"Bitcoin is just digital Beanie Babies."

Most people think FIRE is just about retiring early. But it’s really about one thing: Freedom from dependency. To get there, you need a clear plan. Here are the 3 pillars of a FIRE strategy that actually works—plus the assets I use to fight the broken system. 🧵 The “Why” behind FIRE I spent 12+ years in Corporate America. Good pay. Smart coworkers. Comfortable life. But I still felt stuck. Stuck in traffic, stuck in meetings, stuck in a career I didn’t intentionally choose. FIRE was an escape and a way to design my future. Building Block 1 – Know your expenses The first step in any FIRE plan? 📊 Know exactly what your lifestyle costs. Break it down: housing, food, healthcare, subscriptions, kids, travel—everything. You can’t hit a target you haven’t defined. And FIRE means replacing your income with your portfolio. Be ruthless about spending Once you know your costs, separate the wasteful from the essential. Cut what doesn’t matter. Trim what you can. Build an intentional spending plan. Not because you want to live cheap…but because every dollar saved = more freedom faster. Building Block 2 – Pay yourself first Treat your savings rate like a bill. Earn $5,000/month? → Save 10% = $500 → Live on the other $4,500 Start small and build up. The more you save, the sooner you’re financially independent. You’re the CEO of You, Inc. FIRE reframes your personal finances as a business. Your real job? Maximize retained earnings. That’s the capital you’ll use to buy your freedom. Building Block 3 – Buy good assets You can’t save your way to FIRE with dollars alone. Inflation eats fiat. Just look at: 🏠 Housing 🩺 Medical care 🎓 Education Everything gets more expensive. Fiat is a melting ice cube The cost of essential goods is exploding. 🔸 Housing has more than 3x’d in 25 years 🔸 Medical care keeps rising 🔸 Education? Through the roof You need assets that preserve and grow purchasing power. Fiat is a melting ice cube The cost of essential goods is exploding. 🔸 Housing has more than 3x’d in 25 years 🔸 Medical care keeps rising 🔸 Education? Through the roof You need assets that preserve and grow purchasing power. Why I chose bitcoin Most FIRE folks stick to stocks and real estate. But I went all-in on bitcoin. ✅ Fixed supply ✅ Unchangeable rules ✅ Immune to political games It’s the hardest asset on Earth. And it accelerated my FIRE path drastically. My mantra... 💵 Earn 💰 Save 🧱 Stack sats 🔁 Repeat Do this with intention and consistency, and you'll wake up one day with work-optional freedom. You don't need to retire early, but you need to own your time. Want to build a FIRE plan rooted in financial sovereignty? Wondering how bitcoin fits in? 🔥 Read the full post + subscribe for free weekly insights:

🛠️ FIRE Fundamentals

Issue #2 - The building blocks for financial independence

🚨 In January 2018, Bitcoin had just 100x’d in two years. It then crashed 50% in a matter of days. And one of FIRE’s biggest influencers wrote a piece titled: “Why Bitcoin is Stupid.” Here's why that moment—and that take—was so important. 🧵 When bitcoin moves, people notice. In late 2017, it had exploded from ~$200 to ~$20,000. The hype was deafening. And the critics came out in force. One of them: Mr. Money Mustache, a giant in the FIRE community. His post was dismissive, smug, & very wrong. But I get it. Bitcoin does seem stupid at first. A bunch of internet nerds mining magic coins? Sounds like digital beanie babies. Or tulips. 🌷 But that initial skepticism is exactly why bitcoin works. Bitcoin IS stupid…and it doesn’t try to be clever. 🔸 Fixed supply: 21 million 🔸 No central control 🔸 No bailout buttons 🔸 No fancy “smart contract” distractions It’s brutally simple—and that’s what makes it unbreakable. It took me years to figure that out. Here’s what my personal bitcoin timeline looked like: 🤔 2011: "Interesting" 😐 2014: Bought some. Stopped. 🙃 2016: Watched it pass gold parity. Still hesitated. 🧐 2018–19: Finally did the work. 😎 2020+: Fully convicted. 100% of excess capital to BTC. That delay cost me millions. I never thought bitcoin was dumb...but I definitely didn’t take it seriously enough. And lots of people fall into the same trap. Especially those in the FIRE movement. FIRE taught me the value of long-term thinking. Bitcoin gave me a tool to accelerate it. I went from hoping to hit FIRE in 10 years…to doing it in less than 5. Why? Because I switched from index funds to bitcoin as my primary savings vehicle. Bitcoin is stupid. It’s supposed to be. It can’t be changed, influenced, or corrupted. It just keeps ticking along—offering anyone, anywhere, the same rules and the same opportunity. That’s the magic and the beauty of it. If you're on a path to FIRE, or curious what bitcoin has to do with financial independence, then my newsletter is for you. 📩 Read the full issue and subscribe for free:

Why Bitcoin is Stupid

Issue #1

“Paying off my mortgage gives me peace of mind.” Sounds smart, right? It’s actually one of the most expensive emotional decisions you can make. Here’s why paying off your mortgage early makes you poorer (and less free). A 30-year fixed mortgage isn’t a ball and chain. It’s one of the best financial tools available: ✅ Fixed terms for decades ✅ Predictable payment ✅ Inflation eats away at its real cost Time and debasement work in your favor. Prepaying your mortgage locks up capital in bricks. That kills: ❌ Growth ❌ Flexibility ❌ Freedom And for what? A feeling. Let’s look at the math. Have $100K? Option 1: Pay mortgage at 5% “return” Option 2: S&P 500 (~10% historical) Option 3: Bitcoin (conservative 20%) After 10 years: 🏠 $163K 📈 $259K ₿ $619K “Peace of mind” could cost you $500K! And it gets worse: Broad money supply (M2) grew 7% annually over the last decade. Your “guaranteed” 5% return is actually a -2% real loss after inflation. “But it makes me feel safe.” Nope. You’re trading one risk for another: ✅ Less debt ❌ Less liquidity Need cash? You can’t peel off a piece of siding. You’ll refinance or sell...often at the worst time. Smart money = options. Keep the mortgage. Invest the difference. That gives you: ✅ Bigger portfolio that compounds ✅ Liquid reserves to cover mortgage if life happens More liquid assets = more security. FIRE + bitcoin is about freedom and optionality. You don’t get that by locking up cash for your feels. You get it by keeping your wealth working and outpacing debt. Poorer isn’t safer. This week’s FIRE BTC issue breaks down the full math and mindset shift: 👉 Why “peace of mind” is a costly illusion 👉 Why a mortgage is your friend 👉 How to build security without killing flexibility Read the full post + subscribe here:

🧘 Peace of Mind

FIRE BTC #40 - Why paying off your mortgage early makes you poorer

🧘 New FIRE BTC is live: Paying off your mortgage early feels safe. It feels like peace of mind. But poorer isn’t safer. This week: 🔸 Why mortgage debt is your friend 🔸 The math behind “peace of mind” 🔸 Reframing flexibility as security 🔗 Read the full issue here: firebtc.substack.com/p/peace-of-mind And subscribe to FIRE BTC for weekly ideas on financial independence, bitcoin, and building real freedom.

I just did a short demo of the Apple Vision Pro, and it was…. RIDICULOUS Like, ridiculously good. Damn.

We might hit Longevity Escape Velocity sooner than you think. This week’s FIRE BTC just hit. How will living for 300 years instead of 80 affect your life and your finances? I explore this thought experiment here 👇

♾️ Bitcoin and the End of Time Scarcity

FIRE BTC #39 - What if you live forever?

Don’t forget to subscribe free!

Most people treat FIRE like a finish line—you’re either free or you’re not. But what if you could front-load the hard part and start living free sooner? Here’s how a 4-year sprint with bitcoin can buy you decades of freedom. Introducing The Stacking Sprint... The traditional FIRE mindset is all marathon. Grind for 10–15 years. Delay gratification. Save every dollar. But marathons are hard to sustain. They wear you down. And worse, they often delay freedom longer than necessary. What if you sprinted instead? I call it the Stacking Sprint. A focused, 4-year stretch of ruthless saving and intentional living. Why 4 years? 🔸 It aligns with bitcoin’s halving cycle 🔸 It’s short enough to stay motivated 🔸 It’s long enough to change your life Here’s the secret: In the early days, every sat you save matters more. A 10% boost on 0.1 BTC is just $1,200. You can grind that out in weeks. But a 10% boost on 5 BTC? That’s $60,000. Much harder. And that’s if bitcoin’s price stays flat. It rarely does. This is the law of diminishing returns. The bigger your stack, the harder it is to grow through brute-force saving. Each new sat makes less of a difference. Your effort becomes less efficient over time. Unless…You sprint when stacking is easy. That’s why the Stacking Sprint works. You maximize savings when it matters most, then let compounding and bitcoin do the rest. Once your foundation is solid, you can loosen up. Spend more freely. Say yes to life. Without sabotaging your FIRE goal. It’s a combo of math and psychology. Most people who “make it” in FIRE still struggle to enjoy their money. They never shift gears. The Stacking Sprint builds that shift in from the start: 1️⃣ Front-load the hard part 2️⃣ Then intentionally coast Sprint first. Coast later. The Stacking Sprint reframes FIRE as a two-phase game: Stack with focus, then enjoy with confidence. Let your bitcoin stack compound. Let your lifestyle expand. And get to freedom faster. You don’t need to “hit your number” to start living well. You just need a plan that acknowledges the inflection point. That’s the power of the Stacking Sprint. It gives you permission to live like you’re free—even before you technically are. Want to explore this more? I break it down in detail in the latest issue of my newsletter FIRE BTC: The Stacking Sprint -- Four Years to Financial Freedom with Bitcoin Read the full post + subscribe here:

🏃‍♂️💨 The Stacking Sprint

FIRE BTC #38 - Four years to financial freedom

At some point in your FIRE journey, the momentum of your savings starts doing the heavy lifting, and adding more doesn’t move the needle as much.

Quantum FUD will keep a lot of people poor

The Scottie Scheffler <> bitcoin corollary continues. Pure dominance.

I just financed a $30 purchase on Amazon. $6/month over 5 months. ALWAYS TAKE 0% FINANCING! Follow me for more tips on building generational wealth.

💧 Before the Filter For most of human history, people didn't understand that water could be dangerous because of invisible pathogens. Similarly, we don’t always see how polluted our money is — inflation, debasement, and corruption. But it's quietly eroding our wealth. Water contamination held societies back. Disease spread quickly in urban areas, causing instability and limiting growth. Today, fiat money has a similar effect: it fosters inflation, inequality, and economic volatility. It weakens the system from within. Fiat currency might look like money, but it’s fundamentally broken. Politicians manipulate it, central banks inflate it, and over time, it erodes your savings. Just like contaminated water, it might seem fine at first, but it has hidden costs. Even if you can’t see the immediate damage, you sense it. Everything feels more expensive, more fragile, more volatile. This cultural rot is a side effect of polluted money. It’s holding us back from building a more prosperous future. Just like water purification unlocked the growth of cities, bitcoin provides the clean money needed for a thriving economy. It’s neutral, incorruptible, and free from the hidden threats that poison fiat currency. 🔗 Want to break free from the polluted financial system? Subscribe to FIRE BTC and learn more about how bitcoin purifies our money. 👉

🚰 Fiat Needs Filtering

FIRE BTC #37 - How bitcoin purifies our money

How Bitcoin Purifies Our Money - FIRE BTC 37 This week in FIRE BTC, I dive into how bitcoin acts like a water purification system for money, unlocking a cleaner, more reliable future for our global economy. After a recent trip to Italy, where I experienced a major heatwave in Rome, I started thinking about how water purification has unlocked civilization. Similarly, fiat money is contaminated, holding back progress. Bitcoin is our “filter” to clean it up. For most of human history, water was contaminated, leading to disease and early death. Our money today suffers the same fate: inflation, debasement, and political manipulation quietly erode the value of our wealth and society. Before purification, people relied on workarounds like boiling water or turning it into alcohol. Similarly, people use stocks, real estate, and other assets as alternatives to fiat money. But these come with volatility and risks. Bitcoin removes these trade-offs. Just as ancient filtration techniques revolutionized public health, bitcoin acts as the filtration breakthrough for money. It eliminates inflation, risk, and manipulation, creating a pure, incorruptible monetary system. Water purification drastically elevated human progress. Bitcoin’s role in purifying money does the same, unlocking new possibilities for trade, savings, and cooperation on a global scale. A true breakthrough for civilization. 🔗 Want to learn more? Read the full piece, and subscribe to FIRE BTC for fresh, filtered insights on how bitcoin is reshaping the future of money. 👇 firebtc.substack.com/p/fiat-needs-filtering

Everyone can build real wealth, but most never do. They stay stuck chasing income, status, and lifestyle upgrades, while their balance sheet stays flat. Why do so few people make the leap? 👇 The shift from paycheck-driven wealth to portfolio-driven wealth isn’t complicated. You invest, and then let time and compounding do their thing. But most people never get there. Not because they can’t…but because of how they think. Mindset Trap #1: Income = Identity. From a young age, we’re taught to equate success with earning power. “How much do you make?” “What do you do?” “Are you moving up?” We obsess over the income statement, but real freedom lives on the balance sheet. Mindset Trap #2: Lifestyle Creep. As income rises, so does spending. New car. Nicer home. Better vacations. More dinners out. More frictionless indulgence. We tell ourselves we’re “rewarding our hard work.” What we’re really doing is burning the fuel needed to build lasting wealth. The system reinforces this. We’re nudged toward debt-based consumption, not ownership. Fiat incentives push high time preference. Spending is easy. Saving is boring. And investing feels risky. So we keep working. Earning. Consuming. The result is a shiny lifestyle, stagnant net worth, with no exit plan. Even high earners feel trapped. Because without assets, the treadmill never stops. The people who escape this trap think differently. They treat investing like rent they owe to their future self. They measure success by net worth, not salary. And they live below their means, on purpose, to feed that engine. Saving in bitcoin supercharges that mindset shift. Bitcoin punishes lifestyle creep. It rewards conviction and time. It forces you to delay gratification. That’s what builds real wealth. If you want financial freedom, stop chasing status and inflating your lifestyle, and start building your balance sheet. Work for ownership, not approval. This idea comes from FIRE BTC #36: “Make Your Job Your Side Gig”. If you’re serious about building wealth using bitcoin, this newsletter is for you. Read + subscribe here:

💼 Making Your Job Your Side Gig

FIRE BTC #36 - Focus on building your personal balance sheet

You can have a great job, be making more than ever, and still be going nowhere financially. High income feels like progress. You get the raise. You upgrade your car. You move into a better home. You start traveling more. But behind the scenes, your net worth is flat. It’s a trap. You’re playing the status game, not the freedom game. Your income went up, but so did your lifestyle, your expenses, and your expectations. You look rich, but you’re just treading water. We’ve been conditioned to measure success by income. “What do you do?” “How much do you make?” “What’s your title?” But income ≠ wealth. Ownership is wealth. Real financial progress isn’t about how much you earn. It’s about what you own. It lives on your balance sheet: assets, investments, equity, hard money savings. Bitcoin. Your balance sheet is what keeps working after you stop. It’s what eventually buys back your time. So stop obsessing over how much you made this year. Start asking: “How much did I keep?” “How much did I build?” “How much did I walk away with?” That’s the real scoreboard. And if you’re saving in bitcoin, the balance sheet game changes entirely. It’s a cheat code. Your wealth is now held in the hardest asset on Earth. It can’t be diluted. It doesn’t require permission. It punishes lifestyle creep. It rewards low time preference. The old game was: Climb the ladder, inflate your lifestyle, flex your income. The new game is: Build assets, stack sats, create optionality. Your income is a tool. Your lifestyle is a choice. Your balance sheet is the truth. Track that. Grow that. That’s how you get free. — This idea comes from FIRE BTC 36: “Make Your Job Your Side Gig.” If you’re ready to flip your financial mindset and build wealth that works without you, you can read and subscribe here:

💼 Making Your Job Your Side Gig

FIRE BTC #36 - Focus on building your personal balance sheet

Make Your Job Your Side Gig: Why your portfolio—not your paycheck—is the real engine of financial freedom. 👇 Most people think their job is their greatest financial asset. In the beginning, that’s true. Your paycheck is your lifeline—it pays the bills, funds your lifestyle, and hopefully contributes to your savings. Labor is your first and most immediate wealth-building tool. But if you stay stuck there, you never get free. The real game is this: Turn earned income into invested income. Every dollar you invest becomes a tiny employee—one that works around the clock. No breaks. No distractions. Just silent, consistent compounding. Over time, those invested dollars begin to generate more new wealth than your job. That’s when you reach the crossover point—a quiet, personal milestone where your balance sheet grows faster than your paycheck. It’s not flashy. There’s no applause. But it’s the moment your time starts to belong to you. To get there, you have to change the way you measure progress. Stop asking: “How much did I earn this year?” Start asking: “How much did my balance sheet grow?” That’s the true scoreboard of financial independence. If you’re saving in bitcoin, that crossover point becomes even more powerful. Hard-capped. Non-dilutive. Borderless. Bitcoin’s asymmetric upside gives your portfolio the strength to outpace your W-2 faster than traditional fiat savings ever could. Work pays for today. Your portfolio pays for tomorrow. Let your job become the side gig. Let your balance sheet do the heavy lifting. That’s the path to real financial freedom. 📰 Read the full FIRE BTC issue here:

💼 Making Your Job Your Side Gig

FIRE BTC #36 - Focus on building your personal balance sheet

🧮 What gets measured gets managed. But in FIRE & Bitcoin, what you measure—and how—can be the difference between freedom and frustration. Here's how to run the numbers without letting them run you 🧵 If your goal is financial independence, how do you know you’re getting closer? You have to track something. But not everything. Without meaningful feedback, you’re just flying blind. FIRE = having enough compounding assets to cover your life without working. That requires knowing: 💸 What you spend 📈 What your portfolio is worth Only then can you chart a clear path to freedom. I run my numbers over coffee most mornings. No apps. No budgeting down to the penny. Just a simple spreadsheet that tracks: 💵 Cash in & out 📈 Portfolio value 💸 Trailing 12-month expenses 🎯 FIRE target using the 4% rule 10 minutes. Huge clarity. Why not track every detail? Because the Pareto Principle applies here... A few key inputs drive almost all the progress. The rest is noise. And worse: it can become spreadsheet theater. Bitcoiners do the same. We love data. We obsess over: 🔸Exchange balances 🔸Hash rates 🔸MVRV 🔸On-chain flows But most of it offers zero edge. It's comfort theater—metrics to soothe uncertainty. Here’s the trap: 📉 Mistaking information for insight 📊 Mistaking activity for progress 🛑 Mistaking measurement for mastery Tracking numbers should be a tool, not a crutch. Run the numbers to: ✔️ Gain clarity ✔️ Make better decisions ✔️ Spot inefficiencies ✔️ Stay honest Not to feel falsely in control. FIRE + bitcoin = radical transparency Both demand: ⏳ Long-term thinking 💪 Discipline 🧘 Comfort with uncertainty Don’t waste that gift by measuring the wrong things. 📩 Read the full issue: “Run the Numbers: What Gets Measured Gets Managed” FIRE BTC 32

🧮 Run the Numbers

FIRE BTC #32 - What gets measured gets managed

🧭 Direction over perfection. Track what matters. Ignore the noise.

New FIRE BTC just dropped 👀 Check it out here and get all future issues delivered right to your inbox by subscribing for free: https://firebtc.substack.com/p/run-the-numbers‬

I spent $1k on a burger and fries 🍔🍟 Read the full newsletter post below and don’t forget to subscribe for free!

🍔 My $1,000 Burger and Fries

FIRE BTC #31 - Steak n' Shake now accepts bitcoin