Cooking the Books podcast: Could you retire at 30?

Many hope to quit the nine-to-five through a combination of frugal living and investing. Photo / Richard Robinson

Each week the New Zealand Herald and Newstalk ZB's Cooking The Books podcast tackles a different money problem. Today, it's growing movement of people chasing financial independence, so they can retire early. Hosted by Frances Cook.

There's a reason so many people queue up to buy a Lotto ticket each week.

The siren call of winning big, telling the boss to stuff it, then taking off on a trip around the world, is a dream for many of us.

But there's a growing movement of people who believe you don't have to win Lotto in order to quit your job for good. They say the secret is FIRE – which stands for Financial Independence, Retire Early.

These people are laying the foundations to say goodbye to the nine-to-five, with some planning retirement at 30 or 40 years old.

Crazy, you might think. They're delusional. They'll run out of money.

Well the fans of this idea would disagree with you, and they're certainly doing their homework to make sure they set themselves up right.

The idea is that you live frugally, invest everything you can, and after a while you'll be financially independent enough to pick when or even if you want to work.

I talked to Alpha Leung, personal finance blogger at The Smart and Lazy, and one of many New Zealanders jumping on this idea.

We talked about the FIRE community, Leung's favourite tricks for his own financial journey, and any tips he had for beginners.

For the interview, listen to the podcast.

If you have a question about this episode, or something you'd like me to cover in the future, come and talk to me about it. I'm on Facebook here, and Twitter here.

To make sure you never miss an episode, subscribe to the podcast on the Apple podcasts app, or iHeart Radio.