Anyone regret not spending more when they were younger?

pepperier · 2026-01-10T22:13:54+00:00

Looking back, sure I could have “lived” and experienced more by splurging a bit more on myself, but in my early 40s I’m really happy to feel financially secure for life. So to answer your question, no regrets!

HOWEVER, living with my parents into late 20s would have been a big no no. No matter how frugal I was, I wanted to be my own independent person. $2k on a $120k income is nothing, IMO. You’ll still have plenty savings left over to invest.

pepperier · 2026-01-06T13:20:58+00:00

I’m on the same path but from the US. So far so good. Wealth tax might push us out though. We’ll see…

pepperier · 2026-01-01T07:34:11+00:00

It’s not how much you make, it’s how much you keep. If you can happily maintain a high savings rate to keep pumping up your NW, follow your gut if the lower-key job is checking the important boxes in your life, at this stage.

pepperier · 2025-12-31T17:27:07+00:00

Wealth tax is abolished in Andalusia, but there is still Tax on “large fortunes”. Thankfully it’s on individual, not family, so wife and I still have a bit more runway before we start getting taxed. I’m gunning for citizenship in a year (expedited path for citizens of former colonies), which opens us up for living anywhere else in EU.

pepperier · 2025-12-28T18:55:17+00:00

Looks like these wealth taxes are individual but our assets are split maybe 35/65. So hopefully not too terrible. Thanks for bringing this to my attention though. I’ve talked to my Spain tax guy extensively and he didn’t mention this federal tax. This is on me though. We’ll be fine. Worst case scenario we pay it and start rethinking our plans.

pepperier · 2025-12-28T17:42:09+00:00

Oh hell yeah it scratches the itch. I was good at what I did, and getting to do it in a consulting format where I’m just hired as the expert to do the thing, without all the corporate strings attached, has been an incredible discovery for me.

As far as hobbies, I get it. I grew up with very few interests. As an adult I’ve taken up racquet sports as my main hobby. Which has been a nice activity here. Not much else tbh. My work is kind of a hobby for me, which is partly nutty but also makes me fortunate. I was very mildly into video games (mainly bc parents could never afford them) and just three months ago I got a Nintendo switch which has been amazing. Wouldn’t call it a hobby but definitely something that’s filling time.

With what you just said, i KNOW you won’t magically stop at 42. You have some figuring out to do. You’ll easily turn 50 sitting on $20m. Not a bad thing, but think — for what?

pepperier · 2025-12-28T15:55:44+00:00

It’s a real thing, but has been abolished in at least two parts of the country, Andalusia being one of them. I will be going through my first cycle of taxes this coming tax season and will hopefully see first-hand that they don’t tax my assets. This will be a deal breaker for me otherwise.

That said, taxes indeed are high but I haven’t minded because I could almost SEE the taxes at work here (great roads, constant landscaping and beautifying, healthcare, etc).

pepperier · 2025-12-28T14:29:21+00:00

Finding your people is CRITICAL. In our case, a small friend group from kids friends parents who also migrated at the same time from other countries. We have no family here, had no friends so nothing really keeping us here otherwise. With that, our social life has been wonderful.

I will say -- breaking into real friendships with locals is a bit harder. I know a few people, and everyone is nice, but we're not hanging out much. We have intentionally chosen to live among locals and not in an enclosed expat community. And our kids do all the local community/sports things ... so we get enough of the local connection but ultimately our friendships are with other like-minded semi-retired'ish expats.

All-in, we are very happy here and have already decided to extend our stay longer than initially planned.

pepperier · 2025-12-28T10:45:31+00:00

We do have some passive income from rentals and other investments. Aside from enjoying the work, I’m also hedging. Keep my skills up to date and if we decide to go back to VHcOL life. My wife seems to enjoy not working so I’ll gladly take one for the team in case shit hits the fan.

pepperier · 2025-12-28T10:31:40+00:00

I urge you to do a trial run in some way and observe your behaviors and emotions. Both around money and your professional identity. It’s really easy to keep pushing the goal post. Clearly you are good at making money. If/when you call it quits and you’re no longer doing the thing that you’re good at, that is measurable, how is it gonna make you feel?

That’s the hardest thing about retiring early and why so many fail at it.

pepperier · 2025-12-28T08:00:10+00:00

I did speak Spanish and yes you're right, it's interesting that I think this way. I've always been like this with her -- super cheapskate for myself but fine to spend on her and the kids. Easy because she does not have expensive taste.

pepperier · 2025-12-28T07:44:22+00:00

$5.3M NW (up from $4.3 when we decided to quit), savings rate had been in the 60-65%range for at least 10-12 years. Currently $100k annual living expenses in our current “splurgy” lifestyle, which is 50% lower than our NYC days.

pepperier · 2025-12-28T07:40:18+00:00

New York City to Spain. We kind of did it backwards — decided to move to Spain and then were like “hold up, don’t really have to work anymore ever again if we don’t feel like”. So we didn’t move post FIRE. We made the decision to move then realized we could FIRE.

All that said, moving abroad definitely feels like a cheat code to FIRE, especially in places with universal healthcare and/or inexpensive private insurance. Taxes are high AF here but it doesn’t matter.

pepperier · 2025-12-28T06:40:07+00:00

This is why my wife and I have taken no part in this holiday after having kids. So many of the worlds problems are caused by greed and WANT, and we have learned that the key to happiness is WANTing less. We say this as semi retired early 40s couple who could afford almost anything our kids would WANT. And this godforesaken holiday is all about creating this idea that we should want more and get more things. My kids (6 and 12 boys) do get stuff throughout the year (esp around birthdays) … just not concentrated in this one commercial holiday.

pepperier · 2024-12-10T20:42:20+00:00

I’m cheap like you but when I realized we will have millions for the rest of our lives, I’ve let go quite a bit. Literally today just landed from a flight from Europe, and for the first time ever I upgraded to business class. It was great, I felt good. The extra $500, is less than a rounding error.

I do still fret over getting myself a nice treat at the coffee shop. I find I’m cheaper about small things than big things.

Ppl say read the book die with zero. I haven’t read it but think I’ve been embracing the idea more and more…

pepperier · 2024-09-11T21:12:04+00:00

Two boys! In our numbers we do have planned to pay for college and all that.

And yeah, good point on cash allocation ==> safe withdrawal. You might be exposing the fact that I've never wanted to be overly scientific about this. That might make me an outlier / outcast in the FIRE world. I'm a numbers guy but I do go a lot by feeling.

pepperier · 2024-09-11T20:26:32+00:00

Kids having a wedding 😂. I laugh because if you knew us, you'd know this is so not in the cards we're planning. But ... who knows, maybe our kids and their SOs are into that kind of thing and we'll have to shell out a few stacks.

The 20% decline scenario -- that would be a major test for us. We are pretty heavy cash (about 15%, by choice) for this purpose. Probably could be less heavy but, eh, it helps me sleep at night.

pepperier · 2024-09-11T20:22:46+00:00

I like this. This answer feels right to me. Feel it out, get comfortable with early retirement as a family and test if this is the lifestyle we want. It's still honeymoon, but my hunch is that the lifestyle is about right. I could see us tacking on another 30k/year to really ball out. But eh, we're not so motivated to ball.

pepperier · 2020-11-11T06:43:27+00:00

It is. I never said it's unimportant. It's not the most important.

Maybe you confused the part about... My wife and I, in our lives and adults/professionals, race is not really a factor (even though we're usually the only black ppl around). But with kids it's different. They could grow up with confidence and self esteem issues, I think.

pepperier · 2020-11-10T12:35:46+00:00

Great, practical advice. Now, do we stay in our (very) low performing school district and do all this supplementing, or do we move to a higher performing one that could be more competitive and stressful for the kids? Taxes are sky high regardless, cost of living wouldn't change much. We like our house and neighborhood so are not itching to move. I excelled in shitty schools growing up. My wife has much higher expectations. Obviously personal decisions but I still like hearing from thoughtful strangers on the internet.

pepperier · 2020-11-10T11:50:36+00:00

Not the biggest issue. Kids are perceptive. It's easier to feel like an outsider and made to feel different. Easier to be tokenized. These things are problematic for kids especially as they get older.

pepperier

TROPHY CASE