Free In 30!
Free in 30 is a plan to help you go from
having nothing to being financially independent in 30 years or
less.
The couple who publish this website started married life
in 1968 (he 21, she 17) living in a furnished rented
apartment, with no savings, and they could carry all their
belongings in a suitcase. Both had high school
education. He was making $4,940 per year, and she had
just started working full time, making $3,000 per
year. They purchased a house
soon after marrying. The house was 100% financed
(parents' house used as collateral also). Within a few
years they
were raising two children. He worked while she stayed home
(working part-time) until both children were in school full
time, at which time she returned to school to become an
accountant. She started working full time in
1979.
They started one business, and later bought another
business, which was sold in 1988. He was then self-employed and able to work part time, retiring
completely in 1995. They then started a small
Christmas tree farm.
In 1997, she quit her job, and
started to work part time as a consultant, retiring in
2001. Soon after, they started this website.
Financial independence was accomplished mainly by living below their
means, and saving money.
The only non-tax deductible debt they ever had was to buy
and renovate their first home. One of their favourite sayings is "borrow to invest, never to consume."
When he was in his teens, he had a very good
lesson in how credit cards can cause major problems.
His mother let him use her credit card to buy Christmas
presents, and he got a little carried away.
By the next Christmas, he was still paying off the presents
from the previous year! Due to this experience, he
avoids debt to this day!
The "Richest Man in Babylon" pamphlets, which
were available at a local credit union, also made a great
impression on him. These pamphlets recommended that
you invest your money and make it work for you, instead of
you working for it.
They borrowed to invest in RRSPs,
because at that time the interest was tax-deductible.
They invested their RRSPs mainly in interest-bearing investments until
interest rates dropped in the 1980's, when they started
investing in stocks. For investing outside of RRSPs,
they considered day trading, but it looked like a good
opportunity to lose a lot of money, so they passed.
They also looked extensively at investing in commercial real
estate and developing some property, but finally decided to
invest in stocks, both inside and outside RRSPs. Stocks provide a good return over time, are easy to sell a
portion of if some money is needed, and are fairly easy to
manage. They've made mistakes along the
way, and lost money in 1992, 1994, 2002, 2007 and 2008 but have
averaged 9.3% annual return from 1992 to 2009.
