Im on track for the good life
Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2023 4:00 pm
Hello ERE Forums,
I am a long-time lurker here but decided it was time to at least make an intro post with my story so far. Im not sure I will ever be a frequent poster here though. My story is built on privilege, but I think I have made the most of it, rather than abuse it. I have never had to struggle to get by thanks to strong family support, emotionally and financially.
I worked at a fast food place in high school as early as I was legally able to. Nearing the end of high school, I found out that I had been given enough money from wealthy grandparents over the years and wisely invested by my parents, to attend any school I wanted debt free. My parents were always frugal and my father had the same blue-collar job since he graduated HS so I definitely wasn’t expecting any support. I took advantage of this by applying to only one in-state school’s engineering program and commuted.
I found FIRE back in 2016 during my first weeks of working out of college. Even a few weeks in, I was disappointed that 'this', working, was all there was supposed to be. It felt so odd that we spent our entire childhood being educated to work a job, with zero education about how to make the most of the rest of life. I was immediately disappointed that people spent their whole lives on 'this' as their primary benchmark of success and happiness. FIRE seemed like a great tool to escape the hollow professional workforce, to get my time back.
My IT job at a nonprofit had us sitting in the same room as our single server rack. I googled something about improving the air conditioning to combat the noise of the server fans. One of the first results was a MMM article. Several weeks were spent reading the entire blog, trying to convince myself this was really a thing, not just some advanced scam(This was my young ISTJ rule follower brain).
I spent 5 months at that job before lucking into a new position thanks to a family contact with much better pay, better benefits, and a shorter commute of about 50 minutes round trip. This new position was near where my mother worked so I was able to carpool with her several times per week.
My IT position had a lot of free time if there were no tickets to work on, so I would read several hours per day. I went through many of the FIRE blogs, minimalism, environmentalism, and self-help blogs. Minimalism blogs were great, but they didn’t seem to offer anything once you had understood the concept. They didn’t have any advice about what to do once you had less stuff and more free time. Environmental blogs hinted at a more systemic problem with capitalism and the American way. At some point, I stumbled onto ERE and Jacobs's blog roll. Along the way, I have created several iterations of a FIRE Excel sheet with various projected FIRE date calculators. The current iteration is based on a YMOYL framework.
In 2018, a relative could no longer live on their own, down the street from my parent’s house, and moved into assisted living. My family decided to rent it out to me at cost instead of selling the property. I live in a HCOL suburb, so this was a perfect way out of the house. My savings rate is about 45% at this point, and I already have about 9 years of expenses covered by investments.
I ran XC and track in HS, and for a semester in college but gave it up when I couldn't justify such an early rise to drive to school for 6 AM practices. I filled my free time with hosting at a restaurant and a few relationships. Not running also gave me time to volunteer with my town's local youth track team when a family friend invited me in 2014. I spent several years involved with that, progressing from age group assistant, to distance coach, and eventually to head coach by 2019. This position oversees about a dozen volunteer coaches and 120+ youth athletes. Late in 2019, I took a deep dive into coaching education and took several courses/certifications. My thinking was that in early retirement, a decade from now(based on projections), I would like to become a high school track and XC coach. So what could I do now to take me closer to that goal?
In early 2020, during lockdowns, my employer was also relocating to a new location, less than a 20-minute commute round trip. A dream come true. Because I was in IT and our company’s work was deemed essential, I largely avoided the dread of months working alone.
In September 2021, my savings rate is about 56%. Our IT department is told we are being outsourced, with a ~1-year lead time. A week after finding this out, I attended a meet of my former high school cross country team and spoke to my old coach. He accepts my offer to volunteer with the high school team three days per week, pending required certification as a substitute teacher. My IT job agrees to let me shift my hours since they lost their leverage when they decided to let us all go. If anyone in IT left before they were deemed replaceable by the new IT, the business would suffer greatly.
Many of the athletes I am coaching are the same kids I spent years coaching at the youth level, so things went smoothly. At the end of that first year of volunteering, the head coach decided to retire from teaching and coaching. With my volunteer experience, I was hired as head coach for cross country and both track seasons, a paid position. I was also able to find a different position at my existing employer doing business administration, with reduced hours to accommodate coaching, with the same pay I had before.
Today, I have a year of experience coaching at the high school and still have my job in business administration. My LCOL and two jobs mean my savings rate is about 65-70%, and I have about 18 years of expenses covered by investments. Also, after a year of dating, my DGF moved in with me, drastically reduced my driving to visit her an hour away, and helped with the already cheap rent. I have a short commute in one direction for the first job and an even shorter commute in the other for coaching. The coaching position covers 80%+ of my current COL but doesn’t offer health insurance because I am not otherwise employed by the school.
The question at this point is when to take the plunge and give up the first job. Coaching is my passion, and most of my free time is now spent becoming a better coach or reading about concepts from higher WL. My DGF wants to renovate a house one day and we will probably have kids, so it is hard to calculate how much additional expense I need to allow for before I can take that next step.
I am a long-time lurker here but decided it was time to at least make an intro post with my story so far. Im not sure I will ever be a frequent poster here though. My story is built on privilege, but I think I have made the most of it, rather than abuse it. I have never had to struggle to get by thanks to strong family support, emotionally and financially.
I worked at a fast food place in high school as early as I was legally able to. Nearing the end of high school, I found out that I had been given enough money from wealthy grandparents over the years and wisely invested by my parents, to attend any school I wanted debt free. My parents were always frugal and my father had the same blue-collar job since he graduated HS so I definitely wasn’t expecting any support. I took advantage of this by applying to only one in-state school’s engineering program and commuted.
I found FIRE back in 2016 during my first weeks of working out of college. Even a few weeks in, I was disappointed that 'this', working, was all there was supposed to be. It felt so odd that we spent our entire childhood being educated to work a job, with zero education about how to make the most of the rest of life. I was immediately disappointed that people spent their whole lives on 'this' as their primary benchmark of success and happiness. FIRE seemed like a great tool to escape the hollow professional workforce, to get my time back.
My IT job at a nonprofit had us sitting in the same room as our single server rack. I googled something about improving the air conditioning to combat the noise of the server fans. One of the first results was a MMM article. Several weeks were spent reading the entire blog, trying to convince myself this was really a thing, not just some advanced scam(This was my young ISTJ rule follower brain).
I spent 5 months at that job before lucking into a new position thanks to a family contact with much better pay, better benefits, and a shorter commute of about 50 minutes round trip. This new position was near where my mother worked so I was able to carpool with her several times per week.
My IT position had a lot of free time if there were no tickets to work on, so I would read several hours per day. I went through many of the FIRE blogs, minimalism, environmentalism, and self-help blogs. Minimalism blogs were great, but they didn’t seem to offer anything once you had understood the concept. They didn’t have any advice about what to do once you had less stuff and more free time. Environmental blogs hinted at a more systemic problem with capitalism and the American way. At some point, I stumbled onto ERE and Jacobs's blog roll. Along the way, I have created several iterations of a FIRE Excel sheet with various projected FIRE date calculators. The current iteration is based on a YMOYL framework.
In 2018, a relative could no longer live on their own, down the street from my parent’s house, and moved into assisted living. My family decided to rent it out to me at cost instead of selling the property. I live in a HCOL suburb, so this was a perfect way out of the house. My savings rate is about 45% at this point, and I already have about 9 years of expenses covered by investments.
I ran XC and track in HS, and for a semester in college but gave it up when I couldn't justify such an early rise to drive to school for 6 AM practices. I filled my free time with hosting at a restaurant and a few relationships. Not running also gave me time to volunteer with my town's local youth track team when a family friend invited me in 2014. I spent several years involved with that, progressing from age group assistant, to distance coach, and eventually to head coach by 2019. This position oversees about a dozen volunteer coaches and 120+ youth athletes. Late in 2019, I took a deep dive into coaching education and took several courses/certifications. My thinking was that in early retirement, a decade from now(based on projections), I would like to become a high school track and XC coach. So what could I do now to take me closer to that goal?
In early 2020, during lockdowns, my employer was also relocating to a new location, less than a 20-minute commute round trip. A dream come true. Because I was in IT and our company’s work was deemed essential, I largely avoided the dread of months working alone.
In September 2021, my savings rate is about 56%. Our IT department is told we are being outsourced, with a ~1-year lead time. A week after finding this out, I attended a meet of my former high school cross country team and spoke to my old coach. He accepts my offer to volunteer with the high school team three days per week, pending required certification as a substitute teacher. My IT job agrees to let me shift my hours since they lost their leverage when they decided to let us all go. If anyone in IT left before they were deemed replaceable by the new IT, the business would suffer greatly.
Many of the athletes I am coaching are the same kids I spent years coaching at the youth level, so things went smoothly. At the end of that first year of volunteering, the head coach decided to retire from teaching and coaching. With my volunteer experience, I was hired as head coach for cross country and both track seasons, a paid position. I was also able to find a different position at my existing employer doing business administration, with reduced hours to accommodate coaching, with the same pay I had before.
Today, I have a year of experience coaching at the high school and still have my job in business administration. My LCOL and two jobs mean my savings rate is about 65-70%, and I have about 18 years of expenses covered by investments. Also, after a year of dating, my DGF moved in with me, drastically reduced my driving to visit her an hour away, and helped with the already cheap rent. I have a short commute in one direction for the first job and an even shorter commute in the other for coaching. The coaching position covers 80%+ of my current COL but doesn’t offer health insurance because I am not otherwise employed by the school.
The question at this point is when to take the plunge and give up the first job. Coaching is my passion, and most of my free time is now spent becoming a better coach or reading about concepts from higher WL. My DGF wants to renovate a house one day and we will probably have kids, so it is hard to calculate how much additional expense I need to allow for before I can take that next step.