Today on episode 53 I’m pleased to welcome back Lee Cujes, this time as a podcast guest. Some of you may recall the written interview with Lee back in late 2020. Lee is an elite Australian climber and route developer, with multiple 5.13+ and 5.14 first ascents to his name. But most importantly as it relates to this platform, Lee has managed to climb and develop routes continuously while carving a unique career niche and embracing a long-term investing strategy, an approach that provides the ultimate work and life balance.
Lee Cujes: An Introduction
Lee insists that he climbed his best at the peak of his career. To enable a better work and life balance, Lee and his wife Sam reconfigured their life to move away from the hustle and bustle of a major metro area. They resettled in a small mountain community and climbing mecca in the Blue Mountains.
Furthermore, Lee has been investing since 1998. As such, he has the experience of investing through the back-to-back severe recessions of the dot-com bubble burst and the 2008 financial crisis, a prolonged, decade+ period where stocks fell over 60% in value. Lee was able to stay the course through year after year of poor equity performance, putting him on a path to financial independence today. Many of you investing through your first bear market, which began in early 2022, will find the beginning of our conversation today useful and inspiring.
This interview is a wide-ranging and fun exploration of career, investing, climbing, long-term travel, relationships, wealth accumulation and preservation, and the realization that early retirement is still a fundamentally weird concept to most of society.
Topics Discussed with Lee Cujes
- Weathering two back-to-back severe recessions as a new investor
- Lee’s discovery of financial independence and the framework it provided
- Improving life now instead of rushing to financial independence
- Plenty of career advice: finding the right job, loyalty and longevity versus job-hopping, college as prep for the job market, and what really makes work meaningful, and why Lee climbed his best at the peak of his career
- Why having more time to climb won’t make us better climbers
- What Lee’s life would look like with financial independence
- Thoughts on a mid-career year of international travel and climbing
- Saving strategies and investing options for Australians and Americans alike
- Planning your “FIRE number” and deliberation on proper withdrawal rates in a high-inflation and low-return environment
- Discussing early retirement to a dubious public. Lack of synchronization with society.
- Lee’s advice on improving your financial life
- So much more!
Get in Touch with Lee Cujes
Lee’s 2020 Clipping Chains Interview
Other Interviews and Posts Mentioned
Eudaimonia: Key Pillars of the Meaningful Life
Shocking Headlines of the 2008 Financial Crisis (And Why They Are So Important Now)
The Long Approach to Being Scared of Investing
Can The 4% Rule Actually Work For Early Retirement?
Joy and Tyler Black on Career, Money Mindsets, and Parenting
The Bold and Beautiful Roth Conversion Ladder
Back in the Weeds with the Frugal Professor
Peruse all Clipping Chains posts and interviews here.
Other Resources
A recommended FIRE Calculator (***simplified, review key assumptions!***)
Australian Superannuation (**Correction from the interview: The preservation age in Australia is 60, not 65.)
Books Recommended by Lee Cujes
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich (Tim Ferriss)
The Magician Series (Raymond E. Feist)
Leonidio & Kyparissi Guidebook – 2021 Revised
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