Hello. I'm from mexico city and i've been very much into frugality and FI ideas for a long time, just recently found the MMM blog and i was wondering if there are any mexican mustachians around here who could share their experience and maybe deal some advice about the path to early retirement when living here. Thank you for this resource and have a great weekend.
Hi there... I am a Mexican FIRE Mustachian, living in Mexico. Just joined the forum today, though have been reading MMM blog for the past couple of years or so. I am FI for the best part of a year or so, though have been strugling with the one more year and a bit more cash syndrome. Was happy to find the blog, was already implementing a lot from there for a long time. I am 37 yo, 13 years ago I made my plan - I wanted to retire in 10 years, had a number in mind, budget, savings goals, estimates for increase in income, and investment returns - it included three scenarios with different numbers. It was not very detailed but was good enough to keep me motivated. Life continued, my wife and I had kids, and our montly budget/expenses increased. It took me 12 years to achieve FI, though in retrospect it could have happened way earlier had I not made some questionable choices with regards to spend and risky investments. So finally decided to cut the cord, despite my attitude towards work had been very relaxed the past year it was not fun anymore. Have a long list of projects and things I want to do with the free time that it is getting difficult to prioritize - from a long list of books pending to read (though have always managed to read a book, or two a month in the past), to re-taking old hobbies and new ones, teaching, and above all spend time with my family. I might even start a small blog, I would be happy if I have two readers. I have an engineering background, started out with very manual and technical work right after university and managed to progress to management roles, we moved/relocated cities about six times, seven if you count going back now to our home city were our families live. Our budget spend is just above 2k a month (excluding house as we own that) and is projected to increase more as our kids get older (we rely on private schools). We have never bought new cars, have done multiple DIY projects (and look forwar to more of those and to increase compmexity), always looked for options to increase my income (salary increase mostly), invested in real estate (comercial and residential), maxed investments with employeer to get their matching contributions, and took as well some risky investments that failed (others are still strugling), and stayed frugal (with some excemptions such as traveling wich is not included on the budget above). My parents retired from their jobs in their mid 40s, I learned a lot from them, specially discipline and hard work - my dad had always side gigs that would often bring in more cash than his job. After their retirement my mother worked part time sporadiclly in a non-profit organization (maybe a couole of years in the past 15) and my dad would continue with side gigs from time to time to fill his schedule. I am gratefull for this learning, I can only hope my three kids can achieve the same, maybe even a decade earlier than myself. The financial independence road is great.. requires hard work and a lot of discipline.
