What can a turtle (even one who isn’t a teenager, mutant, or ninja) teach you about finance? As it turns out, quite a bit!  

We recently sat down with Tae Kim, creator and star of The Financial Tortoise YouTube channel. Tae revealed how he and his wife paid off over $100k in student loans and went on to build a nest egg of $2 million. 

Read on to discover how Dave Ramsey, Coast FIRE, and a legendary turtle helped Tae and his family pave the road to a brighter future.   

How Tae Kim's Journey Began

When you meet a 42-year-old multi-millionaire, it’s only natural to wonder if family money is the secret to their success. But Tae Kim is one of nearly 80% of millionaires whose wealth has nothing to do with an inheritance or a windfall from a rich family member.  

Tae immigrated to the U.S. from Korea when he was 9 years old and grew up the son of two hard-working blue-collar parents. Sure, Tae’s mom and dad encouraged him to go to college and get a good job.  

But much like many other American parents, that was about the extent of the financial wisdom they had to pass along.  So, after serving in the military, Tae went on to graduate from business school and get a job in corporate finance.  

But, looking back, Tae’s the first to admit that even a job on the front lines of finance wasn’t enough to turn him into a money guru. “I made all the mistakes in my 20s,” Tae laughs, “and tried to correct them in my 30s.”  

His Financial Turning Point 

So, what was Tae’s personal catalyst? At 30, he and his wife spent nearly everything they had on their expensive wedding.  

It wasn’t long after the celebration died down that the new couple took stock of their financial situation. At the time, they had barely any savings and over $100k in student debts combined. That’s when a friend of theirs invited them to attend Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.  

They quickly discovered that the first step to building a future was to pay off their past. Looking back, Tae says that the experience “really helped us reframe our perspective on money.”  

Following Dave’s advice, the couple attacked their lingering debt with gazelle intensity. They also developed solid financial habits like budgeting and frugal living along the way.  

Within just 3 ½ years, Tae and his wife were able to achieve debt freedom. With all that high-interest debt out of the way, they found their income freed up significantly. It was around that time that they were exposed to the financial independence movement. 

Tae Kim Discovers Coast FIRE 

In case you’re unfamiliar with the movement, FIRE stands for Financial Independence/Retire Early. The idea is to save and invest so aggressively in your younger years that you can retire before hitting your 60s.  

Sound grueling? It can be. That’s why Tae and many others have opted instead for a popular FIRE offshoot called Coast FIRE.  

Coast FIRE works on the same premise: when it comes to investing, time is money. Rather than stashing away 5-6% of each paycheck in a 401(k), Coast FIRE aficionados invest as much as possible, as early as possible.  

The difference is that the goal isn’t necessarily to retire early. It’s to hit a point where you’ve invested enough to “coast” into retirement without making any further contributions. After listening to podcasts like Choose FI and reading books like JL Collins’ The Simple Path to Wealth, Tae and his wife decided this was the path for them.  

“We started just dumping as much as we could into investing into the market with the intention of perusing financial independence,” Tae says.  

At the height of their savings Tae and his wife, who was working as a neonatal ICU nurse, were able to invest up to 50% of their income. 

“It gives you a framework on the next target, the next milestone,” Tae says of the financial independence movement. “You don’t necessarily have to follow it, but it gives you a good target.” 

Does Coast FIRE Really Work? 

Coast FIRE may sound like a lovely thought. But what does life look like after all that investing? Tae and his family have become living examples of the benefits of embracing a Coast FIRE lifestyle.  

Tae, now 42 and his wife, 39, now have $2 million worth of assets invested. If they both work for another 20 years, they’ll retire with around $5 million, even if they never invest another penny.  

Assuming they used the 4% rule, they’d be able to retire on a comfortable $200k annual income. The secret? Long-term investing can be very profitable.  

It may sound like a simple lesson. But in an era of online get-rich-quick schemes, it’s all one that’s too often overlooked.  

After all, pretty much everyone loves the idea of getting rich. The idea of getting rich slowly? Significantly less sexy.  

Even Tae admits that he was the “ultimate culprit” of this type of thinking in his 20s. At 22, the idea of investing in the market and then waiting 20 years was about as appealing to him as watching a turtle run a marathon.   

But now, he embraces the same principle as many other successful investors. As he puts it, “True, sustainable wealth takes time.” 

Where Does the Turtle Come In? 

If you're looking to glean insights on how to build wealth, there are dozens of excellent books about investing.  

What's the one book that Tae thinks should be added to that list? None other than Aesop’s fable, The Tortoise and the Hare. Underwhelmed? Most are…at least at first. But the realization that the tortoise wins every time you read the book … can be a lesson for us all to learn about building wealth slowly.  

But while long-term investing has been the secret to Tae’s success, he’s also living proof of the short-term benefits of playing the long game.  

The Short-Term Benefits of Long-Term Investing 

By his late 30s, Tae had been working as a finance director for a decade, with the goal of working his way up to CFO. But one day, as he was sitting next to his company’s current CFO in a board meeting, Tae was struck with a realization.  

“If I keep doing what I’m doing right now…I’ll just be moving seats over in 5 years,” Tae remembers thinking. “It gave me the opportunity to ask the question, is that what I want or are there some other things I want to explore in my life?” 

Around that time, Tae attended the FinCon conference, where he met people who were pulling off something mind-blowing. These folks were making money off YouTube-a venue Tae had previously thought reserved for hilarious cat videos.  

It was then that Tae’s dreams of becoming a self-proclaimed “middle-aged YouTuber” were born.   

Tae “The Financial Tortoise” Kim

Most guys don’t just walk away from a career in corporate finance to start a YouTube channel without running it by their wives first. Fortunately, Tae was no exception! 

At the time, the couple had hit Coast FIRE and saved up enough money to cover their expenses for about 2 years. So when they sat down to discuss Tae’s potential career change, they quickly discovered that even the worst-case scenario would be far from disastrous.  

Having secured his wife’s blessing and with a backup plan in place, Tae took the plunge and launched The Financial Tortoise YouTube channel. Before long, the channel took off and now boasts over a quarter of a million followers and counting.  

Best of all, Tae’s cash cushion allowed him the freedom to build his new business without having to sell any investments or go into debt. His wife has since even decided to put her own career on pause and pursue her dreams of going back to school.  

“The net worth from when I left my job to the net worth now, you would think it would dip,” Tae says, “Thankfully the market has done well… it’s increased.” 

Today, Tae and his wife have been married for 13 years and have two kids, ages 8 and 10. Leaving the corporate world behind has allowed Tae the freedom to prioritize family time over work, all while doing something he loves.  

“We run our lives like a race. We try to beat other people,” Tae reflects. But at the end of the day, he says, our own growth is the only real measurement that matters.

Final Thoughts on Tae Kim 

Long-term investing takes patience and discipline. But as Tae Kim and his family prove, slow and steady really does win the race.  If you're wondering if you've hit Coast FIRE like Tae Kim, check out our free Coast FIRE calculator.

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What do you think of Tae Kim’s story? Are you interested in achieving Coast FIRE? 

Please let us know in the comments below. 

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