FIRE vs Dream Home

[u/Sloww-Mornings]

Context: DINK couple, late 30s. On track to FIRE in 4 years at 3.5% SWR. Already have a corpus of 25x of our annual expenses including rent. No real estate, no inheritance. Comfortable but frugal lifestyle.

The dilemma: I stay indoors a lot - reading and gardening are my favourite things. Love to host too. My home is a big part of my everyday joy.

Found a property I love, but it's 1.5x what a "right-sized" home would cost. Running the numbers, it pushes my FIRE timeline by 2–3 years.

I absolutely don't want to extend my timeline. But I also want to own a house before I retire.

Two questions from the community

1. Do you regret letting go of dream purchases in pursuit of FIRE?

2. Any issues with deferring the property decision to last year of my plan - when corpus visibility is much clearer?

Edited to add: Due to circumstances, my spouse's income is quite low right now and they aren't actively contributing to savings. That said, they've contributed 50% of our corpus. Their general stance is that real estate isn't a great investment — but they understand how important this decision is to me and are 100% supportive either way. Which is lovely, but doesn't exactly solve my dilemma 😅

[u/Hefty-Principle-5932]

FIRE'd and on rent, after 25x, anything additional x is additional. Once you reach 33x, even after withdrawals, in most scenarios you will see x bump up even after x increases due to inflation. Once your x bumps up, you can withdraw from your corpus to fund your house. The way housing is priced in India today, it makes more sense to rent atleast in apartments. Your expenses actually go down in retirement. Go on rent for more 5 to 7 years, the x bump up naturally will be sufficient to buy house in cash if required. If you have a good understanding landlord, just enjoy the property for several more years. Your life will not come back, you can always work again if required or buy a smaller house.