Author Topic: How much do these factors influence FI?  (Read 1758 times)

socal0218

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How much do these factors influence FI?
« on: July 12, 2015, 10:53:55 AM »
Relatively new here so please go easy on my ignorance.  In the last few months I have been soaking up information from any and all sources I can get my hands on.  Podcasts, blogs, more popular financial personalities, and forums of individuals' experience. I have learned in addition to MMM, there is another guy interviewed on the Dough Roller podcast that has become financially independent in 10 years. 

How much does having a high earning dual income come into play when establishing FI? Both MMM and the Dough Roller interviewee were both married in their 20s and each have 6 figure incomes in addition their spouses. 

I live in Southern California, which is a high cost of living area.  I try to offset that by having a roommate to share the living expenses.  I'm also selling my obnoxious SUV next month and biking to work.  I live about 6.5 miles away from the office.  Should I consider getting more roommates? Currently the two of us split a 2b/2ba apartment in the same city I work in. 

I make about 85K base salary, but with benefits I'm over 100K. That seems to be about the median for the city in which I reside in.

forummm

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Re: How much do these factors influence FI?
« Reply #1 on: July 12, 2015, 11:21:05 AM »
All that matters is what your after-tax savings rate is. That's it. Obviously it's a lot easier to get that number to be high if you're making a ton of money. But cutting spending is a huge part of it too.

See this post for more info on how savings rate determines time to FI:
http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/

Here's an example of how one guy got to FI by 30 with a ~$40k income by living on $7k/year:
http://earlyretirementextreme.com/