The Big Plan: On FIRE in NYC

As I sit down and write this I’m in my comfy, mostly-unpacked Brooklyn living room. My three-year-old son is napping. And my husband is working from home in the bedroom. It’s Friday afternoon. I’ve got Sex in the City on in the background (I guess I’m feeling nostalgic) and laundry drying on a clotheshorse. 

Life is pretty good. 

We’re exactly 45 days into our five-year financial independence acceleration plan (which will henceforth be referred to as The Big Plan — and yes, that’s likely Sex in the City talking). That’s not very far. But as we are fond of saying, the hard part is over. What do I mean by the hard part?Let me tell you!

From March 1 to roughly June 20, we systematically unraveled our lives in my hometown in western Canada. We quit our jobs (on the same day) sold our three-bedroom house, got rid of approximately half of belongings, found a two-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, and moved in. Obviously Brooklyn differs profoundly from the land of double-attached garages jammed with SUVs and myriad other stuff, so to say this has been an exercise in minimalism is appropriately minimal.

So back to this move to NYC. If you’re frugal to any degree, I know what you’re thinking. What the hell was she thinking? I get it. Given our commitment to attain financial independence in five years, it sounds like moving to a high cost of living area like NYC makes zero sense. Or subzero sense. But stick with me. 

Why NYC? Money, family and FI

Before this adventure all started, we were chugging along toward FI in my hometown in Western Canada. Our jobs were pretty good but not awesome. We had a nice house that was highly leveraged and an SUV we owned outright. Our savings rate was decent (maybe 10-15%) but not terrific, certainly not Mustachian. We were keen to attain our goal of financial independence faster, but had run out of levers to pull. In a word, I’d say we felt stuck. Stuck in a city with in a depressed economy, stuck with jobs that were not going anywhere, stuck in our town where my extremely specialized husband couldn’t find other work, and stuck with our mortgage. I was desperately unhappy in my job and had been looking for other work but in my heart I just wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. We just didn’t see a way out or through any of that stuck-ness.

Money

Then something happened that flipped the script. My husband was offered a job of more than double his then-current salary. We were blown over.

We researched everything before accepting the offer. We looked at apartment listings, we calculated my husband’s tax obligation, we researched school zones. I even looked at the cost of groceries in NYC (thank you, Internet). We figured out that, if we went for it, we would be saving 50% of my husband’s pay and I get to be a stay-at-home mom. Yes, even despite the high costs of living in New York, we’re saving at a much higher rate. How? We’re living well within our means. We chose to live in what must be the most un-hip neighbourhood in Brooklyn. Midwood is a working-class, family hood, which is to say it ain’t fancy. But we have an elevator, central air, in-suite laundry and a dishwasher. It’s a safe neighbourhood and my husband’s commute to lower Manhattan is about an hour. Oh, and we’re rent-stabilized and paying $2400/month.

Family

The fact that I didn’t need to work out of financial necessity was a major reason we decided to go for this ludicrous plan. When we announced our intentions to our families and friends, a lot of women asked me if being a stay-at-home mom would be “enough” for me. I get it. Many mothers work outside the home out of necessity, not choice. I answered honestly: “I won’t know until I try.”

Right now I’m six weeks into said trial, and all I can say is that I’m loving it. It’s only now that I’m spending so much time with my son that I truly realize what I was missing. I know I am ridiculously privileged to even have this choice and the opportunity to ponder whether or not I find this path personally fulfilling. When I was balancing a career and family, life felt like a never-ending juggling act. Monday to Friday we rushed to get our son to daycare by 7:30, worked like mad, and then rushed to pick him up by 5:30. In my team, I was invariably the last to arrive and the first to leave, always feeling guilty for seemingly not putting in as much work as my teammates. Upon arriving home, I tried to put together dinner at breakneck speed so we could eat at a decent hour, then careen into the bath-story-bed-dishes routine. My husband and I then attempted to either watch a little Netlifx together or just collapse. Weekends were stuffed solid with housework, laundry and a feeble attempt at quality family time. I think I’m just the kind of person who likes to focus her energy on one thing at a time. Right now, that’s motherhood. That may change. I’m not going to judge myself if it does.

There is a second family factor to The Big Plan. My husband grew up on the East Coast, a roughly three-hour drive from our home in Brooklyn. Being that he has a very close relationship with his identical twin brother (go figure), not to mention an ailing mother, this move means a lot to him, and, by extension, to me. We intend to take advantage of this proximity and spend as much time as we can with them.

Financial independence

We don’t intend to stick around in New York for longer than necessary. Once we hit our number, we will bid New York farewell and buy a little piece of land in Western Canada where we will retreat to a quiet life of nature, family and simple living. Ironically, moving to one of the craziest and busiest cities in the world is helping us get closer to just that.