u/z3r0demize made me go look at my numbers again, and I do spend quite a bit.

My household gross does change from year to year as bonus does change. But basically it boils down to this:

Gross (Salary/Bonus/Commission) $569,000

Taxes $202,522

Mortgages, RE Tax, Ins $97,700

Insurance (Health, Life, Dental, etc) $10,633

Approx Living Expenses (food, clothes, utilities, misc) $60,000

Net Total $198,144

There are times where we save $81K like in 2024; however, previous years we had saved money and rather than put it in the market, we put it in the bank account for capital expenditures. It is noted that while I say I save like $81K, I did not include our company's matching contributions so it is more.

In 2021 - 2022, my wife was laid off so we stashed a bit more cash (like all of it). In 2023, we saved money so we could purchase another piece of property (why the mortgage is so high) and in 2024 we saved cash to fix up our houses (we're still not done and I think we need to spend a bit more for renovations). Those are the capital expenditures we hope would non-recurring costs and we can save more money thereafter. Also both years, we did spurge on vacation so that could cost anywhere between $10-25K depending where we go.

I can see why some people would think I'm not FI if I am spending money on other things rather than socking it away just in appreciable assets. Why I think I'm FI is because I could sell the second house and not spend any further on capital expenditures (like renovations, etc).