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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   3002 thread views

Wellness Wednesday for December 7, 2022

The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:

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Two million might be fine, but assuming income increases throughout career, the third million just seems relatively easy to pick up.

This mindset is wild to me! I'm interested in FIRE because I hate having a career and want to do something more exploratory and self employed. Why FIRE at all if two million isn't very different from three million? Plans to support a family solo?

My number is around a million, probably revising upward to 1.2-1.3 with regards to inflation. I generally value my time far far more highly than disposable income, and yes I live in a medium to low cost of living area, happy to stay here.

I also grew up somewhat poor so I'm pretty frugal. For instance, I can't even imagine what I would spend $120k a year on. I live with a long term partner, and we spend about $2-3k per month on average, a little over $40k per year when you add in emergency expenses etc. And I feel like we're living large! We eat out, do activities, take usually a couple vacations a year, etc.

Sometimes I think our frugality is a bit pathological to be honest, but I am curious what types of things you buy with all that income?

Thanks for typing up your list! Pot and alcohol, a man after my own heart.

Also, seems like a significant amount (~90k) is debt, student loan, and mortgage. Wouldn't you be able to shave off a lot if those were cleared?

And wait you spend 168,000 on rent over the last four years? $3,500 rent? Man I really do have it easy.

I have to say, the analysis comes out less embarrassing than I thought. I feel more guilt about my Amazon than is perhaps reasonable. You'd think I could like, buy legos and stuffed animals (you know, like a grown up), and new pot holders, etc, without feeling bad about it. But no, growing up...not poor, but middle-middle class...is a hard mindset to shake.

I feel ya there! Idk, I think Amazon as a category is not super useful, I buy all sorts of things off amazon. But yeah your rent/mortgage etc is way higher than I would factor in. Assuming VHCOL area.

The biggest threat to FIRE is inflation. Three years of 26% inflation, and your expenses have doubled, while your savings have not.

Yeah, part of why I'm not super worried is I plan to do something economically useful after retirement like start a small consulting business / run a blog / etc etc. May not make much money, but theoretically enough to stay afloat. I also have a pretty timeless and broad (I hope) skillset that I could likely dust off if needed.

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