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In 2013 I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lymphoma. Before that, I was on top of the world: financially, physically, and relationally. It all came crashing down in an instant. People frequently ask me how surviving such a devastating disease has changed my life. I think they want to hear that I had a “walk toward the light” moment during the 90 seconds I was coding on the operating table during surgery. They want a story about how, from that second forward, everything changed and how I can credit cancer for some abrupt change in my life’s direction.  They want it to be the singular “why” for this epic family adventure.

The truth is less satisfying (at least it appears to be to those asking the question at dinner parties). 

I didn’t see any light during those 90 seconds. I didn’t experience anything supernatural. I didn’t get to meet Jesus, even for a quick convo. From the time they put me under for surgery until about three days after I woke up in the ICU, I don’t remember a thing. Zip. Nada.

I do, however, think there are lessons FIRE can teach us about facing things like cancer, lessons cancer can teach us about the value of FIRE, and some general life observations that have come out of this experience. Although cancer is not the singular “why” for our desire to go on this epic family adventure and live a life of freedom and simplicity, I’d be wrong if I didn’t admit that it most certainly has influenced it heavily.

How FIRE Helped During Cancer

Let’s start with how being on a path to financial independence already helped me fight stage 4 Lymphoma.

We were already debt free and on a financial path before I got my cancer diagnosis. In fact, we had paid off our house just three months before my diagnosis. Not having a mortgage certainly helped with paying exorbitant medical bills and provided a lot of peace of mind. Knowing your financial house is in order and that you have proper insurance, etc., really helps you focus on your health predicament and not your finances (when that’s where your focus needs to be).

With that said, here are some things surviving cancer taught me about FI/RE.

What Surviving Cancer Taught Me About FIRE

Work for a Good Boss and a Good Company

It’s important who you work for. I was fortunate to work for a great company and have an amazing boss who truly had my best interests in mind. He encouraged me to work from home as much as I needed to and to take it slow so I could get back on my feet. He showed tremendous grace in my quantity and quality of work in the early weeks, months, and even years after my diagnosis. I am still loyal to him today, following to continue to work for him at another (great) company now.

I don’t think I’m as good at my career as I used to be. I think there are 3 reasons:

1. I do think my memory has been impacted by cancer, or, more specifically, impacted by the chemo treatments I underwent to treat it.
2. I realized that my job isn’t the only thing that defines me. That’s not always been the case in my career. I wanted to do great things, climb the corporate ladder, solve problems, and make lots of money doing it.
3. When you’ve come face to face with death while fighting a disease like cancer, fears like losing your job are small in comparison. Your perspective on work changes. It’s not that I’m a slacker. But I no longer have the fear that not impressing the boss could perhaps lead to a possible job loss.

Debt Free = Peace of Mind

Being debt free is important and provides relief from the fear of not being able to provide for your family. If we had had payments, our situation would have been drastically different. I was able to fight cancer knowing that, with a paid off mortgage, there was no scenario in which we would lose the house.

Insurance is Important

Insurance is boring and seems expensive until you need it. I was thankful in our coverage (health, life, and disability), so I didn’t have to worry about my family and could focus on healing.

Cancer Does Change You

I value different things now. After cancer, I set out to see more sunsets. I linger. I try not to squander the moments and experiences that I once would hurry past. I spend more time with the people I care about. I do more epic things rather than maintain the old status quo. I quote it too frequently, but a Randy Komisar quote continues to reverberate the idea that we are taking a dangerous risk by thinking we can do epic things or love on the people closest to us later. Figure out how to do that now. That’s what cancer has primarily taught me. I think this is the single biggest way cancer has impacted our FIRE plans. It gives purpose to the “Retire Early” part. I’m ready to linger and experience the things that a working person just doesn’t have the time and freedom to experience.

Other Things Cancer Taught Me:

Cancer didn’t have lessons for me only about FI/RE. I also learned (or learned to value) some other things in this process:

Faith

If I couldn’t count on God’s promises or the power of prayer or His word, I would have been hopeless. I would have considered myself a man of strong Christian faith before cancer, but praying through this life experience has secured in me that no matter what the outcome had been, God had a hand in it and I continue to see Him work in and through my story. 

Love

My wife is amazing. She became my caregiver overnight and handled the whole thing astonishingly well. I remember telling her one night after one of my chemo treatments that she didn’t deserve this. She did nothing wrong in her life to earn having to care for a husband and father of her kids through a terrible disease. She may not have deserved it, but she handled it, and I think we came out stronger in the process.

Family

The importance of extended family. They all came around me, my wife, and our kids. They traveled. They visited. They provided. They prayed. They loved. It was amazing and I couldn’t have done it without that support network that they provided.

Kids Are Robust

I experience the amazing resilience and capacity of our kids to absorb the situation. My kids were young when I fought cancer (four and six). They still remember it and always will. We celebrate the anniversaries of my surgery. We fund raise for LLS. Through cancer, my kids gave me something to live for, but there were also moments of great pain when I’d look at their faces and wonder if I would be around to see them grow up.

Community Connections Count

Your social network is important in life experiences like cancer. Friends, family, and church members we didn’t even know all came around to help our family through this and provided anything we needed (meals, babysitting, chores around the house, etc.). The humbleness required to ask for help was hard for me at first, but I will always be thankful for their generosity.

Maintaining Your Health

Taking care of your body is important. To start fighting cancer from a position of health and wellness was an unexpected blessing. Pre-cancer, I was taking three-mile walks at lunch until my back started hurting. I was eating right. Because of that, I started fighting cancer from a position of strength. It’s also important to take care of your body during treatment. I did much better tolerating my treatments when I was taking care of my physical heath with walks as well as maintaining a healthy diet. When my traditional doctors simply said “eat whatever you want to be comfortable,” a friend and fellow cancer survivor turned me on to a local naturopath that got me on a healthy diet that really helped me feel better and less nauseous with the chemo drugs. This truth will follow us into early retirement when healthcare coverage is dependent on our wellness.

After Cancer

The first few years post-cancer I spent hunkering down, not making big decisions, and saving for the future. For Lymphoma, they never really use the word “cure.” It’s more like a remission and in the most hopeful of cases, that remission can last a long time. My oncologist said that if there were a point you could call yourself “cured,” it would be at six years of remission without a relapse. For those six years, my aim was just to claw back to the life I had before cancer. I didn’t have large dreams about drastic life changes. I just wanted my original life back and to begin providing for my family again, and that was enough work as it is. Having the capacity to buckle down and get our debt cleaned up earlier in life helped me in the post-cancer years do the things I needed to put our financial house back in order.

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My friends, health can be fleeting. You never know what’s going to come at you. Cancer is an equal opportunity disease that nobody is immune from. Value your health when you have it and do all you can to maintain it. It doesn’t care about your financial independence or early retirement plans, your savings rate, or your net worth. As I’ve tried to outline here, being on a path to financial independence can provide a relief when facing difficult times. I have also learned that some of these life struggles can aid in our understanding of the importance of a life lived in concert with our values. But also, cancer has taught me about the motivation, value, and benefit of financial independence and early retirement.