Is the coffee at least good?

We recently hired a cleaner to come in twice a month which has been a big help, especially now with two very young kids.

My question of the week: For people in the boring middle, what are you doing, if anything, to make life better now? Doesn’t have to be financial.

Should’ve gone with a lower withdrawal rate. 😞

I’d say FI but not RE. We’ve got enough money saved up where if you squint the numbers kinda maybe work. In practice it’s unlikely I pull the trigger for another few years.

I think the definitions are subjective and can be contentious. People seem to love debating the one true list of dollar amounts for each level, which then invariably spirals into a cost of living, size of household, and inflation debate.

I was trying to side step that by just asking where people see themselves and not the underlying numbers. I think what you’re aiming for, regardless of whether we’re using exactly the same definitions, conveys a lot about your risk appetite, desire for luxuries, etc.

You mention your expenses would now be seen as lean — do you actually agree with that or is it more your impression of community sentiment?

I’ll admit I bought a ticket. I know people say it’s a tax on the stupid but my stupidity correlates with the size of the jackpot.

Are you thinking in terms of fixed and flexible spending and eyeing something like VPW to budget the flexible spending or are you thinking more in terms of a fixed withdrawal rate that’d cover your expected fun budget too?

Do you have EU citizenship already and speak the language?

Neat — do you manually input data or do you have some kind of scraping set up to feed it? Why a custom site vs pure spreadsheets?

I’m in the chubby camp. I want to have a big enough pile to have options. In some of the other communities I’ve been in I’ve heard it phrased as having enough money to do almost anything, but not everything and that resonates with me.

My main goal is to have enough money that we can do some fun stuff, help out the kids if needed, and just not need to worry or think too much about money otherwise.

I’ll guess I’ll kick off this week’s discussion thread with some questions. Where does everyone see themselves on the FI spectrum from lean to fat? Assuming you’re focused on early retirement, what are you optimizing for in retirement?