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FIRE Insider
Personal thoughts on financial independence, retiring early, and the FIRE community from Chris & Jenni at TicTocLife.
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Merry after-Holidays and Happy New Year! If you're in the US, happy MLK day!
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Chris & Jenni here—we wanted to wish you all a very happy new year! It's always a joy to interact with our community, thanks for making our little financial insights all the more meaningful with your comments, emails, and thoughts.
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So here's to you in 2024!
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Our Latest Posts —
Since the last newsletter, we delivered two monthly updates:
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- In November, we celebrated Thanksgiving by escaping to Mexico with friends to a few all-inclusive hotels (check out our thoughts/savings on these!) — then onto Nashville for a close friend's 40th birthday.
- Our December holidays were partly celebrated in Arizona with family — where we also ran into a few infamous members of the FIRE community. We had an opportunity to check out MMM's latest interest; Culdesac, the same day we toured Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin with Mr. 1500.
And, we completed our big annual FIRE budget! Unfortunately, it was about 12 months behind — this is the 2022 update. Still, those interested in graphs and pie charts will find plenty to love in our expense breakdown. Our headline number was just over $57K for our life of FIRE in 2022.
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Around the web —
🔊 Carl (Mr. 1500) and Mindy have a new podcast! Their focus is on the "after" part of FIRE. What does life look like after financial independence? It's not "4% rule" and grocery strategies, it's maintaining your financial freedom and celebrating that very same freedom.
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📖 If you're curious about our visit to a burgeoning community in Arizona and Mr. Money Mustache's interest in the area, he's set up a project page on Culdesac to learn lots more about the under-construction walkable area in car-dependent Phoenix.
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💔 The whole process of FIRE isn't always all it's cracked up to be. Gwen, Fiery Millennial, is back to work after some of her experience chasing the dream. Give her interview on Fortune a read for some signs to watch out for in your own pursuit [tip: if you're having trouble with a paywall, 12ft.io might bypass it.].
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🤓 Relatedly, there are plenty of common reasons we each desire financial independence. A lot of it boils down to having freedom to make difficult decisions throughout life, especially in your career. And sometimes that might mean ending it, and not for money reasons, as Financial Mechanic recently did.
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A big, strong Lukas made his way into the world with our Doula by our side and healthy Jenni after a long labor!
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Last Month Before Baby (Apr. 2026)
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Our latest monthly FIRE budget: A $250K net worth swing, motherhood charities, and our last month as a family of two!
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Huge Investment Bonuses & Home Repair (Mar. 2026)
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See how we earned a whopping $11K+ in bank bonuses, read how our baby prep continues, and come vote for a nature conservation charity we'll donate to!
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If you found an article we wrote that a friend might like, forward this newsletter to them!
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Thanks again for subscribing to our infrequent newsletter. We both hope you're enjoying TicTocLife as much as we are. If you have feedback about this newsletter, you can reply directly or use our Contact form.
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