How Can We Build a Life We Already Enjoy Before Full FI?

Recently, I sat in bed after getting all three kids to sleep before 8 PM, thinking about how much I already enjoy our life — even before reaching full FI. Isn’t that what it’s all about, especially when raising small kids?

Because childhood has a deadline too.

And I’m forever grateful that I truly have the time to enjoy my kids while they’re still little instead of constantly rushing through life — which is exactly what I did at the beginning of our journey towards FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early).

Our current lifestyle actually has a name: “Slow FI”, short for Slow Financial Independence.

And even if you’re pursuing a different FI strategy, some of the unexpected freedom Slow Financial Independence offers may still be worth thinking about.

What Is Slow Financial Independence?

Slow financial independence means building wealth without putting life on hold in the meantime.

You still invest consistently, still care deeply about financial independence, still track your net worth and think long-term. But you no longer want your entire life to revolve around reaching FI as fast as humanly possible. You don’t revolve around maximizing your savings rate at all costs.

That also usually means accepting a lower savings rate — many people chase 20% or more. And instead of making work fully optional decades early, the focus shifts toward creating a better work-life balance now. As a result, reaching full FI often happens closer to traditional retirement age.

Choosing a Sustainable Savings Rate Instead of Extreme Frugality

For many people, extreme frugality simply isn’t the right fit. And, I get it.

While I enjoy our frugal family life, I wouldn’t consider us extremely frugal — although some people probably would (we’re a family of five driving one old really small car, even on vacations, and we buy almost everything second-hand for both the kids and ourselves).

But, instead of aggressively cutting every expense, we’ve become much more intentional about balancing future freedom with present quality of life.

That means we still spend money on things that genuinely improve our family life now, but with intention:

• experiences with the kids,
• convenience during exhausting seasons of parenting,
• and low-budget vacations.

I like to call this intentional frugality and I talk more about that in my post on 7 Life-Changing Wins From Living On A Frugal Budget (As A Family).

That’s one of the core ideas behind slow financial independence.

Working Less to Enjoy Family Life Before Full FI

Slow financial independence also means working less or in a lower-paying job that you are deeply passionate about.

For example, we reduced our corporate jobs to 4 days a week and took intentional career breaks to go on parental leave. In total, across all three kids, I spent around 4 to 5 years on parental leave. Away from traditional work. Except for building this blog.

Part-time work, career breaks, or even mini-retirements can become a shortcut to living a freer and more intentional life years before reaching full FI.

Why We Stopped Chasing Financial Independence as Fast as Possible

When we first discovered FIRE six years ago, we were obsessed with higher savings rates. More investing. More efficiency. More rushing.

But somewhere along the way, I think we accidentally started treating life as the thing standing between us and freedom. And it slowly wore us down.

Then we got a small taste of time freedom before reaching full FI. I took a longer parental leave, and Marc started working less. Once we experienced what that extra time felt like, it became hard to keep telling ourselves to wait until “someday.”

Today, we stopped chasing full financial independence as fast as possible — another idea that sits at the heart of slow financial independence.

I’m not sure we would have felt comfortable slowing down this much without years of investing first.

Knowing we already built a strong investment portfolio created an emotional and financial safety net that made part-time work and lower savings rates feel far less risky (dropping to ~30-40% during parental leave). And looking ahead, we won’t return to 50% immediately. I recently revealed our Our Net Worth at 40 (Real Numbers + Breakdown + Financial Independence Progress).

What Slow Financial Independence Looks Like in Real Life

We work part-time (which means Marc and I are both off one day during a regular work week). We enjoy slow afternoons with the kids (except on my long work day). We’re not feeling like we have to rush to full FI because we’ve already started slowing down.

We love our family-first schedules and enjoyed longer parental leaves along the way — little “mini retirements” that give us more time together before full FI.

However, we are not following the concept of Slow Financial Independence although we’re living the same lifestyle.

I can relate to the idea surprisingly well, even though not every aspect of our lifestyle looks the same — especially since our savings rate is still relatively high, and we currently plan to semi-retire somewhere between 45 and 50.

We actually pursue another Semi FIRE / Semi FI strategy which I share in my post on Barista-Coast FIRE: How We Plan to Semi-Retire in 10 Years.

That’s essentially a combination of Coast FIRE and Barista FIRE.

One part of our portfolio keeps compounding in the background so we can eventually reach financial independence without continuing to invest. At the same time, we plan to use another part of our portfolio to generate passive income that replaces part of our salary — allowing us to reduce our work hours even further or even make a career change.

How Part-Time Work Changed Our FIRE Journey

The biggest upgrade in our FI journey came from reducing our working hours.

I think that increased our feeling of wealth far more than optimizing another few percentage points in our savings rate ever could.

Our Part-Time Work Setup (And Why It Felt Sustainable)

I experimented with different part-time schedules, and I can honestly say this:

A 15-hour work week spread across three days feels kind of genius from a time-freedom perspective.

But I’ve also realized that working just a few more hours would probably allow me to do deeper, more meaningful work.

Over the years, both Marc and I tested many setups across three to four days — 15 hours, 21 hours, 28 hours, 30 hours, even 33 hours — and it showed us one thing very clearly: we probably never want to return to full-time work long term.

Of course, never say never. But when I picture our future semi-retired lifestyle, I keep coming back to how much working part-time has already improved our quality of life — far more than I ever expected.

The Lifestyle Benefits Were Bigger Than the Financial Trade-Offs

Part-time work gives us the freedom to work on our passion project — this blog — without feeling like every minute has to be optimized in our schedules. And whenever I sit down to write, I never find myself counting the hours until I’m done. Quite the opposite: the time always feels too short.

Also, we pick the kids up feeling calmer, spend more time outside with them, cook without constant time pressure, and have fewer “survival mode” evenings. Life simply feels less rushed now.

There’s actually a concept for this feeling called “time affluence” — the sense of having enough time instead of constantly feeling rushed. I found this article about time affluence and enoughness especially interesting because it perfectly describes that shift.

The Unexpected Freedom of Slow Financial Independence

What Were We Actually Rushing Toward?

I had no real vision of what I actually wanted my day-to-day life to look like once I reached financial independence. And I think that’s a problem for many people pursuing early retirement — because very few of us truly have a clear picture of what that life is supposed to look like afterward.

We just think freedom would arrive someday in the future. After a certain milestone in our stock market portfolio. After full financial independence. After early retirement.

I was so focused on “rushing to FIRE” that I didn’t pause to ask what I was rushing to.

What kind of everyday life did I actually want us to live as a financially independent family — even before we fully got there?

I Stopped Counting the Months, Weeks, and Days Until Full FI

Part-time work quietly clarified that question. Because once I experienced a little more freedom now, and already built a life I can enjoy now, it became much harder to justify sacrificing our entire present life for a slightly earlier FI date later.

So I stopped.

I stopped rushing. I stopped waiting for “early retirement life” to begin. I stopped looking at our spreadsheets and the timeline. And I stopped counting down the months, weeks, and days until we hit full financial independence.

Why Were We Delaying the Life We Actually Want?

We delay the life we actually want until some future financial milestone finally gives us permission to enjoy it.

But do we need that kind of hardship? What if part of that life can already exist much earlier? Like, right now.

We’re No Longer Rushing Toward FI

We still want financial independence. Deeply. But we no longer want to build it at the expense of the years we’re living right now — especially while our kids are little.

Childhood has a deadline too.

Interestingly, this shift isn’t only happening inside the FIRE community anymore. Even outside personal finance circles, more people are questioning whether working more always leads to a better life.

I recently read about how a four-day work week is gaining momentum globally — because many actually report feeling healthier, happier, and more productive with more time outside of work. And I totally agree with that.

The Biggest Improvement in Our Life Was TIME

The biggest improvement in our life came from already buying back time without actually doing it.

Time to breathe a little more. Time to enjoy weekdays instead of only weekends with the kids. And time to actually experience family life while building financial independence instead of postponing it.

Slow Financial Independence Isn’t About Giving Up Ambition

The point is, we didn’t give up ambition. We still invest, still build wealth, and still think long-term.

But, the timeline no longer controls our entire life. And that is very powerful and gives us choices now.

Conclusion

Maybe slow financial independence isn’t for everyone. Some people genuinely love optimizing for the fastest possible path to early retirement. And that’s totally fine.

But for our family, slowing down a little has actually made the journey feel sustainable for the first time.

We still believe in financial independence.

We just don’t want to postpone our entire life until we get there.

What if the goal isn’t waiting for a better life later — but building one you already enjoy living now?

I believe Semi FI or semi-retirement offers the best balance between continuing to build wealth for financial independence and already unlock some of the freedom years earlier along the way.

Want to explore your own path to financial independence today? Start here with our “Financial Freedom Pathfinder” to compare different Semi-FI paths side by side.