Two years since last doing so, this seems like a great time to take another look at my personal journey towards financial independence and see if I am still on track to hit my early retirement target.

I’ll confess that my approach to financial independence has hitherto been overwhelmingly lazy, driven by the pursuit of maximizing my leisure time along the way as well as once I cross that finish line.

Pursuing financial independence is quite the non-traditional path, so it necessitates some differences in financial planning from what most other people are doing. Life insurance is yet another one of those areas.

Last week I had to attend probably the most pointless work meeting of this year to date, except this one I had to travel across the country and attend in person.

Following a recent promotion, I’m now at a career crossroads. Has financial independence already allowed me to opt out of the rat race?

Last month, I finally hit what I’ve been eyeing as a huge milestone in my path to FIRE. How am I doing compared to the plan I laid out two years ago?

It may seem obvious that the more that you save, the earlier you can retire, but the first time I saw just how early I could retire by saving a third or more of my income, I was completely blown away.

In some ways I feel like this experience has given me a small taste of the daily freedom I imagine comes along with early retirement.

Financial independence in a nutshell is a pretty simple concept. I believe that I can retire by age 40 with one million dollars, and it will cover my expenses for the rest of my life.