Here's how I can afford to be a full-time writer

The one where I discuss my finances in way too much detail.

When my husband and I were 25 years old, we had coffee at the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park and planned our whole lives together. 

At the time, we were celebrating our seventh anniversary (we started dating the first month of college when we were just 18) and we knew we didn’t want to live conventional lives, but we also didn’t know what unconventional lives looked like. So we started daydreaming.  

I knew I wanted to be a writer and that I wanted to spend my life mastering that craft, but I also didn’t expect to make a living doing it. At the time, I had a (loosely related to writing) tech job in the Bay Area and I figured my best hope was to make enough money so that I could eventually quit my job, move to France, and write novels. The dream!

My husband thought similarly. He enjoyed his job, but what he really loved was mountain biking and being outside. He wanted to buy a camper van and bikepack through Europe. Together we imagined living creative lives filled with adventure and travel and we figured our jobs were a great way to get us there. 

Around this time, the FIRE movement was really picking up steam. People like Mr. Money Mustache (whose blog I still religiously follow) were retiring from their jobs before the age of 30 to live unconventional and interesting lives and my husband and I wanted to do the same. We didn’t want to get stuck in the 9-5 grind, we wanted to become financially independent and retire early (that’s what FIRE stands for)!

That day in Yosemite, we took a hard look at our finances and figured out that if we worked for 10 more years and saved 60 percent of our income the entire time, by the time we were 35 years old we could retire, move to France, travel the world, and write novels.

We set up goals and a budget on Mint.com and the next year we got married, bought a house, and set out to live the dream.

Our wedding cost $86 at San Francisco City Hall