After a decade in China, Mr. FIRE Power is moving to Washington D.C.
10 years ago last month I landed in Shanghai China with freshly learned language skills and a set of big ambitions. I had not heard of financial independence at the time, but the lifestyle choices I made in those early days would equate to what I now know of as FIRE.
My first major purchase was an apartment rental contract in Shanghai. The search played out like a scene in a language text book: Mr. FIRE Power goes to a local real estate agent, in confident Chinese describes the housing criteria (cheap (便宜)! this neighborhood（卢湾区）! colonial house（老洋房）!) and barters for a mutual satisfying price. We saw four or five houses before I settled on what would later become known as the tree house.
The treehouse
The place was perfect. It was an 18 square meter true studio in a 90 year old building with a an ancient Chinese bed from pre-revolution China. It was small. The air conditioning didn’t work. The hallway kitchen was caked in the soot of a decade of low hanging pollution. The building leaned ever so gently to the side so if you dropped a water bottle it would roll slowly (and as the years went by more quickly) toward the door. The bathroom might be referred to as “rustic.” But it was in the best neighborhood in Shanghai and boy was it cheap.
In Chinese class we spent a significant portion of time practicing intercultural communication. One lesson focused on negotiations. I was ready to test out these skills in the real world. Before I toured the apartment I was told the price was $400 a month. Thinking myself shrewd, I told the woman showing me the place I could not pay a penny more than $349. She was clearly unhappy with the owner of the real estate company. Instead of countering my offer, she told me that the apartment was overpriced and I could get it for $270 a month. I immediately signed a two year lease and lived there happily for the next 7 years.
We’ve discussed this before, but that decision saved me $70,000 dollars over that stretch of time and opened my eyes to the wonders of frugality and the possibilities for financial independence. Ten years later I’m moving on to a new adventure, but the tree house lives on in the possession of another FIRE adherent. And the experience with that apartment and China generally, will continue to color the way I see the next chapter of financial decisions in my life.
Whats next?
One reader asked if I would continue the blog going forward. The answer is yes! Changing location offers fertile ground for new discussions. What will I do about transportation in this new location? What are the economics of renting over buying a home? How will the FIRE lifestyle interact when I move in with a significant other? Big questions. Lots of room for new posts.
Thank you for reading so far, if you would like to sign up for whats to come, you’re welcome to join the FIRE Power Gang.
