Andy Hill, a family finance coach who and his wife Nicole reached “Coast FIRE” after shifting away from traditional FIRE, says the first step toward financial independence isn’t number-crunching—it’s imagining what life would look like if you actually got ther
Most people start talking about financial independence by opening a spreadsheet. Andy Hill doesn’t.
For Hill—who reached “Coast FIRE” with his wife Nicole—the first move is simpler and, to some, harder: ask what you would do with your life if you truly achieved independence.
“If you received a $5 million check today, what would you stop doing immediately?” Hill, a family finance coach, told Business Insider.
He uses the question as a kind of financial lie detector. If the answer is that you’d quit your job right away, he argues, it’s a sign the problem may not be your savings rate—it may be your work.
“Could you find a different job that pays the same but offers a better environment? Could you work fewer hours? Could you make changes before reaching financial independence?” Hill said.
For him, the thinking comes before the math.
“The very first step would be to do some dreaming,” Hill said. “I know a lot of the time we’re looking at these numbers, but I really think you should step back and say, ‘What would I do if I hit financial independence? What would I do if I hit Coast FIRE? How would my life be different?’”
He frames the exercise as a way to restore purpose. “When you just focus on the numbers, it loses purpose. It loses a why,” Hill said.
From there, Hill says people should “run the numbers”—but with a clearer target in mind. Financial independence, he adds, doesn’t have to be built on saving more than half of income and accumulating millions. The FIRE movement has offshoots that can feel more reachable. including “Coast FIRE. ” the approach the Hills turned to after getting “burnt out chasing traditional FIRE.”.
FIRE, Hill said, “can be a 15-, 20-, or 25-year journey,” and “depending on your income, it might not be the most comfortable journey for a lot of people.”
Coast FIRE keeps the early investing mindset, but shifts the end goal. It isn’t about stopping work entirely. Instead, the aim is to build a portfolio large enough that it can grow toward a retirement target on its own through compound interest.
Once someone reaches their Coast FIRE number, Hill says, they can reduce or stop retirement contributions and redirect that money to other priorities—whether that means “spending more on experiences,” “working fewer hours,” changing careers, or starting a business.
For the Hills, Hill said their Coast FIRE number was “about $550,000 invested by age 40.” Using a “6% annual rate of return,” he estimated the balance could grow to “roughly $2 million by retirement age.”
“That was plenty for us to live on,” Hill said.
He also stresses that these projections aren’t guarantees. When estimating future returns, it’s important to account for inflation, fund expenses, and advisory fees.
Hill—who quit his corporate job in 2020 to focus on growing his financial education business, Marriage Kids and Money—doesn’t treat the plan as a one-time calculation. He regularly checks his family’s progress using compound-interest and Coast FIRE calculators.
“It’s important to continually check in over time to make sure you’re still on track,” he said.
And if the numbers drift?
“If we find we’re not on track anymore, we’ll go back and continue to add to our IRAs so that we’re continuing to have a comfortable retirement.”
The steps Hill describes form a loop rather than a finish line: dream first, translate that into a target, run the numbers, then revisit them over time—so a plan built around life doesn’t get trapped inside a spreadsheet.
Coast FIRE financial independence FIRE movement Andy Hill Nicole Hill compound interest retirement planning IRAs investing life planning