By my rough excel calculations, I’ll be able to FIRE by around 2031, but that all depends on how a couple of big things play out- do I drop to a 30 hour work week once kids hit school age to spend more time with them? How soon can I convince DW that it’s okay to not let a financial advisor steal our money with 1.5% fees?
I'm a sucker for straight numbers, personally.
Would that work on her? Even just a straight comparison of the fees on a $10,000 investment? $150 for 15% or $70 for 7%?
Or maybe get her reading about ETFs and how it's actually not as complicated managing those yourself as most might think?
@MoneyMouse- Don’t worry about feeling “late to the game”. I have the same feeling- I’m 30, married with two kids and could have been in a much better (although it's not by any means bad now!) situation if I had actually known what I was doing earlier on. I think we all suffer from “man, if only I had done that!”. But regardless you and I are shaving about 50% off of a standard working career. It’s kinda like winning the super bowl by three touchdowns instead of four :).
Ha ha, that's a good point. Thank you for that perspective!
I've actually been thinking about a few things, as my love for my job has all but fizzled and crashed. (Horray huge-ass corporate change that no one wants and is only there to advance the career of the bigwigs pushing it, but will in fact horribly damage everything.)
I'll go into more detail about my thoughts in my journal, but I wanted to sort of brain-dump here and see if you all had some ideas.
I dislike my current job and work. I think HR was the wrong field, and I hate administrative work. I enjoy strategic thinking, communication, collaboration and relationship building. To me, this sounds like Business Analyst work and I am going to save up and go to school PT in September to get a BA Certificate and try to make the leap into that sort of work.
I am also considering arranging for 0.8 FTE (80% full time or 30 hours a week) if I can at my current work while I do that, and use the extra time to focus on studies and also take some part-time hustles like dog walking. I have spoken with my psychologist and she thinks maybe I'm just not "cut out" for full-time work. Which I totally agree with - it's another big reason why I wanna FIRE. Maybe doing this, I can cover my basic expenses with my job and then use all my additional jobs as savings money. Then, when I complete my certificate, maybe I can return to full time work as a Business Analyst and I'll be happier.
My biggest concern right now is that I'm just
not happy and it's wearing on my mental and physical health.
I want to FI like crazy, but my job right now and my career choice is
not at all lucrative. I'm trying to wrap my head and heart around the idea of pursuing happiness
now and get reeducation into a better (both money- and satisfaction-wise) field to eventually get into FT work again.
Alright... word vomit over. Gonna put more details in that journal post but for now, there it is.
What do you guys think, Team 2030?