About
Hey, I’m Erik Lorton, a surfer for 30+ years that has designed a life that allows me to surf as much as I want.
I started my focused journey to financial freedom in 2017 with a net worth of $20k and my net worth in 2024 is now $1.5M. To get here, I:
- hired a fee-only financial advisor for one year
- set-up a roadmap to FIRE (financial independence, retire early)
- kept learning on my own
- kept applying what I’ve learned
This has brought me LIFE CHANGING FREEDOM. No more corporate conference calls, no more missing EPIC days at my local surf spots, no more being chained to my computer on a beautiful day. I now have freedom to run my days how I want during this precious time on earth.
I’m 44 and raising two lovely girls, ages 7 and 4, with my wife who loves to cook. She supports my surfing because she knows it’s food for my soul. Woohoo!
Rewinding a bit
At 18, during my first job valet parking cars, I was getting paid minimum wage to stand at attention at a luxury hotel. I knew there must be a better way to not just make money but LIVE.
At that time, the simple math in my head was, “if I have a million dollars invested, making 10% per year, I could live off that $100,000 very happily forever.” This is a very simplified calculation but it turns out I wasn’t too far off.
Being 18, I was spending a good deal of consideration on what I want to do “for a living”. Maybe a surfing career? Maybe a DJ traveling to exotic destinations? Well, I decided to go traditional and went to college to study Structural Engineering because I was good at math and could make some dependable money. Unfortunately, my heart wasn’t in it, so it wasn’t fun but I did get a Bachelor’s Degree.
Sales sounded more fun so I pursued it after college and got a pretty fun job as a Sales Manager for a luxury hotel. Part of my job was to entertain clients at our fine dining restaurant, running up $1,000+ tabs of fine foods from around the world paired perfectly with fine wine. Unfortunately, my heart wasn’t in it, so the fun wore off.
I needed to do something more meaningful while also making money. Being a surfer, and loving nature, I found meaning at SolarCity, a company since acquired by Tesla. Their mission: Accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy.
Working for a company that I actually cared about fueled my desire to learn and become better at what I do. This passion fast tracked my career but wow, does working for Elon Musk take a lot of commitment and time away from surfing and family. He’s known for working 100+ hour weeks and the idea that life is too short NOT to work hard. I think life is too short to work so much.
It’s fascinating…we start life with more time than money then end up with more money than time. Eventually, time runs out for all of us.
I learned a lot working for SolarCity and Tesla for 9 years. Went from about $45k to $200k per year, developing my skills because I actually gave a damn about what the company was doing.
In the latter years, new employees were willing to put more hours in than me and I drew boundaries that ultimately got me fired. #prouddadmoment because as they say, the only people 20 years from now that will remember that you worked long hours are your kids.
At 42, getting fired was a huge life improvement. Just a few hours after that conference call, I’m at a foam party at the local park with my kids, ha!
There’s also the weekday day trips to Baja, while the kids are in school
My Why
My most fulfilling time working at Tesla was training new employees in what we called “intensity week”. Bringing new, bright eyed employees to efficacy within 5 days of challenging, interactive training.
Developing people’s skills and helping them grow feels good which is why I’m writing this. I want to lift you up. If I can get you more waves and more time with family or whatever you want more time to do, I will feel good now and into my later years when I’m pushing a walker on tennis balls.
I’m at a point in my life where I’m done with the corporate grind and now prioritize surfing, family time and just enjoying life and how lucky we are to be here.
I hope to inspire you to take action to have more freedom in your life as part of a community of financially free, happy, surfy people.
With gratitude,
Erik
