Comfortably_mum's Journal - Towards FI in OH

[comfortably_mum]

DH and I just relocated from the Northeast to Ohio (our home state), where the cost of living is cheaper. During our short time in the north (3 years), we saved quite a bit of cash. I read YMOYL right before moving home and we were able to maintain about a 45% savings rate for a few months, which is good, but not great, for what we make. DH had to drive about an hour each way to work (we have a TDI so get decent mileage, but those fuel costs definitely added up) and I traveled a ton for work, so wasn't home much to keep restaurant/food costs in check.

DH took a pay cut to get a job in OH - entirely worth it - we're both much happier in OH. I was able to keep my job, and now work remotely. We currently don't have any debt, but are about to take on a mortgage at the end of July. Home ownership makes sense for us, but I'm determined to pay the house of as quickly as we can. We got a small house by today's standards, but it's bigger than we need because we will have to host a lot of events and put folks up overnight. On the plus side, there's already a veggie garden started and I plan to tear out the rest of the lawn for additional food and a pollinator garden.

We have a solid down payment and got a decent interest rate, so our monthly costs will be manageable. Now the trick is to convince DH that just because he's prepared to work until 55 or 65 doesn't mean he has to...

One major obstacle I see is that we both get a lot of pressure from friends and family to spend. Everyone likes going out and taking vacations, and I anticipate a lot of push back to the FI plan. My personal philosophy about consumption (we're destroying the earth and wasting our lives, quit consuming so much!!) mostly annoys folks, so I keep my ideas to myself. For now I think the best thing to do is get my personal spending to really reflect my philosophy (I get off track when stressed) and then slowly work on other factors (watch out, DH, you're next..). I appreciate that I'd get more dramatic results with extreme immediate action, but I don't think that fits in my world, except for my personal behavior. I think extreme action would result in immediate termination...

[IlliniDave]

Certainly the place to start is with yourself in terms of bringing your actions in line with your understanding of your beliefs. It isn't always as easy as it seems like it should be. Putting pressure on yourself to spend commensurately with your friends and family is definitely one of those things in life a person has to cope with. without knowing any specifics I'd just say put your foot down when you have to, but be aware that not all money spent to share time/experiences with friends and especially family is poorly spent. I was late coming to the game of aggressive pursuit of FI, and looking back at my freer spending days, some of the money I do not regret spending was, for example, taking some relatively expensive fishing trips with my father, and some relatively expensive family dinners to mark different significant events.

If you use YMOYL as a template, remember that rigorous elimination of spending is neither the means nor the end, but rather it's a bringing about an alignment between spending and happiness that is the goal.

[DutchGirl]

Hurray, you started your journal

How much is DH on board with this? If he is mostly on board with it, then everyone else hardly matters... In all cases, I would suggest finding some compromise that can work for the two of you: go on a holiday now and then and don't forget to enjoy it, give some money to a charity that is important to your community, etc. But don't let "them" take over your entire life...

[comfortably_mum]

@IlliniDave - thanks for the reminder - I definitely needed it. You're right that money spent on good times with family is well spent.

@DutchGirl - thanks for the positive energy! I'm not a journal-er by heart, so it's going to be an uphill battle for me...

DH is mostly on board, although he told me I was getting obsessed, so I backed off. We just found out we can move into our new house about 2 weeks earlier than expected, which means this Friday. I'm thrilled about that because I've been plotting my decluttering/sell-all-that-crap-I-don't-use strategy for weeks, but with everything in storage, it was impossible to execute. So now I feel like I can make some progress towards my goal of ERE - we've been living in an apartment with a fraction of our belongings and doing fine. This tells me I can offload a BUNCH of stuff and not even notice...
Once we get settled and get a sense of our 'permanent' monthly costs, I can launch into the numbers and really do some planning for FI. I'm planning to photograph the mounds of stuff I'm getting rid of and to track how much I recoup from selling everything. So far I've sold some paperbacks to the local used bookstore. Financial recovery: $2. Gotta start somewhere!