Chasing the Unicorn 🦄: 9 Years to Financial Independence
9 years. 2 kids. 2 teachers. 1 unicorn 🦄. Ever wonder what chasing financial independence really looks like from 30,000 feet? Here’s our journey. ✨
We’ve learned a lot along the way—about money, life, and what it really takes to make the improbable possible.
Year One
Learned about FI, wondered if it was even possible, did some calculations (about 287 times), and saw we could be financially independent in 11 years.
The destination was set, and we decided it was worth a shot.
We kept asking ourselves if this was really possible—numbers said yes, but it still felt like chasing a unicorn 🦄, since we didn’t personally know anyone who’d done it.
Year Two
Devoured every book, blog, article, podcast, and forum post we could find—if it mentioned FI, we read it 📚.
Many messages were similar and repeated, but the human nuance—how each person applied the lessons in their own life—was different.
It was like reading short stories of people’s journeys, letting us pick up useful takeaways that worked best for us.
No stone left unturned. The learning curve was steep, but exciting.
Year Three
Recalculated and dug into the details 🔍. Learned more about our retirement contributions, HSA, and Roth IRAs.
At this point, we were trying to maximize everything we could to make our goal a reality.
When it was all accounted for, we realized we were allocating roughly 60% of our financial resources toward our goal.
Watching the numbers line up was infatuating—slightly obsessive, borderline spreadsheet-romance level 💻❤️.
Year Four
Began to see how countercultural this really was 🤔. Wondered why more people weren’t doing it.
Talked about it so much that family and friends nodded politely… before slowly backing away 😅.
Year Five
Investments were doing well 📈, the market was doing well, and a recalculation showed we were closer than we thought—only four years away instead of six.
Started an MBA 🎓 and launched financial coaching, while realizing some people still had a hard time believing FI was even possible.
Year Six
By this point, we had enough clarity and resources to really enjoy the journey:
Traveling ✈️
Spending quality time with family 👨👩👧👧
Making intentional choices in the present
We hit a net worth milestone of $1 million 💰—enough to feel proud, but also enough to remind us that FI isn’t just about numbers.
FI is about joy, grabbing the now, and celebrating wins along the way.
Year Seven
Finished the MBA, leaned further into financial coaching, and hit our stride 💪.
We felt confident not just about prioritizing money for the future, but also for the present.
The sacrifices we made felt right for our family, and by saying “no” to what didn’t matter, we could say “yes” to what did.
That confidence increased our happiness and gave us a sense of control over both our journey and our destination.
Year Eight
Started serious planning for post-FI life 🌱:
How to give back
Build community
Not just binge Netflix 📺
We learned that the end of the journey needs a vision, not just a number.
Year Nine
About nine months away from reaching a point where our chosen lifestyle no longer depends on our income 🎯.
Meanwhile, I’ve started studying to become a Certified Financial Planner and teaching financial literacy courses—because apparently we like both planning for the future and explaining it to other humans 😄.
We’ve done all of this while:
Raising two daughters 👧👧
Staying true to our core values of education, travel, and living intentionally
Building careers we love: my partner as a private lessons music teacher 🎵 and painter/visual artist 🎨, and me as an elementary school music teacher
And yes, I’ll be turning 50 this year 🎂—proof that it’s never too late to start shaping the life you actually want.
Full Circle
At the start, reaching FI felt improbable—like chasing a unicorn 🦄 that only existed in books and podcasts.
Early on, we thought the unicorn was the rare family who actually pulled this off, the special people who somehow made the math work in real life.
But after nine years of recalculations, trade-offs, and steady persistence, we’ve learned the deeper truth:
The real unicorn isn’t a special person. It’s the ability to align your spending with what you truly love, and to let your values—not comparison or impulse—decide where your money goes.
Sometimes in my elementary school music classes, we pretend to be bunnies with superpowers, fearlessly taking on whatever giant stinky cheese monster crosses our path.
That kind of magical play is fun and inspiring—it’s about believing that we can change the very rules of the game.
And while there’s no financial fairy dust, no prosperity potions, no mystical shortcuts, there is something even better:
Clarity, consistency, and the courage to say no to everything that doesn’t serve your highest priorities.
After nine years, we stopped looking for the unicorn.
We realized it was never hiding somewhere far away—it was here all along, in the daily choices and trade-offs that brought our life into alignment.
Two musicians, two kids, two teachers—one in an elementary school, the other a private lessons instructor 🎵—managed to do this on educator salaries. I’ll be turning 50 this year as we reach FI, living proof that the unicorn isn’t a mythical creature after all.