Why FatFIRE?
Why FatFIRE?
We love to take trips to Mexico. Especially in the winter. As the Chicago temperature plummets below zero, we can’t help but want to plot our escape. We aren’t looking for culture or a learning experience. Good and simple fun in the sun. We usually stay at an all inclusive which seems expensive at first, but it’s awfully nice to get all the paying out of the way up front and be supremely unaware of what everything will cost. But you can’t go to Mexico every vacation! On our current trip to Montreal and Quebec City, a bunch of unexpected things have happened. And they have all been quite expensive. My stress levels, however, are much lower than you would think. In fact, that is precisely why fatFIRE is right for us.
I simply don’t want to worry about what everything is going to cost. I like to sometimes choose ease over frugality. It sure makes vacation better.
Financial Independence
We are financially independent. Which many of you know means that we should be able to support our current lifestyle without ever working again. Yet, both my wife and I, find a certain amount of meaning, purpose, and identity in our jobs. Put another way, even if we were not getting paid, we would still gravitate to such activities.
Both of our jobs pay six figures. And provide healthcare. And my wife even gets a little bit of a 401k match. Why fatFIRE? Because we still enjoy work and the extra income provides an outlandish amount of luxury.
Given that our investments and rental properties could support us, any extra money we make each year is gravy. We don’t even need it for essentials or for regular costs of living.
That’s right, we could theoretically spend every cent of our yearly income on pure upgrades. Better hotels. More expensive restaurants. First class plane tickets.
You get the idea.
Don’t Sweat It
So we tend not to sweat the expense when we are having fun. Our current trip is a perfect example. Upon renting our car, we realized that we would have a huge number of tolls to pay on the way to Montreal. The rental car company provided us an EZ Pass. Yes it would end up costing a bunch of extra money each day. But it was much easier.
The number of extras just started to add up after that. Parking in Montreal was an added $40/day. We decided to do a number of guided tours. The only ones available during the times we wanted were almost double the price.
The credit card work out continued for the rest of the week. Eating out, tips, tickets to tourist attractions.
We ended up spending a lot more than we had planned. Yet the beauty of fatFIRE is that it will in no way derail our economic security.
Final Thoughts
FatFIRE is certainly not for everyone. There are those who are dying to get out of the indentured servitude of their nine to five and can’t wait to be done. Perhaps for them, leanFIRE will do the job. For my wife and I, however, the choice is simple. We don’t mind our jobs and the ability to spend freely without concern makes us happy.
Why fatFIRE?
I guess for us the better question is why not?
It’s nice to not worry about money on your vacation. I used to avoid spending too much, but now I just do what we want. I think it’s perfectly fine to splurge a bit when you’re on vacation. It’s not every day.
I am exactly in your line of thinking with regards to this. I could have retired early many years ago if I wanted to live on $40-60k/year which is still decent money to live on. But I really wanted to buffer my nest egg by adding more capital and getting to a point where I can indeed do things I want to do without much concern for the price tag.
I have been shooting for a passive income stream of $125k/yr which I think would provide a great retirement life given that I have no debt obligations and it would just be taxes that would be the major expense. As I approach this number I feel like I am pushing the goal line even further, now thinking maybe $150k/yr or so.
To combat this, I have put an expiration date for me for working, 53 at the latest (I’m 48). That coincides with my daughter starting college. At the current pace if I continue like I have in past my passive income stream will likely be double my target.
A compromise that we make so we don’t think about LeanFIRE v. FatFIRE is to focus on FIRE in stages. We know we’ve hit LeanFIRE, but we have a higher lifestyle target so we keep working on our businesses. That said, having the lower FIRE target gives us confidence to take more chances with our businesses, and so it’s still worthwhile to calculate the LeanFIRE target and know it’s taken care of.
I have similar thoughts Doc G.
If all goes very well I likely could stop working for money now. But I don’t know what the future holds. And I get a lot more out of my work than a paycheck.
I don’t like budgeting and counting every penny, so it is a nice luxury to spend on what I want and not worry.
Add me in to this line of thought. I could FIRE right now but I’d have to conform to a strict budget again, and cue the whine, I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna. So my compromise is a goal of the summer 2025. At the same time I’m also considering adding some long tern luxuries to my life during the next 6 years as well, such as a screened in porch that I know I would love, I also know I won’t be able to afford it if I retire.
So my result at FatFire has been a little different/unplanned than the usual. I had basically planned on hitting a certain number than was good enough when work was killing me and taking me away from my growing family all the time. I then started a business that pretty much allowed me to always work from home, but I did work like 70 hours a week and it was very stressful 9great amounts of money could be lost just as easily as gained. All of the sudden I had a couple years of great success/profit with the business that has launched me to twice the number I was originally shooting for. I was then in a situation I obviously could have stopped but felt like I owed my employees better than that (they had given it their all and I was sharing my success with them with great salaries and the working from home, I owed them better than chucking it all because I was tired). So I handed off my business and employees to my largest client over time and now am consulting to help them integrate and get along without me. What’s interesting is now not only am I working from home but also without the weight of the business on me and a defined role have been able to get down to 25 hours/wk and basically just work while the kids are at school. I feel a lot of the same stresses as before during those 25 hours but I know they are mostly self-imposed mental issues now (I get a paycheck, I don’t risk losing money anymore like before and do have the best job set-up at home for 25 hrs/wk). So now I feel kinda crazy for still wanting to bow out of work. Still figuring it out…..
@Notimetofish – you are killing it. you are doing it right. If you are still having fun (and it sounds like you are), you don’t owe anyone an explanation for continuing to work.