FI Thoughts

This post will be mainly about me contemplating on what it means for my family to be FI, and not so much on how the FI Community determines what is considered to be FI or FIRE.

My family decides to go out for dinner. We all decide where we would like to go for dinner that evening. We look at the menu. We select what we want to eat, but we don’t base our selection on the prices. That’s FI to me.

We meet up with our relatives/friends for an event. Either we decide to host, or we go out for a nice meal. We decide to pay for the bill. That’s FI to me.

Brandon wants to take a few activities. We pay for them, so long as he works hard and enjoys his experience with them. That’s FI to me.

In all of these scenarios, money isn’t an issue. It’s the experiences that we can gain and spending quality time together with our family and friends.

We go on one international trip and one domestic trip annually with the family. We budget for each trip, but we always travel twice a year.

Does one need to be frugal to be considered FI? Are we being judged by the FI Community if we decide to pay for quality time with those we appreciate or for shared experiences?

Are we frugal? Yes we are. We’re conscious with our spending and we achieve NSR 65% annually. So if we decide to pay down our mortgage, would the FI Community be opposed to this? Most probably. We’ll be paying down our mortgage since the Mortgage Interest Rate is currently at 6.59% and frankly I’d prefer to save on interest payments knowing that my family won’t be homeless one day, or be at the mercy of a landlord having to pay rent to them.

As the FI Community focuses more on their life experiences instead of having to be tied down as homeowners or by having kids, my family will be achieving FI, becoming homeowners and having shared experiences with our kid.