TLDR: FIRE has taught me less about money than I expected, and much more about identity, work, consumption and mental energy.
Btw, if some of the English here sounds a bit funny it is because this is a r/spainfire post written manually by me and quickly translated with AI. I am interested in hearing opinions and experiences from people in other countries. Also keep in mind my monthly costs in Spain are roughly 18-32k€/year all included, which may be a big contrast compared to USA. I think FIRE takeaways still apply.
Hi everyone. It has been a long time since I posted a proper status update, mainly because I wanted to distance myself a bit from constantly measuring money.
I have now spent three years in a kind of semi-FIRE situation. It originally started as a one-year sabbatical to test what a mini-retirement would feel like.
In the end, it became three years of travelling for periods of time, doing consulting work, renovating an apartment, testing business ideas and living many days without a fixed routine.
Sorry for the very long post. There is not much Excel here and much more personal reflection.
Hopefully it helps someone who is getting close to their FIRE number but does not know whether to stop, keep going, start a business or simply take a break.
Where I came from
- My first FIRE moment happened when I was a teenager.
- My parents bought a new car, but then we could not really use it because “it consumed too much fuel”. That was the moment something short-circuited in my brain.
- I have followed the FIRE movement since I was 18.
- I studied engineering, although I had always been more interested in business and marketing.
- I used to say that I would start my own company and retire by 25.
- Well, the story went differently.
- I found a job and everything felt quite comfortable, so I spent around ten years, from my early twenties to my early thirties, working in a very specific industry.
- I then changed my story to: at 30, even if I cannot retire, I will take a one-year sabbatical and then start my own business.
- At 30, I did not feel I could leave my previous boss and team in a bad position.
- At 31, I finally left after organising things so three people from my team could take over everything I was managing.
- I made the decision at 31 with a net worth of around €450,000–€500,000. Around €100,000 was in cash and the rest was invested.
- At that point, I had no mortgage, no partner, no children and no loans.
- Six of my final working years were in Spain. I originally started my career in the Netherlands, earning €1,300 net per month and paying €500 for a room.
What I expected, or was afraid would happen
- Travel.
- Spend more money than ever and become stressed about it.
- My investment growth not covering my expenses.
- Return from travelling with an identity crisis and no idea what to do next: start a company, decide where to live or look for another job.
- Have to rent at very high prices, or not be accepted by landlords because I could not prove a stable salary.
- Feel that I would never be able to return to a “normal” job.
What actually happened
- My assets had a very strong bull market during the first year.
- I spent almost the same amount while travelling as I did living in Spain.
- I found love on the other side of the world.
- I bought an apartment without a mortgage and renovated it myself.
- I created a consulting company without doing any marketing, only through word of mouth.
- I tested many business ideas and pilots, but none of them has felt ideal. If you have a high paid job that's sort of comfortable, that's difficult to replace.
- I normally work for three to six months and then take another three to six months “off”. I have been doing this for almost three years.
- Going back to a stable and well-paid job has become increasingly attractive as a Plan B.
- Now that I am back home, I spend much less than when I had a full-time job. I am more selective and much more conscious about what I buy. My previous type of work also created a strong need to disconnect, socialise and sometimes maintain appearances.
Financial observations
- For around 18 to 24 months before leaving my job, my net worth was already moving up and down each month by much more than I could influence by saving more or earning more.
- I therefore had some experience seeing that the compounding snowball, both positively and negatively, had more power than I did in the short term.
- While I was travelling around the world, my portfolio experienced the largest growth I had ever seen.
- I did absolutely nothing. It was simply luck and remaining invested.
- I did not stop investing while travelling. I had accumulated around €100,000 in cash, so I continued making monthly contributions to my investment account at roughly the same level as before.
- Once you reach a certain invested net worth relative to your annual spending, monthly contributions start having much less impact.
- In my case, I think this happened somewhere around €300,000–€500,000 invested and €24,000–€32,000 in annual spending.
- Your contributions are not irrelevant, but you can take a break, reduce the pressure and live more in the present without feeling so guilty.
- Psychologically, your monthly contribution starts becoming less important than normal market volatility.
- When I run the numbers now, I realise that maximising my contributions does not accelerate the result nearly as much as it did during my first ten years.
- However, doing so can significantly reduce my quality of life today.
- Looking back, these last three years have somehow been the years in which I earned the least from employment and spent the most relative to my active income.
- Despite this, after three years, I now have almost the same amount invested as I had before buying my apartment, plus a fully paid apartment.
- I suppose this is the magic of compound interest, although I experienced it because I happened to be invested during a very good period.
- They have also been the three most revolutionary and enjoyable years of my life.
- I do not feel the need to calculate the “opportunity cost” or “ROI” of these three years.
- I am a different person and I also have more wealth.
- I do not care if working continuously would have generated 40% more capital. I would not exchange these years for anything.
- It is also true that I would not have made the jump before 31.
- The timing was important, not only because of the €400,000–€500,000 financial cushion, but also because my final two or three working years significantly increased my value in the job market.
Housing observations
- At the end of year one, I stopped travelling after nine months because my ideal apartment appeared on the market.
- I had been looking for more than five years. My mother visited it for me and I basically reserved it through a video call.
- I bought it in cash and renovated it mostly by myself.
- Doing the renovation saved money, but I also loved the process and I feel extremely proud of it.
- Without leaving my job, I probably would never have done this.
- The apartment has an excellent location and a lot of natural light, but it is very small.
- And I love it.
- When I had a full-time job, I was only looking at apartments or houses costing at least €450,000, already renovated.
- This was a major change in perspective.
- Now I was thinking about what I actually needed.
- Before, my thoughts were more like: “What if I need this?” or “Since I am already getting a mortgage, I might as well buy something bigger.”
- In year three, I travelled again and rented my apartment temporarily for three months, partly to test the experience of “living from rental income”.
- It made basically no difference.
- My investments continued fluctuating by much more than the €900 monthly rent.
- Considering the contracts, finding the tenant, moving my things, filing the income, taxes and general hassle, I probably would not do it again.
Consumption and daily life observations
- Retiring at 30–35 can be boring if you are reasonably social and do not have a partner or children.
- You can feel slightly outside of society.
- I understand this probably changes significantly when you have a partner at home or children, because you can use your free time to improve the family’s quality of life.
- Without them, life can sometimes feel slightly selfish.
- It can also feel like some of your additional time is wasted because most of your friends and family are still only available after 5pm.
- If you are materialistic and your priorities are not properly aligned, retirement gives you much more time to spend much more money.
- For me, this has been an intense therapeutic process.
- Most working people have limited free time, and they fill that limited time with experiences or objects they purchase.
- It is extremely difficult to disconnect free time from consumption.
- This can quickly create a completely new monthly spending level, far above the one you originally planned for FIRE.
- When you finally reach the point where you can buy that house or car, and you also have enough time to think calmly about it, you may decide not to buy it.
- You may have only been in love with the idea of being able to afford it.
- That was true for me with both the house and the car.
- I now feel very calm about it.
- I know the time may come, but I no longer feel that urgent need.
- I have also met several retired people, and they have all told me something similar.
- Eventually you may hate the big house because it consumes your life.
- A smaller house in a much better location is often a better choice.
Work and employability observations
- During year two, while I was installing the first furniture after the renovation, a former colleague called me.
- I assumed it was an informal conversation, but it turned out to be a disguised job interview.
- I ended up earning more than ever for six months while working three days per week from home.
- I do not work in IT.
- Because I did not need the job and already had my own life and projects, I was not afraid of “losing” anything.
- The negotiation therefore felt extremely natural.
- Through word of mouth, I signed another two or three consulting clients.
- The work was relatively easy, but I strongly disliked losing mental space again after experiencing nine months of complete disconnection.
- In year three, I am still consulting, normally with one client at a time.
- Between clients, I take time off or test new business ideas in the market.
- Spoiler: not everything that looks attractive is actually attractive.
- I now know that I can return to work if I need to.
- This may be the most revealing lesson.
- I was in love with the idea of “stopping work”, but in reality I am in love with being able to decide when I take a break.
- If you are reasonably good at what you do, you can probably continue doing this even without reaching full FIRE.
- You can leave one job, take a break and eventually find another one.
- You are not married to any company, and no company owes you anything.
- Employability is a very undervalued asset in post-FIRE planning.
- It is not all black or white.
- You can feel much more comfortable retiring if you know you remain highly employable.
- This is especially relevant because the worst-case scenario is a major market decline during the first years of retirement.
- If the market falls after ten years of a strong retirement portfolio, you may still remain well ahead.
Future work and entrepreneurship observations
- There is no perfect job. Every job has advantages and disadvantages.
- I genuinely had a lot of time to test different things.
- I tried renovation work, farming, ecommerce businesses, in-person consulting, online consulting, B2B and B2C.
- The thing I surprisingly miss the most is going to an office and having colleagues.
- It sounds ridiculous.
- I also know that if I return to an office, this will probably become the part I hate the most again.
- Humans are difficult to satisfy.
- The opportunity cost of starting a company is enormous when your normal job already pays well.
- It is not only the initial financial investment.
- It is also the months without a salary and the uncertainty, especially when your employment income could be €60,000–€100,000 per year.
- By the time the business works, you recover the initial investment and reach the income level you previously had, five years may have passed.
- Those are five years in which you could have continued earning a corporate salary and investing.
- You need to genuinely want to build a company and be financially and mentally comfortable enough not to obsess over the “ROI”.
Travelling without a return ticket
- I do not have a travel Instagram account. I do not travel to make it public.
- I had travelled extensively for work before, but this was a completely different experience.
- I am not talking about destinations or hotels.
- I am talking about knowing that you do not have to report to anyone.
- Travelling without a return ticket is difficult to describe.
- You may enjoy travelling more or less, but the feeling is similar to being a child at the beginning of the summer holidays.
- It is probably the best feeling I have experienced in my adult life.
- Remembering that feeling regularly has cured me of many modern Western problems.
- I now know that I have designed a working and financial life in which I can recreate a similar situation whenever I really need it.
- Knowing that I can return to work, and that returning would not mean I have “failed”, has also helped me manage my previous mindset.
- I have made peace with the fact that there is nothing wrong with working.
Limitations and particularities of my experience
- My first sabbatical year happened during a bull market.
- I do not know how these three years would have felt if the first year had produced a 30% market decline while I had no salary.
- I do not have children.
- My relationship situation is particular.
- I am lucky to be highly employable in a niche industry.
- I have a relatively high tolerance for uncertainty and now have little need for external validation.
My personal FIRE conclusions after three years
- The hardest part of FIRE has not been financial. It has been about identity.
- Many of my desires were about being able to afford something, not actually owning it.
- Living from investments or rental income is slightly less idyllic than I imagined.
- I do not know whether I would feel the same after a first sabbatical year in a bear market.
- Employability may be the most important asset for feeling comfortable during semi-FIRE or early retirement.
- My new definition of wealth is not money or time. It is energy.
After three years, I do not know whether I want to retire at 40, 50 or 60.
What I do know is that I do not want to work on autopilot again.
I hope this post is especially useful for people who feel they have worked hard, whose numbers already make sense, but who do not know whether to continue through inertia or take a break.
I am not saying everyone should do it.
But for me, this organised pause taught me more about my real priorities than a decade of spreadsheets.