Now that I've got my head round what we do have rather than what we could have had if I'd made wiser lifestyle, investment and spending decisions in the past, it blows my mind a little to think that DH and I are within a hairsbreadth, or less than two more years, of being able to consider ourselves FI, and we need only work after that if we want to.
Given that the title of my life script is "Live to Work" and I've played it out, sometimes enthusiastically and sometimes resentfully, for my entire post-childhood life, it's difficult to keep a grip on the fact that a time will come SOON when I will have the power to tear up that script and find out whether I really want to do all the things I've been saying I'd do if only I didn't have to work, or do nothing at all, and there will be no risk of starving or freezing because I can't afford food or heating.
I've been incubating the notion for a while so I've had time to get used to it, but I was reminded of how off the wall it was a few weeks ago when I mentioned it to my parents, who gave me that pesky script in the first place, and they were like, "But you won't be giving up work completely, will you? You do plan to stay in your current career, don't you? If you take some time off work, are you sure you'll be allowed to go back? Maybe you should think about just cutting back your hours a little if you can afford to. Your husband will keep working, won't he? Oh, worry, worry, worry." Bless them, they only want what they think is right for me and a few years from now they'll have forgotten what it was like when I didn't have time to make the 200-mile round trip to visit them every week.