Road to FI

[flying_pan]

Hi everybody!

I was interested in FI since I learned about it, about 2 years ago. I never believed in retirement per se, in my home country (Russia) pensions are sort of a joke compared to what you've contributed (looks like the story almost the same everywhere) + given the trajectory of all pension funds across the world (aging population, reduced ratio or workers/retirees, longer life, currently retired people won't allow cuts to their stuff, etc) I don't expect anything. Maybe something still will be around, but either we will be taxed to death, or living in communism/full socialism at that point.

I am definitely a high-income earner, and technically general advice from MMM suits me better than ERE. I am a software developer by myself, earning about $100k for this year and I expect to get $130–140k next year. I also spend a lot (we moved this year, so got a lot of stuff), I think around $40k, next year we plan for $35k, and after I hope for $30k. Below that the biggest offender is health insurance (currently $7k premium + maxing deductible $6.5k, no idea how to bring it down, my wife needs to visit doctors), so I seriously doubt we'll manage to go down from there, although we'll definitely try.

I don't like MMM for being too sensationalist, for a lot of clickbait, and it is just too "artificial" to me. I get it, it brings viewers, but I found ERE much more "calm" and thought-provoking. And there are tons of great discussions on the forum! Last point which I like is that people here tend to question 4% rule (which feels like a cult at this point in FIRE community).

[flying_pan]

I was reading through the blog and the forum lately, and was thinking what exactly do I want to achieve. Is it really RE, FI or both? So far I am leaning towards just FI, so that I feel "safe" enough to actually work on stuff I am interested, doing my projects, etc. I like programming, but some jobs are... well, I would say useless, while paying a lot (I was at one for a year, incredibly weird feeling). Now I am at a pretty good job, but I'd gladly reduce working hours. I have a small side-hustle, which gives me about $40/hour, and it is pretty simple job, so keeping only something similar in the future would be really good. Regardless of final goal, I'll need to save for at least ~7 years.

I lived in Europe for 2 years (1 year in Czech Republic and 1 year in Germany), and travelled a lot. In fact, we travelled I think 20 countries, with pretty extensive discovering of CZ, DE and UK. Now we live in USA, and I am completely done with international travelling. It was funny to read Jakob's posts about it: I agree with almost everything. It starts to blend together after some time, and I would not say it broads your horizons in any way. Maybe first trip by yourself and then first immersion trip, where you learn local language, their food and their traditions, but it also wears out.

Now to my numbers. This year I'll save about $40k, and then for next years I think $60k is achievable (so it is ~65% savings rate). If I'll be able to put spending down to $30k, it means for relative FI I'll need around 20x of it, so it is 10 years of working. Now I am not sure, do I want to work part-time after that and "coast" to "full" FI (I read a thread about it as well), but it is hard to predict how I'll feel about it in a decade.

[2Birds1Stone]

Welcome.

Have you read the book? If not, I highly suggest it.

[flying_pan]

Welcome.

Have you read the book? If not, I highly suggest it.

Thanks!

I actually have not yet. I was reading through blog posts and forum discussions, but it is a good point, I definitely lack a systemic approach. I work as a self-employed, so this whole year was kind of a one big attempt trying to figure out taxes, health insurance and personal finances (I read common books like the richest man in babylon, your money and your brain, your money or your life.

Thanks for advice, I'll definitely do, hopefully it will help me to structure my goals and approach.