Why FatFIRE?
Why FatFIRE?
We love to take trips to Mexico. Especially in the winter. As the Chicago temperature plummets below zero, we can’t help but want to plot our escape. We aren’t looking for culture or a learning experience. Good and simple fun in the sun. We usually stay at an all inclusive which seems expensive at first, but it’s awfully nice to get all the paying out of the way up front and be supremely unaware of what everything will cost. But you can’t go to Mexico every vacation! On our current trip to Montreal and Quebec City, a bunch of unexpected things have happened. And they have all been quite expensive. My stress levels, however, are much lower than you would think. In fact, that is precisely why fatFIRE is right for us.
I simply don’t want to worry about what everything is going to cost. I like to sometimes choose ease over frugality. It sure makes vacation better.
Financial Independence
We are financially independent. Which many of you know means that we should be able to support our current lifestyle without ever working again. Yet, both my wife and I, find a certain amount of meaning, purpose, and identity in our jobs. Put another way, even if we were not getting paid, we would still gravitate to such activities.
Both of our jobs pay six figures. And provide healthcare. And my wife even gets a little bit of a 401k match. Why fatFIRE? Because we still enjoy work and the extra income provides an outlandish amount of luxury.
Given that our investments and rental properties could support us, any extra money we make each year is gravy. We don’t even need it for essentials or for regular costs of living.
That’s right, we could theoretically spend every cent of our yearly income on pure upgrades. Better hotels. More expensive restaurants. First class plane tickets.
You get the idea.
Don’t Sweat It
So we tend not to sweat the expense when we are having fun. Our current trip is a perfect example. Upon renting our car, we realized that we would have a huge number of tolls to pay on the way to Montreal. The rental car company provided us an EZ Pass. Yes it would end up costing a bunch of extra money each day. But it was much easier.
The number of extras just started to add up after that. Parking in Montreal was an added $40/day. We decided to do a number of guided tours. The only ones available during the times we wanted were almost double the price.
The credit card work out continued for the rest of the week. Eating out, tips, tickets to tourist attractions.
We ended up spending a lot more than we had planned. Yet the beauty of fatFIRE is that it will in no way derail our economic security.
Final Thoughts
FatFIRE is certainly not for everyone. There are those who are dying to get out of the indentured servitude of their nine to five and can’t wait to be done. Perhaps for them, leanFIRE will do the job. For my wife and I, however, the choice is simple. We don’t mind our jobs and the ability to spend freely without concern makes us happy.
Why fatFIRE?
I guess for us the better question is why not?