Like so many of my fellow financial bloggers, I am hoping to reach FIRE sooner rather than later. To that end, we have cut expenses, increased our income where we could, and set goals. But sometimes…life happens. What does one do when that’s not enough? What does one do when one is faced with constant medical bills?
Medical Bills and FIRE
I have been working toward FIRE for perhaps a year…and have been trying to live on a budget for many years before that. (It was 2005 when I first learned of Dave Ramsey.) We’ve not eaten out too much; we’ve tried to save for regular but non-monthly expenses…all that stuff.
Unfortunately, certain members of the household have been plagued with migraine headaches. Some of them have had monthly (or worse) migraines for decades. And those migraines don’t always respond to treatment. There are times when nothing helps, and I have to watch someone I love just try to live with the pain. Then there are other things (which I don’t feel the need to go into) which plague others in the family.
I suppose I should add, as an aside, that we don’t have medical insurance at the moment. The insurance the day job offers wasn’t all that great, and so we chose a healthcare sharing ministry instead. Pretty much, it’s effectively like having a high-deductible plan anyway.
But regardless of our insurance (or not) situation, the fact remains that we have lots – and I mean lots – of appointments every month. If anything, the number of appointments has been going up, which is not a trend I like.
She could be one of any number of people in my family dealing with constant migraines. She’s not, but she could be.
The Realization
A lot of FIRE bloggers talk about living a frugal or minimalistic lifestyle. They’re speaking to the many people who readily blow five bucks a day on a grande mocha, telling them that they need to be thinking more about saving.* Unfortunately: 1) we don’t buy a daily mocha anyway; and 2) our medical bills typically add up to way, way more than a mocha a day would total.
If we had a budget right now, the medical visits would be the wild card that would be blowing that budget.
So…the question I have had to ask myself is this:
Which is more important: retiring early or having a decent quality of life for my family while we are on the journey?
My answer to that question was pretty simple. It simply isn’t worth it to me to have my family be miserable just so I can get out of the rat race a few years early. What this means for our family is that, at least for now, the savings have to be on hold. Getting everyone the healthcare they need now takes a much higher priority.
Do I regret not saving? Well, I regret not saving earlier, when the family was healthier (and smaller), but regardless of past choices, this is where we are now. And right now, we can’t both save and get the medical attention we need.
So what am I doing?
For right now, we are simply, well, living. We’re doing our best to make the budget balance (it’s not) and using our savings where necessary not to go into debt (so far, we’re still able to do that).
And, hopefully, the investment in our family’s health will pay the same dividends we would hope to get with our money.
* Dave Ramsey would undoubtedly throw in the term “gazelle intensity” as a chaser.
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