Boring FI

Here in the financial independence community we like to categorize ourselves. We can categorize based on our vision of enough. There is leanFIRE, and fatFIRE, and even morbidly obese FIRE. There are also different pathways to achieve financial freedom. Some focus on frugality, others on W2 generation, and yet others on real estate. When I began this blog, I called myself DiverseFI because in many ways I don’t fit in these categories. I am not your average FI. But there is one category that glaringly comes to mind when I think about my origin story (or lack thereof). I am Boring FI.

That’s right. My beginnings are humdrum at best. They are yawnable. Let’s just say I won’t get days and days worth of blog material from my humble upbringing.

But there’s value in the straightforward path.

First, however, I would like to explore why it was so boring.

Good Role Models

I have a perfectly good reason for not being a financial moron. Two great parents.

My parents taught me so many important lessons about managing and building my finances. Although no specific didactic curriculum existed, they were excellent fiscal models. I grew up in a house where stealth was the modus operandi.

My parents loved their jobs and both became business owners, consultants, and even landlords. They saved most of the accrued profits, and invested for the long-term. These investments grew over the years as fast as my parents net worth.

How can I not be Boring FI when I grew up with such great role models?

No Debt

I have never had a lick of debt outside of my mortgage. Lamentably, my father’s life insurance money paid for all of my college and medical school costs. Of course I would have rather not had that money, but it created a clear advantage in my Boring FI trajectory.

There is nothing better for a financial blogger than to have an origin story of being buried in debt. Five figures are good but six is even better. Legitimacy comes with overcoming great barriers. In this blog, I can’t boast that same legitimacy.

Although I would never say that it came easy, I certainly find myself quietly listening as others recall their harrowing journeys involving student loans.

My path was a little more straightforward. Boring.

Boring FI

High W2

I definitely worked my way up the W2 ladder. But again, there is no surprise there. My beginning salary of $120K/year back in 2002 was nothing to sneeze at. In fact, it is safe to say that my wage back then was higher than most financial independence enthusiasts.

And the climb upward from there was nothing less than boring. I built a successful practice and pursued some lazy side hustles here and there.

Eventually I parlayed the extra cash into rental condos, became an art mogul, and began a blog.

It’s not that there was no struggle. But that struggle wasn’t the big hairy audacious struggle we usually associate with financial independence. It was plain struggle.

It was Boring FI.

Sound Familiar?

Does this all sound familiar? It may not to you, but it will eventually to some of your family members.

I’m talking about your kids.

If you do this thing right, your kids will end up just like me. They will have parents who were the OG stealth practitioners who climbed out of debt, built a W2 empire, saved like the dickens, and paid for their college.

They will be Second Generation FI.

Or as I like to say…Boring FI.