What sacrifices will you make in order to FIRE?

[wildcat]

How far you willing to go?

Does the sacrifice concern only the ER himself, or does it concern the consequences of ER for the ER's family (presuming that a family is involved)?

HH

[Outtahere]

I said I won't have to make any changes because I already LBYM so that shouldn't change in ER.

[Andre1969]

I answered plain old LBYM, although that's what I'm doing anyway, so I guess it could also be change nothing, since I'm already doing it :P

Eventually I'd like to move to a cheaper location, but I figure that'll come after I retire. I'm 3 1/2 miles from work, and close to DC, Annapolis, and Baltimore, but looking out in the window it might as well be Mayberry or Hooterville. And I like that...the country feel, but being close to everything. But then, development is constantly encroaching on my neighborhood, so who knows how long it'll be before it all changes?

[brewer12345]

Since I am the family breadwinner, my sacrifices have been mostly in the form of working my ass of for years on end. LBYM is of course a requirement.

[MRGALT2U]

Well, let's see..........when I ERed I divorced my wife of 32 years
(very high maintenance), alienated some of my family (not just
in-laws), laid off 100% of my employees, dropped out of the country club, left behind the Cadillacs, the bonuses, stock options,
paid health insurance, plush living allowances, rented a
house 1/2 the size of the pre-ER home, stopped upscale traveling and sold off everything that wasn't nailed down. Other than that,
I didn't have to make any "sacrifices".

JG

[SteveR]

JG,

So what have you done lately?

I am saving for ER and FI but am also living pretty high on the hog in many ways. I have been upgrading the house with a medium term goal of selling it off in a few years and moving to a smaller place with lower taxes and less yard work.

My wife is slowly coming around to understanding that spending now may require doing without something later. She is starting to see the light.

Otherwise, we are socking away what we can and staying out of additional debt as we pay down the mortgages. Once we do ER in a couple of years we should be able to cut back on expenses by a bunch once we have the major repairs done and paid off.

[wildcat]

Quote:

Since I am the family breadwinner, my sacrifices have been mostly in the form of working my ass of for years on end. *LBYM is of course a requirement.

Figured you would be in the F-T boating category

[brewer12345]

Quote:

Originally Posted by wildcat Figured you would be in the F-T boating category

Not boating - I get seasick too easily. None of that would work with a kid, wife, couple of dogs, cat... You get the idea. If for some reason I found myself suddenly without a family (and for some reason didn't commit suicide thereafter), I'd probably do the full-time RV thing.

[wildcat]

Arrrr we won't get to witness Captain Brewer

[peggy]

I didn't vote in the poll, because my answer is somewhere between LBYM and no sacrifices at all.

DH and I currently save at least 30% of our gross income with no appreciable sacrifice in lifestyle. We could ER earlier if we saved more, but we're already LBYM-ming at a level that still lets us take a nice vacation every year and go to movies and out to dinner when we want. Why should we change?

[laurence]

I couldn't find the "gave up the Beamer with the 21" "Dubs" and the Alpine...

...lifestyle is no different, except we now go cheap on the cars. It's amazing what not having $1,000 a month in car payments can do for your finances. Still, I really love them Porsche turbos and 9-1-1 slo's...you know how we do in the 760....