Runway, Not Retirement: The Creator Capitalist’s Path To Financial Freedom

How to transition from an “I have to do it” job to an “I love to do it” career.

Arrr! A quick announcement before we dive in: This spring, we’re launching Creator Capitalist — the step-by-step system to discover your superpower, design your dream career, and get paid to be you. In the course, you’ll position your point of view, assess and build your Creator Capitals, and design Good, Better, and Best offers.

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Dear Friend, Subscriber, and Category Pirate,

Katie Gatti Tassin was 23 years old when she had her “holy shit” career moment.

She was wobbling into her office job on pointy-toed heels, balancing an overpriced leather laptop bag, already sweating through her blazer. Six months into post-grad life, her dream job felt less like a dream and more like a never-ending loop.

She thought: "Is this it?"

She wasn’t burned out. She wasn’t underpaid. She was winning—on paper.

Katie had what most people spend decades chasing: a stable job doing marketing and user experience design for Southwest Airlines, Meta, and Dell, a growing salary, and a 401(k) that was technically “on track.”

But something didn’t sit right.

Her morning panic attack sparked a radical rethinking.

Instead of grinding for 40 years and hoping she could enjoy whatever time was left, Katie started building something different. She tracked her spending, calculated her “freedom number,” and started saving and creating like her life depended on it.

No surprise: it worked.

moneywithkatie

A post shared by @moneywithkatie

By age 26, Katie had gone from schlepping in corporate America to running a $1M+ creator business.

Not because she struck startup gold or hit the lottery. But because she built a financial runway—enough money to buy herself time. Here’s how she did it:

• 2017: Graduated with a full ride from the University of Alabama with a BA in Communication & Information Sciences, Public Relations.

• 2018: Started a simple personal blog with a few readers, mostly friends, while working at Southwest Airlines.

• April 2020: Officially launched Money with Katie as a personal finance blog during the early stages of the pandemic.

• Fall 2020: Expanded Money with Katie to Instagram and launched her first product, a digital wealth builder spreadsheet for $25, which made over $4,000.

• February 2021: Started pitching her first sponsors, with brands willing to pay $2,000 for a blog post.

• End of 2021: Left her full-time job at Southwest Airlines to focus on Money with Katie, which had generated over $250,000 in revenue that year.

• 2022: Money with Katie was “acqui-hired” by Morning Brew, expanding her audience and team.

• 2023-2025: Continued growing Money with Katie and launched a weekly podcast, The Money with Katie Show, which attracts 150,000 monthly listeners. She also created free personal finance courses and improved versions of the annual wealth planner.

• March 2025 (present): Katie is working on her forthcoming book, "Rich Girl Nation," while continuing to lead Money with Katie as part of a team of three. Her weekly newsletter has nearly 200,000 subscribers, while her YouTube channel and Instagram following is over 300,000.

While Katie initially wanted to retire early, her mindset shifted after Money with Katie became her full-time career. In a 2024 interview, Katie said she no longer views retirement as leaving work entirely. Instead, she plans to continue working on her business because she enjoys it. She has set a "freedom number" of $3–4 million in investments, at which point she would have the financial flexibility to take sabbaticals or reduce her workload without needing income from her business.

Her goal (like any Creator Capitalist) is not to retire—it’s to build.

To create.

To choose.

Most people are taught to optimize for retirement: Work 40 years. Save 10%. Retire when your joints stop working. But we think that’s a trap. What if the goal wasn’t retirement but freedom—sooner?

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🔊 Want to listen to this mini-book instead? Head to the audiobook.

Runway, Not Retirement Audiobook

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Financial freedom doesn’t start with retirement. It starts with a runway.

A financial runway is the amount of time you can go without income and make the leap from a job of drudgery to designing your dream career.

This can take a few weeks to a few years. But your runway will almost certainly be less than one-tenth compared to your retirement years. Because if you create your dream career and get paid handsomely for it, you don’t need to save millions of dollars to do nothing for decades.

Your financial runway is the most important number in your career because it tells you how long you can build something you believe in before the money runs out.

You don’t need $5 million.

You don’t need a pension.

You need time—paid for by a runway that gives you the freedom to build your dream on your terms. And that doesn’t take decades. It just takes a few years.

Building the four Creator Capitals makes the leap way less scary.

Transitioning from an “I have to do it” job to an “I love to do it” career can be scary.

The gap seems big, and the risk of falling short can feel high.

But having Financial Capital gives you a safety net under the gap, so you can safely try again if necessary. Reputational Capital gives you stronger legs to jump farther. Relationship Capital gives you a crowd cheering you with people cheering “You got this!” and others on the other side who made the leap, showing you it can be done. Intellectual Capital helps you know how many steps you need before you jump, when to time the jump so the wind is at your back, and where precisely to plant your foot as you make the leap.

• If you’ve already made the leap, congratulations! We hope this mini-book gives you a way to explain how you did it so you can encourage others to join you.

• If you’re about to make the leap, this mini-book can give you final coaching to soar high and far with confidence.

• If you’re considering making the leap, this mini-book can show you the steps to prepare and train yourself to jump.

• If you don't want to make the leap, we hope you put a mental bookmark in this mini-book and save it for when you change your mind.

The first step is “thinking different” about your financial runway. How to calculate it. How to know when you’re ready to leap. Because you’re not here to retire—you’re here to create. It’s about building NOW to create the time, space, and freedom to go from “I have to do it” to “I get paid to be me.”

And once you know your runway, everything changes.

You stop asking, “Can I afford to quit?”

And start asking, “How long do I have to build the future I actually want?”

Let’s dive in.

Runway, Not Retirement: The Creator’s Path To Financial Freedom

Before we dive into the math, here’s an important mindset shift: