BK MAKES FINANCIAL INDEPENDENCE

I had been aware of the Financial Independence/Retire Early - or FIRE - community for years, specifically reading Mr. Money Mustache’s Blog when this seminal post was published in 2012; “The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement”. I was working in the financial industry as an equity analyst at the time, and while I hadn’t specifically been living/or adhering to all of the FI principles, I wasn’t that far off.

My father was notoriously cheap growing up, which in my younger years meant some embarassing moments when waitstaff were left tip-less on the rare restaurant outing, family cars were at least 15 years old (and reupholstered with fabric held on with binder clips) and all repairs were accomplished in-house with string, glue and hoarded scraps of everything (which coincidentally spurred my love of making). My parents now have the most enviable, relaxed and rewarding retirement I could ever hope to replicate and I’ve become very grateful for those early lessons now that I’m mature enough to appreciate them.

Once out of the house and employed I made my fair share of frivolous purchases, in part possibly as rebellion against the stingy Dad (?), but I was still also saving money, prioritizing debt repayment, keeping credit cards clear and house hacking before I knew what house hacking was. I definitely could have been a less conspicuous consumer and shaved many, MANY years off my retirement goal, but I think we all find our place in FI when we’re ready… and I wasn’t really ready until I discovered the Choose FI podcast - and Episode 38 in particular: 038 | The Why of FI

P.S. I’m nowhere near FI at the moment, but I will be ;) - oh, and I don’t consider any of my tools to be frivoulous, its all about priorities. At some point I’ll put up some of my better FI hacks. Cheers!