TicTocLife - A Story of Financial Independence
FIRE Insider
Personal thoughts on financial independence, retiring early, and the FIRE community from Chris & Jenni at TicTocLife.
Merry after-Holidays and Happy New Year! If you're in the US, happy MLK day!

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.

So here's to you in 2024!

Our Latest Posts


Since the last newsletter, we delivered two monthly updates:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.

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.

📖 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.

💔 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.].

🤓 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.

Desert Holidays & Dividend Christmas (Dec. 2023 Update)

We closed the year with a desert escape to see family and the FIRE community. Plus, we explore our huge $47K monthly budget ballooned by dividends!

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The holiday season isn't complete without touring our local lighting extremists!

FIRE Budget 2022: Our Life of Financial Freedom on $57,439

FIRE Budget 2022: Our Life of Financial Freedom on $57,439
Our FIRE budget details how we lived an adventure-filled life in 2022 on about $57K/year as two 38-year-olds. Steal our tricks to reach FIRE!

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Fall in Cancún & Nashville (Nov. 2023 Update)

After a pair of quick trips with friends to Nashville and Cancún, November ended with a family Thanksgiving and one of Chris’s favorite local events.

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Our friend caught us soaking in one of those special sunset moments in Cancún.
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Warm regards,
Jenni & Chris

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