We haven’t taken a conventional path thus far on our journey to financial independence. In our 20s, we earned less money and made many sacrifices to ensure we could make ends meet. Here’s a look back at what we did in our first 10 years after college and how it helped us reach Coast FI.
If you are looking to improve your financial situation, you should consider lowering your housing costs. While housing is the single largest expense category, it is also unique in the sense that it is more permanent than other categories. Figuring out how to lower your housing costs will depend on your unique situation.
Growing up, my family lived in Costco. As a child, I would spend my weekends at baseball practice, hanging out with friends, and on a family trip to Costco. I learned quite a bit about buying food in bulk from my childhood. Because it’s what I’ve always known, it was not until recently that I came to appreciate the value of buying food in bulk.
My misery in my job last year led me to appreciate the best parts of FIRE and ultimately to come to a new understanding of the journey to financial independence. It has also informed the core philosophy of our blog (i.e. the journey should be as remarkable as the destination). Over the past several months, I’ve even introduced the new term Slow FI into the FI lexicon, and it’s time to officially define it.
