1. Can you give us a little background of who you are, what you do, and how you became interested in personal finance? How did you discover the idea of financial independence?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea of financial independence has always been close to my heart \u2013 as a kid I loved the Duck Tales and the Scrooge\u00a0McDuck\u00a0swimming in a pool of money and not really going to work. For someone who grew up in communist Poland, and wo grew up with the surrounding scarcity, this has been a true dream.<\/p>\n

I rediscovered the idea, and the plan, when I was an adult, and we were building a house with my husband \u2013 we were able to cash flow a lot of it, and because the entire building duration was only 11 months, we realized how much we actually can squeeze out of our paychecks! That was in 2013.<\/p>\n

2. When in your journey did you realize financial independence was actually possible?\u00a0 Was that the original goal at the beginning?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until 2017 that we found FIRE blogs, and were able to define the FIRE goal, and dedicate all energy towards it. In the years 2013-2017 we were working to pay off the loan for the house (we had a mortgage on the land), and radically improved our savings rate, and salaries. We knew we were saving, but we did not have a goal of freedom in mind, more a \u201cperhaps we can get a villa in Cote D\u2019Azur someday\u201d kind of a goal \u2013 550-600k euro. To a girl in me who visited Nice in 1990, right after the fall of communism, this was the dream and for the first time in my life I felt that I could achieve it in my life.<\/p>\n

But the more we calculated, and the more we saved, the more I looked for investment and saving blogs, and I discovered\u00a0Mr\u00a0Money Moustache, and I was hooked!<\/p>\n

3. To help put things into context, if you are comfortable sharing some numbers, what is your savings rate, FIRE number, net worth, salary, how many hours a week do you work, etc?\u00a0 How long have you been working towards financial independence and where are you today?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know if my numbers are useful, as we have a unique situation of two nationalities, two countries of investments, and low cost of living place, but our goal, all in sits around what other bloggers report \u2013 just shy of 1mln$. Our goal is to have passive income from all cash bought apartments that covers our daily cost of living in the country we live in, and have about 30% buffer coming from USD index funds. And a 401k which is a separate thing, not covered in the main goal, that we won\u2019t touch for decades.<\/p>\n

Our savings rate is around 85%, but it\u2019s hard to calculate because of the multiple income streams and investing in properties, where we cash flow their purchase in big buckets.<\/p>\n

We both work from home, 40 hours a week. We both have a few side hustles \u2013 I teach project management, hubby does some editorial work, proofreading, he wrote a book about living in Poland and \u2026he\u2019s acting in movies! We also did some tutoring, I was receiving PhD scholarship on top of my salary, we have rental income, so we generally have a lot of income streams, and we really like to be busy.<\/p>\n

We have officially started our project \u201c100 month towards FIRE\u201d in September 2017. We are 93% complete, and we have 2 months left, which is 53 months sooner than originally planned!<\/p>\n

4. Do you feel deprived?\u00a0 Do you feel like you are sacrificing and missing out on life?\u00a0 How would you say your mindset has shifted throughout your FI journey?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once we decided to buy freedom, instead of the house in the Cote D\u2019Azur, we feel very calm. We can take on a lot of crazy ideas \u2013 work on climate change efforts or take more risks at work. We travel, we eat out, we enjoy our life. What has changed is that we don\u2019t feel the need to buy stuff, and when we do buy something, we spend a lot of time before we make the decision.<\/p>\n

5. What do you spend your money on and what don’t you spend your money on? Do you use a budget?\u00a0 Do you track your expenses?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We spend 100% of our money using a card or bank transfers (only about $50 per year using cash). This allows us to track every penny. I have a master Excel sheet with high level budget for each month, and I forecast my earnings and spending for 12 months ahead, showing my\u00a0cashflow\u00a0for each month \u2013 this is really helpful when buying apartments with cash!<\/p>\n

Our few largest categories of spending are: travel, food, and personal, that includes both extra health expenses not covered by our insurance, and courses, and clothes\/books\/music. We eat out 2-3 times a month, we go out for a coffee date 5x a month. We travel each quarter. We pay for any course we feel like we want \u2013 currently learning Swedish. These are things that we enjoy and do a lot.<\/p>\n

We don\u2019t really buy stuff \u2013 clothes go in the one-in-one-out category, and often buy second-hand. We don\u2019t buy electronics, and if we do, try to use airline miles for it, or buy second-hand. We don\u2019t spend money on bottled water, or pre-made freezer food, or Uber, or takeaway food. We decided to keep only 1 streaming service at a time, because 2 don\u2019t bring double the fun. We use our iPhones until they die (currently year 4 on them, and these are first ones we ever owned), and I\u2019m typing this on a computer that is 8 years old.<\/p>\n

You get the point \ud83d\ude09 if it works, why replace it has been our philosophy in consumption.<\/p>\n

6. What brings you happiness and joy? How much money do these things cost?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are lucky to live in a low cost country, and in Europe, where you can drive to many amazing places, or fly really cheap to great destinations.<\/p>\n

We spend about $3,500 per year on travel, and we travel a lot \u2013 once a quarter at least.<\/p>\n

Eating and drinking out is always an event \u2013 we don\u2019t do takeaway, because we don\u2019t go out to avoid cooking, but go out to spend time together and look at the world and enjoy it. We spend about $150 per month on it.<\/p>\n

We also spend about $1,300 on personal education per year \u2013 be it courses, or language classes, things that are fun, and help us grow as humans.<\/p>\n

7. As a FIRE member living in Europe, can you try to shed some light on some on the differences you’ve encountered along your journey (both pros and cons) that are specific to those within Europe?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pros: property taxes. They are really low, and they help us to keep a really good ROI from our rentals. We tried to invest in a property in the USA and the insane taxes halved our income, it wasn\u2019t worth it. We\u00a0currently\u00a0pay about $50 per year on each of our properties.<\/p>\n

Cons: difficult eviction laws for non-payers. We carefully screen tenants, and have been blessed so far, but I\u2019ve heard stories.<\/p>\n

Cons: lack of 401k equivalent. My system in Poland allows for max of $1,500 per year contribution to the system. This is really not enough to make it a useful vehicle.<\/p>\n

Pros\/Cons: Europe is not one country, and\u00a0each country has different tax laws, making it difficult and expensive to invest pan-European. We stick to one country here, and it makes us feel like a lot of eggs in one basket.\u00a0But it\u2019s also a pro \u2013 there are a lot of cheaper places to live and invest, while still enjoying the European values, social care and relatively short distances.<\/p>\n

8. Since you have experiences in both the US (where your husband is from) and Europe, can you try to explain to those of us in North America how your FI journey in Poland differs for someone in the US or Canada?\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

First of all, education is free here, so I started with no student loans. If you want to, you can keep getting new skills for close to no cost. I did my Masters, and my PhD, and even got hard cash in a scholarship, while working a full time job. The key cost here is always housing \u2013 it can eat up to 50% of your salary if you\u2019re not careful, so house hacking is a way to go. Housing is also the biggest piece of people\u2019s wealth, so this is where most people keep their retirement money \u2013 not ideal as it does not move well.<\/p>\n

The taxes here are high in comparison \u2013 18% (for a salary up to $22k per year), and 32% above, plus social security, giving healthcare and retirement, but it also gives a security net: paid sick leave, maternity, and unemployment (very low but some). This helps with the immediate needs.<\/p>\n

Salaries are pretty low in comparison, but there are a lot of industries where you can get up to the global salary, while living in the low cost country \u2013 I work in pharma, IT is good too \u2013 I get 80% of a German salary, in comparison to other industries where we get 25-30% of their pay.<\/p>\n

There are\u00a0a lot of entry-level jobs in S&P500 companies in the city of Krakow in their internal outsourcing branches, and while they only pay ~1700$ per month gross, it\u2019s more than an average salary, and you can make a good start. This is what attracts a lot of expats who make a move to Poland to get started and \u201clife hack\u201d. We have a lot of US friends who moved here, finished their university (MA degrees) and have great corporate jobs, not believing how easy the life is for them in comparison to what it was back in the US, and how high their BA degree student loans are.<\/p>\n

The start in adulthood looks very different here: you study for free, live in a sub-let room, and don\u2019t own a car. And when you graduate, you get a job, buy a small starter apartment, still don\u2019t own a car, and get one closer to 27 years old when you need one to visit in-laws. This means that we save a decade worth of interest rates on a vehicle, and thousands of education costs, and make the home ownership the first large purchase (and average studio price is $80k for 320q ft place).<\/p>\n

9. As a follow up to the above question, are there any differences to living in Poland vs any other European country that would impact your FIRE journey? I know the cost of living is much lower compared to many Western European countries but is there anything specific to Poland (not just Europe overall) that has helped\/hindered your FIRE journey?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Western EU countries in comparison to Poland would offer me 50%-80% higher cost of living, and 20-40% higher salary in my field of work, so it would have taken me much longer to get there. My excel showed a relocation at this point is not a good move, unless we want to have the experience of living somewhere fun.<\/p>\n

They offer typically better healthcare, maybe better schools, but since my son is 21, I don\u2019t really need schools anymore, and he can move to study abroad. For healthcare, as EU citizens, we can still relocate and join their systems, which we are actually considering as we will eventually age. With this in mind, we are carefully looking at the cost of living in other countries so that our FIRE budget can cover it if needed.<\/p>\n

The one thing that Western EU countries might have been better for is the government pension plans \u2013 ours sucks, and while it takes a ton of money from my pocket each month, I don\u2019t really count on it in my math for FIRE.<\/p>\n

10. What is your investment strategy? Do you invest in mutual funds, index funds, dividend growth stocks, real estate, other businesses, etc.?\u00a0 Has your investment strategy changed over the years?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our current goal is:<\/p>\n

45% real estate in Poland;<\/p>\n

19% 401k (100% index funds);\u00a0not counted towards the FIRE goal<\/p>\n

36% Vanguard \u2013 14% in Bonds funds, and 22% in index funds<\/p>\n

We started with a goal much heavier in real estate, but since all the apartments are in one market, we decided to switch. Similarly, we decided to put some bonds into the mix to calm down our aggressive portfolio in Vanguard. We learn as we go, and it\u2019s possible that we will end up with still a different distribution, but that is where we are now, and it makes us comfortable.<\/p>\n

11. If you could go back in time and change things, what would you have done differently?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Start sooner! I started my career in 2006, so I defined my FIRE goals only in year 11 of my career. Think how far would we have been if we had defined them sooner!<\/p>\n

I really couldn\u2019t do that much before 2011 \u2013 this is when I got my first corporate job in major pharma, and settled things down after my divorce, met my husband and started to settle down. But we should have started in 2012 \u2013 so we fiddled around for 5 years (building and paying off our house in the process, but had we started in 2012, we would have built a smaller, cheaper one and invested the rest). We would have also probably done heavy 401k investing, and rebalanced the 401k portfolio sooner, had we known how it all works. My husband has not been maxing it out for ages and sat on $200k of cash accumulating for a decade! Insane move from our today’s perspective.<\/p>\n

12. Has discovering financial independence changed how you view your job and life overall?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Oh yes! I have been negotiating my salary much more aggressively. When I know that my job is not forever (because FIRE), I can push harder, and get more of it, so that I can be done sooner. I think I am much bolder at it too \u2013 using gamification not just to track my spending, but also to see how high can I get up in corporate life. I have nothing to lose, because I know that we are so close to FIRE that we can make it even if I get fired, so I go for it. And people actually appreciate that in me \u2013 the confidence, the bold moves, and the ability to hold it steady in times of stress, things a lot of women in leadership are learning. I believe that my FIRE journey and financial security has given it to me.<\/p>\n

I also know that in case my job really sucks, I can quit now, and with a modest lifestyle, I can make it until something else comes up. This is the so called f*ck you money.<\/p>\n

13. Do you take advantage of tax advantaged accounts offered to you?\u00a0 If so, which ones and how so?\u00a0 Do you have a game plan to be able to withdraw from these funds without getting hit with a penalty?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have some 401k but not much \u2013 hubby started in it too late. My Polish equivalent is similar \u2013 with very low limits per year, it\u2019s a nice to have, but frankly, I don\u2019t count it towards my goal.<\/p>\n

We will keep them in, and research the back door options of withdrawal once we need it, if we need. I hope we don\u2019t need it. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

14. As a parent pursuing FIRE, have you found that having a child has greatly delayed your timeline to FIRE?\u00a0 On average, how much money have you spent on your child per year?\u00a0 What were some of the bigger costs that were worth it and what were some of the bigger costs that were not worth it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I never really calculated that, but I don\u2019t think so \u2013 now that he is on his own, our cost of life has only slightly decreased. Yes, we have been paying for a private school for him, but we have replaced this expense with extra courses for us now, so it’s not really a cost that significantly delayed our FIRE date. Kids are not an expense, they are family \u2013 and we do all of that for family.<\/p>\n

15. As a parent, what have been some of the most expensive child related expenses from your end?\u00a0 What are some of the best items or experiences you’ve spent on your child to date? What were some baby\/child related items that you thought you needed by didn’t really need?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My son was born when I was in college, and so I was living on a shoestring budget, with a lot of hand me downs, so the answer is \u2013 nope, you don\u2019t need “that”. Instead, take that $5,000 you were about to spend on the gadgets you think you needed and see it become a fund for college education for them if you live in a place where it costs money, or for a property down payment if you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

16. As a Polish resident pursuing FIRE, what are your post-FIRE thoughts\/plans regarding health coverage?\u00a0 As a reference, what do you currently pay annually or monthly for health related costs? What do you estimate your post-FIRE health costs to be per year?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Currently, we\u2019re covered as long as I\u2019m working. After we\u2019re done, we have essentially 4 options:<\/p>\n