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Following on DogMom's post, where is everyone in their journey at the moment or what is your destination?
I'm probably 15 years from FIRE on my current path, which would put me in my late 50s. I really just started on my path a few years ago, much later than some. For a long time we were a family of 4 with a single income and two sets of student loans in MCOL area, so it took us more than 10 years just to break even. I'm sure we could have made some better choices along the way, but nothing I can think of that would have made a significant difference.
My hope right now is to make some major lifestyle choices, including relocating, in about 10 years and shift to a coast FIRE or barista FIRE plan. I'm not sure if my wife will be ready then, or even if I will be, but I would like to leave the corporate world and do something more enjoyable with my time. Alternatively, I would be open to doing remote work in Europe (probably Italy) for the rest of my corporate career at some point. My current job allows me to be remote in the US (with some limits), but not international.
Currently our goal is to retire in Italy. Five years out would likely be the soonest we would go, but probably only if I could maintain my income for another five years.
I’m pretty uncertain of what our exact path will be at this point. We’ve got two young kids, with the youngest at 7 months. Theoretically we could pull the trigger now, but I feel strongly that we should keep my income and cheap insurance at this point. Partly my reluctance is because my income has greatly increased the last few years and it’s sizable relative to net worth.
The very rough plan is:
- Do a few more wish list home renovations
- Finish front loading the kids’ 529s
- Pay off the house
I’m thinking 3-5 years from now. That puts me in my early 40s and the kids in school. Hopefully by that point we’ll both have a better view on what “normal” looks like for expenses as well as have built a large financial buffer.
Are you already where you want to be, geographically? One of our limitations is that our kids are old enough that we don't want to relocate until they finish school, so that has us staying where we are for 5+ years. If we had been in the same position 10 years ago, they would have been young enough that we would have been willing to do an international move if we could work out the details. Learning a new language would be rough for them at this point of their education.
Ideally (for me), we would leave as soon as they graduate (or close to it) and they would come with us, then they could take a break to learn the language before going to college.
Maybe I’m just too old or burnt out but right now just the idea sounds exhausting 😆. As things stand I don’t see us moving home base for the next 17 years and, if I’m honest, I doubt we’ll leave the country outside of vacation.
Sounds exciting for you all though!