Fully funded lifestyle change Archives

Fully Funded Lifestyle Change (FFLC): Origin Story

Our journey down the path to Financial Independence Early Retirement (FIRE) began with the usual suspects, unhappiness at work and a doggedly busy schedule. While Mrs. SSC was convinced that we could do it, I wasn’t so on board with the idea. This was because the few examples I saw were too extreme and so I resisted. It took years for me to come around to the fact that our plan didn’t have to be like anyone else’s.

What didn’t take that long to come around to, was the concept of a Fully Funded Lifestyle Change, or FFLC as we call it. What’s different about that concept is that it isn’t focused on FIRE, it’s focused on making the best lives for ourselves now. In short, we wanted to be able to abandon the fast paced, hectic days filled with long hours away from the kids. What we didn’t want to do was abandon the safety and security of not worrying about money, bills, and more that we had grown accustomed to. So, we made a plan that when we hit a certain number in savings, brokerage accounts, and 401k’s we would jettison our hectic lifestyle here and relocate to a better lifestyle somewhere else. The better lifestyle for us meant more time with family and freedom of schedule, even if it came with a greatly reduced income. This was the basis for our Fully Funded Lifestyle Change concept.

The Freedom to Make Fully Funded Lifestyle “Choices”

There has been a lot going on in the SSC household this year, with me getting positioned to move into a leadership role at work and Mrs. SSC making it to a finalist position for a new job at another university. These changes may or may not shake up our latest Canyon Lake plan, depending on which one comes to fruition, but it reminded us that we’ve positioned ourselves to be able to fully evaluate and take advantage of these opportunities when they come up. We have the freedom of choice in whatever opportunities show up. We keep talking about a Fully Funded Lifestyle Change (FFLC), rather than Financial Independent Retire Early (FIRE) because we feel like we will most likely do something when we early retire. Like most bloggers that reach FIRE, few actually “retire”, but instead transition into having the freedom to work at the schedule, lifestyle, and type of work that they want to do, rather than be stuck in a 40+ hr a week job.

What we realized is that we won’t be leaving the workforce totally, we’re just transitioning into something else. Mrs. SSC has been more hesitant about this transition than I am which is what ultimately led to our Canyon Lake plan. She had the “misfortune” of getting her dream job a couple of years before we were planning to hit FIRE and enact our FFLC plan. Now that she’s been in that job a few years and away from megacorp, she isn’t scouring the PF blogosphere looking for “ways to early retire” from a job and lifestyle that she hates. We’ve been able to transition into a good comfortable lifestyle with both of us working jobs we love. Most bloggers, us included, talk about “retire to” something, or “find your ikigai” so you have purpose post career. What if your career is fun and you don’t necessarily want to retire from it?