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BiggerPockets Money Podcast

Teacher ($44K/Year Income) FIREs in 10 Years Making the RIGHT Sacrifices

BiggerPockets Money Podcast

BiggerPockets

Investing, Education, Business

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

You may not make six figures, but you want to achieve FIRE and retire early. You might be struggling to get by, let alone saving and investing to hit your FIRE number. If it seems impossible, you should take a page from Bryce Stewart’s book. He was a sixth-grade school teacher, making $44,000/year, underwater on his condo purchase, worrying about the bills with one baby and another one on the way. A decade later, he was retired, with more passive income than he could spend. Today, we’re sharing how he did it. Your income is NOT the limiting factor to you achieving FIRE, no matter how much it seems that way. Bryce took a slow and sacrifice-heavy path to early retirement and now makes more than 300% of the combined income of his and his wife’s teacher salaries. He was frugal without a doubt, but focusing on income-generating opportunities is what really slingshotted his net worth, passive income, and FIRE timeline.  So, what money move should you make RIGHT now to turn your median salary into investments that pay you passive income every month? What sacrifices should you be making to put your family in a FIRE financial position? What was the one purchase that launched Bryce’s path to FIRE? Whether you’re making under, over, or around six figures, you can retire earlier by taking Bryce’s advice.  In This Episode We Cover The one investment Bryce made that helped him get to FIRE in 10 years  Building multiple income streams so you’re NOT reliant on your job  Why house hacking (living for free) is the ULTIMATE FIRE super-charger  Investments to make with a low/median income that will get you to FIRE faster The #1 reason you should NOT tell your partner about your FIRE dreams…yet And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on BiggerPockets.com and https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-625 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Imagine transforming a modest teacher's salary into a pathway to financial independence,

0:05.8

achieving the impossible in less than a decade and eventually working fewer hours per week

0:10.9

than most people spend in a single meeting.

0:13.7

Today's guest proves that you don't need a six-figure salary in order to break free from

0:18.3

the traditional work ride.

0:19.6

But you do need to sacrifice and put in the work in order to compensate for that.

0:28.6

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money podcast.

0:32.6

My name is Mindy Jensen and with me as always is my love of learning co-host, Scott Trench.

0:38.0

Thanks, Mindy.

0:41.0

Great to be here and excited to put another great show on the books.

0:43.4

Bigger Pockets has a goal of creating one million millionaires.

0:50.5

You're in the right place if you want to get your financial house in order because we truly believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone, no matter when or where you're starting. And today, we are going to discuss another situation from a teacher's perspective.

0:55.6

Bryce, welcome back to a Bigger Pockets podcast. You were back last on the Bigger Pockets Real Estate

1:03.2

podcast a few years ago. We're excited now to welcome you onto the Bigger Pockets Money podcast.

1:08.5

Thank you so much. I'm a big fan of both of you guys. I've been listening

1:11.5

to you a lot on my Peloton treadmill. Oh, fantastic. I have a Peloton as well, and my username is

1:17.9

at Bigger Pedals. So you can follow me there. Bryce, let's jump into your investing story.

1:23.8

When did you first start investing, investing in real estate, investing in the stock market,

1:28.3

however you first started?

1:29.3

So in 2006, my wife and I purchased our first property.

1:34.3

It was right when we first got married, we bought a luxury condominium, a one-bedroom luxury

1:39.3

condominium in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

...

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