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How A Single Mom Reached F.I.R.E. by 49 | Jackie Cummings Koski | 173
Description
Jackie joins our friends to the north in Canada for a live taping of TD Direct Investing's 'Inside Investing', turning her late-starter playbook into a friendly masterclass for Canadians and Americans alike. Host Rob Moysey tees up her arc—divorce in her 30s with ~$20k in retirement savings, millionaire a decade later, retired at 49. Jackie fills in the human bits: purpose after FI, why 'precision is not required,' and how a BetterInvesting club cured her market fear.
She also walks through:
- The simple engine that did the work: Maxing out an employer retirement plan, Roth IRA, and HSA in low-cost index funds
- The math behind her Financial Independence target (25× annual expenses ≈ $1M on ~$40k/yr)
- How she kept joy in the journey while saving ~$3k/month
The kicker: despite five years of withdrawals in retirement, her net worth rose from $1.3M (Dec 2019) to ~$2.1M (July 2025). The message lands like a hug and a nudge—know your numbers, automate the boring stuff, and retire TO something.
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