[In our first post we had briefly described what this blog was about. This post is a deeper dive into why we are doing this.]
Another – pick your category: Personal Finance/Financial Independence/Early Retiring/Living Frugal – espousing blog? Kill me already!
Right? I’m sure that thought has gone through your mind as you came here. Relax. We’re doing no espousing. No face punches. No eye roll. No shaming if you aren’t saving 50% of your income. No judgment if you aren’t engaged in some active side hustle. In fact, this space has less to do with you and more to do with us. Specifically, our progress towards financial independence 🙂
You see, the main point of this blog is to document what we are doing. Everything else is secondary. We don’t see this turning into a profit making machine. We don’t even envision making money off the blog, nor do we pursue any strategic or tactical ways for monetization. This is not some fall back option in retirement that will generate income. That’s not the purpose of this blog.
Even though we hope to achieve Financial Independence sooner that most working Americans, we don’t think that is a realistic option for many, many folks. That is just facts. The median household income in the US in 2016 was $57,617. The top 10% households earned at least $175,000. Our household income for 2017 was a tad under $200,000 (and this year has gone past the $200k mark). This is not bragging or showing-off but being acutely aware of cold, hard, reality. We understand we are in a very privileged position. We acknowledge how lucky we are to be where we are.
The historic bull market run that started in 2009 is one of the major reasons our assets multiplied. We would be doing a disservice to not call this out. A whopping 80% of our assets are tied to the markets. There will be a crash/correction. We don’t know when. But from the crash, the markets will rise again 🙂
The *perfect* audience of this blog is someone who is in the similar income range as ours AND still not on the path to financial independence! We really hope we can inspire YOU – 30-something, probably dual-income, with kid(s), high salaried, white collar worker – to bring about a change in how you look at life, work, and freedom. Build your net worth and then control if you still want to go to the corporate job you have every morning. The answer could very well be yes, but at that point you’re making a conscious choice.
Does that mean all others are excluded? Certainly not!
Some of you reading this might be discouraged. Discouraged that the $60,000 job you have supporting your family of four is absurdly low to even think about retiring before 65. That’s not our intention. We hope you see what we are doing and take heart from it. We didn’t start off with these salaries when we got married. If you are serious about gaining financial freedom start working on YOUR net worth, with strategies strewn around in the FIRE blogosphere!
If you’re in a very similar boat as us, welcome aboard! Would love to hear from you.
Others who have gone through this stage we’re in right now – we ask for words of encouragement! Or witty admonishments. We don’t follow the typical FIRE truisms – we have 2 cars (with a loan on one!), we eat out a few meals every week, we have cable, we still use an electric dryer, we have no side gigs.
But we do everything in moderation.
The car loan is 0.9% and we still pay more than the minimum payments; none of the restaurant meals are exorbitant; we love live sports; we run exactly ONE laundry cycle every week; and we don’t have time for side gigs (we had a rental for 2 years and sold it; too much hassle) with work, family, sporting, and volunteering commitments (and till this past February, part time school!). At least for the time being, we have absolutely no qualms and guilt about keeping it that way. And still be on track to be FIRE before our mid-40s, a couple of decades before the overwhelming majority of Americans do.
As for giving advice about how to get started on this path, we think, make that we know, that there are other bloggers who have done this for a long time, in a fashion that is far better than we could (probably!) do. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Though from time to time we might sprinkle in tidbits about some interesting concepts. At times we will do some deep-dives sessions on something new we learnt or a future-state plan.
So, to recap. This blog is for anyone who cares about growing their money, and increasing net worth. We bask in the warmth (some would say “cold”; we beg to differ) of numbers. Everything you see in our monthly reports are what we are dealing in real life. No make-up, no mark-up.
Net Worth, Anon 