Hi! I’m the FI Value Engineer. Hailing from the base of the Rocky Mountains in the United States, my partner and I have had many conversations about Financial Independence (FI). While he likes to take credit for introducing this concept to me, you don’t have to look very far to find my well worn copies of The Tightwad Gazette and Your Money or Your Life, which I started sneaking off my Mom’s shelves before I was a teenager.
By my early 30s, I had “made it.” I was valedictorian of my college class, finished a master’s degree in public administration, landed my dream job, gotten married, and rose through the ranks to the CEO position. From the outside, things looked great. I was getting paid to save the world.
After two years in the boss’s chair, I wasn’t sleeping at night. I had a budget deficit that I had no idea how to fix, and so many people looking to me for answers. Every morning, the anxiety was so bad, I’d throw up anything that I was able to swallow. By 5 pm, I’d collapse on the couch, petrified by the thought of making supper. I stopped returning texts and e-mails from my friends. I though that if I just worked harder, it would get better. But it wasn’t working. Finally, I decided there was only one way out. A very final way out.
My family, my therapist, my doctors, and my friends, kept me from enacting a very final solution to a temporary problem. During my recovery, I channelled my pent up energy on taking a look at how my partner and I spent our money in the last year. We have a pretty good life. A house, a dog, pretty good health, more money coming in than ever before. But I wasn’t happy, and my partner was in the same boat.
As I continue my mental health recovery, I want to undertake an experiment. Value engineering is a term that’s common in construction. It’s the practice of working on a project to get the most value for the client, while staying within a limited budget. What if I apply the same practice to my day to day life? How do I get the most value, most enjoyment, while working to save the majority of our income for financial independence? And thus, the FI Value Engineer was born.