Lol, Miss Piggy. Here's a dark little secret: once you reach FIRE, you've won! You get to spend whatever income stream you've set up for yourself in any way you choose.
So, just for the hell of it, here are some un-mustachian things I am now free to enjoy:
- I grocery shop without a budget! Yup, I buy whatever I need to cook virtually every meal at home. Still puts me ahead, and I have zero guilt when we infrequently eat out.
- We entertain friends often. Twelve for a Fourth of July picnic at the free concert in the park? Check. Taco Tuesday for a crowd any day of the week? I can set up a full, scratch cooked taco bar on our eleven foot dining table in thirty minutes flat. Two nights in a row? Yup, done that.
- I hate to shop for clothes, so when I do, I make it worthwhile. Did I really buy 17 dresses on a super clearance sale last year? Yup, sure did. Love and wear 'em all. Won't need to shop again for years.
- MIL and her pal Al Z. Heimer live with us. She gets a pedicure once a month to ensure foot health. I happily plop myself in the next chair (partly so she doesn't bolt) and we both get pretty toes.
- I also have a biweekly cleaning team. MIL and I run errands and the whole house gets clean at the same time, with no angst on her part. Love it so much! (Last week I was cleaning toilets in our newest rental/rehab*, luxuriating in the fact that I don't have to do it at home!)
- I live in a lovery custom clown house. Paid cash for it, because we sold two other houses that were bought way back when with 20% down and 30 year mortgages. Cheap leverage plus years of appreciation, baby!
- There are three vehicles in our driveway. All paid for. (College student son still lives at home.) DH walks to work, but his 2002 Ford F150 has only 80k miles and still looks new. We have rental property and use the truck often, just not for commuting to work.
- We give a LOT to charity, because we can. Pre-FIRE it was more time than money. Post-FIRE it's more of both, woot!
So yeah, all that penny-pinching and investing paid off in spades.
Sheesh, can hardly stand how braggy this sounds, but I hope I've made my point. We were never huge wage-earners, but we succeeded beyond our wildest expectations, in large part through simple management of wants vs. needs and diligent saving and investing. We are living proof that it can be done. And that it is so worth the effort.
Now, back to our scheduled programming:
* We chose our latest rental in part because it has a 775 sf garage. It will rent well for now and we may move into it one day when we don't need the clown house any longer.