Wow, thanks for these recent posts.
Apple_Tango, I've heard similar criticisms about the SNF setting from both PTs and OTs. Good luck with the new career direction. It seems career changes are increasingly common.
Check2400, those are fantastic questions and I feel like you've essentially read my mind in many ways, haha! I have enjoyed looking back at my previous posts, as it definitely gives some perspective of progress when looking at chunks of time from the past. I've refined and optimized so many things over these past couple years, and my savings rate is sitting right at 70% at this point. I've posted updates on the 10k to 100k thread, and I plan on joining the 100k to 250k thread here soon when I do my monthly net worth update.
I ended up refinancing my student loans with SoFi using MMM's referral for $300. I have about $17-18k left, which I attack with everything I've got after maxing 401k/traditional IRA. It will finally be destroyed in 2019, once and for all!
I've dialed down my spending to about $19k, which is pretty lean spending but even reaching 25+ x this "lean FI" amount sounds amazing to me as it would essentially represent a permanent "emergency fund fountain." My multiples of annual spending signature is based on this lean number.
In a way, it's still kind of hard to imagine I've already hit $100k considering I graduated not even three years ago with a negative net worth. $300k by 40 still feels far away, but it doesn't necessarily look like the mountain that number seemed to represent 5+ years ago.
One thing I have noticed already from this process is how differently I look at spending. I am mindful and aware whenever a financial transaction is going to happen, and I think this is largely responsible for how I've reduced my spending so much without feeling any significant sense of deprivation. Sure, from time to time I might chuckle at myself for a decision I make here or there to save a buck, but for the most part I'm far more in tune with how simple experiences are my most joyful, and they rarely cost much, if anything at all.
I do think I've begun to think about whether it would be "better" for my personal situation if the markets could crash and stagnate for several years while I'm accumulating so that I'd theoretically have a big stash as a "seed" planted for the next bull market to germinate. I am not a market timer though, and I am optimistic whether we get a crash tomorrow or not for another several years that eventually I'll reach that FI number.
In the meantime, I also recognize that I want to increasingly transition away from merely focusing on hitting a number (as I've largely already optimized that setup and must now wait), and instead direct my energies to the activities I find joyful while envisioning what sort of post-FI life I want to create.
Ryland, wow, these are fantastic issues you're bringing up! It's funny how even the initial title of this thread was one that revealed how much I was singularly thinking about achieving FI. Now that I've gotten over the first $100k hump, I feel like I've jumped over a symbolic hurdle in which subsequent hurdles will be easier to jump since I've developed the best asset of all for FI: the mindset. The mindset survives market downturns and adversities and takes advantage of bull markets and strokes of good luck/opportunities.
You are right that I see FI as the freedom-based lifestyle that can be created when I am no longer under the financial duress to engage in behaviors I might not otherwise do. I haven't come close to fully fleshing out what that life might look like (definitely have some ideas though), and that will be an exciting challenge to learn about in the same way learning about how to achieve FI has been. I'll send you a PM.
Igelfreundin, I do indeed love my 1/2 mile commute. It is so relaxing and invigorating to walk. My coworkers seem to think it is "crazy" to walk to work. I find it crazy to think it's crazy, but I don't have very active coworkers. Merely covering a 1/2 mile is nothing to me considering last year I accomplished my first ultramarathon! I ran 50k through the woods with tons of elevation gain/loss. I love honing my discipline with running long distances, and I find lots of parallels between long distance running and long distance planning.
