Leolo:
If any of you had to do it over again would you RE on a bare bones budget. I ask because my bare bones budget is $21-22K a year. Although I can live well on that I'm beginning to question if living on bare bones would cause me stress? The reason I want to FIRE is because I want NO STRESS in my life. I think of Intercst and how stress-free his life must be because he has way more money than he knows what to do with.


I ponder over this question all the time as well Leolo. I'm in the same boat as you, working hard to achieve ER status with about 7-10 years to go. But I often wonder if I should leave the workforce earlier for a rural, low-cost, low-stress existence.

With my wife and I, I could easily live on 20k per year with some room to spare. However, my current plan is to make 40k per year (the 40k will go up each year per inflation) so that 1/2 of my investments returns provide my living expenses and the other 1/2 for fun, toys and vehicle replacements.

I now have 2 kids in college and a 9 YO so throwing that in the mix makes it a little more complex.

It would be interesting to hear from others that took the bare bones option (like the 20-22k) instead of waiting for the more comfortable one like my current plan entails.

decath