My Escape from the 9-5 (a 5 step plan)
Sep 20, 2025Read time - 5 minutes / Disclosure
Leaving 9-5 life early means:
- More time with family.
- More time with friends.
- Less time feeling stressed.
Unfortunately, working full time for 40 years is considered normal.
The Road Less Traveled
Most people think keeping a job long term means:
- Not losing income.
- Not losing benefits.
- Not losing a pension.
Hell, I thought this too for a long time.
But as time wore on.
I noticed things were changing.
3 of my co-workers in their 50s were laid off.
Each person had been with the company for 15+ years.
And every year more companies seem to be doing similar things (putting profit before people).
Sherwin Williams suspended their 401(k) match program, yet they've also spent ~$1 BILLION on stock buybacks so far in 2025.
— The Money Cruncher, CPA (@money_cruncher) September 14, 2025
There should be no corporate loyalty. Companies are not your family.
Make your money and move on.
After living the 9-5 life for 15 years.
I couldn't see myself doing it another 25 years.
This feeling was bouncing around in the back of my mind.
The feeling that..
I was wasting my life.
That I was missing out.
That I could be doing so much more.
But what?
Society leads us to believe:
Pleasing the boss.
Pleasing the company.
Doing your best work is the key to a good life.
But when I talked to people 10 or 20 years ahead of me...they didn't seem very happy.
I felt stuck and a bit hopeless.
Then one day, I read a book called "Your Money or Your Life" and it really hit home.
A key theme was..
Are you making a living?
Or are you making a life?
I'd been thinking a lot about leaving the 9-5 to do my own thing part time.
And worked with a lot of customers in banking that had taken the plunge.
But my finances needed a lot of work.
So I took what I'd learned in banking and created:
The "Freedom" Cheat Sheet
It was my 5 step plan to get my finances in order to leave the 9-5 as quickly as possible.
I worked the plan for a number of years and eventually left my job a week before the pandemic in 2020.
Here's the 5 things I focused on to save and invest as much as possible (hope it's helpful).
Let's dive in:
1. The Income Plan
Goal: Make more money.
Three ways to make more money in a significant way include:
1. Job hopping.
2. Getting promoted.
3. Growing current income.
Job hopping means leaving to do your same job at a different company for better pay.
Getting promoted often means working closely with your boss to move up the ladder quickly.
Growing current income means focusing on growing your bonuses or commissions (if you get these and have control over them).
Growing my commission was the main focus with my banking job.
3 Ways To Make More
Changing employers, getting promoted, or growing bonus/commission income can increase your income by hundreds or thousands of dollars every month.
2. The Savings Plan
Goal: Save more money.
Three ways to save more money in a significant way include:
1. Food.
2. Housing.
3. Transportation.
Instead of eating out everyday, I started getting my food delivered each week. There's many options these days. Lots of grocery stores deliver too using their online app.
Instead of sharing my housing costs with 1 person, I rented out a 2nd unused room. An unused garage or an unused parking spot can be helpful options too.
Instead of getting a different car every 3-5 years, I stopped doing that to get rid of my car payment. Insurance can be cheaper too when you don't have an auto loan.
3 Ways To Save More
Changes to food, housing, or transportation spending can save hundreds or thousands of dollars every month.
3. The Debt Plan
Goal: Get rid of debt asap.
Making more money and saving more money means getting rid of debt faster.
Two ways to get rid of it quickly include:
1. The debt snowball.
2. The debt avalanche.
The debt snowball means:
Making a list of all your debts.
Sorting the list from smallest to largest debt.
Focusing on paying off your smallest debt first.
The debt avalanche means:
Making a list of all your debts.
Sorting the list from highest to lowest interest rate.
Focusing on paying off your highest interest rate debt first.
I'm a fan of starting with the debt snowball.
Paying off a few smaller debts to get some wins.
Then switching to the debt avalanche.
I used these tools to payoff:
- A car loan.
- Credit cards.
- A personal loan.
2 Ways To Pay Off Debt
The debt snowball and debt avalanche are helpful tools to pay off debt faster.
4. The Investment Plan
Goal: Invest more money.
With more income, more savings, and less debt.
Investing a lot every month becomes easier.
The two investments I focused on were:
- Stocks.
- Real estate.
I bought an S&P500 stock fund like VOO inside my retirement account and outside my retirement account I invested using a brokerage account.
With real estate, I've always been a fan of house hacking which looked like this:
- Getting my finances to a place where I could get a home loan.
- Getting as much homebuyer credits as possible (not needing a lot of my own money).
- Living in the property for a year or two (usually with a roommate).
- Doing it again, and again, and again.
It's the least expensive way I know to own 1, 2, 3+ properties when you don't have a bunch of money up front (and I sure didn't!).
My Wealth Building Plan
The stock market and real estate are the 2 most common ways people build wealth.
5. The After 9-5 Plan
Goal: Make money on your own.
Life hack:
— JOHN HENRY (@thejohn_henry_) September 12, 2025
Investing more in the 20s & 30s to
escape 9-5 life early and create
your ideal life.
After working the first 4 steps.
And building up an investment portfolio.
Deciding when to quit the 9-5 can be tough.
I debated this a lot.
A big part of my investments were in real estate.
So I settled on having 2 years of my salary in savings and left my stock investments alone.
And figured I could always go back to a 9-5 if needed (knowing that gave me the courage to quit).
The first two years I worked part time for myself as a loan broker.
The past few years I've been working on this little online business (Millennial Wealth).
Thinking of ways to turn your existing knowledge into part time income can help you leave 9-5 life sooner.
The bottom line
None of these 5 things are easy to do.
But they're possible.
Finding the motivation to do them can be tough.
- Making more money.
- Saving more money.
- Paying off debt.
...are boring as hell topics for most people.
The best way I found to stay motivated was to think about:
- The things you're gonna do.
- The places you're gonna see.
- The freedom you're gonna have.
...after leaving 9-5 life.
Those thoughts can be an amazing source of motivation.
That's all for today.
See you next Saturday.
