Race from $2M to $4M...and Beyond!

[itchyfeet]

Thanks Ozlady. We will get there.

DW is within her rights to be nervous. What we are doing is not normal. None of our friends have retirement on their horizons.

Our situation is complicated by the fact that we will owe the bank a vast sum of money until we sell our Sydney house, whilst we build our new house. And there is always the risk the construction costs on the new house blow out.

DW will be less stressed once we have the debt paid down.

We could sell shares to pay for the new construction if need be, so there really is nothing too much to be stressed about. We also have another house in Brisbane we can sell.

We are pretty well set for a very comfortable early retirement I think. Nonetheless, I am still super anxious about ending my career, as is DW.

[Fomerly known as something]

Small rant time -
I'm just a casual observer, but one would think it would have been possible, especially during and after Covid, to reduce the price of college.  My kids just missed the year or two of Pandemic at-home learning, but this should have been a catalyst for colleges to find cost-cutting opportunities.  There is no doubt in my mind that colleges should be able to leverage technology to continue to provide a high quality education for a lower price.

Once again, America 'does it differently' than other countries and relies on the free market to set prices.  And once again, the consumer is faced with walking in to a 'supermarket' where we want the best product but have no idea what it will cost or how the prices are set, let alone what is the best value.  To complicate it further, things are dependent on which state you just happen to live in, so it's really hard to walk up and down all the aisles in the market and compare.  For the wealthy and well-connected, this supermarket works just fine, but for the casual Joe it's a nightmare.  Other countries have a more socialist approach to higher education, similar to health care.  And just like health care, the American system which worked at one point has now spiraled out of control.  I wonder if we'll ever get Federal action along the lines of an 'Affordable Education Act', given how massive student debt has become?

I've got to completely disagree that America relies on the free market to set prices for college.  The free market would have in no way have led to college being as expensive as it is today.  In no other sector can someone with no income, no assets, no history of credit, etc etc borrow and actually be encouraged to borrow six figures completely unsecured, which leads to millions of people having six figures to spend whereever.  I think colleges could have and probably did find a lot of cost cutting opportunities, but given everyone has access to six figures of borrowing, and no competing college lowered their price, why would they lower their price?

I can both agree and disagree with your statement.  I lived through the "before time" of college finance and through the change and into the "after time".  College costs followed directly the amounts that the federal government allowed for student loan borrowing.  I can remember going to my local bank before every year start and taking out a Federal student loan.  This was strictly limited for everyone.  College costs were set by what students could borrow.  So as an example, my top, private Northeast region technical university cost me $4000 back in the early 80's per semester.  Then Reagan opened the flood gates on student loans, removing all limits.  That same college added a full level of Deans over the existing Deans, directly under the president.  Lots of buildings were built.  The college president makes over a Million dollars.  My son went there for his undergrad engineering degree, like I did.  When he finished, full boat cost (what I paid) was $73k per year.  When I graduated in the mid 80's, I made my entire 4 year cost in about 13 months of working.  For him to do that, he'd have to have started at about $225k a year.  Well, that ain't gonna happen until he's been an engineer for 25 years outside of the Bay area, silly high priced places.

If the Fed were to again set max borrowing at a reasonable level again, guess what?  Colleges would drop their costs.  I know exactly how my alma mater sets it's costs.  It surveys about a dozen similar colleges....technical private top but not MIT level colleges.  Then they plop their cost right exactly in the middle of all of them.  It has nothing to do with actual cost. 

And  when I get calls from alumnae association people looking for donations, I respond "I'm happy to give you what I was given, paying my own way through college nearly 40 years ago.  Zip.  Goodbye.

I’ve got to disagree.  I thought I was going to go back to school 8 years ago to get a 2nd Bachelors.  It was a state school that had a ton of “adult” transfers.  At that time true Federal loans were still limited to $32,000 for a bachelors.  The extra loans are actually private student loans, which are much less regulated but still aren’t bankrupt-able. 

[Bateaux]

We'll crap guys.  I'm under a hurricane warning in Florida. I can't even think of how many times I've been in the cone. Two years ago the Louisiana house took a hit and many times before.  I've done all the possibile preps and I'm just waiting on Idalia.  Drove over yesterday from louisiana. Never encountered any sense of panic in stores, at gas pumps or on the road.  Come on Florida!   What's up with that peaceful attitude?  Bring on Florida Man! 🦍

[By the River]

We'll crap guys.  I'm under a hurricane warning in Florida. I can't even think of how many times I've been in the cone. Two years ago the Louisiana house took a hit and many times before.  I've done all the possibile preps and I'm just waiting on Idealia.  Drove over yesterday from louisiana. Never encountered any sense of panic in stores, at gas pumps or on the road.  Come on Florida!   What's up with that peaceful attitude?  Bring on Florida Man! 🦍

Good luck, hope you stay high and dry. 

[Bateaux]

We'll crap guys.  I'm under a hurricane warning in Florida. I can't even think of how many times I've been in the cone. Two years ago the Louisiana house took a hit and many times before.  I've done all the possibile preps and I'm just waiting on Idealia.  Drove over yesterday from louisiana. Never encountered any sense of panic in stores, at gas pumps or on the road.  Come on Florida!   What's up with that peaceful attitude?  Bring on Florida Man! 🦍

Good luck, hope you stay high and dry.

Unlike the Louisiana bayou house, the Florida house is high on a hill.  Flooding shouldn't be a issue.  Will lose power and make some roof damage.  It's coming at night and that's always spooky.

[ATtiny85]

Good luck Bateaux!

I had to pull out the wallet last week for some darn expensive replacement parts for our HVAC right after we bought a bunch of landscape material for some needed updates out back. I was grumbling about the stack-up but then realized today that the market moves the last two days has added many times over the cost to our portfolio. Wouldn’t want it to happen more than every couple decades, but still put things in a positive perspective for me.

[pecunia]

We'll crap guys.  I'm under a hurricane warning in Florida. I can't even think of how many times I've been in the cone. Two years ago the Louisiana house took a hit and many times before.  I've done all the possibile preps and I'm just waiting on Idealia.  Drove over yesterday from louisiana. Never encountered any sense of panic in stores, at gas pumps or on the road.  Come on Florida!   What's up with that peaceful attitude?  Bring on Florida Man! 🦍

Good luck, hope you stay high and dry.

Unlike the Louisiana bayou house, the Florida house is high on a hill.  Flooding shouldn't be a issue.  Will lose power and make some roof damage.  It's coming at night and that's always spooky.

Maybe cold weather and snowstorms aren't so bad.

[farmecologist]

We'll crap guys.  I'm under a hurricane warning in Florida. I can't even think of how many times I've been in the cone. Two years ago the Louisiana house took a hit and many times before.  I've done all the possibile preps and I'm just waiting on Idealia.  Drove over yesterday from louisiana. Never encountered any sense of panic in stores, at gas pumps or on the road.  Come on Florida!   What's up with that peaceful attitude?  Bring on Florida Man! 🦍

Good luck, hope you stay high and dry.

Unlike the Louisiana bayou house, the Florida house is high on a hill.  Flooding shouldn't be a issue.  Will lose power and make some roof damage.  It's coming at night and that's always spooky.

Maybe cold weather and snowstorms aren't so bad.

Haha no doubt!

Love visiting Florida, and we have some family there, but not looking to ever move there for many reasons.   Not a great insurance situation there either, and it will be even worse with the Idalia aftermath.

https://heatmap.news/economy/hurricane-idalia-citizens-insurance

[pecunia]

We'll crap guys.  I'm under a hurricane warning in Florida. I can't even think of how many times I've been in the cone. Two years ago the Louisiana house took a hit and many times before.  I've done all the possibile preps and I'm just waiting on Idealia.  Drove over yesterday from louisiana. Never encountered any sense of panic in stores, at gas pumps or on the road.  Come on Florida!   What's up with that peaceful attitude?  Bring on Florida Man! 🦍

Good luck, hope you stay high and dry.

Unlike the Louisiana bayou house, the Florida house is high on a hill.  Flooding shouldn't be a issue.  Will lose power and make some roof damage.  It's coming at night and that's always spooky.

Maybe cold weather and snowstorms aren't so bad.

Haha no doubt!

Love visiting Florida, and we have some family there, but not looking to ever move there for many reasons.   Not a great insurance situation there either, and it will be even worse with the Idalia aftermath.

https://heatmap.news/economy/hurricane-idalia-citizens-insurance

Wow - That kind of reminds me of Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs). It's another financial time bomb.  However, I don't think it will drag the economy down beyond Florida.  Better to have the snow.  My neighbor moved out and gave me another snow shovel, I'll be ready.

[EscapeVelocity2020]

Not sure if this is hitting folks up North, but us Southern States are being hit hard by home insurance rate increases.  With all of the wildfire and hurricane issues, my annual premium jumped from $1,800 to $4,200...  and I am supposed to feel lucky that I can even get insurance!  I guess I'll pay it, but since I don't have a mortgage, I'm getting close to my breaking point to go with 'self insurance'...  Put the home insurance savings toward positive ROI like a new roof, solar, etc.

[farmecologist]

Not sure if this is hitting folks up North, but us Southern States are being hit hard by home insurance rate increases.  With all of the wildfire and hurricane issues, my annual premium jumped from $1,800 to $4,200...  and I am supposed to feel lucky that I can even get insurance!  I guess I'll pay it, but since I don't have a mortgage, I'm getting close to my breaking point to go with 'self insurance'...  Put the home insurance savings toward positive ROI like a new roof, solar, etc.

Yikes...I guess Minnesota is good for something after all...haha.  Our insurance rates really haven't went up too much at all.  I do actively shop around when they do go up though...

[Exflyboy]

So far in Western Oregon I have not seen any rate increases. As to insuring the box we live in generally I too question why I'm insuring a loss I could easily cover. The only downside is I am a slumlord and I like having liability insurance which I can't get without house insurance.

[Much Fishing to Do]

Not sure if this is hitting folks up North, but us Southern States are being hit hard by home insurance rate increases.  With all of the wildfire and hurricane issues, my annual premium jumped from $1,800 to $4,200...  and I am supposed to feel lucky that I can even get insurance!  I guess I'll pay it, but since I don't have a mortgage, I'm getting close to my breaking point to go with 'self insurance'...  Put the home insurance savings toward positive ROI like a new roof, solar, etc.

Wow, that is a big jump.  I haven't really noticed ours in PA increase past inflation in the 20 years we've been in the home and its still below $1k. 

At this point, besides federal taxes, health insurance is the only single line item that stands out as significant anymore in our budget and has definitely shot up (it has moved from $4k in 2011 to $28k today)

[Bateaux]

Hey guys. Everything is good here.  Cleaned up the yard yesterday. Nothing worse than an afternoon thunderstorm here. Folks to the north took a punch. Perry Florida, lovely old Florida town was hurt badly. The low areas along the entire west coast of Florida had some degree of flooding. I'm probably going bicycling today and hoping to get a volunteer request from Team Rubicon.  If not I may volunteer in some other way.  I've had plenty experience with muck outs after floods.
Thus far this has just been vacation time in Florida for me and I'm not complaining.

[Fomerly known as something]

So far in Western Oregon I have not seen any rate increases. As to insuring the box we live in generally I too question why I'm insuring a loss I could easily cover. The only downside is I am a slumlord and I like having liability insurance which I can't get without house insurance.

When I had a paid off place, I noticed I could drop my rate significantly by having a huge deductible.  Far larger than was allowed by my mortgage company.  Which let me keep the large liability at a lower price.

[2sk22]

So far in Western Oregon I have not seen any rate increases. As to insuring the box we live in generally I too question why I'm insuring a loss I could easily cover. The only downside is I am a slumlord and I like having liability insurance which I can't get without house insurance.

When I had a paid off place, I noticed I could drop my rate significantly by having a huge deductible.  Far larger than was allowed by my mortgage company.  Which let me keep the large liability at a lower price.

As a matter of fact, I just increased the deductible on my home insurance to $2500 which is the most that my insurer allows. This brought down the cost by $500 per year to $2000.

[EscapeVelocity2020]

So far in Western Oregon I have not seen any rate increases. As to insuring the box we live in generally I too question why I'm insuring a loss I could easily cover. The only downside is I am a slumlord and I like having liability insurance which I can't get without house insurance.

When I had a paid off place, I noticed I could drop my rate significantly by having a huge deductible.  Far larger than was allowed by my mortgage company.  Which let me keep the large liability at a lower price.

As a matter of fact, I just increased the deductible on my home insurance to $2500 which is the most that my insurer allows. This brought down the cost by $500 per year to $2000.

I've increased my deductible to 3% for wind, hail, hurricane and 2% all peril in order to get down to $3,617...  That would be like $15,000 before my insurance starts paying after a hurricane...

[Dicey]

Glad you're okay @Bateaux. Sorry for the many who are not.   

In other insurance-related news, we just got the annual bill for our (old car) auto insurance...and it was the same as last year! Can't say the same for our four homeowner's policies, but it's an unexpected surprise.

[Bateaux]

Glad you're okay @Bateaux. Sorry for the many who are not.   

In other insurance-related news, we just got the annual bill for our (old car) auto insurance...and it was the same as last year! Can't say the same for our four homeowner's policies, but it's an unexpected surprise.

Spent the day yesterday with volunteers and residents of Cedar Key Florida. I was ripping out carpets and furniture in a 150 year old church that had never flooded before. 
Today I'll be driving into Perry Florida to do much of the same with Team Rubicon.  Why'd I wanna quit my easy inside job, to volunteer and do shitty work?

[pecunia]

Glad you're okay @Bateaux. Sorry for the many who are not.   

In other insurance-related news, we just got the annual bill for our (old car) auto insurance...and it was the same as last year! Can't say the same for our four homeowner's policies, but it's an unexpected surprise.

Spent the day yesterday with volunteers and residents of Cedar Key Florida. I was ripping out carpets and furniture in a 150 year old church that had never flooded before. 
Today I'll be driving into Perry Florida to do much of the same with Team Rubicon.  Why'd I wanna quit my easy inside job, to volunteer and do shitty work?

Maybe you will do the world more good as a retired person.  You do set a fine example for some of us.

[2sk22]

One of the best cartoons I have come across: https://timetrabble.com/mousetrap/

[EscapeVelocity2020]

One of the best cartoons I have come across: https://timetrabble.com/mousetrap/

I think that was more true of previous generations, I don't think either of my children will have any chance of a 30 year cube job...  From what I'm seeing modern work become, 30 years in an unchanging cube might actually not seem that bad.  For instance, being a teacher or nurse has gone way down hill...  Ironically as FIRE becomes more desirable it is also becoming less attainable (at least in the traditional 'retirement with pension-like bulletproof FI', but even FIRE has been redefined to just mean 'flexible working' for many people)...

[Dicey]

I never really worked a cubicle job, but I love that cartoon!

Being FIRE was absolutely worth the thousands upon thousands of tiny yes/no decisions that got me across the finish line. It took me a little longer, because I smelled a lot of roses (frugally) along the way, but my current self thanks past Dicey every single day.

[itchyfeet]

This FIRE business is hard….

So, as anticipated, my new boss sought approval from HQ to terminate my contract. Senior management weren’t entirely on board with that and have offered me a promotion if I agree to move to HQ in Paris.

The money is big and it comes with all the expatriation fruit.

I believe we have our “enough”, but 2 years in France on @ very high salary wouldn’t be entirely horrible. It doesn’t radically change the financial landscape though.

As I have previously mentioned I am 51 and DW 45, so we are not super young but not super old either.

90% sure we will continue with the A plan to ride off into the sunset, but somehow I haven’t been able to press send on the politely declining email.

Argh.

[Taran Wanderer]

Isn’t working in France practically early retirement anyway?  Mandatory weekends and many weeks off. Opportunities for weekend train travel around France and adjacent countries.  I don’t know… that could be okay.

[itchyfeet]

Yes, it could be ok.

But on the other hand, if we want to live in France we could also do that without the work part. Well for 3 month at a time as that is the length of a tourist visa.

And as a tourist I wont need to worry about the day to day hassle of managing life in a foreign land, where you dont quite understand how things work, and dealing with foreign bureaucrats.

Having been an expat once already the first 12 months are pretty hard yards. After the initial baptism I am sure the French life is as good as any in the world.

[secondcor521]

I would try to come up with a dollar per workday figure and see if it's worth it on that scale.  $$$K / 2 years is hard to grok, but $$$ / day is more granular and may help you make the decision.

[Taran Wanderer]

Isn’t working in France practically early retirement anyway?  Mandatory weekends and many weeks off. Opportunities for weekend train travel around France and adjacent countries.  I don’t know… that could be okay.

[EscapeVelocity2020]

I did just over a year in Paris in 2019 if you have any questions.  2 years with expat frills is eminently do-able.  Some of the hardest stuff is securing housing and settling in to a routine, so doing it as an expat is probably easier than as a tourist / visitor.  The traffic is horrible, but public transit is good and I was in great shape walking so much.  Language barrier isn't as bad as you may be thinking, but hopefully work can lend a hand when you need a native speaker (like setting up furnishings, cell phones, utilities, hopefully some cultural courses)...  Climate is pretty good, plenty of things to do in the evening and weekends, good trains to other parts of France, Spain, Italy, and learning some French isn't the worst thing...  Not sure what your retirement dreams are, but travel is one of mine so being an expat is a reasonable tradeoff while waiting for an empty nest before jumping in to ER.  Just my unsolicited 2 cents :)

[itchyfeet]

Thanks for the unsolicited 2 cents. Very much appreciated.

Travel is indeed part of our ER planning, but something we have carefully budgeted for.

I am very flattered that my employer is willing to pay over the odds to keep me in the company, but I have been saving for so long to reach the ER goal, and I love my life in Australia, so I do feel that I’d be better off closing my eyes to the potential additional earnings, and opt for freedom.

In any case, even though the salary is great it only represents about 5% or so (considering taxes) of our net worth for each year of additional servitude. Adding an additional 10% onto our pile, assuming we stick it out for 2 years, is nice but not life changing.

[Taran Wanderer]

Salary might total 10% of NW, but average returns in those two years could be another 16%. That would make the NW jump up ~25% (simplified math, folks, simplified math). Would that change things?

Also, can you tell that I’m OMY’ing?  I’m a similar age. Maybe I need to hear your arguments for RE now… for my own sake!

[baludon]

It sounds like you’re ready to pop smoke. Probably better to go and ahead and retire. Claim your time back and you’ll have the option to spend three months in France without any demands from work if you wish.

Having lived overseas, I find the initial year to be exciting but eventually wanes as the realities of living in a country as a foreigner sinks in.

[2Birds1Stone]

I can't believe that people are actually convincing you to work an additional two years when you're already in the beyond FI category.....

How many healthy and able bodied years do you have before older and less enthusiastic itchyfeet manifests? What % of those years does 2 represent? That's right, no one can give you that answer....is that a gamble you're comfortable with? The world is open and travel is relatively painless right now, 2020-2021 could happen all over again, do you want to take that risk two years from now?

Most of you are going to die very rich, I'm curious who will regret not working longer and who will regret working too long.

[LightTripper]

The only reason I'd take an offer like that is if I or OH was genuinely excited about living and working in that country (or if I needed the money).

It doesn't sound like either of those are the case for you, and France is so far that going back to Oz even for big celebrations let alone smaller catch up with friends is going to be very limited.  If Oz is where you have built a life and want to settle (subject to some medium term travel) personally I'd be continuing to invest my social and community capital in that...

But I am tired and a bit broken and have only very small/limited elements of wanderlust, so YMMV!

[itchyfeet]

Thanks for everyone’s thoughts. Great to see that even in this forum there are a broad spectrum of views.

I have declined the offer.

I have done my stint as an expat for 6 years. I am content back in Australia. I have no real desire to live elsewhere. The money was a bit tempting, but not tempting enough.

I have been to Paris many times and have never had any desire to live there. However, it is a nice place to visit as a tourist with my better half. France is a beautiful country.

So I am now back to trying to secure a small severance. If I don’t get one before the 20th of this month I will give notice. I suspect that’s where it will end up, although I ramped up the effort today by being blatant with HR that the new CEO is making my ongoing employment untenable with his efforts to encourage me to resign. I really wish I knew the true reason he is hell bent on seeing the back of me. If they terminate my employment I will get 13 weeks notice, 8 weeks redundancy (confirmed with a lawyer) and 6 weeks leave owing to me, so basically 6 months pay on the way out. I’lll try and negotiate to get my 2023 bonus since I’ll have worked the whole year. If I resign, definitely no bonus and no 8 weeks redundancy.

I need to give notice by the 20th as I want to be retired before Christmas so I can properly celebrate the holiday season. Contractually, I have to give 3 months notice.

I have organised for a real estate agent to come round this week to hopefully give me a more independent valuation on our house. This is to double check where our Net Worth stands. We are still sticking with the plan to sell our current house only once we can move into the new place, which should be June next year. The sale price of our house is pretty important to our FIRE budget.

[LightTripper]

Congratulations on making the decision!! Hopefully that feels good.

If you needed a few more days to negotiate can you stretch it a bit beyond 20th and take annual leave to make sure you still retire in time for Christmas? I don't know how things work in Australia but it seems like they're saving a lot of cash and risk if you jump rather than get pushed so it should be worth something to them for you to walk voluntarily....  I would really hope you'd get your bonus anyway (we do pay bonuses to leavers unless they are going to a direct competitor, but maybe we are weird?)

[EscapeVelocity2020]

I can't believe that people are actually convincing you to work an additional two years when you're already in the beyond FI category.....

How many healthy and able bodied years do you have before older and less enthusiastic itchyfeet manifests? What % of those years does 2 represent? That's right, no one can give you that answer....is that a gamble you're comfortable with? The world is open and travel is relatively painless right now, 2020-2021 could happen all over again, do you want to take that risk two years from now?

Most of you are going to die very rich, I'm curious who will regret not working longer and who will regret working too long.

I guess that's what makes the FIRE discussions endless and interesting.  There are so many different situations out there.  For me personally, I didn't do the Paris assignment in 2019 for the extra income, I've been FI and fat FI now for years, I just enjoy a change of routine and a challenge.  I pushed myself to speak French at Total during lunch and learned so much about growing up in France, attending school, etc. from my Total colleagues...  For me, expat assignments have added life to my years - I look back at each one fondly now as I get ready to send our second child off to college in a year. 

What other things would I be doing as a second SAHP while my kids were in school?  For my situation, continuing to work past FI has been something I've never regretted, but I understand that many people come to MMM and FIRE totally burned out on work and thinking early retirement is blissful nirvana.  My wife was "ER" and eventually found it to be meh.  I was very focused on FI in my 20's, but once my working situation improved with a new employer and fat-FI was secured, I've found working on my terms to continue to add life to my years.  And the extra money has allowed me to experiment with things like buying new cars, Ozempic, travel, home improvements, additional real estate, and generally not worry about not optimizing...  I can lose 75% of my NW and still be FI, so I'm definitely not working to increase my NW.  To each their own though, I understand everyone has a very specific nuanced situation as well as life experiences that bring them to this forum.

On a side note, I've been thinking a lot lately about more ways to add life to my years.  Ozempic has been a real break through, I think I'm healthier now than I was a year or even possibly 5 years ago...  I'd love to find more things like that, things that also come with bringing more purpose and intention to my 50's that I'm about to embark on, now that the child-raising phase is becoming less intense...

[EscapeVelocity2020]

Also, since I'm feeling philosophical today, I'll add that I had many reservations in early 2019 about taking the overseas assignment.  Hindsight is 20-20 now, with the Pandemic making the year of exhausting travel much more worthwhile, since I then had 2 years working from home...  We all make the best decisions we can with limited information, I'm no genius or guru when it comes to telling others what decisions will turn out best for them!

[itchyfeet]

I’m 100% aligned with you on this,

I was carefully considering the Paris posting as an adventure. The discussion with my wife really focussed on if we don’t go to Paris are we making our lives a little less rich.

The decision was not an easy one, but I now it’s taken I feel very good about not moving overseas again to live.

Even though I will FIRE before Christmas, I am warming to the idea that this might end up being a 12 month sabbatical and I might take another job, not for the money but for purpose.

There are no rules, being FI means you are the rule maker for your life. Nobody else.

[Dicey]

I’m 100% aligned with you on this,

I was carefully considering the Paris posting as an adventure. The discussion with my wife really focussed on if we don’t go to Paris are we making our lives a little less rich.

The decision was not an easy one, but I now it’s taken I feel very good about not moving overseas again to live.

Even though I will FIRE before Christmas, I am warming to the idea that this might end up being a 12 month sabbatical and I might take another job, not for the money but for purpose.

There are no rules, being FI means you are the rule maker for your life. Nobody else. .

This is brilliant.

[pecunia]

I’m 100% aligned with you on this,

I was carefully considering the Paris posting as an adventure. The discussion with my wife really focussed on if we don’t go to Paris are we making our lives a little less rich.

The decision was not an easy one, but I now it’s taken I feel very good about not moving overseas again to live.

Even though I will FIRE before Christmas, I am warming to the idea that this might end up being a 12 month sabbatical and I might take another job, not for the money but for purpose.

There are no rules, being FI means you are the rule maker for your life. Nobody else. .

This is brilliant.

You know - other than morality - it applies even if you are not FI.  I think a lot of us never realized how free we actually were.

[LightTripper]

I certainly didn't.  When I had kids and was forced to delegate more I finally realised I should have focused on getting better at that *years* earlier.  And now I'm working very part time (less than a day a week usually) simply to see how it feels to do that, I find that actually it pays enough to pretty much cover my living expenses anyway, so that's also something I could have done a few years earlier if I'd chosen.

Often we're trapped not so much by circumstances but rather simply by our own exhaustion and lack of mental bandwidth to think of how we might be able to do things differently....

[EscapeVelocity2020]

And these discussions are why I love this forum.  Most people in my life have no concept of FI and making decisions independent of money...  Even people that have financial security seem to need to live right up to the edge of what they can spend, even if it requires spending hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.  Some folks just love the treadmill and every opportunity to crank it up a notch.

[Bateaux]

Hey guys. I'm back in my Florida home after nearly a week in the hurricane zone with Team Rubicon in Perry Florida. They got it really bad. I saw some really awful situations. Some of these people were suffering before the storm. Now their situation is down right dire. I've seen it before, running medical calls as a volunteer firefighter. I'm glad I went and I'm glad that I'm gone for now. It's like waking up from a bad dream. Now, I'm air-conditioned in a 4100 square foot home, party of one. We were sleeping 40+ volunteers in an unairconditioned church maybe 2000 square feet. No running water, no means of cooking food and portable toilets roasting in Florida heat. Unfortunately it's 100 miles away. Too far to commute and too far for me to rehabilitate the responders. How I'd love to offer them my 4 bathrooms. My pool, my bedrooms, couches, refrigerators, kitchens and full bar.
I've put in an application for the Cajun Navy. If you're in the south you've probably heard of them. They were in Perry Florida helping out like many fine relief organizations. They are a little more my style and I know the dialect. Nothing against Team Rubicon, I'll continue to be a member and plan to be on many more responses with them. I'm wanting a more active role going forward. We'll see if that's Cajun Navy for me.
Join and volunteer if you're able at a good civic organization. It's type two fun. You really can't appreciate it until after a few days of comfort.

[MaybeBabyMustache]

@Bateaux - hearing about your experience is so inspiring! Thanks for sharing, and this was a good reminder for me to look more broadly at opportunities.

[SwordGuy]

@Bateaux, thanks for being a great citizen!

[jeroly]

@Bateaux, thanks for being a great citizen!

Hear, hear. Thank you for your service, @Bateaux .

[Taran Wanderer]

Finally got my K-1 from the accountant for our company, so I today I finished up with all the data entry in TurboTax. We’re getting a ridiculously large tax return.  Conclusion:  taxes in the US are way too complicated. I miss the 1040EZ.

[itchyfeet]

Sadly I am a FIRE flop. FIRE was in my grasp and I dropped the ball.

But I would say my tale is a story of the power of being FI.

Quick recap: I was notified I would be made redundant. Then Paris HQ reached out to say they still wanted me in the company and had another position in mind for me. I declined.

Then came the improved offer.

Where we have ended up is I will be able to work from Australia 3 months a year, and Paris 9 months a year. Work will pay for flights and an apartment in Paris. I will get 6 weeks leave a year. The money is good. The company will pay for private tuition to learn French.

So one more paid adventure in my life! We are moving to France…. Kind of…. I have already secured some tickets for the Olympics next year and plan on enjoying a couple of years in Europe.

I have drifted so far away from what I had in mind when I first discovered FIRE. But at least I will never need to worry about money.

[2sk22]

Where we have ended up is I will be able to work from Australia 3 months a year, and Paris 9 months a year. Work will pay for flights and an apartment in Paris. I will get 6 weeks leave a year. The money is good. The company will pay for private tuition to learn French.

So one more paid adventure in my life! We are moving to France…. Kind of…. I have already secured some tickets for the Olympics next year and plan on enjoying a couple of years in Europe.

I have drifted so far away from what I had in mind when I first discovered FIRE. But at least I will never need to worry about money.

That sounds like such a lucrative offer, anyone would have a hard time passing it up.

But I have to say that retirement has completely changed me - I now value independence so much that I just hate the thought of having to do what somebody tells me to do. I recently turned down a generous offer from my old company to come back for a stint. The happiest time of the day is right after breakfast when I figure out what I want to do for the day. Those of you who have kids, will recognize this :-)