I regularly see comments here of.. “FIRE Cohert 2019,” or, “FIRE Cohert 2027...”
I am an extremely goal oriented person. I set goals and I bust my ass to achieve them. One thing that has been incredibly challenging for me in my quest for FIRE is all of the unknowns. I keep saving and having my goals and know that I’m on my right path, but it’d be really helpful for me if I could better define my long term goals.
As the wonderful
@Malkynn so eloquently stated a while back.. “ I have a policy of not trying to make decisions for my future self, because I guarantee my future self knows better than I do what he/she needs.”
With that in mind, here’s a few of my unknowns..
1. I have absolutely no idea where I will live in FIRE. My wife and I have lived in 7-8 states in the last 7 years, and probably 15+ cities. None of these are locations we would want to live. This is just due to the nature of my work. We could could potentially see ourselves living in, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, or similar states.
2. We don’t have kids, but will likely have 1 or 2. Lots of unknown costs there. Could impact where we live, cost of living, etc.
3. My work as a contractor is all over the place. Right now I have a great position that will likely last until mid 2021, with enough income to save around $150k or so. Should the economy change or other factors, my income could be cut in half, or I could prefer to take long sabbaticals while looking for the right job.
4. I’m 31 and torn between just working my ass off for 5-6 more years or after this job ends or doing a coast FI where I work 3-4 months a year for 10-15 years to cover living expenses while the stache grows. My work is very stressful, very hard, very busy, and a lot of hour. In my 10 year career, probably 80% of my weeks have been 60 hours are more. Working a 40 hour week is often not an option, and often (to me) not worth the cut in pay. At my current rate, that’d cut me back about $85k/yr.
Does anyone else feel they are a bit lost of what they will need for FIRE? Fortunately the solution is to always just keep saving, it just makes it extra hard without that specific goal in mind.