FIRE!

So what is FIRE? No don’t call the fire department! Fire stands for Financial Independence Retire Early!

I first encountered this term on Kristy’s and Bryce’s blog Millennial Revolution. They did an amazing job of explaining this concept and I see a strong connection on what I want for my future.

I’m a Canadian teacher and even though I have significant amount of work experience, I’ve faced a lot of challenges looking for full time work in Toronto, Canada. Most of my experience has been working overseas in international schools.

International schools are private or independent schools located all around the world. Our students can be a mix of local population and expatriate families. These schools charge tuition, some of these schools are for profit, while others are non-profit. These schools are necessary because families that live outside their home country due to jobs, are unable to have their children educated in local schools due to language/cultural barriers.

Back to my reason for wanting to FIRE! Ontario has had an oversupply of teachers since 2002 and competition was fierce to land full time jobs. I worked overseas for 12 years and was ready to come home. Despite 2 years of job hunting I was unable to find consistent part time work, let alone full time employment. So back overseas I went.

I love the structure of a workday and feeling productive at work. I feel like I’ve accomplished something and my work with students really meaningful. It makes my weekends and summer breaks that much more precious. When I was unemployed, I was frustrated and could see my savings slowly seep into a dark hole.

So FIRE for me is to save enough money overseas in the next 10 years and then to go back to Canada. I would be able to live modestly for 20-30 years without the fear of unemployment hanging over my head. I would have the FREEDOM to look for work, to change careers (not sure what!), spend time with family/friends or to pursue other interests or hobbies. That’s my dream!