Reaching Financial Independence isn’t a straight shot—it’s a long, winding ride. For us, it took eight years. Here’s how we tracked our savings and net worth to stay on course while still enjoying life with three little kids.

Our savings rate was the single biggest driver of Financial Independence (FI). So we focused on what we could control: increasing income, optimizing expenses, and reducing taxes. Here’s how we hit a 50% savings rate—without hating life.

Our investing strategy wasn’t complicated—just early, consistent, and simple. By sticking with low-cost index funds and dollar-cost averaging, compounding did the heavy lifting. See how we grew our portfolio to $1M+ while raising three kids.

We finally put a number to freedom: $3M. That’s how much we needed invested to retire early and travel with our kids. See how we calculated our FI number—and why yours might be lower than you think.

When we started our Financial Independence journey, we had no clear picture of what we were spending, saving, or worth on paper. Once we began tracking our income, expenses, savings rate, and net worth—it changed everything. With a baseline in place, early retirement shifted from a distant dream to something within reach. See how we set up our tracking systems and why it was a big step toward retiring early with kids.

Fethiye, Turkey gave us boat trips, markets, sea turtles, and the kind of sunsets you remember forever. Early retirement gave us the time to enjoy them with our kids—without waiting for “someday.“