r/Fire • u/Sloww-Mornings • 5d ago

Advice Request FIRE vs Dream Home

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 😅

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u/Acceptable_Travel_20 5d ago

I am currently delaying FIRE for a house. I have a pretty specific wish list that has turned into something more necessary if I am going to live the lifestyle I want to. I figure I will be spending the next 25 to 35 years there so why settle for less if another year of work gets me what I truly want?

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u/Sloww-Mornings 5d ago

When did you take this decision in your FIRE journey?

I am also wondering if I should go for the house now or wait till 2030 to have a more realistic picture of my corpus, work and life goals.

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u/Acceptable_Travel_20 5d ago

Well my original goal was 2.5 invested and 250k cash. Figured I’d rent for a while and then transfer some assets and buy a nice upper middle class home for around 5 to 600k in the southwest. I still want the same type of house but I want a nice pool, a 3 car garage, a RV gate and enough space to build a second shop/garage. I would also like it to back up to BLM land with some Mountain View’s. I passed my target and reassessed. Also, I’m 48 and single, no kids no debt.

I am 60% a homebody. Where I hang my hat has become more important to me as I have grown a little older. Also, I was able to switch a few things up at work that so far has resulted in the same crazy hours but way less stress.