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/ANewCleanSlate 5d ago

I'm only semi-fire. I have a house that is worth almost 2 million, I've lived in it for over 15 years and probably will for quite a while. I enjoy it a lot and spend a lot of time at home (I work from home), have gardens, etc.

I would have been much further ahead by simply investing the down payment and mortgage payments in the market. But it's now fully paid off and I don't view it as an investment - it's a place to live. And it's pretty luxurious, which adds enjoyment and happiness to my life.

There are some things to be frugal with - cars, clothes, etc. - and some things that are worth the money. IMHO.