Today, in 10 minutes or less, you'll learn:

• The Evolution of Financial Independence Games 🕹️

• My Approach 🙋

• Semi-Retirement (Barista FIRE) ☕

• Part-Time / Fractional Work 💼

• Geoarbitrage 💼

• Buy a Small Business  🤝

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FROM OUR LABS

🚀 Last chance to get early access to my May 6th cohort

Enrollment opens for Remote Side Hustle next Wednesday (PST).

As a waitlist member, you’ll get 24 hours before we announce it to the rest of the world.

Why join the Remote Side Hustle 4-week cohort program?

• 🌏️ Job security doesn’t exist - Recently, Alphabet cut 12,000 jobs in its largest-ever layoffs. With the ZIRP era over, many loyal employees are discovering that there’s no such thing as job security.

• 🗺️ Step-by-step lessons - 15 bite-sized video lessons on how to launch your remote side hustle and detailed workbook to ensure you have actionable steps and resources to succeed.

• 📽️ LIVE office hours & breakouts -You’ll get live guidance from me and discuss and exchange feedback with students during breakouts.

• 🫶 Community and accountability - Meet and build alongside a like-minded group of professionals from tech, finance, and other diverse industries. Weekly accountability challenges (and prizes!)

• 🏇 Limited spots available - Act fast! We have over 550 people on the waitlist—but limited seats available (This helps us to deliver a better experience.)

As a waitlister, you’ll get all this value for $158 USD (20% off).

Lock in this steal of an investment in yourself while you still can. Due to popular demand, I will likely increase the price of my next cohort by 2x.

Ready to get started?

Join the first official cohort, starting May 6th:

Save my seat in Remote Side Hustle.

🔥 My FIRE Alternative Strategies

My geoarbitrage and FIRE alternatives articles were surprisingly popular.

In light of tech layoffs and economic uncertainty, It’s becoming clear to me that many high-performing professionals are seeking alternatives to the conventional pathways to financial independence.

I received several questions about my personal FIRE Alternative Strategy, so in this newsletter, I’m sharing a short breakdown of my financial independence approach.

The Evolution of Financial Independence Games 🕹️ 

Growing up, I loved playing strategy games like Starcraft.

Perhaps that’s why I like to think of each financial independence pathway as a different game you can play (with different rules).

In the 2010’s, the popular games were:

• Work 9-5, climb the corporate ladder, and retire at 65 with a pot of gold

• Play the startup lottery in your 20’s and 30’s, hit 1 jackpot, and transition to investing in your 40’s

• Work a normal job in your 20’s and 30’s, but save and invest 30%-50%+ of your income to FIRE in your 40’s

Now in the 2020’s, I expect the number of games people play to explode. They can be more highly customized to your lifestyle and career goals than ever before.

This is due to several major societal and tech trends:

• Rise of part-time, flexible work - After Covid, people care about flexibility more than ever. They want to spend more time focusing on family, kids, health, etc. In December 2023, an all-time-high of 22 million Americans chose part-time work.

• Rise of remote work - Harvard Business Review reported that executives expect remote work to continue increasing from 2023 to 2028.

• Adoption of AI technology - The next wave of AI tools will enable individuals and smaller teams to accomplish more output than ever before. LLMs are just the beginning. For example, I’ve used tools already for content writing, editing, repurposing, data analytics, meeting summaries, and customer insights extraction to accelerate my operations.

I truly believe we’re going to see all kinds of creative mash-ups in the next few years.

My Approach 🙋 

First, I’m going to quickly share my recent history for new readers (long-time readers, feel free to skip these bullets):

• Pre-2019 - Lived in San Francisco, California for 7 years, working as a product manager for Dropbox and growth-stage startups.

• 2019 - Traveled the world. Experimented with being a digital nomad and remote product coach in Asia, Europe, Latin America.

• 2020-2023 - Moved to Singapore to work for a regional fintech startup, Xendit. Weathered out Covid in the Red Dot.

• 2023 - Left my full-time job. Started my consulting and media businesses. Got married. Lease expired in Singapore. Stayed in Saigon for 6 months, then moved to Mexico City.

• 2024 - Signed a 1-year lease in Mexico City to pursue goals like gaining Spanish fluency, exploring Latin America, and gorging on delicious tacos.

My long-term goal is to build and grow a portfolio of beautiful businesses that I’m proud of—while building a lifestyle I enjoy and that can eventually support a family.

Here’s the strategies I’m using to achieve this goal:

• Semi-Retirement

• Part-Time Work

• Geoarbitrage

• Buying Small Businesses

Semi-Retirement (Barista FIRE) ☕