Ten years ago I wrote about what it meant to be to be able to afford something and that financial independence meant the state of being able to chose to work where I wanted, doing what I wanted, or not at all if that is what I wanted. I was thinking about a sort of independence – the lack of a dependency on others for a sustained meeting of needs. The lack of a need to conform to their rules in order to meet my needs. As I’ve gotten older and closer to that being a reality, I’ve put some more words into what it means to be to be financially independent and to retire early (FI+RE). For me, it comes down to being in a situation where I have lots of options. The option to live where we want to live, not to be limited to a selection we