Retire Before Mom And Dad by Rob Berger
Small, steady financial choices can help gain freedom sooner than you might expect.
Retire Before Mom and Dad by Rob Berger shows how financial independence is driven more by simple habits – like saving early and avoiding lifestyle creep – than by high income or complex strategies. He breaks down the math behind compounding and demonstrates how small, consistent decisions can dramatically accelerate the path to freedom. With clear explanations, he makes early retirement feel attainable for ordinary people willing to act.
Money Multiplier Superpower
- Compounding
- Earn money on both your original investment and money it earned
- Wealth multiplies with no extra effort
- Ex: save 5% of your $50,000 salary from age 22 to 67
- Savings: ~$208/month
- Return: 9.3%
- Results without investing: $112,320
- Results with investing: $1,708,072
- Power of Time
- Start 1 year later → $153,504 less
- Start 5 years later → $643,197 less
- Start 20 years later → $1,462,889 less
- Power of Amount
- Save $200/month → $65,695 less
- Save $225/month → $139,602 more
- Power of Return
- 9.3% → $1,708,072
- 9.0% → $1,540,214
What is Financial Freedom?
- Financial Freedom = ability to live off your savings
- Even partial independence gives decision-making freedom
- Ex: debt forces you to stick with a job for pay
- Slingshot Effect → exponential growth, not linear
- Save $500, spend $4,500 → 9 months to save 1 month expenses
- Save $1,000, spend $4,000 → 4 months to save 1 month expenses
- Savings rate matters more than salary
- 10% savings: $500k salary vs $50k salary
- Both need 9 years to save 1 year of expenses
- Save 25x annual expenses to retire safely
- Withdrawing 4% annually preserves savings for life
- Accounts for inflation, market dips, conservative portfolios later
- Compounding makes it easier: $5/day for 45 years = $1.23 million
Levels of Financial Freedom
| Level 1 | 1 Month of Expenses Saved |
| Level 2 | 3 Months of Expenses Saved |
| Level 3 | 6 Months of Expenses Saved |
| Level 4 | 1 Year of Expenses Saved |
| Level 5 | 5 Years of Expenses Saved |
| Level 6 | 10 Years of Expenses Saved |
| Level 7 | 25 Years of Expenses Saved |
At Level 4, yearly investment returns ≈ yearly savings
Levels 1-3 and 5-7 require similar time; compounding accelerates growth
