Hi All,
First post, after hearing about this forum years ago, reading articles, but never engaging (not even reading) with the forum.
It's time. I am starting to feel I have squandered the last 23 years of working, but as the old Chinese proverb goes, "The best time to plant a tree was 23 years ago. The second best time is now".
So, I'm 42, male, Australian, married, 2 kids. Smallish mortgage, but no other debt, decent superannuation (retirement fund). I'm on a stupidly high income, but my wife is about to finish up a 2 day a week contract. While we have savings and investments, compared to what we earn, it's not really that much.
We've had an interesting financial journey together. We met when my wife was a povo student doing her masters while doing a couple shifts as a waitress. Literally she had to decide between enough food and making rent many weeks when bills became due, while I was already earning >100k. So when we got married, she pressured me into being more careful with money, and I had to teach her that it was okay to spend somewhat... Was aware of FIRE at the time, but no desire to do give up all of life's luxuries. Anyway, I kind of feel like the tables have turned, and now she's working, she buys a lot of "conveniences", and I feel we're not saving enough for our future, especially compared to what we're earning.
I think my two greatest assets right now, are:
1) My earning ability.
2) I'm content. I had sports cars in my 20s. Traveled the world in my 30s. My house is as big and as fancy as I want. There's nothing I really want to plough money into.
I think my two greatest liabilities are:
A) I like eating out. A LOT.
B) My wife still isn't done traveling. Pre-Covid, we'd spend upwards of $10k a year holidaying. Thank Covid that's going to slow down expenditure for a while.
Let's see where the journey takes us from here. Despite what MMM says about being "too extreme" being a cop out, my wife is a psychologist, and says that change introduced suddenly is unlikely to be long term. If you want change to be lasting, making one change at a time until it's habit and it requires no more willpower to do, then pick up another habit to change, and the habits become permanent.
So that's my goal. Find where the money is going, and find just one thing to change every month. And hopefully, over time, we won't miss those things, but will appreciate the growing investments.