About Scott Fulbright
Co-Founder, Encore Income | Creator of the Freedom Number Calculator
I spent three decades building and running companies—from a communications firm in the early '90s, to a leadership consultancy that helped businesses scale without losing their culture, to a boutique advisory group guiding mid-sized companies through transitions and turnarounds.
By any reasonable measure, I did things right. Built businesses. Sold businesses. Saved consistently. Checked the boxes.
And at 55, I realized it probably wasn't going to be enough.
Not because I'd made mistakes—but because the math had changed. Longer retirements, rising costs, and a market that doesn't care about your plans. I wasn't in crisis, but I could see the gap between where I was and where I needed to be.
The Turning Point
The typical advice? Save more. Work longer. Cut back your lifestyle.
None of that appealed to me. So I started looking at what I actually had to work with—and realized the "boring corporate skills" I'd spent decades developing were worth real money outside the corporate walls.
Stakeholder management. Operational problem-solving. Leadership development. Budget oversight. The stuff that felt routine to me was genuinely valuable to small business owners and growing companies who didn't have those capabilities in-house.
Within a year, working 8-10 hours a week alongside my existing commitments (which felt like having a normal corporate job), I'd built $5,000/month in what I now call Encore Income—supplementary income you build while still employed, in preparation for retirement. By the time I was ready to step back, it was already generating steady income. That's the whole point: build it before you need it, not after.
Why I Built This
I created the Freedom Number Calculator because most experienced professionals don't actually know their number. They have a vague sense that they're "behind" but no concrete figure to plan around.
The calculator gives you that number in about 5 minutes. Not a fantasy projection based on perfect market returns—just straightforward math using the 4% rule and conservative assumptions.
Once you know your gap, you can actually make a plan. And for most corporate professionals, the plan doesn't have to involve saving an impossible amount or working until you're 75. It involves recognizing the skills you already have that someone will pay for.
Since launching, Encore Income has been featured on over 550 news sites, including CBS, NBC, ABC, and the Associated Press — not because we promised overnight riches, but because this approach actually works for people who've spent decades building real skills.
No hype. No guru nonsense. Just math you can plan around.
The Personal Stuff
I split my time between the Alexandria, Virginia area and Santa Cruz, Bolivia—two very different worlds that somehow balance each other out.
In Virginia, you'll find me on early morning bike rides along the Mount Vernon Trail or grabbing coffee in Old Town Alexandria. In Santa Cruz, it's exploring the local markets, long afternoons in outdoor cafés on the plaza, and occasional trips to the nearby cloud forests and pre-Columbian ruins at Samaipata.
Wherever I am, I'm usually experimenting with pour-over coffee techniques, adding to the Moleskine notebook I've titled "What I Learned Today," or reading more Seneca than I probably should. I have a weakness for noir fiction and believe that the best travel involves hiking trails rather than resort pools.
My wife and I made this dual-continent life possible once our kids were grown—which is partly what gave me the space, and the motivation, to figure out this next chapter.
Ready to Know Your Number?
The Freedom Number Calculator shows you your exact retirement income gap in about 5 minutes. No fluff, no false promises—just math you can plan around.
Calculate Your Freedom Number