Reducing Expenses

About 7 years ago, I was reading about taking mid career breaks (when one is still mobile and energetic) and remembered feeling that it makes sense. Apparently, I feel J needed a mid career break and convinced her to take a year off work (no pay leave) to explore her interests. She took up Amigurumi (knitting) and this was also the year that she became pregnant with our eldest. 

Both of us do not have expensive hobbies and thus I was roughly sure that my single income can 'carry' the family. I did not track expenses (too lazy, and we don't have expensive hobbies). But it was then that I started tracking our net worth regularly. I believed that when something is being tracked (i.e. net worth), it will grow as we will make decisions to influence it (whether subconsciously or not). 

I figured that at the end of 1 year (with me as sole breadwinner), if our net worth still increase, it means my single income can really 'carry' the family. After 1 year, our net worth did increase. 

Later on (5+ years ago), J left her job to stay home with our eldest kid. The previous experience demonstrated to me that we will be OK.

Nevertheless, I remembered cutting down on the below expenses. 

• She was paying around $8.5k annually for insurance. I was paying around $1.5k annually for mine. I cancelled all our life policies and converted us to term policies.
• I asked her to go lesser for her facials and massages.

5 years later, we are now a family of 5 (3 kids!) and inching closer to our FIRE (mine actually, since J is considered retired I guess) figure. Despite being a single income family, I am still tracking our net worth regularly and aiming to FIRE. With luck, I hope that I can reach FIRE by 2030.

-H