Marathon vs Sprint
Our path to FIRE has changed a lot since I started From One Geek to Another. Originally, I was 100% in on not spending money on anything frivolous (books, hobbies, excessive travel, etc) and working as hard as possible to make more. It didn’t take a crazy amount of time before I burned out on this. At the time, in my mind, every spare dollar we had needed to go towards paying off something or investing in something. The goal was/is to FIRE as quickly as possible after all. I felt that the future was more important than the present so sacrificing now makes things better in the future. Mr. FOGA was not on board with this nonsense at all.
You see, Mr. FOGA is down to becoming financially independent, however, he was not on board with over-sacrificing in the here and now. Since the future is not guaranteed, there is no point in being unhappy now for it. There needs to be a balance. Then all the stuff started in December 2019 with sick family members, and then we went straight into 2020, and Covid, and everything else that has happened since. Safe to say, the man was right. We have no idea what’s going to happen in the future.
Since then, I have definitely adapted my philosophy on this stuff. I no longer stop myself from buying little things that make me happy. I spent a small portion of the time after covid beating myself up for not going on the trips I really wanted to when I could. We 100% could have afforded it, but in my mind, it wasn’t something we could do. So now if it sparks joy, then we do it, within reason. So, books, video games, D&D all have a happy home here. Big things we still manage but we also never had huge care for that kind of stuff anything. The huge house, the BMW, the Rolex watches, and the $10,000 handbags (never understood this by the way; it’s a bag) never mattered too much to us. Are they nice? Sure, I guess. Don’t give two shits about any of it though.
So, this year, despite the growing everything going on in the world, it has felt more manageable in part due to having these things that make us happy in the here and now. Bought an additional laptop so I have an easier one to travel with. Since I already have a laptop (it’s just huge and older), I would never have been able to justify that to myself before. We even took the anniversary trip that we had to cancel back in 2020. Fewer people at a resort = a happier FOGA family anyway. We are obviously still working towards FIRE but it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Have you had to reevaluate things on your path to FIRE?
Feature Photo by Timo Vijn on Unsplash
Woohoo! That’s the best decision you can make on the path to FIRE (other than deciding to pursue FIRE in the first place!)
When I first came to that same decision a couple years ago, the only minor adjustment was seeing expenses I wasn’t used to seeing in my budget tracker. “Hey, what’s that $3 purchase from?! Now I’m so suspicious my card was stolen or something and– oh, wait, no, I forgot I bought that book… which was really fun to read…”
Gotta live a little so you’ll have a life to build up now instead of having nothing once FIRE day comes. It’s a marathon, indeed.
As the designated old guy let me give you applause! That is so smart, life can only be lived right now, so you owe it to yourself to balance now versus the uncertain future. My wife and I lived well below our means, but if we really felt something would add to our lives we bought it (just never on credit). And if Darcy says its a good decision, it is!
I’m the worst about sprinting to money goals and also was anti-RE back in the day as well. But that’s shifted a lot in the past several years, long before COVID. I started talking to PiC about the idea of RE 5 years ago and he came around pretty quickly but we’re balancing my intense need to sprint with his patience for doing this marathon style. Which is not surprisingly also reflective of our actual running styles too. Catch me running a marathon 😝
A financial one I can get my head around better some days than others.
Hahahahahaha! You won’t catch me running a marathon either. 😂 I very much prefer sprinting but have to acknowledge that it doesn’t work here. If something changes that allows it feasibly without screwing up our quality of life, I am switching in a heartbeat.
Thanks for reading!
Love it. Also on board with this, though I’m probably a little too spendy. haha! At least for my income. But, I’m happier when I’m spending a little on the small joys.
Glad you’ve found the balance you were looking for.
Covid sucks.
Thanks! 🙂 I am sure I am too spendy as well. It is still my gut reaction to hoard everything like a dragon, but I am calming down. Covid 100% sucks.
Thanks for reading!