- Sabina Horrocks plans to re-enter the workforce after her mini-retirement in a lower-stress role.
- She and her husband achieved financial independence with a net worth near $2 million.
- Many financially independent millennials are rejecting early retirement, seeking fulfilling work.
Sabina Horrocks, 41, recently stepped away from her six-figure managerial position to care for her young daughter. But after three years of mini-retirement, she's itching to return to work.
She and her husband have a net worth of just below $2 million, and both made similar incomes before she quit in 2021. Her husband has since doubled his income and has little intention of stopping, even though both could step away and retire early.
When her daughter enrolls in kindergarten soon, Horrocks said she will return to the workforce but not to the high-stress position she held. Instead, given the luxury to pursue her passions, she's considering financial coaching or planning as options.
"We didn't do anything extraordinary — I'd say the way we became millionaires is quite boring," she told Business Insider. "That's the thing I think most people don't understand. Becoming wealthy isn't hustles, dealmaking, and flash. It's discipline and consistency over time."
Many millennials who have achieved financial independence — where people have enough to cover expenses without relying on work — are rejecting the "retire early" part of the FIRE acronym. Some have tried out retirement but dislike the lack of structure, while others have stepped down from high-stress positions but have embraced more casual work. Some continue rising the ranks to teach their kids strong work ethics.
Discovering financial independence
Horrocks' parents came to the US in the 1970s and struggled to find work. She grew up lower-middle class in the outskirts of Chicago, and while she said her parents never had trouble putting food on the table, she lived a very modest lifestyle.
She got a scholarship for her first two years of college, though she regrets not getting a computer science or math degree. Her first job was with a union, which didn't pay well. She also met her husband young, and they married after both secured their first corporate jobs.
Right after their marriage, she said they were approached by a company trying to sell them financial services to help plan their financial futures. While they thought it was a scam at first, they realized this was a wake-up call to start reading up on how to plan for the next five, then 10 years. Their No. 1 change was saving much more of their income.
"I had never thought about our future financial goals. Nobody's ever really talked about in my house, aside from affording certain things," she said. "We were always trying to save, and my parents would go to four grocery stores on the weekends to save $3 on bread and eggs."
For instance, their first home was a one-bedroom, one-bath condo that cost $137,000, significantly smaller than the homes their friends in similar financial situations were purchasing. In the late 2000s, her husband said there was no reason to spend $350,000 on a condo in a city with tons of fees when they could get a larger home in the suburbs for half the price.
"My husband and I have always worked together as a team, and we've treated finances in our marriage like a business. We've always had transparency, goals, and shared effort," she said. "We treat income as household income, not mine or yours. I personally don't understand how marriages can survive with no transparency and a 'my' mentality."
After the housing bubble burst, their home lost $60,000 in value, and tenants rushed out of the building while others foreclosed. They were worried about what to do next, though they rented out the condo a few years later and purchased a townhome.
Strategies for achieving financial independence
After doing some reading, they decided to cut back on their costs. They sold one of their cars, purchased a modest home, and limited their spending on travel and nights out with friends. They also plowed money into investments such as ETFs and individual stocks early on.
She admits they initially went a little overboard with budgeting, such as pushing beauty salon visits to the next month so they didn't exceed their budget. She said it "created a monster" initially, though strict budgeting helped them stay on track to reach their longer-term goals.
They tried buying investment properties right after the bubble, and they acquired six condos for about $50,000 to $70,000 each. They made a $1,000 monthly profit from them, and she thought they would quit their jobs and do this full-time. Her husband hated it, though, and over time they eventually sold all their properties and put that money into retirement accounts.
She continued to work up the corporate ladder, learning more about data models, Excel, and languages like SQL. Early in her career, a major layoff axed nearly her entire department, and she and her husband continued to work "extremely hard" to have a cushion in case of layoffs.
In the 2010s, she bounced around a few companies as a sales operations manager, developing processes to improve efficiency and grow client bases. She also got an MBA, which her company helped pay for.
She made about $120,000 a year by the time she quit, similar to her husband. Over the years, she and her husband built a net worth upwards of $1 million, and she quit knowing that they would be fine in case of future layoffs or an emergency.
"I think work is not the goal. People get so career-driven, thinking they need to become vice presidents or become a manager to 30 people," she said. "To me, work is just work. What's important is your friends and having time to do the thing you really want to do."
She and her husband have a net worth of nearly $2 million. This includes about $1.16 million in retirement accounts, $460,000 in an after-tax brokerage account, $250,000 in home equity, $30,000 in an HSA, $25,000 in a 529, and $25,000 in savings.
Rejecting 'RE' and returning to work
After she had her baby, her husband took paternity leave while she returned to her managerial position. She recalled having eight hours of meetings one day that she had no desire to attend, and she decided that day to quit.
"I didn't want to be locked in a room for eight hours talking about how the website should be or picklist values when I could just be here with my baby," she said. "My husband was like, you can just quit. We have enough money coming in from rental properties, my husband was doing pretty well at his job, and I was work-optional."
They've become more relaxed about their spending and invest in meaningful experiences. Last month, she decided to go on a transatlantic cruise with her daughter and mom.
"We're at a point now where we're able to do things like that, and I think it was because, in our 20s, we made some big sacrifices," she said. "We had a small wedding, we lived in a small place, we've only had one car for most of our marriage."
Still, Horrocks thinks she's ready to return to the workforce. She no longer needs to strive for the highest-paying or most prestigious position, and she's considered becoming a financial coach to help people achieve their financial goals.
"I think a lot of Financial Advisors make finance complicated and don't make it transparent in a real everyday way," she said. "Also, a lot of financial advisors don't have their client's best interests at heart and aren't wealthy themselves."
She acknowledges she feels some imposter syndrome, questioning if people would listen to a stay-at-home mom, though she said she wants to help people become financially confident. She also hopes to continue writing for her blog, the Moneyaires.
"Who better to learn from than someone who has walked the walk?" she said.
Are you part of the FIRE movement or living by some of its principles? Reach out this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.