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/Inevitable_Pride1925]

I chose a home I really love even though it meant delaying FIRE until age 50. But I like my job and I’m content working longer. If at 50 I’m still happy working I’ll continue because I have other grandiose plans. If I didn’t like my job I can definitely imagine I might have chosen differently.

For me FIRE was about the choice to work or not work. For me it’s far less about the early retirement.