Guys. I was listening to the ChooseFI podcast last night.
A recurring theme is “How much you need to save monthly or annually to achieve financial independence”. The amount that is continually thrown around is 50% of your income. Which, unless we sell our house, cars, and start riding bicycles to work, isn’t going to happen. What is the consequence of this? Well it means “FI” is going to take longer for us. If we were to save, say 30% of our income and invest it, we’ll get there eventually. I guess the question then becomes – how much am I willing to sacrifice now to give me FI sooner?
The answer to this will vary by individual. In my case, Hubs will never want to sell the house until the kiddo moves out (Let’s just say, he isn’t a fan of moving. Who can blame him? I better start priming him now about what needs to happen in 13 years).
Also, if you have any side hustles at all, you may get to a point where they are making you enough extra money to accelerate your journey to FI. This could eventually give you enough flexibility to possibly quit your “day job” and make your own schedule managing those side businesses.
I think I really need to double down my efforts to do the math, figure out how much I need to save based on my current expenses and income situation, and get to it. Paying off debt is the number one priority right now (we put $1289 towards debt this month – I hope to increase that a bit in November with a triple-paycheck month!) Then, I can focus more on savings without feeling bad about the debt.
In terms of side hustles, I’ve not had a ton of success as of week 5 of achieving FIRE. I’ve got 3 potential things on the go right now, but none have produced anything significant yet. This is something I’ll continue to work on in my free time. I have plenty of ideas, but need to keep it simple for now! Stay tuned for more information on side hustle adventures in future posts.
Good luck FIRE-ing!