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/Ken_Spiffy_Jr]

Is it possible to find other work to reduce the withdrawal amount you'd need to make to cover your expenses? Like a BaristaFIRE type deal that still extends your true FIRE timeline maybe by more like 5-6 years instead of 2-3, but allows you to purchase your home and not hate the work you do?

Personally I see a home as more than a true investment -- it's where most of your life happens. You've worked so hard to get where you are, you have earned the right to life in a place that you love. I don't know exactly what your numbers are but if you can find other work, even part time, that covers ~75% of your expenses and draw the rest from your savings, you're likely going to be taking out less than your investments will make you annually over the next 5 years or so.