If we made incredible bank outside of our day jobs, it would be worth it to pivot away no questions asked.

I think the most appealing aspect of FI will be having the option to leave work with no worries. That optionality and freedom is very appealing!

Yes, I did make out a list of goals for the remainder of the year and I plan on doing goals for each year. I see that some people do monthly goals… not sure if I will get that crazy with it! But yea, this is more of a guideline as things can change in 16 years. Hopefully for the better though! So we shall see how everything goes in reality.

I do make a fairly detailed 1 year plan each year. I get the balances of my account, extrapolate how much I think they will grow on their own, estimate how much I will contribute to each of them during the year, and how much interest that new money will make. Then I have my goal for the year. I also create a stretch goal for if I think I will either contribute more or if my investments do better than expected. I think this will be my 4th year doing it, each year I’m getting more and more detailed with it after seeing how far off I was the previous year. So far I’ve been really lucky and beat my goal each year. I think that’s why I don’t try to predict further out than 1 year, since I’m usually off by a significant amount after 1 year that will only get compounded as you add more years in.

I think it’s fun to set a detailed annual goal and see how you do against it. Have you ever tried setting a very specific annual goal? I think it’s a bit more interesting since you only have a year to see how you’re doing and for the most part you can predict the major life changes within a year like moving, or changing jobs.

But hey, if you love what you are doing, working until 65 isn’t the end of the world.

Oh yea, excel and I are good friends :).

Much like you do not know anything about the U.S. system, I do not know much about the Belgium system. I like your outlook on trying to find new ways to conquer any potential barriers that may arise. I guess I am not concerned about items outside of my control, but maybe if things outside my control have an effect on me I should try to do something in my control to fight back. Like somehow find ways to supplement my income if health or energy costs are extremely high. There aren’t any federal grants in the way I think of grants (free money, sometimes with strings attached). But I do plan to utilize any tax advantaged plans that do exist in our system.
I also do not count on our government’s old age pension, for one reason it is underfunded, and second is because it is underfunded there is a good chance that major changes could occur before I would be eligible for the “full retirement benefits” in 40 years. I suppose that I shouldn’t count on my work’s pension either. They are kind of underfunded as well… but that may change since new people on the plan (such as myself) pay in a much higher portion towards the benefit and it won’t rise with inflation as people on previous versions of the plan receive. So by the time I am 60 years old… it won’t be worth too much anyways!

I plan to keep on truckin’! Thanks!

I don’t know anything about the US system, but I’ve decided for myself to see my attempt at FI as being seperate from the situation in which I’m trying to achieve it. There are a lot of things we don’t have control over, but they shouldn’t impact our ability to reach FI. By either working with them (like with the federal grants you mentioned) or around them (like doing something completely different), anything should be possible.

Recently I wrote an article on the tax rate in Belgium in which I was talking about the benefits of our system… I don’t count on these benefits to be there when I retire, but if they are, all the better for me.

Keep on truckin’, pal!
NMW