All tagged financial story
Frugality isn’t the only way to make FIRE possible.
Today’s guest post comes from Caroline of Costa Rica FIRE. She shares her story of how she and her husband are achieving FI even though they came to it “late” by thinking and doing differently. You can achieve FIRE even in a high cost-of-living city, even when you have kids, even when you like to spend money. Frugality isn’t the only way to make FIRE possible.
“You will be in debt for the rest of your life.”
That was my welcome into the veterinary profession. Starting as early as when I began my undergraduate studies, if I spoke with a veterinarian, the assertion that I would be in debt for the rest of my life would inevitably come up. Going less waste is what allowed me to break the cycle of mindless consumerism and believe in a future where we can be debt free. I’m so excited to continue to align my actions with my beliefs and can’t wait to see what we can accomplish once we have financial independence.
I pretty much expected to be in debt for the rest of my life.
I graduated in 2011 from a private liberal arts college with a degree in Theatre and over $25,000 in debt. In addition to that, jobs were scarce when I graduated and I was unable to secure one directly out of college. I bounced around from job to job, industry to industry, city to city, making just enough to cover my bills and even save a little before settling in Buffalo in the fall of 2013.
Same shit, different day.
Throughout my life and as long as I can remember, I had always done everything exactly as I was told to do. Early on I completely bought into the “get good grades, go to school so you can get a secure, high-paying job for 40+ years” and live happily ever after according to society.
It wasn’t too hard for me to buy into this concept - I’m a bookworm and nerd, my curiosity never satisfied, and naturally gravitated towards doing well in school. I was an exemplary future employee - doing what I was told so that I would be taken care of.
I immigrated to the U.S. in 1987 at the age of 31 on a working visa during the "Nursing Shortage". It was my first time out of my home country of the Philippines. I had studied nursing and worked in a small town hospital a few years post college, but I itched to go somewhere new. With a lot of hard work and luck, I passed the U.S. Licensure Exam on my first attempt so I escaped the threat of deportation.
I came from the Ramit Sethi school of "I will Teach You To Be Rich" and Suze Orman's "Young, Fabulous and Broke". I knew I was supposed to save money, save for retirement, optimize my earnings and I did just that early on, I just didn't truly understand why until I was laid off a few years ago. The concept of retiring early didn't sink in for me until very recently.
A year from now, you will wish you had started.
“Is this what it’s going to be like for the next 40+ years”? That was the thought that ran through my head back in 2006. Before I started my first real job, I did a trial run to get to work. The commute was an hour long. When I first took that early train, I was surprised how different the energy (or lack thereof) was compared to the weekend trains. I squeezed into one of the last remaining seats, the middle spot of a three-person seat. Everyone seemed to be in their 30s-50s, sleeping, reading newspapers or zoning out. I guess this was adulthood.
My sister and I are now just getting into the FIRE community and one major thing we have noticed is the lack of women in the space talking about Financial Independence. Yes, there's some here and there, but we don't think it's enough.
