Hello – I’m glad you’re here!

Ok, here we go. It took me over a decade to finally make this blog a reality. We need to start somewhere and some point, right? I’d like to disclose that this is our journey of pursuing financial independence. I’ll use this blog as a tool to document our journey until we’ve reached the goals and beyond. Also, I’ll use this little corner of the internet to jot down my thoughts and experiences (is this called a diary?). So I sometime will tell not only my tips and resources I use on the journey but also the mistakes that I made along the way. Since every individual is uniquely different and has a different life situation, this may or may not work for you. However, I do hope that you’d pick up things that work for you and that you learn something here. I definitely look forward to learning from you.

My Background

I grew up in a family of 4. We lived modestly in a home where we grew our own fruits and vegetables. My dad was often away as he was in the army. Thanks to my mom who took care of my sister & I and taught me how to cook & clean and garden and so on. I first came to the United States on a scholarship during my senior year in college (and this is where I met my future husband). A year later, I permanently moved to the States to be married to my husband. I am now living in a suburb of NYC a small town in the South of the United States. We’re blessed to have a beautiful & healthy child.

Outside of school, I personally studied heavily on music and art and was hoping one day I’d be a famous artist living the dream when I grow up. Life happened, I am somehow a scientist microbiologist. However, I have a good & steady income with great benefits.

Why this blog?

I was already in my mid 30’s when I discovered that I wasn’t the only one who thought about being out of a workforce extremely early to spend the rest of our life freely on what we truly value. This is called “FIRE; Financial Independence – Retire Early“. I’m so glad that I’ve found this amazing community. The idea/concept exists. I’m not crazy! Long story short, our family wasn’t on the FI path until our child was born. We got rid of our consumer debts, car loans, and home mortgages. Other than our new home mortgage, we are debt-free.

Here the thing, have you ever dreamed of anything that makes you happy or makes you, at least, feel happy? I’ve always dreamed of spending life however I want; the life that full of fulfillment, joy, happiness, and freedom. I have fond memories of spending time with families. That time, I was so happy when grandma came to visit; I ran half a mile to hug her at a bus stop with a tear of joy. That time, my sister and I spent our endless weekends together catching fish at a nearby creek; we were too happily excited the moment we caught one fish even after spending all day without food. Nothing was related to stuff or materials. It was only the time we spent together and experiences & happiness we shared.  That’s right, the time and the freedom to do whatever you like.

Yet, I haven’t been able to achieve freedom. One day I realized, I spent so much time going to schools and working to make a living. Heck…I actually don’t have much time left to actually live and enjoy life! We only get one take on this planet. I don’t just want to go to school, to work to make a living (to pay bills) and then to die. How amazing would it feels if you could spend your days not thinking about making ends meet?  I mean if you’re financially independent and you have financial security. You have life options. Would it be nice to have enough wealth to live on for the rest of your life? You’ll find happiness and FREEDOM through FI.

Time flies, my husband and I are approaching in our 40’s. However, I strongly believe that we can accomplish FI before our 50’s by practicing even more frugality and increasing our savings rate. Before my thought of FI, we’d been doing (barely) ok with our money. Since my decision on pursuing FI, we’ve been doing so much better with our finances. I want to share our stories in the hope that our journey would inspire you to do the same. The idea of making our journey public scared me a little. At the same time, I also like the idea of holding ourselves accountable. So that all said, “by50journey” was born. I want this blog to capture our path to FI, to learn from each other and to inspire others. My path I followed wasn’t always smooth and predictable. Learn from my mistakes, join my journey and follow our stories. Let us be free by the time we turn 50.

The purposes of this blog are:

1. To document our journey of pursuing financial independence (FI)
2. To hold ourselves accountable by making the journey public
3. To learn from each other and inspire others

Money. Life. Freedom. 

Mrs. 50

By50Journey.com

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