Financial independence without sovereignty is just math on a spreadsheet. You can hit 25x your annual expenses and still need permission to access your own wealth. That's not independence. I joined Shawn Yeager on The Trust Revolution to talk about what happens when individuals stop asking permission to control their own money. We covered the infinite reserve illusion, why Bitcoin is more tangible than your bank balance, and how self-custody flips the power dynamic with financial advisors. The FIRE community has the discipline to build wealth. But if you can't actually access it without gatekeepers, intermediaries, and "processing times," you're still dependent. Bitcoin closes that loop. No custodians. No counterparty risk. Just direct ownership of what you've built. The conversation went places most FIRE discussions avoid. We talked about how the modern banking system doesn't run on fractional reserves anymore—the reserves are infinite because they'll just print them. We talked about tangibility—your bank balance is just a spot on an amorphous ledger you don't control, while Bitcoin keys are actual ownership. And we talked about sovereignty starting at home, scaling through example. Watch the full conversation.
ICYMI: Bitcoin is Critical to The Trust Revolution
In case you missed it, I recently joined Shawn Yeager on The Trust Revolution to talk about why the modern financial system is built on permission...
 ---
Episode 1 of the new FIRE BTC podcast is live! 🎙️ Bitcoin, Career, and Building Wealth with Joe Burnett. 🔸Joe’s journey discovering BTC to working in the industry 🔸Building a life on a bitcoin standard 🔸Spending bitcoin, borrowing against it, and navigating relationships Watch it here:
The tax code is built for investors, not W-2 employees. If you reach FIRE and stop working, your W-2 income disappears. Now you're living off long-term capital gains from your portfolio, which are taxed at 0%, 15%, or 20% instead of the ordinary 10-37% income tax brackets. For 2025, the 0% LTCG bracket applies to taxable incomes up to $96,700 for married filers. Add the $30,000 standard deduction, and you could realize $126,700 in capital gains while paying zero federal tax. If you live in Florida, Texas, or Wyoming (no state income tax), you pay nothing to anyone. Most FIRE practitioners obsess over 401(k) contribution limits and tax-deferred accounts. They're optimizing for the accumulation phase while ignoring how they'll actually fund their lifestyle in retirement. The real tax advantage isn't deferral—it's living off assets that qualify for LTCG treatment. Bitcoin holders have an edge here. Dividends count as income, so if you hold dividend-paying index funds, those payments reduce your available room in the 0% bracket. Bitcoin has no yield, so the entire $126k can come from realized gains on bitcoin sales. Tax laws can change, and if you're planning fat FIRE above $125k/year, you'll hit the 15% or 20% brackets. But the structure is there: the tax code rewards people who build wealth through long-term investment and live off capital appreciation.
🤩 Tax Free FIRE
FIRE BTC Issue #18 - A zero-tax FIRE strategy
 ---
Hey @primal any issues reported with your LN URL? It seems to be down for me.
My kids looked at a $1 bill and a $100 bill side by side. Same paper. Same texture. Same material. "Why is one worth more if they're exactly the same?" It's the kind of question that exposes something adults have learned to ignore. We've accepted the premise so completely that we never question it anymore. The answer—and what it reveals about the difference between fiat and bitcoin—is this week's FIRE BTC topic.
📚 ELI-5
FIRE BTC Issue 62 - What kids see that adults ignore about money
Controversial take: We need to step back from the emotional framing of the “housing affordability crisis” and look at it through a longer-term, structural lens. Homeownership played an outsized role in wealth creation for prior generations, but it did so under a very specific set of conditions that no longer exist in the same way. When the environment changes, it is a mistake to assume the same strategies must remain optimal. Much of what people perceive as housing “outperformance” is actually the result of leverage and forced savings, not superior returns. Over decades, homeowners inject large amounts of additional capital, accept illiquidity, and take on concentrated risk. When compared honestly, housing succeeded less because it was a great asset and more because it bundled leverage, inflation protection, and lifestyle consumption into a single, default savings vehicle. The decline in housing affordability does not automatically mean future generations are doomed to be poorer. The opportunity set has shifted. Work is more flexible, capital requirements to build businesses are lower, and wealth creation is no longer as tightly coupled to owning physical property. Homeownership still has real personal and lifestyle value, and for many people it will continue to make sense. The mistake is treating it as a financial inevitability or a moral benchmark. The broader point is about adaptation: the rules have changed, and building wealth today requires clearer thinking, flexibility, and a willingness to move beyond models optimized for a different era. I dive deeper into this topic and run the numbers in the most recent issue of FIRE BTC. You can check it out here:
🏠 Homeward Bound
FIRE BTC Issue 61 - Is housing affordability really a crisis?
 Don’t forget to subscribe if you found this interesting. I hit your inbox each week with takes on personal finance and bitcoin.