In 1989, Billy and Akaisha Kaderli decided they wanted to — and could afford to — retire early. 

“We were both working our asses off,” Billy tells CNBC Make It, and they realized they didn’t want to keep going that way until they reached a “normal” retirement age or couldn’t physically work anymore.

Billy was a trained French chef and the couple owned a restaurant in Santa Cruz, California. Around 1985, Billy had burnt out on cooking commercially and was recruited to work in investment banking — “one of the easiest jobs I ever did,” he says.

After making some decent money and investing on their own, the couple took a look at their finances and estimated how much they would need to fully retire.

“We were heavily investing as much as we could, tracking our spending to find out what we were spending on ourselves … and we realized we had enough at that time,” Billy says.

They took two more years to plan before actually retiring in 1991, when they were both 38, and had $500,000 invested. Adjusted for inflation, that principal would be worth nearly $1.2 million today.

This was before the FIRE movement — which is short for financial independence, retire early — hit the mainstream. Today, there are numerous online blogs, resources and communities dedicated to FIRE. But in 1991, the internet itself was still in its early stages.

“We had so much going on with obligations — work, bills and competition in California in terms of homes and cars and vacations and stuff. We wanted to do something different,” Akaisha says. “We were very freedom-oriented people.”

For over three decades now, the Kaderlis have been enjoying their retirement, traveling around the world and documenting their experiences on their blog.

They’ve weathered major market shake-ups like the 2008 financial crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic without ever regretting their decision to stop working. Here’s how they know early retirement was the best path for their lives.

There’s a common misconception that retirement is just sitting around — and that it can get boring, Akaisha says.

That’s part of the reason why the Kaderlis prefer to call themselves “financially independent,” rather than “early retirees.” They didn’t just want a break from the physical toll of working, they wanted the freedom to choose how they spend their time.

So far, that’s been true of their experience. “You can pick what you want to do — you can teach children or teach the blind, or travel the world or work wherever you want to work, because you own your time,” Akaisha says. “You own your life.”

“Once you become financially independent, you do what the hell you want,” Billy adds.

In retirement, the Kaderlis have traveled all over the world learning about new cultures, meeting fellow travelers and locals, trying new foods and activities, and writing about their journey in books and on their blog.

“It’s a lifestyle, not a vacation,” Billy says. “We like to settle down into an area and learn about the people and the shopping and the foods in that area, and get to make friends.”

The couple has lived in a variety of places over the years, including Thailand, Guatemala, Indonesia and the island of Nevis in the West Indies. They have kept a rented apartment in Chapala, Mexico, for the last seven years and return from time to time.

“We always wanted to go, go, go and try new things, eat new foods and meet new people,” says Akaisha, who studied anthropology in college. Paired with Billy’s culinary background, they stay curious and excited to encounter new places.

It hasn’t always been a walk in the park. Over the years, they’ve incurred injuries and illnesses and had to decide where they could seek the best medical treatment. Earlier this year, Akaisha was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, prompting the couple to return to Mexico for about three months while she sought treatment.

“We’ve utilized medical tourism everywhere we’ve been and we’ve had great results,” Billy says.

Overall, financial independence has allowed the couple to continually re-imagine what their own lives could look like. “It just keeps getting better,” Akaisha says. 

Their investments have continued to perform well and allow them to live out the long and happy retirement they dreamt of over 30 years ago.

“We like to be able to call the shots, go where we want to go, stay as long as we want to stay, just thinking a little out of the box,” Akaisha says. ”[Retirement has] made us more flexible, physically and mentally and emotionally. We’ve seen the world.”