Hello from the West Coast
Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 11:38 am
Hey,
I'm a 37yo male living in the western US, but originally from Europe. Having been here in the US for only about 8 years, I had to restart my career at age 30 in this new country. Things have gone well and I have built up a nice career that I get paid well for. I have recently (last 3-4 months) discovered MMM/FIRE/ERE and am interested in seeing how I can accomplish FIRE and still spend a lot of quality years with my wife. Add to that a bout with cancer and a stroke and her thoughts aren't to plan for the long term but live in the moment. She is many years my senior and is retired with a state pension. She grew up poor and was in a bad marriage with a controlling husband so now she insists on not being limited in what she spends money on. This does put somewhat of a strain on our relationship since I do want to set myself up for a nice early and comfortable retirement. I am maxing out tax advantaged accounts and have a savings rate on my own income of roughly 50%.
We will never be able to reduce our expenses to the degree that many of you on here are doing and have no desire to do so. What I do want to focus on is accelerating my path to FI in order to have more options for part time (be it fewer than 5 days a week or seasonal) work vs the situation I am in now. I enjoy my tech industry job but as with most jobs there are aspects I dislike. My wife could add me on her insurance (would cost about $600-$700 per month) should I leave my current gig at some point in the future.
Looking forward to learning loads about setting myself up for FIRE here or abroad, my target age was 55 years old but through these forums I hope to shave a number of years off of that.
I'm a 37yo male living in the western US, but originally from Europe. Having been here in the US for only about 8 years, I had to restart my career at age 30 in this new country. Things have gone well and I have built up a nice career that I get paid well for. I have recently (last 3-4 months) discovered MMM/FIRE/ERE and am interested in seeing how I can accomplish FIRE and still spend a lot of quality years with my wife. Add to that a bout with cancer and a stroke and her thoughts aren't to plan for the long term but live in the moment. She is many years my senior and is retired with a state pension. She grew up poor and was in a bad marriage with a controlling husband so now she insists on not being limited in what she spends money on. This does put somewhat of a strain on our relationship since I do want to set myself up for a nice early and comfortable retirement. I am maxing out tax advantaged accounts and have a savings rate on my own income of roughly 50%.
We will never be able to reduce our expenses to the degree that many of you on here are doing and have no desire to do so. What I do want to focus on is accelerating my path to FI in order to have more options for part time (be it fewer than 5 days a week or seasonal) work vs the situation I am in now. I enjoy my tech industry job but as with most jobs there are aspects I dislike. My wife could add me on her insurance (would cost about $600-$700 per month) should I leave my current gig at some point in the future.
Looking forward to learning loads about setting myself up for FIRE here or abroad, my target age was 55 years old but through these forums I hope to shave a number of years off of that.