Ten years into our FIRE journey, we’ve made great progress on our goal of becoming financially independent. We are appreciative of this journey and how it has transformed our lives and made us more rounded people.
We also have learned many lessons that we wouldn’t have learned if we weren’t on this journey. I’d like to share with you the ten lessons I’ve learned so far on our FIRE journey.
Many see reaching FIRE as the finish line. For them, it means an escape from the rat race. However, I believe we can’t see FIRE as an escape route, a happy ending, a finish line, or the solution to everything.
Reaching FIRE certainly doesn’t mean you will magically become happy and live happily ever after. If you don’t work on yourself during the FIRE journey and improve yourself, you will continue to face the same challenges over and over.
For us, it means investing in both dividend-paying stocks and index ETFs. This hybrid investment strategy allows us to have a predictable dividend income every month while staying geographically and asset diversified.
It is important to ignore doubts and noises around you. Believe in yourself, connect with like-minded people, find support from the FIRE community, and stay focused while on this FIRE journey.