There's tons of advice online about building wealth and retiring early, but it's hard to know which approach works best for your specific circumstances.

Kiersten and Julien Saunders, a couple who retired in their 40s and host the popular podcast rich & REGULAR, suggest finding out what kind of spender you are before creating your wealth-building plan.

In their new book, "Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away," the couple explains that there are three different types of spenders.

In the book, the Saunderses say that understanding the true motivations fueling your current spending habits can help you choose a wealth-building plan that actually works for you.

The Saunderses point out that the financially insecure typically have difficult circumstances to navigate that make it harder for them to actually save and invest any money. "Because of this, they adopt a worldview based on the grim realities of life they experience every single day," the couple writes.

The financially insecure are more likely to equate their self-worth with their ability to perform well at work. They are always striving for higher-paying jobs, living paycheck to paycheck, and struggling to feel like they have enough.

To counteract the impulse to keep grinding hard at a 9-to-5 job, the Saunderses remind their readers that a salary is never going to outperform investing in the stock market.

The couple writes, "You must believe your income can work harder than you can. Instead of working for your money, you must adjust to managing your money so that it can multiply over time to serve your future wants and needs."

Of fast spenders, the couple writes, "Money both comes in and goes out at such a fast pace there's no time to build an emotional attachment to it and little incentive to try tracking it."

The couple writes about a friend of theirs who would rather go out for expensive drinks and indulge in luxury vacations instead of funding his retirement. "Plus, he believes that if he wantedto, he could start saving money tomorrow. The problem is, tomorrow never comes."

The book contains "richuals," simple guidelines that help readers change their relationship with money. A good "richual" for fast spenders is to track your income andhow you feel when you earn that money. The couple writes, "A dollar earned doing something you enjoy is always better than a dollar earned doing something you don't."

You will have about

$1,725,000

You will need about

$2,940,000

*Need is based on covering 70% of your annual pre-retirement income and a life expectancy of 100 years.

The Saunderses say that the financially insecure and the fast spenders are less common than the group they've named the middle. They write, "People in the middle often have enough income and are even saving for retirement, but they have no idea what they're saving for, how close or how far they are to achieving that goal, or why they're even doing it."

While their book speaks primarily to those in the middle, they recommend that all spending types create a distinct purpose for their income. The couple writes that income should first be used to gain security. Next comes flexibility to spend and save in alignment with your values. Then independence meaning, earning money is completely optional.

After achieving the first three purposes of money security, flexibility, and independence you can then use your income to achieve financial freedom.

For the financially insecure, financial freedom might be getting a better job or becoming free from a financial obligation. For the fast spender, it can be a state of emotional acceptance around your money, or selling a company that you built from the ground up.

For the middle, however, it can be hard to define what financial freedom actually looks like. This is why it's important to envision why you're trying to build wealth in the first place, and how you're going to assign purpose to your income to achieve those goals. The couple writes, "Financial freedom isn't a number; it's a feeling."

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How to Build Real Wealth, According to What Kind of Spender You Are - Business Insider