Is Financial Independence Still Possible? What Two FIRE Experts Want Late Starters to Know

A recent BlackRock survey found that the average American now believes they need over $2 million to retire comfortably, and BlackRock’s own CEO noted that almost no one is close. Home prices are up nearly 50% since 2019. And inflation, when you look beyond the headline number and dig into food and housing, has pushed prices about 25% higher than they were just four years ago.

So where does that leave the dream of financial independence?

Not dead, but the version that you planned a few years ago may no longer fit the actual numbers in 2026.

On a recent HerMoney podcast mailbag episode, Jean Chatzky sat down with Bill Yount, MD, co-host of the award-winning podcast Catching Up to FI, and Jackie Cummings Koski, CFP®, author of F.I.R.E. for Dummies, to answer your real questions about retiring early.

Here’s what they had to say.

You Started Late. Here’s Why That Doesn’t Have to Stop You.

Bill Yount was a practicing emergency medicine physician earning a doctor’s salary when he had a financial wake-up call at 50. He didn’t know his net worth, and he had no idea where he stood with his money.

“I flipped the script and started saving first and spending last,” he told Jean Chatzky. “My wife went back to work full-time. We worked together, basically living on one income and saving 40%, investing aggressively, staying the course. And thanks to the market tailwinds, in 10 years we got to financial independence.”

Jackie Cummings Koski grew up in poverty, raised by a single father alongside five siblings. A divorce in her 30s became her financial turning point.

“For a lot of us, it takes a wake-up call to really start us thinking that I need to do something different,” she said.

Her advice to anyone who feels behind: “Give yourself a little grace. This stuff is not taught in school. Just acknowledge that, ‘Hey, I did things wrong. I didn’t know the things I wanted to know.’ Let that sink in and then say, ‘Okay, what am I going to do about it?'”

How Much Cash Do You Really Need When You Retire Early?

When listener Charlotte asked about planning for the unexpected — the market drop, the caved-in roof, the parent who suddenly needs care — Bill’s answer centered on cash reserves.

“The general rule of thumb would be somewhere between two and four years of cash in everybody’s traditional portfolios,” he said. But he refined it further: “If you have more than 10% or two and a half years of cash, you’re going to see inflationary cash drag on your portfolio. So the sweet spot for me really is at about the two-year mark.”

Jackie backed this up from experience: “My first full year of retirement was 2020. It was COVID, so I was freaking out, and I was glad that I had that cash there.”

Beyond the cash cushion, Bill pointed to the HSA as one of the most underused tools in financial independence planning and a powerful buffer against healthcare shocks. 

The Bottom Line: Financial Independence and Retiring Early

The thread running through this entire conversation — from Bill’s wake-up call at 50 to Jackie’s divorce in her 30s — is that there is a path to retire early, even when you start late. 

“This is possible in 10 to 15 years if you get intentional with your money and you stick to the plan,” Bill said. “Jackie did it in 10 years. I did it in 10 years.”

What that looks like in practice, according to both Bill and Jackie: know your real numbers, build in cash buffers, don’t guess at the cost of caregiving or healthcare, and hire a fiduciary advisor for a one-time retirement checkup or an ongoing relationship. 

“Give yourself grace,” Jackie said, “and then think about what you can do to start making little moves in the right direction.”

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