This is my experience as a kitchen designer who found the FI/RE movement.

In January of 2018 my girlfriend introduced me to a FI/RE podcast and it changed my life. I binged the entire series, beginning with the first and listening through to the 140 or so that were made at the time. 

It blew my mind and changed how I viewed my work, my debt, and my lifestyle. We made some changes:

• We changed our grocery shopping habits. We stopped shopping at name brand, high end stores and began shopping at Aldi and other discount chains
• I began to track every single dollar of my spending, trying to find where each dollar went as best I could
• I maxed my company 401(K) match
• I began paying off debt more aggressively and using the snowball method. I ended up paying off 3 student loans in 2018 alone
• I changed my spending habits and looked closer at items I was purchasing with a mindset of, “Do I really need this or just want this?”
• I opened a small traditional IRA to begin index fund investing

At the same time that all this was happening, I was beginning to form some ideas about my place in the workforce in general- what I was adding to the industry I’ve chosen and how this industry operates. Most importantly, am I being the change I want to see in the industry? 

The FI/RE ideas that I’d been exposed to had also begun to change the way I viewed the kitchen design industry and the construction industry as a whole. It confirmed ideas that I’d had in the past about our consumption culture in the United States and our desire to keep up with the Jones’. 

I’ve begun to see this even more in the last few years I’ve been working as a kitchen designer- the client’s desire for more product, for less money.  You can see it in a client’s decision making process- it’s so clear when someone opts to sacrifice quality for aesthetic. 

I liked the idea of “F-You” Money

This was where it all came together for me as a kitchen designer who found FIRE. The idea of “F-You” money sat perfectly with my idea of a life-work balance as a designer. The ability to say “NO” to certain clients. To not scramble for business. To pick and choose who I want to work with based on ease of relationship and not motivated by year end sales goals. 

This sounded a lot like to freedom to me- something I’d desperately begun to desire in recent years. This is my journey of finding it.