Leif Kristjansen isn’t your average retiree. At just 32 years old, Kristjansen has left the world of full-time work behind and lives with his wife, Lina, and two kids in Toronto.
But his days—once jam-packed with a commute and long hours at a tech company—are anything but idle. When the kids aren’t at daycare, Leif and Lina spend their days being full-time parents. When he has a few moments, Leif studies Spanish, dabbles with new inventions or works on his blog, Five Year FIRE Escape, which outlines his five-year journey to early retirement. “I’m surprised at how little free time we have,” he says.
Leif Kristjansen
Financial Freedom Started With an Idea
Kristjansen’s FIRE (which stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early) journey began with the realization that a lifetime of long hours in an office was not what he wanted. Research into the FIRE movement showed him a way out. “I had no idea how long it would take to retire, but I was 100% convinced that I could do it,” he says.
Aggressive saving has been at the core of his early retirement strategy. But he had to get Lina on board. Once Leif and Lina agreed that they both wanted to retire as early as possible, the couple aimed to put away more than 50% of their salaries. “Saving is the key to the whole equation,” Leif says.
Still, finding a way to set aside so much of their income was more complicated than they expected. The couple’s first attempt at a budget proved to be such a challenge that they almost broke up, Leif says. Eventually, they arrived at a budget that still allowed each of them to make spending decisions independently. This helped them move forward, as did keeping their shared end goal in mind.
“Every time we were going to spend money on something, like a new TV or a night on the town, we compared it to the dream of retiring early,” he says. That strategy helped the couple eliminate eating-out expenses and convinced them to purchase a cheaper home than what they could afford. To help remind himself of the couple’s ultimate goal, Leif made an image of a hammock on a sandy beach as the wallpaper on his phone. “If you change a lot of those spending decisions into savings, it adds up over time.”
Passive Income Created the Right Mix
The couple never thought that savings alone would let them retire as early as they wanted. During the housing crisis, Leif began purchasing rental properties to generate passive income. While there can be real risk involved in investing in real estate, it has been a successful strategy for the Kristjansens. Today, the couple owns seven properties, overseen by property managers. The monthly rental income of $4,950 is enough to cover their expenses most months.
By November 2016, Lina had retired from full-time work, and Leif followed suit in November 2018. While neither of them works full-time, they both have limited part-time work that generates another $2,000 per month. Leif works one day a week at his old job, while Lina runs a small e-commerce operation from home.
Remaining connected to the work world has been important to Leif, who notes that pursuing FIRE requires accepting that you may be seen as a bit of an oddity. “You have to be OK with being different,” he says. “But working one day a week has been important. If we had no structure and were too disassociated from people, I think it would get too weird.”
A former editor at Los Angeles magazine, Chris Warren has written for publications ranging from Institutional Investor and Forbes to National Geographic Traveler, Oxford American and Greentech Media.
Inset photo courtesy of Leif Kristjansen.