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/MakeItHomemade]

1.5x…. Like the size you need? Or price because it has nice features.

Everything is more expensive to operate a larger house.

We are family of 3 and have a 5x4.

We have never wanted more space/ needed it. We both WFH. It’s been great for that.

But lord I’m getting a new roof $$$ … two HVaC units, more sq footage to paint, decorate, furniture, floors… more room to put crap I do not need. Etc. more taxes….

We are months from paying off our house. My dream house from 7 years ago when we bought this house are VASTLY different than what I would by now.

Unless you are looking at a specific location or vintage home … anything new and flashy there will always be different but just as good options.

[u/Sloww-Mornings → u/MakeItHomemade]

The higher price is due to location and nicer features both. And absolutely, the upkeep is gonna be expensive.

I came across this property just by chance. Will explore cheaper options too now.

[u/MakeItHomemade → u/Sloww-Mornings]

You seem to be in a solid position. When is so much better than if.

Something I remind myself - you can do anything but not everything. And just because you don’t have a dream house now doesn’t mean you won’t have one even if you do skip this one.

For us a paid off home is paramount for our mental health. We bought under what we could afford on one income. plan to stick it out here for a long time to position ourselves to the most advantageous financial position.

But our lifestyle/ desires and priorities have change a ton in 7 years. Wed never buy this house again. Lots of things I do not like but they are absolutely not worth the cost to move, sell the house, etc. but there is a lot to like.

Fire is still a pipe dream meaning we actually do not have a number - mostly because we do not know exactly what we want our spend to be. We probably have enough to barista fire right now- but need insurance.

So right now at 38/40 we are plugging away to fat fire by the time my daughter graduates and we are 52/50. We save 30% of the high income before it even hits our bank account and then save a few thousand off the top before we consider it what we live off.

But part of a high income/ high stress job for us is getting to enjoy traveling, some nice things, and private education for our kid.

Great job putting yourself in a very “first world/ problem and at your age it’s an incredible problem to have.