Just launched: Our FIRE Calculator in the new version - See When YOU Can Retire Early 🚀
“Let’s put your money to work for you and become a rich + frugal family that reclaims its schedule every day”
We want to equip you with everything you need to grow your stock market investments until they generate enough passive income to cover part of your monthly expenses. At that point, you can shift away from your 40-hour work week and step into semi retirement — also known as Semi FIRE or Semi FI — a rising trend in the FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) community, for good reason.
This blog is all about sharing practical ways, real-life tips that actually work, and helpful resources so you can reach semi retirement and partial financial independence as quickly as possible — while staying on track to achieve full FIRE. That way, you can start enjoying the perks of an early-retired lifestyle long before you officially reach FIRE.
We’ve created a set of free, easy-to-use Semi Retirement Calculators as well as several Financial Independence Calculators to help you plan your own Semi FIRE path — without the risk of running out of money during semi retirement and full early retirement. And we share exactly how we’re doing it ourselves while raising young kids.
Ready to map out your own path to semi retirement and financial independence? Start here.
Curious what semi retirement, Semi FIRE, or Semi FI really means? Dive into our FAQs and browse the blog collection all about semi retirement.
Our journey started back in 2020, when we first discovered the FIRE movement. At the time, we were a family of 3 living in Germany (Europe). Today, we’re a family of 5 — and just a few years away from reaching semi retirement, while working part-time and taking parental leaves.
For nearly two decades, Marc and I earned good money — trading our time for a relatively high income. The plan was simple: keep going until retirement at 67 (or later), and then finally enjoy the freedom to choose how we spend the short remainder of our lives. It didn’t feel like a bad deal. We loved our jobs and took pride in being able to afford the life we wanted. Until everything changed.
Our first daughter was born in 2019, just before the Corona pandemic began. We fell deeply in love with her. But trying to live a family life while being apart most of the time, always rushing through the days — it wore us down.
For the first time in our lives, we didn’t wish for more stuff — we wished for more time. Time to be together as a family. What we truly longed for was something that could help cover part of our bills without requiring us to trade hours for money. That “something” is real. It’s called capital — and it can open the door to semi retirement.
We made a decision: instead of spending our money, we’d invest it to become owners of capital — to build lasting wealth for our family. Capital that would eventually pay for our bills and give us back the most precious thing: time. We committed to one more decade of focused work — not to buy things, but to buy back our time and move closer to semi retirement.
Before we began saving and investing around 40-60% of our income, we were what you’d call a “broke rich” couple. In our early 30s, we were happily spending most of what we earned from our corporate jobs — one as a software architect, the other as a communications referee. We owned no assets — neither in stocks nor real estate — and had only modest savings, despite earning well. With no clear financial plan or retirement strategy, we relied entirely on our salaries.
Fast forward five years: we now own a home, have paid off more than 160,000 of our mortgage, and built a stock portfolio worth over 150,000. We’re on track to reach semi retirement in a few years — likely between age 45 and 50 — and becoming debt-free. And honestly? We couldn’t be happier. So, how did we get here?
We learned to manage our money with clear goals in mind — saving more and investing for passive income to grow real wealth. We embrace frugal living, not out of sacrifice, but because we’ve discovered that a meaningful family life isn’t about how much you own — it’s about how you live and what truly matters to you.
Once we had figured things out and transformed our lives, we knew we wanted to help other families find the same peace and freedom we had discovered. That’s how Time and Money Tree came to life.
We created this blog because we’ve stood exactly where you might be standing now — and what we share is grounded in our own real-life experience. From tools we personally use to the lessons we’ve picked up along the way, we’re here to help you start (or supercharge) your own journey toward financial independence and semi retirement.
Want to contact us? We LOVE helping you.
For us, semi retirement was never about quitting our jobs as early as possible. Quite the opposite — we truly enjoy working. It’s a meaningful and valuable part of our lives. But semi retirement means having the freedom to choose when we work, how we work, and on what.
It’s about being present for our kids when they need us most, while still earning an income. It’s about having time for aging parents. It’s about designing a more flexible life — and above all, having the choice.
So what does work look like for us right now?
We’ve both chosen to work part-time in our corporate careers while building our own business on the side — all as part of our semi retirement journey. We also took parental leave after the birth of each of our daughters. Today, we feel incredibly grateful for that time, to spend our afternoons with our kids and enjoy this precious family time together.
None of this would have been possible if we hadn’t embraced semi retirement — and learned how to simplify our lifestyle to truly live well on less.
But let’s be real — that first year of change was tough. Still, here’s what we figured out:
- How to build a family life we truly enjoy on a budget that works — with a work schedule that fits.
- How to create a realistic budget tailored to both our family life and semi retirement goals.
- How to cut expenses in ways that actually feel good (not like sacrifice) by embracing frugal living.
- How to save and invest 40-60% of our income automatically.
- How to invest for passive income to grow a strong stock market portfolio with the best Index Funds and ETFs for financial independence
- How to live off passive income for 30-40 years of semi retirement and traditional retirement — without the fear of running out.
- How to fine-tune our semi retirement strategy to pay minimal taxes and reduce healthcare costs.
Taking your first financial step and reaching your first money goal can truly change your life — and we’re here to help you not only get there, but stay on track.
Let’s take that step together. Explore our Freebies Library now and get started today.
Register for our Newsletter
