August 2021 through December 2022

The posts on the blog up to this point have varied in quality, but now that I've gotten a bit onboarded onto the ERE/FIRE system, I'd like to write in a bit more of a structured format. I'm not fully sure how to begin this more serious post, but here goes. I'll start with background leading up to the hardcore beginning of our FIRE/ERE journey in January 2023. I'm writing most of this while recovering from a week of fever, and I'm not a practiced writer, so bear with the clunky writing.

I first learned about FIRE in August 2021, traveling home from an out of state visit. I had started to deal with some burnout surrounding my job and while on my trip, on a whim, I decided to just throw my resume out there - what did I have to lose? Somewhere during this out of town trip, I also heard of this Mr. Money Mustache for the first time. I'm not sure what brought him to my attention (I think maybe I heard about him through Cal Newport?), but I was intrigued although I didn't have time right then to listen to anything or read any articles. It wasn't until the 10-plus hour drive home that I put on a podcast episode in which he laid out his method of retiring within just a few years.

Why did this idea of retiring early get my attention so quickly? Folks are interested in early retirement for all kinds of reasons. I enjoyed my work, to be sure. That specific job had become a grind, but I did actually enjoy the work that I was doing in software design. I wanted to retire because I had a very clear sense of what my calling was, and I knew I could not do my calling to its fullest extent while I had a full-time job taking 40+ hours per week; regardless of how much I enjoyed my job, I loved the snatches of time I got to do my calling more.

I define calling the way Gary North defines calling: "The most important thing you can do for the Kingdom of God in which you are the hardest to replace." Anybody can do software design, but I knew that I had a very unique calling in research. I'm not going to discuss my calling right now since that would identify me, but suffice it to say, the prospect of never having to work for money again and being free to devote the rest of my life to my calling was extremely persuasive. I knew I had an ethical responsibility to retire as soon as possible, now that I realized it was a thing.

Prior to the podcast with MMM, I had no idea I could retire early - it didn't even enter into my mind. But the podcast gave just enough construction materials to where I could put together a plan and it completely changed my outlook. I knew that if I was to have any kind of a shot at early retirement, I needed to get a job that paid quite a bit more than what I was earning - which wouldn't be hard since I was at the lower end for sure of my market.

As an important aside, my family had gone through a bit of a tumultuous last few years (coupled with a really tight paycheck) and we were all in the need for just a year of stability with no new things. I knew that plunging straight into FIRE was a bit beyond what my family could handle.

When I finished with that podcast in August 2021, I really didn't know too many details about how other people did FIRE, what it really looked like for them, or all the different strategies to get there.

My initial plan in August and September 2021 was to spend Year 1 in my new job, catching my breath and having some family stability with no new things. Years 2–5, I would begin the process of securing approximately 25 rental units, each returning an average of $200 per unit per month. This would cover our expenses, and I could retire by the end of Year 5. 

This plan was good enough for me to move forward on what I knew was the next right step: getting a job that paid $80k-100k, which was what I knew I was worth. I secured a new job by the end of September 2021, that paid at the lower end of that range, but more importantly did not have any of the elements that had been causing burnout for me at my previous job. I then took 2022 to just rest and recover from the previous few years.