Reply to Has anyone here on a normal income successfully FIREd?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]And regarding college, UMD in-state tuition is $11,000 per year, or $44,000 total per child.  Sorry, but with one or two kids, that’s not going to derail anything.  I would have them live at home for free unless they wanted to get a job to pay rent outside the house.  
[/quote]

[b]HAHAHAHA! Do you know how much it costs to feed my 18-year-old college student? It is not "free" to house him, either, or help him set up a wardrobe of adult clothes (on sale, from reasonably priced stores). He wouldn't be able to walk to UMD, or even ride his bike. So there's either hours and hours of public transportation (not "free," since he's spending lots of time) or a car, with all of its expenses (including parking at UMD). [/b]

I agree that you've chosen a very strict lifestyle, and yes, possibly you can find a potential spouse who is also an adherent. But I don't think you understand the toll that that lifestyle might have on kids who haven't chosen it for themselves, especially since it is a choice you are making.

I also thought the whole idea of wage slavery seems really immature. If you hate your job? Find a different one. Enter a new field. Find something to do with your time that brings you joy and gives back to the world. If you're lucky, you have a long life ahead of you. It seems like such a waste to be miserable and stingy for the first half, and then be shiftless and poor for the second half.[/quote]

"How will you buy food and a used car for your kid?"  How much do you really think property taxes and groceries cost in a LCOL area??  I said I'm planning on a $3M portfolio that throws off $90K per year, on top of a paid-off house (i.e., no mortgage payment) - you don't think I can afford a used car when my kid goes to college?

As mentioned, even the biggest wild card - healthcare - should be reasonable.  I currently pay around $200/month for an individual high-deductible plan.  A similar family plan will obviously be more but won't break the bank.  Even if I had to meet the $10K deductible every year--I basically never have to go to the doctor now, apart from routine physicals--I can comfortably pay for that out of my $90K budget.  Something *really big* would have to arise for healthcare to be a real problem--and as I said, I'm not willing to throw away my life on the chance that some miniscule-probability event occurs, especially since I can always adjust as needed (start a small business, etc.).

And to the poster who said earning $50K in a business was very difficult, I'm currently earning $150K so something would be really wrong if I cannot figure out a way to earn a third of that--a mere $25/hour--when I have all the time in the world to try various ideas and no urgency related to bills.[/quote]

It's not a miniscule probability event! If you have a wife and children, that's four bodies in which something can go wrong. It's more likely than not than you'll have a seriously costly event or issue for someone in your family in the next 20 years.

PS orthodontist

[b]And it's bizarre that you think working a job is throwing your life away. Just, like, find a job you enjoy. Lots of people manage to do that. If you can't contemplate that ever being possible for you, that's super sad and indicates a mental health problem.[/b][/quote]

No, jobs suck – sorry, I’m not budging on that one.  As far as jobs go, mine is decent enough.  I am now 100% work-from-home, which has dramatically increased my enjoyment of the job. But it’s still boring nonsense. No one growing up dreams of Zoom calls and corporate networking BS – they settle for it because there are far worse things than getting paid $150,000 to send a few emails a day.

I want to hike and play the guitar and spend time with my loved ones.[/quote]

OP, I've posted on this thread giving you a fair amount of crap, because your immature focus on accruing only wealth at the expense of all other areas of your life is gross to me.

"Jobs" absolutely suck. I agree with you there. The work you describe sounds boring, and I can absolutely understand why you'd prefer the fantasy of "financial independence" and playing guitar with your friends over the work you do now. I think it's important for you to consider that there are jobs that are not boring nonsense out there.

Your plan right now of accruing cash until you get to a place where you are comfortable scaling back is reasonable. But the idea that that's it for you, work-wise, is pretty entitled and naive. My first husband was basically a FIRE guy (before it was a thing), and it is definitely possible to save A LOT of money early on, opening up a lot of flexibility later. But what you are doing is essentially working yourself to the bone now (with no flexibility or room for fun, it seems) so that you can stop working and then continue to have no flexibility or fun. I know a lot of older adults who are on a fixed annual income of $60k and while I might be fine with that at 60 or 70 or 80, I truly would not have been interested in that life as a younger person.[/quote]

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