Today, I have a guest post featured on Making Your Money Matter. Below is a snippet, but please click on over to read the whole post.
Within the next three years, I should be able to reach FIRE. That means by the age of 40, I should have the ability to never work again. If you told me that I could retire in my 40s back when I first started working, I would have told you that you were nuts. I fully expected to work well into my 60s, or even longer than that.
How am I so close to FIRE?
Firstly, I made a concerted effort to always eschew debt.
Growing up, my parents taught me to hate debt. They wouldn’t carry credit card debt. The only debt that they had was their mortgage. Each month, they were laser-focused on paying their mortgage down until finally, they paid it off. At the time, I couldn’t understood why they cared so much about being debt-free. I was also probably too focused on the newest Nintendo game, and when they would tell me it wasn’t in the budget, I was mad. Why would they put money towards a mortgage when they could have allocated those funds towards buying me the latest video games? You don’t have to tell me how silly and juvenile I was at the time. Now that I’m older (and a little wiser), I understand their priorities.
Thanks for sharing.
I think the more examples and pathways we lay out there, the more options people will have. It amazes me that there are so many who still have never heard of the option of FIRE. I think we all should work for FI, although RE isn’t for everyone.
Hahaha…I agree..although I have to admit that I hadn’t heard of FIRE 18 months ago…so I don’t get that mad 🙂
First time hearing about FIRE! Thanks for the great article. Keep up the good work!
Thanks Blake!!! Glad you enjoyed the article 🙂
So, I have to ask – How do you keep the grocery bill to $300/month? We’re a family of four (kids 2 and 4) and live outside DC. We search out the deals every week and avoid the higher priced grocery stores but can’t seem to bring the monthly grocery budget below $600. We are fairly well along in our FIRE journey, but the one thing we can’t seem to crack is the grocery budget. Any tips?
Hi Jeremy!
We are also a family of four, although our youngest is just starting on solids. My wife goes to Aldi each week. Their items are usually the cheapest comparatively. She can pick up organic meats for around $5/lb, and they have great produce as well. Aside from Aldi, my wife usually goes to Giant once a week. She shops their sales, clips coupons, and also uploads coupons online to our account so that when our phone number is punched in, there is additional savings on certain items. Harris Teeter also runs great sales and usually has special promotions on the weekends, and they take coupons too. If you aren’t signed up for online loyalty programs, that is great way to save a few more bucks here and there. You can also search online for coupons for the specific brands that you may be prone to buying. One other way we save money is by scanning through the clearance racks. Many times, depending on the store, the discounted items are because of a minor ding in packaging or something along those lines. Hope you find this helpful.