FI at 44 AFTER Taking a Year Off at 31

BiggerPockets Money Podcast

BiggerPockets

Investing, Education, Business

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What if you could take a year off at 31 and still retire early? Alex Morales, also known as Girl Chasing Wealth, is doing exactly that. In this BiggerPockets Money episode, she sits down with Mindy Jensen and Scott Trench to reveal how she's funding a year-long sabbatical while staying on track to achieve financial independence by 44, all on a median salary in a high-cost-of-living area. Alex's journey proves you don't need a six-figure income or to live in a low-cost city to make FIRE work—you just need the right strategies. Alex shares her unconventional approach to building wealth, including managing roommates to slash housing costs, ruthlessly cutting expenses that don't align with her values, and building side income streams for flexibility. But this isn't just about saving money—it's about designing a life that lets you take meaningful breaks without derailing your financial goals. Whether you're burned out, curious about sabbaticals, or convinced early retirement requires constant hustle, this conversation will change how you think about the path to financial freedom. This Episode Covers: How to calculate if you can afford a career break without ruining your FIRE timeline The exact house hacking strategy that saved Alex thirty thousand dollars per year Which expenses to cut first when living in a high-cost area How to maintain a high savings rate on a median income Alex's investment portfolio breakdown and FIRE number What she's actually doing during her sabbatical year Her strategic plan for returning to work at a higher salary Why taking time off might accelerate your financial independence journey And SO much more! 00:00 Taking a Year Off at 31 Without Ruining FIRE 01:39 How She Started 03:17 The Lifestyle Cuts That Actually Worked 07:46 Roommates Saved Her $30K/Year 12:10 Her Exact Investment Strategy Revealed 14:29 Why She Left Her Job 15:50 The Return Plan: Higher Pay, Same Freedom 22:30 What She's Actually Doing on Sabbatical 32:06 Follow Her FIRE Journey! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Today's guest gave herself permission to hit pause on her career in her early 30s for an entire year, all while staying on track to reach financial independence by age 44.
0:11.6	Today, we're exploring what it takes to take a sabbatical without derailing your fire plan.
0:26.1	Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. My name is with me,
0:31.5	Jen, my name is with me Jensen. I don't even know my own name. Oh my goodness. Okay.
0:59.5	My name is Mindy Jensen and with me as always is my sunshiney co-host, Scott Trench. Thanks, Mindy. Great to be here with you, Jensen. We are so excited today to be joined by Alex Morales on today's episode. You can find her online as Girl Chasing Wealth. As of today, she is a few weeks into her year-long sabbatical, which we can't wait to talk about, and we can't wait to talk about the lead-up to her making this decision as well. Welcome, Alex. I'm Indy. Hi, Scott. Thank you guys so much for having me on the show.
1:05.5	I'm really excited to be here and fan-girling a little bit. I'm a huge fan of Bigger Pocket,
1:13.4	so I'm excited to talk to you guys today. Well, I'm excited to talk to you. I want to know what your job was that you decided to take a break from. Yeah, absolutely. I have been working in marketing since I graduated
1:19.3	undergrad in 2017. So I worked full time in marketing since then, and I was feeling super burned out and kind of ready to take a break.
1:31.5	And pursuing a sabbatical was something I always wanted to do.
1:35.0	So I decided everything aligned, and it was the right time to take that leap.
1:39.8	When you first discovered the concept of fire, but what was your position like in life? How far
1:45.7	long were you in this journey in your marketing career? And where were your finances? Yeah,
1:49.8	so I remember the specific day. It was back in January 2021. And I was just doom scrolling on TikTok
1:58.1	and I came across a video by Katie, aka millennial money honey,
2:03.6	and she was talking about how you actually don't have to work until 65 to retire and how
2:11.0	retirement is a number. It's not an age. And that was the seed that was sort of planted in my mind. So this was four years ago now
2:20.9	and I was 26. So pretty early on in my career. But I did all of the research. I kind of did a
2:28.1	deep dive on fire. I binged the Mad Scientist podcast, the Mr. Money Mustache blog. I read all the personal finance books,
2:36.5	and I kind of discovered that, hey, early retirement is actually a possibility for me.
2:42.7	And I had about $50,000 saved in cash at that point. So I think I already had a bit of a start there.
2:53.1	Yeah, you had a huge start there. What were you saving that 50,000 for? Or was it just for the future? Yeah, it was kind of for the future. Maybe do I
2:59.8	want to buy a house, put a down payment down on a home and build wealth that way. Growing up,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BiggerPockets, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BiggerPockets and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.