Julie Berninger, 35, hit financial independence but now spends over $25,000 a month so she can spend more time with her kids and on her businesses.
Julie Berninger
Julie Berninger, 35, and her husband used to save 70% of their income. Now, they spend over $25,000 a month on outsourcing aspects of their lives like cleaning, cooking, and transportation.
Berninger and her husband have built their high net worth through previous high-paying corporate jobs, Berninger's digital course businesses, and passive income, which has given them the comfort of knowing they could retire early. However, Berninger said she's investing in the growth of her companies — and is spending a lot to do so.
She said these purchases have allowed her to spend more time with her family, keep work to under 40 hours a week, and focus on expanding her companies without being overworked. She's been satisfied with her spending choices and isn't too worried about adhering to all principles of the FIRE — financial independence, retire early — movement.
"When I was pursuing FIRE, I was trying to get to the lowest monthly cost possible," Berninger said. "Now that I found my passion, I want to have it all. I want to be able to give my kids time to see me."
Berninger grew up middle class and said she didn't have much financial literacy until getting to college. She got scholarships and financial aid but still had student loans.
Shortly after graduating, Berninger and her husband paid off over $100,000 of student loan debt as Berninger worked high-paying jobs in tech. She was a project manager at Apple and Amazon, rising the corporate ladder. Around this time, she started getting into the FIRE movement, and she knew she wanted to achieve financial independence by her 30s.
She started a FIRE blog called Millennial Boss in 2015, and starting in 2017, she hosted podcast episodes that got over 2 million downloads within the first two years. She spoke with various leaders in the movement who shared their best advice for building wealth. She and her husband, now a strength and conditioning coach, had saved over $1 million.
"While I did love my tech job, which I found very interesting and stimulating, and I was accomplishing a lot, it wasn't quite the same as following a passion," Berninger said, noting her blog brought in about $35,000 in passive income last year.
She had a solid financial base, which allowed her to consider stepping away from the corporate world and starting a business. While at Amazon, she started selling digital products part-time on Etsy, as she wanted side income and opportunities to try different fields of work.
During her first few months, she made a couple hundred dollars selling printables, which quickly grew into the thousands. Later, she collaborated with Cody Berman, an entrepreneur who achieved financial independence at 25, on Gold City Ventures, which created online courses for selling products on Etsy.
In five years, they've helped over 15,000 people start Etsy shops. She said the business brought in over $2 million in gross revenue last year.
"The people who sell on Etsy are basically just everyday people. They're not huge corporations but rather your neighbor down the street who makes personalized, handcrafted things," Berninger said. "There's a printable for every profession."
In 2023, she also founded Auros Agency, a boutique digital course creation agency with a similar business model. However, as her "flexible but not passive" business became more involved, she spent less time with her two kids. She didn't want her kids in day care every day, but she also didn't want to sacrifice her business.
She began to outsource many daily tasks, such as dry cleaning, folding laundry, cooking, and landscaping. Her home payments were small because they had a large downpayment, and her and her husband's income allowed them to reduce their savings rate. She estimates her current savings rate is around 18% of her income, well below her past peak of saving 70% when starting her business, but she noted that her overall income is now much higher.
"If my goal was to stop working at 40, then I obviously wouldn't be doing all these things," she said. "I would be hanging out with my family, and I wouldn't be working. But I genuinely love everything I'm doing and have much bigger ambitions."
As of the end of May, Berninger spent slightly over $200,000 and made almost $250,000 gross so far in 2024, screenshots shared with BI show.
She said this choice has given her the flexibility to take off whenever she chooses, as she can hire others for temporary positions if she needs more time off. She makes time for lunches with her kids and often works at night and on weekends when her kids are asleep. She estimates she works fewer than 40 hours a week.
She's also recruited successful course participants to coach the next class of future Etsy sellers. She said it was a breath of fresh air not to have to worry about job security, though it took her time to accept being in full control of her destiny.
She said that even if her business crashed overnight, she still had over a million in savings and could easily pivot to her original FIRE principles. Still, she doesn't consider herself completely financially independent.
She said her FIRE ethos is not oriented where the goal is not to get out of productive work — the goal is to have a greater impact on the world, to get personal fulfillment, and to make life more interesting," she said. "Sometimes, if you're just optimizing toward regular FIRE and you try to get out as fast as possible, then I think you're missing out."
Are you part of the FIRE movement or living by some of its principles? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.
