How We Cut Costs to Reach Financial Independence Faster
In Part 1 of this series, I shared how we grew our income and invested aggressively to build wealth. But growing the top line is only half the equation. To reach Financial Independence (FI) faster, you also need to shrink your expenses — and that’s exactly what this post is about.
Here’s the direct answer: cutting costs works because it attacks your FI number from two directions at once. Lower expenses mean you need a smaller nest egg, since your FI target is typically 25–30 times your annual spending. And lower spending means you can live comfortably on that smaller nest egg for the rest of your life. Financial independence isn’t about being rich — it’s about knowing exactly how much is “enough” for your family and building your life around that number.
Below is exactly how we slashed our budget, category by category, without giving up the things that mattered most to us.
Start With a Budget You’ll Actually Use
I spent 13+ years managing multi-million dollar brand P&Ls, so building a household budget came naturally to me. I sat down, listed every single expense, and started cutting the ones that didn’t align with our priorities.
To stay honest, I track everything through Personal Capital, a free tool that pulls together income, expenses, investments, and net worth into one dashboard. It also lets me run future net worth projections, so I can see in real time how today’s spending decisions affect our FI timeline.
Tackle the Big Costs First: Childcare and Insurance
Childcare
After our mortgage, daycare was our single biggest expense. With two kids under age five, we were paying over $3,000 a month. Since both of us earned well above that amount, quitting a job to stay home didn’t make financial sense. Instead, we toured several home daycares and negotiated our costs down to $2,300 a month — still significant, but meaningfully lower.
Everything shifted when my husband transitioned to pursuing art full-time. He took over childcare and we moved to half-day public preschool, which cut our costs dramatically. Now that both kids are in school, that expense is largely behind us — though our property tax still runs about $1,000 a month.
Insurance
Next, I shopped around for cheaper life, home, car, and earthquake insurance. Even after negotiating, insurance still eats up about 12% of our budget — but it used to be higher. I’d recommend re-shopping your policies once a year, since insurers tend to quietly raise premiums once they know you’re a loyal customer.
Cut the Cost of Utilities
Utilities are one of the easiest places to find recurring monthly savings, and small cuts here compound over years. Here’s what worked for us:
- Cut the cord on cable, saving between $150–$200 a month
- Switched internet providers from Comcast to a local provider, dropping our bill from $90 to $50 a month
- Negotiated our cell phone bill, then switched to Google Fi, bringing a two-person plan down to roughly $45–55 a month, compared to $80 before
Small Changes That Added Up
Beyond the big-ticket items, plenty of low-hanging fruit made a real difference:
- Started packing lunch for the first time in 14 years of working — often a Trader Joe’s salad for $5 instead of $9–20 for takeout
- Cut eating out from several times a week down to 1–2 times a week
- Reduced weekly movie outings, which naturally faded once our “little miracle monkeys” arrived and we simply preferred time at home with them.
Looking back, we wish we’d applied this same discipline back when we were DINKs (Double Income, No Kids) — we could have reached FI even sooner.
Keep What Brings You Joy, Even If It Costs More
Cutting costs doesn’t mean cutting everything. Travel is a big expense for us, but it’s also a core source of happiness, so we’ve deliberately kept it in the budget — and plan to do more of it, not less. We’ve visited Thailand, India, Bali, and Mexico, and have Hawaii and Costa Rica on the calendar. To manage the cost, I collect credit card reward points and travel-hack whenever possible.
The lesson here: FI isn’t about deprivation. It’s about identifying what truly matters to you, funding that generously, and ruthlessly trimming everything else.
Harvest Capital Losses Up to $3,000 a Year
Tax-loss harvesting is an often-overlooked way to reduce your tax bill. You can deduct up to $3,000 in capital losses each year, and any excess losses carry forward to future years indefinitely. For a deeper technical explanation, Madfientist has an excellent write-up on tax-loss harvesting that covers the mechanics far better than I can here.
Track Your Net Worth Religiously
As Peter Drucker famously said, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Whatever you consistently track tends to grow. I track our net worth through Personal Capital, since it gives me a single view of savings, investments, credit cards, real estate, budgeting, and retirement projections — all in one place.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need to cut every discretionary expense to reach FI?
No. The goal is intentional spending, not deprivation. Keep the categories that genuinely bring you joy (for us, that’s travel) and cut aggressively everywhere else.
How often should I review my budget and bills?
At minimum, once a year — especially insurance, internet, and cell phone plans, which tend to creep upward if left unchecked.
Does cutting costs really change my FI timeline?
Yes, significantly. Because your FI number is a multiple of annual spending, every dollar you permanently cut from your budget lowers both the number you need to hit and the time it takes to get there.
Ready to Build Your Own FI Roadmap?
Read Part 1 of this series to see how we grew our income alongside cutting costs.