From $90K in Debt to Coast FIRE at 45

BiggerPockets Money Podcast

BiggerPockets

Investing, Education, Business

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fear that early retirement is out of the question because you have too much debt? It's not game over. Whether you're debt-free or still chipping away at your student loans, today's guest is proof that FIRE is never too far out of reach—even when life throws you a curveball that leaves you with $90,000 in debt! Welcome back to the "BiggerPockets Money" podcast! Aubrey Williams thought his financial world was crumbling when his divorce was finalized, leaving him staring down $90,000 in debt. Most would assume this spells doom for financial independence, but Aubrey knew he could dig his way out by increasing his income, cutting costs, and staying laser-focused on his goals. In just eight years, he snowballed out of debt and toward his long-term goal—achieving financial independence at 45. Now that he's turned his financial ship around, he's focused on building wealth for the future. Tune in to learn how he transformed his finances into a comeback story, why he refuses to let setbacks define his dreams, and what his path to FIRE looks like after starting over! 01:05 FI After 90k in Debt 04:32 How to Fast Track FI 05:51 The Path to Savings 14:21 Financial Pillars 19:47 Career Shifts During FI 32:45 The Value of Financial Planning 42:39 Entrepreneurial Journey and Lessons Learned 47:16 Connect with Aubrey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What if losing everything was actually the best thing that ever happened to you?
0:05.1	Today's guest went through a divorce that could have destroyed his retirement dreams.
0:09.3	Instead, he cracked the code to Coast Phi and is now living proof that it's never too late to take control of your money.
0:18.0	Today, Aubrey is going to share the exact steps he took to go from rock bottom
0:22.5	to financial independence and why starting over in your 40s is absolutely possible.
0:32.6	Hello, hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. My name is Mindy Jensen
0:36.8	and with me as always is my free only financial advice co-host, Scott Trench.
0:41.6	Dang it, I came up with that free only financial advice co-host Scott Trench intro line, and I forgot to give myself a pun to respond to it with.
0:49.8	We are so excited to be joined by Aubrey Williams today. I won't go too much into his background because we'll be talking about both his personal financial independent story.
0:57.6	And then on Friday's episode, we're going to have him back on the podcast to discuss how to build, draw down guardrails for early retirement.
1:05.7	Aubrey, welcome to the show.
1:07.0	Thank you, Scott.
1:08.1	Thank you, Mindy.
1:09.1	It's a real honor and a pleasure to be here. I'm first and always a member of the FI community. I started out desperate in 2011, I think it was, reading early retirement extreme. And then pretty soon after Mr. Money Mustache came on the scene and he was a little bit funnier.
1:28.1	It might be a slight exaggeration, but I told this to Pete Adonay, Mr. Money Mustache, when I
1:34.7	first met him in person, that he's saving lives out there.
1:38.0	And my life is forever changed by the contributions of people like him and him in particular.
1:45.9	And so what I'm here for,
1:51.4	what I'm doing is trying to do that in my way for anyone, absolutely anyone I can, to help with what we're doing here, which is financial independence. Well, Aubrey, I had several friends
1:56.8	who attended Camp Five Rocky Mountain week one and a half. And when they came back, they told me
2:02.5	about this awesome presentation from Aubrey Williams about setting guardrails on your spending.
2:07.8	And I said, you know, I need that. I need to hear that episode. And if I need to hear it,
	...

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