FIRE Cracked Open My Skull

As a general rule, I’m staggeringly a little block-headed. But there are some small fissures in my skull. Who knew that literal and figurative banging of one’s head against a wall had real benefits?

So, something occasionally gets in (even if the chasms allow more things escape). Tho I have almost always been tolerant of those I disagreed with, about 20 years ago I actually started listening to opposing viewpoints, not just hearing them. And that made a material difference in how I looked at subjects I had until then had fixed opinions about. I am unquestionably a better person for this changed approach and have, in fact, changed my mind as to issues about which I’d previously said “Talk to the hand.”

Is that the question? And if so, if so, who answers?

When I discovered FIRE, I learned this invaluable lesson from blog posts I read: Question everything. Being Jewish and a decades-long member of the legal community, questioning things already was wired into my DNA. Hardwired if I’m being honest.

But the “new” lesson: (1) amped up the intensity of some things I already knew to question, (2) expanded the scope of things I questioned at all, and (3) opened me up to new ways of thinking about and looking at things. Things I once thought not even something to question, I now question. Things I’d thought might be questioned, I now almost always question. Things I had always looked at through one, conventional lens I now view from totally different perspectives. I get way more rolling-eyes than I used to — and I was already quite accomplished in the getting-rolling-eyes department, thank you very much — but I’m cool with that. 

D’oh!, something new

Some of the benefits I have realized from this new approach are quantifiable in hard dollars. others are immeasurable. Here are but a few:

• I’d blindly paid my car insurance premiums for years and without question lor analysis. Worse, I never questioned the coverage initially recommended to me by . . . the insurance company. Frankly, questioning my coverage hadn’t even occurred to me. What an idiot I was. After reading some blog posts on car insurance coverage, I changed my coverage. Savings: hundreds of dollars every year.
• Soon after their respective births, we started funding 529 accounts for Thing 1, The Elder and Thing 2, The Younger. I admit, I was figuring on their going to college, notwithstanding that their father is rightfully regarded as the dimmest light in the room (and so, my poor kids faced a major challenge from a DNA standpoint). We’d not really questioned whether to fund a 529 account. The only issue was how close we’d get to our goal. After discovering FIRE I realized that: (1) there’s worth to kids having (some) skin in the game in financing college, and (2) the college sticker price (which we based our planning on) generally is not the actual price, and if the kid gets scholarships and/or has AP or other transferrable credits, the cost of college can be even lower. Savings: tens of thousands of dollars, and potential crucial learning for the kids
• I carried a smallish loan on our car because I thought “that’s just what you do.” What an moron I am was. When I discovered FIRE, we had the means to pay off the loan. So, we did. Heck, we could have afforded to pay for the car in cash from the beginning. So, I’m still kicking myself for paying any interest on it. Savings: several hundreds of dollars that otherwise would have been paid in interest
• We’re too busy to do anything more than our jobs, caring for/spending time with the kids, maintaining our home, and having a modest social life. Or so I thought. When I discovered FIRE, I realized that there’s almost always time for a side hustle. And there was. The Missus and I have full-time jobs and two freeloaders kids. So, we necessarily don’t have the time available to us that most SINKS (single-income, no kids) and DINKS (double-income, no kids) have. But I’ve since tapped a few additional revenue streams. Savings: no savings, but, instead, income (so far modest, but well into the three figures and the possibility to generate more)

I could list many more items, but, Dear Reader, if you are not yet asleep or shouting at your computer screen “ENOUGH ALREADY!” or some variation thereof (no doubt preceded by one or more expletives), you should be probably are fast closing in on that point. But beware. I intended to cover in future posts other items I might have added to the list. And I’ll expound on some of the items above, too. So, take that!

Dear Reader, I hope you have success in being open to new ideas.