Preventing Lifestyle Inflation

 One of the biggest concepts on our way to financial independence (FI) was to prevent lifestyle inflation.  When we hit our 50s we hit our peak earning years, and the urge to by a vacation home, fancy new car, remodel the house, and take fancy vacations was overwhelming.  However, we knew the FI lifestyle did not lie with a vacation home.  We made it our goal to stay the course, and the raises went into 401k, IRA, etc.

The stress free life style of being financially independent isn't worth anything fancy. Once we retire we can enjoy some of these things.  We strive to take a good vacation every year, and we like to camp in the woods locally with our 1998 camper trailer.  This seems like a good alternative to a vacation home, and you get to see other places.

The RE (Retire Early) in FIRE is rather perplexing. I cant imagine sitting in a chair reading most of the day and chewing the fat with the neighbor.  I will probably work on this blog, maybe convert it to WordPress and work on other ways of promoting financial literacy.  Substitute teaching also sounds fun, trying to invest in the next generation.  When you really don't have to worry about the bills, life and work can be really fun.

So as you minimize and increase your frugality beware of lifestyle inflation.  Your first consideration with a raise should be your future.

TheLateFrugal

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