As a teacher, I usually spend way too much time recovering from the first sprint of the school year during the holidays. During my recovery, I spend a ton of time reflecting on the meaning of everything. Like why financial independence? Why are we pursuing it?
Usually this time of reflection comes with the exhaustion of the school year. And 2020 has brought a lot of exhaustion!
I’d like to say that’s why I haven’t posted something new in a while. But to be honest, we’ve just been potty training and preparing/recuperating from the holidays with a 2.5 year old.
Personal finance is personal.
Financial independence is a great goal. It’s achievable for us. But it isn’t the end all be all of our life.
And maybe this is a little bit contrary of some of my advice, but we are realists here!
Life is meant to be lived.
Financial independence and the freedom it provides helps to live your life the way you wish to design it.
But, as a teacher, it is kind of hard to rapidly reach financial independence without sacrificing a lot of the things that make this journey enjoyable for us.
We just aren’t hardcore enough!
And that’s okay!
We aren’t willing to give up take out and eating out (pre-COVID). We can’t fully cut out buying gifts for family. We aren’t super frugal with our grocery budget. We take a lot of small trips (pre-COVID). And I am not willing to work my healthy years away to hustle up extra money.
We live in a decent sized home, that is cheap to own, but we COULD have house hacked!
We drive two cheap, paid off cars! Could we survive on just one car? NOPE!
The reality of it all is that others can give you advice and inspire you to do more research and look inward at your own finances, but PERSONAL FINANCE IS PERSONAL!
We choose things in our life to spend on that we value, that we accept the cost of. And that we know are preventing us from reaching financial independence in less time. In an old (very poorly done post), I analyzed our Top Money Leaks from 2018. And projected we could add 10% to our savings rate by being more hardcore.
WOW!
Did we do it?! Nope! Am I upset? A tiny bit, I guess! But mostly just because I thought I could strangle our finances into perfection and reach FI 3 years earlier (maybe).
We aren’t about extreme frugality or massive sacrifices to reach financial independence immediately.
Maybe that makes us SlowFI?
Well, I guess teachers are naturally in the SlowFI category, since we have low earnings and rely on a pension based on years of service. And that is ok! Because we get to enjoy the journey. We appreciate the small things, the big things, and ALL the things!
And we will appreciate financial independence even more when we reach it. But we won’t regret the life we lived to get there.
So what is our WHY?
My personal WHY is easy. I love life. I love my family.
Financial independence is about getting more time with the things I love.
But it’s also about a tale of opposites.
I’ve lived the hustle life as a teenager. I worked and worked and worked. Because that’s what my parents did. My father is 63 and still busting his ass working 50+ hours a week in construction/logging industry. I worked multiple jobs and easily topped 70 hours a week each summer and 10-20 hours a weekend most of the year (I should already be a millionaire!).
I knew the sacrifices my father made. I didn’t appreciate them as a kid, and didn’t realize the gravity of it all until I was 25.
I went into teaching (because I was passionate about teaching but also…) because I wanted a career where I wouldn’t have to be like my father was with his job/business.
Where I wouldn’t miss my kids’ sporting events, where I wouldn’t be so exhausted I needed to nap all the time, where work stress eats me up all the time, and where everything I have hangs onto the success and value of my company/position.
I want to be able to be in a financial position where I can choose more time with loved ones, over time with work.
Where I can choose leisure and hobbies over hustling.
Financial independence, like for so many others, is a means to an end. Using money and investments to create freedom in how we spend our time and to reallocate our priorities.
To live life.
I don’t want to be 65, just being able to stop working 40 hours a week to survive.
I want to know in my 30s, that I could survive on less.
I want to know in my 40s that I could probably stop working and be ok.
I want to be in my 50s and wish I had a part time job to eat up some of my free time I don’t know what to do with.
I want to be in my 60s-90s taking care of my family, doling out free advice, and taking care of my health so I can enjoy this ride just a bit longer.
What does financial independence look like for you? What is your WHY?
Check out my interview over at EducatorFi for his Educator on FIOR series.
If you want to learn more about financial independence for teachers, check out: