Dear readers, I have hit my FI number.

Last Sunday, August 24th, to be exact, I reviewed my expenses and updated my forecasted retirement expenses on my spreadsheets. Early weekend mornings are best for this. The house is quiet. My family is upstairs fast asleep. In the summer, early light spills in through the windows flooding my house with the soft current of optimism only morning can bring. I sat downstairs at my dining room table with a cup of steaming coffee beside me. Crocs on my feet. The glare of my Mac book before me transformed into a crystal ball looking far into my future. I’ve known my account values (from my daily check ins), it was my expenses that I updated. And that’s what tipped me off to my new status.

If I can describe how I felt when the numbers worked out, what I can say for sure was that it was nothing like I expected. In the quiet of my house I sat there alone realizing that nothing was going to change because some numbers rearranged themselves. Despite how strangely calm I was, it did feel amazing. I smiled long and hard and repeated to myself, first in thoughts, then in a whisper:

I don’t need to work anymore.

I’d been working so long and hard for this, that when it finally arrived, I realized that I had built this thing up in my mind to something way bigger than what it truly is. Because what is it? It’s just an option. I’m faced with hundreds, maybe thousands of options a day, and this is just another one. Albeit a big one. The kind that can change your entire life trajectory.

Maybe it’s because I plan to keep on working beyond this point that I don’t feel the joy I thought I might feel. Maybe it’s because I don’t hate work like I used to. I don’t feel the need to run from it. Maybe I don’t want to retire right now.

So yes, after years of saving and saving, I’m there. At the age of 41, I’ve saved and invested enough money to live off of for the rest of my life. I can go travel now. Travel forever if I want.

I’ve reached the promised land…I think.

The market is at its very top. Record highs. Frothy beer foam type of market, as Mr Collins would say. The market is surging forward in frenzied exuberance of itself. It’s very likely that my numbers will fluctuate, a correction, maybe a bear, and my ‘FI Number’ will be lost to the market’s will. I’ve always told myself that my FI Number wasn’t a specific number, but more a range. I’ve been in that range for a while, maybe somewhat in denial. But here I am, in enough acceptance of it that I can finally type this out (in disbelief). With my luck the market will dip and I will have retreated from the promised land, in as much disbelief as when I realized it had snuck up on me.

Still, even if it is temporary, I’m there, and it must be memorialized in some way or fashion. I can’t tell anyone I know about this life altering monumental occasion, except for my wife, and she’s also strangely calm about it, as happy as if I told her the Giants won a ballgame last night. What better than to write a post about it? That’s the purpose of this blog.

I don’t feel Financially Independent. Maybe it’s because I’m not Financially Independent–to me that word is a myth, a misnomer, an oxymoron.

I’m merely closer to switching the terms of dependence.

I’m changing classes, not literally becoming independent, ie. becoming a self sufficient farmer growing my own food, installing solar panels to produce my own energy, sourcing my own water…

I’m still completely dependent on others. I’m dependent on the markets and the economic system of my country. I’m dependent on the rule of law being followed and enforced. The belief systems of others that hold all of this together. I’m dependent on consumers spending their money so companies do well and my stocks go up in value.

As I said, I’m changing classes. I’m transitioning from the working class, where I sell my time for money, to someone who lives off capital, selling shares of companies I own for money. This doesn’t mean I’m independent, if anything I’ll be more dependent on things outside of my control. Hence my need in this post to dismiss the independence part that everyone latches onto; I’m an anxious man, and this is my anxious mind at work.

But one can’t deny the sexiness of the word Financially Independent.

Freedom lingers around the words like heat near a fire. Ideas sprout from the words. The words can mean many things, but Independence rings the loudest.

Yes, that word Independence. The word that’s been put on a pedestal and worshipped for as many years as it’s held meaning in the English language. The word that many of my fellow countrymen use to define their country and the dream behind it. America is seemingly built upon that word.

Everyone is seeking Independence. To the personal finance aficionado, bogleheads, fire bloggers, financial independence is like reaching a state of enlightenment. It’s nirvana. The promised land. It’s what anyone who works is after, whether they know it or not.

And here I am. Maybe Financially Independent. Maybe not. Certainly Financially Dependent.

I celebrated my new status by grilling up some jerk chicken and drinking a beer (or two) in my backyard.

Maybe I’ll feel more jubilant when I actually turn in my notice at work? Maybe I subconsciously know that I need more money and that these next 1.5 years of work will truly put me over the line. Maybe I know this is all temporary and the markets will dip, inflation will grow, my dreams may change…or any other myriad of things that can happen in this chaos we call life. But for now, I’ll cling to my financial dependence on others.

Some stats on my journey to Financial Independence

1. Length of time saving and investing: 12 years.
   • I started my 401k in 2013 at the age of 30.
   • Funds went to a TDF till I transferred out in 2018 to an SP 500 fund.
   • 2016 I opened a taxable account (for the 2nd time after a failed attempt in 2007 at picking stocks) and bought index funds.
2. Average US Domestic Market Returns (2013-2025): ~401% nominal gains or 13.8% annually.
3. 401k Maxing out didn’t start until 2020 when we decided to go for FIRE.
4. My avg. savings rate since 2020 is 43% of gross income.
   • Some months we saved +50%, others we saved 10%. But 50% is what we aimed for, and ended up at 43%–not bad. This year our savings rate is around 30%, and it’ll likely stay this way. I don’t see a +50% savings rate again for me till next year, when I will attempt an international vacation free year.

Here’s my asset allocations as of August 2025 when we hit our goal. For the majority of my accumulation journey to date I was 100% equities. It’s only recently I’ve turned the corner into transitioning into a Boglehead 3 Fund approach–still some ways to go on the allocation part to truly call it a Lazy 3 Fund.

Now What?

Savings– I’m not going to change anything from what I’ve been doing. I’ll keep adding to my cash holdings. Keep buying index funds.

In my taxable account, I’m buying only international index funds. I’m currently 80/20 US to international, and I’d like to get my international allocation around 30% by the time I retire.

Life– The plan is still for me to finish out the project I’m on, which completes in early 2027. I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing since it’s working out. My family’s healthy. My kids are young. I have a job. Today I’m heading out to the river in Sacramento to kick off the Labor Day weekend. I’m heading to Europe in Oktober. And I’m looking forward to football season. Can’t ask for more than that.

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What are your thoughts? 

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