Own Your Time – Book Giveaway

My friend Andy Hill from Marriage Kids and Money just launched a new book called ​Own Your Time​.

I’m giving away four hardback copies (snail-mailed from me) to newsletter subscribers (check your email).

Own Your Time is a family finance-focused book. Young professionals and working parents who are starting to learn about personal finance will benefit most.

However, many of the concepts relate to later-stage workers approaching retirement.

If you feel stuck in a career and want to bump up your retirement date, this book can help you escape the corporate grind.

Own Your Time

Andy is a long-time ​blogger​, ​podcaster​, and ​YouTuber​ with more than 500 podcast episodes in the books.

I know Andy from attending several finance and content creation conferences over the years.

Turns out, we’re also fellow Michigan State Spartan alums and spent some parallel time in East Lansing, though never crossed paths that I can recall.

His podcast topics primarily cover Coast FIRE, family finance, being mortgage-free, and post-career entrepreneurship.

But he’s also interviewed several thought leaders in retirement planning and DIY investing, including Paul Merriman, JL Collins, and Bill Bengen (originator of the 4% rule of thumb), as well as many real-world families who have achieved their financial goals.

Key Themes

In each chapter in the book, Andy shares his perspective on the topic at hand. Then it concludes each with an excerpt from a podcast interview and actionable Carpe Diem steps the reader can take today.

His guests over the years follow a similar path, hitting Coast FIRE, paying off their mortgage, or leaving a career they didn’t love for a more flexible lifestyle.

Five themes in this book really stood out to me.

#1 Family Finance

Family finance is Andy’s bread and butter. Much of the first part of this book covers the basics, like setting goals with your spouse, budgeting, lowering spending, reducing debt, etc.

These topics may be too basic for many in this audience. That’s why this book will benefit younger readers/viewers who need some help with getting motivated to make life changes.

For those of you beyond the basics or near or in retirement, this book would be a fantastic gift to a young married couple in the family-building stage of life.

#2 Coast FIRE

Coast FIRE is the point when you’ve saved enough for retirement that you can stop contributing entirely and still reach your retirement goals through compound growth alone.

From there, you only need to earn enough to cover your current living expenses, not future retirement savings.

This sub-variety of FIRE requires a high savings rate early in a career, but provides flexibility and options sooner than early retirement.

Though I don’t use the term as much, Coast FIRE is what my wife and I ​achieved in February 2021​, when we hit our financial independence number.

That’s when I determined we had enough invested (within an acceptable margin of safety) to stop earning a reliable salary and live off savings, investments, and business income.

I didn’t leave my career for another 20 months due to apprehension and a significant ​health-related speed bump​.

#3 Mortgage Free

Andy and his wife paid off their home mortgage five years after committing to the goal.

​Paying down​ your mortgage early is a touchy subject in personal finance. Talk to anyone with a paid-off mortgage, and they have no regrets.

​Optimizers​ hate this move.

Those of us who refinanced when mortgage rates were under 3% feel locked in for the duration.

The Hills paid off theirs before rates were so low.

Having no mortgage payment lowered their monthly expenses, enabling Andy to leave a challenging corporate career that required travel away from his family and work part-time as a solopreneur.

#4 Lifestyle Benefits

Years of good spending, saving, and investing habits can give us more options for the way we live our lives.

Sometimes we tell ourselves we enjoy full-time employment because it enables a certain level of predictability in our lifestyle.

But the commute, office politics, and unrelenting time commitment of a full-time job can wear on us if we don’t truly love what we do.

I didn’t love my career choice, so I looked for an escape.

At first, that was saving and investing my way out.

Eventually, all that saving and investing enabled the entrepreneurial path that I’m on today. Now that I love my work, the desire to retire early has gone away.

Andy has taken a similar journey, leaving his corporate career to be a part-time creator and full-time family man.

The book highlights several of the lifestyle benefits of the strategies outlined in earlier chapters.

#5 Setting Kids up for Success

The tail end of the book is largely about how leading by example is the best way to pass on values to your kids.

Sure, there are ways to get kids involved with money, teaching them the basics as early as possible and giving them responsibilities at home.

There are also opportunities to invest in your kids’ or grandkids’ futures, starting the magic of long-term compounding as soon as practical.

But parenting and money are largely about being a good role model for your kids to emulate.

Win a Copy

This giveaway is only available to newsletter subscribers. Check your Thursday morning email for details.

Subscribe to my newsletter to be eligible for the next giveaway.

Or buy the book on ​Amazon​.