Hello

[hifideo]

Hello,
Thanks for allowing me into this forum, I have been an on and off lurker for years but I am finally sitting down to engage. Hello!

My primary goals are freedom, independence, and to take at least a few steps away from a purely economic mindset. What do I mean by a purely economic mindset? That it makes the most sense to leverage my time in to money and then use that money to pay for services and goods that would be inefficient and therefore illogical for me to do myself.

I however have spent enough time thinking about money now and working to discover that independence isn't synonymous with wealth anymore. Money is nice, but what I want is flexibility and not having to earn a certain amount of money or keep working in a job I don't like just to make sure everything goes around. I want freedom. I used to think wealth was the path to freedom, but I don't think so anymore. I don't want big savings and brokerage accounts but also large debts. I would rather have no debts and less wealth. Optimising my balance sheet doesn't mean that much to me now, and I don't think I will regret being a little less rich when I am 70 either. That is a prediction of course, so I could very well be kicking myself when I am 70. I do doubt it though.

I live in Norway with my wife and two daughters. I am 38 this month. We are definitely not close to financial independence-We have a mortgage that is very normal for the city we live in, but its a large enough part of our income that I despair in trying to pay it off, and would just rather have it last forever and accept that there will be a mortgage. We think about moving outside of the city. If we moved only 40 minutes away we would be mortgage free. However, we are not sure that we could live in the country side here. We are quite urban and the culture changes dramatically once you are out of the city. In addition, I walk, cycle or take public transport- We have a cheaper car, but use it practically only in the summer. On average we use it 3 or 4 times a month maybe. So the car is not really worth keeping, but this is a family decision, not just my own. My wife is quite frugal, but she likes her job, hasn't been exposes to ERE or FIRE thinking much, and she thinks we are already quite frugal (we are definitely a standard deviation or two from the norm already). We still have a very middle class mentality to life, but we are a good team and it is exciting to see where the future takes us.

To test the waters of independence over wealth, we recently used some savings to pay off all of our student debt. This is normal in North America, but in Norway you are crazy if you pay off your student debt, as the interest rates are always low and you can delay payments if you are in a bind, or unemployed. However, Norwegians love debt and trust that the government will take care of them. Norwegians often max out their student loan and take out equity on their houses just to put it into the stock market. They are optimistic, leveraged, and completely at the mercy of the government when things take a turn for the worse.

My goals these days are to start a blog here, try to improve my systems thinking, and find some harmony and savings in my housing, transportation and food costs. All three are really expensive in Norway (Norway is not the place to live cheaply, really, but here we are and will be for the time being. It has its advantages as well, of course!). I also want to find some more peace of mind and to engage with daily life with more creativity than cash.

If I can use my brain more than my debit card each day, I will consider it a success!

[Veronica]

Welcome!
Your path will definitely be different trying to make it in an urban environment, but I have no doubt you can achieve your goals if you go one step at a time.
Aggressively paying off your student loans is also a fantastic start; it just gets easier once you get in the habit of saving towards a goal.