Chasing the Fionist Dream

When pursuing a goal, it is always important to find role models and make connections with other people in the same boat. Upon perusing other FI blogs one day, we saw the word Israel pop up on one of Lazy FI Dad‘s posts. It turns out he is an Israeli living in the UK with his wife and two little kids. They hope to move back to Israel in the next few years. We reached out and had the great opportunity to speak to the person behind the blog. We want to share part of our conversation with you.

1. Who is Lazy FI Dad?

2. When and under what circumstances did you start your journey to financial independence?

I read “Rich dad, poor dad” by Robert Kiyosaki while in high school, so the concepts were there but I never did anything with them.

Fast forward a decade, I moved to the UK at the end of 2015 with a lot of student debt (owed partially to a bank and partially to my parents).

I remember Googling something really cliche like “how to get out of debt” or something like that. That got me to Dave Ramsey.

I loved his material, I bought his books and used to listen to his radio show all throughout the day, I called it “positive brainwashing”.

As my debt was in Israeli shekels and I was earning in pounds, the Brexit referendum increased my debt (in pounds) by around 20% almost overnight.

Regardless, I paid it off by the end of 2016.

Sadly, after paying off your debt, Dave Ramsey doesn’t offer too much so I looked elsewhere and found the FIRE community (I don’t remember which website/book I found first). 

3. What are your plans for after you reach FI?

That’s such an important question. First of all, it’s important to mention that my wife wants to continue to work forever.

We all know this might change but I will probably leave my job before she does.

I think my plan for after-reaching-FI consists of 4 main things:

i. I want to be a stay-at-home dad. I love spending time with my kids and want to be at home with lunch ready when they come home from school. 

I want to be available for them when they need/want. I love the morning routine (currently that’s waking up before 6 am, feeding, changing nappies, dressing, and breakfast).

It’s funny, COVID changed my life for the better, I was supposed to be home with each of my kids for around 2 weeks, and t’s been 2.5 years and counting.

There’s a brilliant article/post (with a bit too many graphics) that shows that by the time a kid reaches 18 (maybe a bit older in Israel due to the army), you have spent the vast majority of the time you’ll ever spend with them:

The Tail End — Wait But Why

It’s a short read and is amazing, I highly recommend it.

ii. I want to focus on my health- swim and go to the gym, maybe learn a martial art. These are things that for various reasons/excuses, I don’t currently do,

iii. I love teaching, I currently teach Excel and enjoy every moment. It’s mainly training for corporate clients (companies hire me to train their employees) but I also do private sessions and help companies build financial models.

I’m currently working on a very cool project, building/improving the financial models behind the Topia app:

After reaching FI, I want to continue doing these things or even do more of them.

iv. I love learning. I can see myself maybe doing another degree for fun, maybe in finance or an MBA. Before I had kids, I took the CFA  (Chartered Financial Analyst) exams and really enjoyed them.

Hopefully, I can do ii, iii, and iv while the kids are in school/childcare.

Besides these things, I want to see friends and family of course.

4. Who is your FI inspiration/role model?

I’m not sure I have an FI inspiration or role model but there are some FI creators who I love. The top ones are (the order has so meaning):

Mr Money Mustache- I read every single one of his blog posts.

Hasolidit – the best FI content creator in Hebrew. I love her posts and the journey she’s been through.

JL Collins- his book “The simple path to wealth” is the best personal finance book I’ve ever read, and I read quite a few.

Big ERN- his SWR series (which won him a PLUTUS award) is nothing less than a masterpiece. I wish I had more time to read the whole series (I’m roughly halfway through). It’s an FI-money-nerd’s dream.

5. How has Brexit and the skyrocketing inflation in the UK affected your FI journey?

As I mentioned above, Brexit cost me a lot of money by increasing my debt.

We’re very fortunate because the inflation hasn’t really affected us too much:

We don’t care about house prices or rent because we own our home, so our monthly expenses are steady. Our mortgage is also fixed for 5 years (before the hikes) and our  interest rate is less than 3%.

We don’t own a car so transport and gas prices don’t really affect us.

The crazy energy price hikes didn’t affect us too much because I fixed our Tariff for 3 years towards the end of 2021 (so we still have 2 years of good sleep). Thanks to Martin Lewis for warning us to Fix it ASAP.

6. You grew up in Israel and plan to move back in a few years. How will this affect your path to FI?

Moving to Israel is financial suicide haha.

Tel Aviv named as world’s most expensive city to live in – BBC News

However, it is not a financial decision. It has financial implications but it’s not driven by finances.

Just like going out to eat with friends is more expensive than cooking at home.

Does that mean we always choose the cheapest option? Of course not.

It’s a lifestyle choice.

We’re moving back so our kids can grow up with their uncles, aunts, grandparents, and cousins. The financial price is worth it.

7. You said that your wife plans to continue working once you hit FI. What happens if she changes her mind?

If Lazy FI Mum wants to quit work, we will have to check if my teaching money and our investments can cover our expenses. If it can, great, I’ll be thrilled,

If not, I’ll find a part-time job or even go back to full-time work.

It’s funny how full-time work is my worst-case scenario but it’s most people’s (and mine now) normal life.

8. What do you wish you were taught when you were in school? OR If you could go back in time, what would you have done differently?

I wouldn’t change anything, I believe that every action you make, changes your path in life and if you are happy with where you are (and I am!), then that’s all that matters.

Not sure if you watched “The butterfly effect” or “About time” (movies) but they sum up this concept nicely.

The only thing I wish I knew is how much fun being a parent is. I may have been more aggressive with my savings.

However, I’m very happy we didn’t wait until we were FI to have kids. But again, I’m happy with my life so I wouldn’t change anything.

I also don’t think school could have taught me anything that would have changed my FI course. 

As I said, I read “Rich dad, poor dad” in high school and while I loved it, I didn’t do anything with it. I wasn’t ready. 

I think I had to go through the journey of going into debt, paying it off etc. to get to where I am today.

9. If you could live on any TV show, what would it be?

Haha, wow. I have no idea. I love The Simpsons and Homer but having such a neighbor sounds like hell.

I don’t have an answer for this question 🙂

Conclusion

Thank you Lazy FI Dad for taking the time to speak with us. We enjoyed speaking to you and learning what the path to FI is like in the UK. We all are trying to find ways to beat inflation, get better deals, learn tricks to keep our bills down and still achieve FI. We wish you lots of luck on your journey.

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