Cody Berman was 19 when he learned about financial independence, and 25 when he reached it.
There’s no trust fund here, no lucky exit. Just a brutal train commute, over 30 side hustles, and a gap between what he earned and what he spent that he refused to let shrink.
I sat down with Cody to unpack the two very different paths to FI, why most people quit scalable side hustles right before they start paying off, and how house hacking became the single biggest lever in his entire journey.
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Key Takeaways
- Two Paths to FI: Nest Egg vs. Cash Flow: The classic route is Nest Egg FI — save 25 times your expenses and live off a 4% withdrawal rate. The other is Cash Flow FI — build enough monthly income from real estate, a business, or digital products that you never touch the principal at all. Even people who’ve sold companies for eight or nine figures often find it psychologically harder to draw down a lump sum than to live off steady cash flow.
- The Gap Is the Whole Game: Cody’s income went from $96,000 to $198,000 to $403,000 over three years, while he held his expenses flat at $24,000 a year the entire time. Especially early on, the size of that gap between earning and spending matters far more than whether your investments return 8% or 9% — and a few intensely focused years can do most of the heavy lifting toward FI.
- Scalable Side Hustles Pay for Years — But Only If You Don’t Quit Too Early: Cody’s flagship example is a set of Valentine’s Day printables he built on Etsy back in 2018 that still sell today. Most people quit just a few weeks into a scalable side hustle because the payoff is delayed — but the model only works if you trust the process long enough to let it compound.
Resources
Grab the free 10-day guide to figuring out which side hustle is worth building next: https://affordanything.com/fiire
Retire by 30 by Cody Berman: https://amzn.to/4gwGSYm
The Financial Independence Show (Cody’s podcast): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-financial-independence-show/id1434155196
The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss: https://amzn.to/4vXfsj6
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Chapters
Note: Timestamps are approximate and may vary across listening platforms due to dynamically inserted ads.
(00:00) Meet Cody Berman
(03:27) Two paths to FI
(05:51) Big piles feel scary
(07:09) Cody’s FI numbers
(08:12) Hustling on the train
(11:58) The side hustle graveyard
(14:56) Four side hustle types
(19:47) The rich own assets
(37:17) Biking Uber Eats in Australia
(44:20) Skills are future currency
(45:33) AI makes doers stronger
(52:36) The gap is everything
(58:54) Valentine’s printables pay off
(1:07:54) House hacking slashes costs
(1:12:45) Life after FI
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