Fiscal Headwinds On The Path To FI

I have been see­ing some thoughts pop up on Twit­ter more than the very last couple months that have sparked an plan in my brain. Obvi­ous­ly, every­one’s jour­ney to Finan­cial Inde­pen­dence will search dif­fer­ent. But what are some of the techniques our paths dif­fer? Our jour­neys are dif­fer­ent due to the fact we’re all fac­ing dif­fer­ent finan­cial head­winds. Let’s look at some of the finan­cial head­winds I have faced on my jour­ney so far. 

Early Days

Wayyyy again in the old­en times (alright wonderful the late 2000’s), ya female was in large college. I had the principles tak­en treatment of for me cour­tesy of my par­ents like food stuff, shel­ter, some apparel, and lunch mon­ey. Every­thing else I want­ed was on my individual. A major finan­cial head­wind for me in superior university was pro­vid­ing the mon­ey for my own cell cell phone strategy — and a pay-as-you-go approach at that. $60 a month does­n’t seem to be like all that much now, but it was a major drag for me to scrap up that variety of dough every thirty day period. Factors received slight­ly bet­ter when I got my 1st job at Toys R Us, but my head­winds amplified proper alongside with the improve in cash circulation. Sud­den­ly I need­ed to have mon­ey to pay back my car pay­ment ($150/mo for 18 months), insur­ance, and gas.

My class­mates did­n’t under­stand what I was going by as they were being fac­ing either no head­winds at all or even a sig­nif­i­cant tail­wind, help­ing them to suc­ceed. I once experienced a con­ver­sa­tion with a class­mate who was com­plain­ing her lit­tle sis­ter got a nicer automobile for her 16^th birth­day than she cur­rent­ly experienced. I don’t remem­ber what automobile her lit­tle sis­ter bought but I dis­tinct­ly remem­ber her com­plain­ing about dri­ving a 2 12 months outdated Jeep. I offered to trade her cars and trucks. When she listened to I drove an old­er POS Dodge Neon that arrived with the afore­men­tioned car pay­ment, her nose wrin­kled up and I got an “ew no way” in reaction. Her tone was on par with Alex­is Rose in Schit­t’s Creek. To this day, I doubt that par­tic­u­lar class­mate has any a lot more empa­thy for individuals in dif­fer­ent finan­cial scenarios.

Over­shad­ow­ing the oth­er finan­cial head­winds in superior faculty was, of program, the loom­ing moun­tain of how to spend for college or university.

Higher education

I was incred­i­bly for­tu­nate to have all my efforts in substantial university shell out off in the variety of a full-ride aca­d­e­m­ic schol­ar­ship for col­lege. With my mil­i­tary stipends com­ing in every month, the degree to which I felt the head­winds less­ened dra­mat­i­cal­ly. Head­winds have been even now there, but much more man­age­able than before. 

I was nowhere close to strug­gling in col­lege like some of my buddies. They experienced to fork out for their possess hous­ing, food, school, books, vehicle, cellphone.…. every­thing. Those people are some hur­ri­cane-lev­el head­winds to over­come. Since of my expe­ri­ences in superior university, I was in a bet­ter place to under­stand the dif­fer­ences amongst me and my friends. I made confident to fork out for activ­i­ties I sug­gest­ed like heading to see a movie with a friend or cov­er­ing their beverages for a night out. 

Early Career

It’s at this time in my life that I start­ed to tru­ly under­stand how my priv­i­leges in lifestyle led to few­er head­winds for me. Even while I had few­er priv­i­leges than some peo­ple I had developed up with, I still experienced a lot heading for me. I had got­ten a glimpse of it in col­lege, but this phase of existence real­ly drove property the variances.

I did­n’t have stu­dent financial loans. I did­n’t have fam­i­ly that need­ed sup­port­ing every single month. I did­n’t have a child to choose treatment of. I did­n’t have expen­sive overall health concerns that imped­ed my abil­i­ty to get the job done and make mon­ey. My car was all compensated off and almost never had mechan­i­cal issues.

The deficiency of big head­winds at this phase in everyday living real­ly served me get forward in life. 

Adulthood

Now, my head­winds are a lot more like small breezes on a nice sum­mer day. I have to pay $300 a year for glass­es or con­tacts to be capable to see. I pay $50 a month in med­ica­tions to assist man­age my ADHD. I am a woman, so a lot of prod­ucts I buy cost a pink tax or are just straight up some­thing gentlemen really don’t have to wor­ry about like fem­i­nine prod­ucts or bras. (Men, you do not know how very good you have it!!!)

Summary

On paper, two peo­ple who gain $100k ought to be ready to save exact­ly the very same with the exact same amount of money of revenue, correct? 

Erroneous! 

A terrific exam­ple was pro­vid­ed by my mate Matt Lane on Twit­ter recent­ly. He earns what most peo­ple would con­sid­er to be a high income. How­ev­er, he also has a lot of finan­cial head­winds against him at the instant. He lives in Wash­ing­ton, DC, a high expense of liv­ing spot. Much more like super higher if you request some­one who lived there for a year (psst that is me. DC is super expen­sive!). Child­care for 2 chil­dren is $4,600 a month. $2,000 a month goes straight to stu­dent personal loan repay­ments. Include in $2,300 a month for a decent apart­ment and that’s $106,800 prior to you insert in oth­er neces­si­ties of lifestyle like food items, clothes, dia­pers, trans­porta­tion, inter­net, phone, and oth­er essentials. So yeah, he may possibly receive a ton of mon­ey, but he’s also expe­ri­enc­ing severe finan­cial head­winds from that high cash flow. 

So ahead of we browse a Mon­ey Diary on Refinery29 that will make us tsk our tongues and elevate our eye­brows, remem­ber money is just 1 portion of the puz­zle and some­one might be fac­ing sig­nif­i­cant head­winds that you are not. Or, what is the equiv­a­lent of a light breeze for you could be the equiv­a­lent of the Weath­er Chan­nel reporters stand­ing on the shore before a hur­ri­cane helps make land­fall. I’ve been for­tu­nate in existence to facial area favor­able winds and I only hope the similar for every­one all around me! 

As generally, thanks for read­ing! Are you fac­ing any sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial head­winds? Sound off in the com­ments below! 

Connected