A few months ago, I was coasting along (not financially independent coasting, though). My job is flexible, pays well, and doesn’t include a lot of responsibility. Things were a far cry from 2021 when I was waking up in a cold sweat anticipating the workday ahead running of fumes because I was so burnt out.
Then my husband came to me with concerns about burnout for him. Things have changed.
I naturally spent the first few weeks obsessively running numbers and trying to figure out how I could make more money to make FI happen earlier. I nearly burned myself out doing that. Over time, I chilled out a bit and began looking at options.
One of my complaints about Traditional FI is that it’s binary. You’re either there or you’re busting your ass to try to get there. In sniffing around Al Gore’s Internet, I began to see some examples of people doing life differently and realized that it doesn’t need to be all or nothing.
I did, however, learn some things about myself:
- I am completely disillusioned with Western consumerism, wasteful consumption, and the linking of morality with working hard (more specifically, suffering) at a 9-5 you don’t even like for 40 years.
- I have watched too many people, even in the last year, get sick and/or die before they were able to tick some important things off of their bucket list. I can’t ignore this.
- I don’t want to live the status quo lifestyle that is so prevalent in my area (big house, car payments, Disney timeshares, 12 extracurricular activities per child, career prestige and status, etc.) That’s cool if that is what you want, it’s just not what I want.
A few resources that helped the last few months are The Fioneers blog/YouTube and Jillian Johnsrud’s “Retire Often” podcast and recently released book by the same name. The Fioneers hosted a virtual summit this week where they reviewed some guests’ financials using their Coast FI calculator to create different retirement scenarios.
In playing with my own numbers today, I discovered we’re really only a year out from Coast FI. Technically, if we could keep expenses low and plan to work until we’re 65 (to cover expenses), we could be Coast FI today and full FI in 10-15 years depending on how life plays out and what we plan to do with it.
For me, it’s enough.
We’ve put a lot of hard work into work itself and shoveling money into retirement. Let’s live a little.
The current plan is to have my husband take a few months off to rest, recharge, get some house projects done, and maybe explore some other career options for the remaining 15ish years until FI. I am going to explore leave of absence options at my job to take 30-60 days off in the summer so we can go do something fun together at a relaxed pace.
We haven’t nailed down that activity yet but are starting to stack cash to supplement hubby’s income during that time and have money for the fun stuff.
For me, my job situation is actually pretty great (despite not being my dream). Family planning is also on the agenda, so keeping the stability of my job and health insurance makes sense for a while. I’m ok with sticking with it for a few more years, especially if we can do little mini retirements. Then, at some point, I’d like to make the shift to something that I truly love while no longer dependent on the higher salary.
So that’s where we are now. It’s lifted a veil and feeling of burden as far as being “stuck.” We have more flexibility than we realize. And if something crazy happens, we’re not stupid. We can find ways to adjust.
It’s nice to feel like things are looking up.
-K