Kat is living proof that creating a financial plan you can trust is the key to living your dream lifestyle.
After starting a career in forestry, health challenges required Kat to take two years away from full-time work. To make ends meet, she cobbled together part-time gigs doing house cleaning, driving an airport shuttle, and working at a cafe.
Kat’s health improved, and she landed a government job in a local town that paid a respectable salary. Unfortunately…she hated it. The thought of spending two more decades as a professional bureaucrat was hard to stomach.
Instead, Kat decided to get serious about her savings. By living frugally, she paid off her car and her house. This freed up additional cash to start saving for retirement.
Then, in 2018, Kat started working with financial coach Jillian Johnsrud. Jillian helped Kat realize that she didn’t want to stop working early. She just wanted to work fun, part-time jobs instead of a 9-to-5!
Jillian also introduced Kat to OnTrajectory. Together, they ran her numbers. Kat had saved enough for what she calls “Barista FI”—financially independent enough to work for fun without saving for retirement.
“If I didn’t have those OnTrajectory numbers, I don’t know if I would have had the guts to make the change,” Kat said. “OnTrajectory gave me the confidence to make the jump.”
Now in her early 50’s, Kat works only the jobs she enjoys: working at a cafe, modeling at a local university, and even a seasonal job inspecting city streets.
“They say there’s a full time job and I should apply,” Kat laughed. “I say ‘no, I don’t want to do that!’”
Kat used OnTrajectory to plan for each phase of her life. She groups expenses into Monthly, Annual, and One-time categories. Rather than assuming a 9% return on her stocks, Kat runs different scenarios to see how she can adapt.
“For someone like me that’s anxious, OnTrajectory has been really good,” said Kat. “I like being able to see all of your accounts and how they draw down. The fact that’s so granular, I haven’t run into anything else like it!”
You can read more about Kat’s plan to escape her life as a professional bureaucrat on her blog. Ready to chart your own course to Barista FI…or anywhere else? Sign up for a free trial of OnTrajectory’s advanced financial planning software.