start doing all of these things for the rest of my life.

Steve Adcock:
You know, don't keep that freedom until.

Steve Adcock:
You'Re 65, where maybe mobility is a problem or you're having health problems, you know, the earlier in life that you.

Steve Adcock:
Can start enjoying these things, the better.

Steve Adcock:
And I think we would all pretty much agree with that, but our decision making doesn't necessarily support that. So for sure, if you can get yourself. Yeah, if you can get yourself on.

Steve Adcock:
That ten year plan, regardless of where you are in.

Steve Adcock:
In life, young, young or old, then I think that's going to set your mind. You're going to have a different mindset about why you're doing these things, why you're making these decisions, because you have that light at the end of the tunnel, and you want it bad enough, and you're going to make it happen, and the rest of your life is.

Steve Adcock:
Just going to be wonderful.

Steve Adcock:
Yeah.

Eric Freeze:
No, I had a recent conversation with a mutual friend of ours, Clint Murphy. Right. And that was one of the things I think Clint Murphy absolutely was.

Eric Freeze:
You know, he hit a point where.

Eric Freeze:
He realized that, you know, they were kind of spending more than they should.

Eric Freeze:
Be, but, yep, cutting wasn't going to get them there.

Eric Freeze:
So it's, you know, we've got to figure out what we got to do to increase that income.

Eric Freeze:
And they made sure he described it as, like, all right, this is our baseline.

Eric Freeze:
We're not going to, you know, increase on this point. Right. You know, as we earn additional money.

Eric Freeze:
We'Ll get there faster that way.

Steve Adcock:
So, yeah, it's basically you have. You have two options. You can either spend less or you can earn more.

Steve Adcock:
But I guess the third option is doing both. And that's what we did. We spent less and we earned more, which really accelerated. It took some sacrifice. There's no doubt about that. It did.

Steve Adcock:
But if you want something bad enough.

Steve Adcock:
Spending less and earning more, whether it's taking a new job or asking for.

Steve Adcock:
A raise or whatever, starting a side hustle, those are the things that you will have to do if your goal.

Steve Adcock:
Is to accumulate wealth quickly so you can achieve fi. And that is such a healthy, healthy goal to have.

Eric Freeze:
Yeah.

Eric Freeze:
No, I agree 100%.

Eric Freeze:
So, first of all, I just want to appreciate you taking the time to spend with me.

Eric Freeze:
It's been really great talking to you. I mean, I don't know that I shared this with you, but you're one of the stories that kind of set me on this journey. I heard an interview, I goes 2021 with Jeff Rose on his podcast where.

Eric Freeze:
I first heard your story. And then I got January before I.

Eric Freeze:
Started my Twitter account. I mean, I was only following you on Twitter, so that was kind of a motivator. So appreciate.

Eric Freeze:
Sure.

Eric Freeze:
Appreciate that.

Eric Freeze:
I appreciate your example, and that's awesome.

Eric Freeze:
So, where can people find you? I mean, clearly on Twitter. Steve on speed. You know, there are the platforms you're on now.

Steve Adcock:
Yep.

Steve Adcock:
Steve on speed is. Is the main one. On social media, I have a website, millionairehabits us, which is also tied to my main newsletter. I also have a book called Millionaire Habits as well, which.

Steve Adcock:
Which you might find in bookstores and Amazon and Barnes and noble and all the places. All.

Steve Adcock:
All the places. It's a black cover with.

Steve Adcock:
With.

Steve Adcock:
With green lettering.

Eric Freeze:
Throw it up here. Right. There you go.

Steve Adcock:
There it is.

Steve Adcock:
So, yeah, I'm in most places, just not Facebook. I'm not a Facebook guy, so don't.

Eric Freeze:
Get away from me there. Yeah, don't look for me.

Eric Freeze:
I'm not on Facebook or Instagram because of that.

Steve Adcock:
Yeah.

Eric Freeze:
All right, well, thank you again.