FI seeker
Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2017 2:46 pm
Hello:
Been lurking on the forums for the past couple months for needed inspiration but have been on the FI path since the beginning of 2014. I am starting to have a few specific questions about our FI path so I thought I would join the forum to get feedback and start contributing myself.
A little background about how I got here... First an old college buddy told me about MMM in late 2013, then shortly after I found ERE. Early FI was not at all on my radar and these blogs basically caused me to change substantially the way I think about money. I read all MMM and ERE posts (+book) then moved on to the usual reading list. In a little over three years I went from $35,000 in debt to currently around $50,000 in 401K and cash and no debt (now including my wife who came in with ~$15,000). We do have a mortgage. More on that in another post.
Some basic background: advanced training in a technical field; early 30's; married and want to have kids; consider myself an INTJ; DIY'r (as much as practicable); 1 car family; active outdoors; lots of cooking and homebrewing; prepper/zombie apocalypse mentality (not extreme);
Family income: $12,000/month before taxes; Family spending: $5000/month (including healthcare, mortgage, and other life curveballs); We are working on getting the income higher and spending much lower. Realistic spending for the near future should be $3500-4000/month with minor spending adjustments. Anything below $3,000/month will take much bigger spending adjustments (I don't want to say "sacrifice" but we don't have the discipline yet as a family to go much lower)
I believe my path is more FI driven rather than ER driven. Right now I am trying to make the most money so my work/life balance is not ideal (although it is not bad). After x amount of years working a high pace job I am planning a transition to slower pace with lower pay (and likely more satisfying work). x could be 5-10 years depending on when my employer let's me go or we reach 10 years. Afterwards I will find another job working another 5-10 years. All in all 15-20 years is when I think we can be comfortably FI (Not extreme at all! Conservative estimate). My wife thought I was crazy talking about a 10 year plan at first, now we are talking 20 year plans...haha. We will probably keep working though once FI through part time jobs or small business ownership.
That's a lot of info for an introduction so I will stop there. Looking forward to contributing to the forums.
Been lurking on the forums for the past couple months for needed inspiration but have been on the FI path since the beginning of 2014. I am starting to have a few specific questions about our FI path so I thought I would join the forum to get feedback and start contributing myself.
A little background about how I got here... First an old college buddy told me about MMM in late 2013, then shortly after I found ERE. Early FI was not at all on my radar and these blogs basically caused me to change substantially the way I think about money. I read all MMM and ERE posts (+book) then moved on to the usual reading list. In a little over three years I went from $35,000 in debt to currently around $50,000 in 401K and cash and no debt (now including my wife who came in with ~$15,000). We do have a mortgage. More on that in another post.
Some basic background: advanced training in a technical field; early 30's; married and want to have kids; consider myself an INTJ; DIY'r (as much as practicable); 1 car family; active outdoors; lots of cooking and homebrewing; prepper/zombie apocalypse mentality (not extreme);
Family income: $12,000/month before taxes; Family spending: $5000/month (including healthcare, mortgage, and other life curveballs); We are working on getting the income higher and spending much lower. Realistic spending for the near future should be $3500-4000/month with minor spending adjustments. Anything below $3,000/month will take much bigger spending adjustments (I don't want to say "sacrifice" but we don't have the discipline yet as a family to go much lower)
I believe my path is more FI driven rather than ER driven. Right now I am trying to make the most money so my work/life balance is not ideal (although it is not bad). After x amount of years working a high pace job I am planning a transition to slower pace with lower pay (and likely more satisfying work). x could be 5-10 years depending on when my employer let's me go or we reach 10 years. Afterwards I will find another job working another 5-10 years. All in all 15-20 years is when I think we can be comfortably FI (Not extreme at all! Conservative estimate). My wife thought I was crazy talking about a 10 year plan at first, now we are talking 20 year plans...haha. We will probably keep working though once FI through part time jobs or small business ownership.
That's a lot of info for an introduction so I will stop there. Looking forward to contributing to the forums.