Afford Anything · Friday, July 24, 2026
Cody Berman, author of 'Retire by 30,' outlines two primary strategies for achieving financial independence (FI): the traditional 'nest egg' approach of saving 25 times your expenses, and the 'cash flow FI' approach, which focuses on generating passive income to cover monthly bills. He notes that cash flow FI can be a better hedge against inflation and market downturns, as it doesn't require drawing down principal.
“So there's two main ways to hit FI. So there's the net worth approach or the net egg approach, I should say, and the cash flow approach.”
“So with the net egg, this is your typical save 25 X your expenses, the 4% rule if you will. It's like all the OG fire content is about that.”
“But with cash flow FI, it's saying, you just need to generate enough passive or mostly passive cash flow each month from your assets from your business, from whatever it could be, real estate, could be digital products, could be a small business, that that covers your bills and more.”