The popular budget framework assumes a certain life. Families are living a different one.
The FIRE community has no shortage of frameworks. The 50/30/20 rule. The 4% rule. The bucket strategy. Someone’s cousin did it this way. Someone’s podcast recommends that one.
Here’s the thing nobody talks about enough: those frameworks were mostly built by people without two kids under three, a stay-at-home partner, and $50,000 in medical debt that showed up just because having a baby costs what it costs.
You do not have to use someone else’s framework. You have to tend your own fire.
How our savings rate went backwards and what actually happened
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When we were young and didn’t have dependents, we were putting 15% into the 401k. And maxing out our HSA family plan. Clean. Simple. On paper, we looked like we had this figured out.
Then Lil Spark arrived. Expenses shifted. We dropped to around 8%. Still felt reasonable. Still felt like forward progress.
Then Baby Spark joined us in Fall 2025.
Suddenly the math looked completely different. Medical debt from the pregnancy and delivery was stacking up. Day-to-day costs with two kids, you know what they cost, were not letting up. And somewhere in there the Co-Pilot had cravings, and I made the call to not be the guy who says no to that. I was not going to win that fight, and honestly I did not want to.
Our savings rate dropped to 4%. Just the match. Just enough to not leave free money on the table.
If you had looked at our numbers cold, you would have thought we fell off the map. The reality was we were just trying to keep our heads above water and we were doing it, barely but actually we were doing it.
What we did about it
Here is the part that is not very popular in FIRE circles: we paid off the medical debt with our HSA.
That is not the textbook move. The conventional wisdom says preserve your HSA as a triple-tax-advantaged investment vehicle and keep that debt at low interest if you have it.
When you are staring at $50,000 in high-interest debt that showed up because you had a baby, the gloves come off. We threw every punch we had. The HSA had the balance. We used it. No regrets.
Was it the mathematically optimal play? Probably not on paper. Did it feel right? Completely. That debt was not going to compound in our favor at 7% while sitting in the market. It was just sitting there, collecting interest, taking up mental space.
The math that matters most to us is the one that keeps us moving.
The plan now: max the HSA, max the 401k pre-tax, and get to a 25% savings rate
We are six months post Baby Spark. Things are starting to breathe again. The medical debt is gone. The pipeline is recovering.
Our next target is a 25% annual savings rate. Not the end point. The next milestone.
The approach: max the HSA and max the 401k pre-tax contributions. Both moves reduce taxable income, which means we are keeping more of what we earn and pushing less into the government’s pocket. For a household trying to build on a manufacturing manager’s salary and whatever the Co-Pilot brings in when she chooses to work supplemental, that matters.
If income eligibility works out down the road, a backdoor Roth conversion is on the list. Not this year. But on the list.
This is not a savings plan someone handed us. It is not the plan from a podcast or a Reddit thread. It is custom tailored to our life, our income, our expenses, and our timeline. We built it ourselves and we are adjusting it as we go.
Why no framework fits better than your own
FIRE does not look the same for everyone because life does not look the same for everyone. The families who actually make it work are the ones paying attention to their own numbers, not optimizing for someone else’s percentage split.
You do not have to follow the 50/30/20 rule. You do not have to use zero-based budgeting. You do not have to do what the financial influencer on your feed is doing. You have to do what fits your life, your income, your kids, your goals, and the season you are actually in right now.
Tending a fire is not one-size-fits-all. You cannot just copy what your neighbor does and expect the flames to burn the same way. Stoke it wrong and it gets out of control. Cut off the oxygen and it smolders out. You have to learn your own fire, feed it what it needs, and adjust as you go.
That is what we are doing. Not perfectly. Not according to anyone else’s playbook. Just our way. And it is working.
Where we go from here
25% is the next number. We will hit it, and then we will figure out what comes after that. The path does not have to be visible all at once. You just have to be able to see far enough to take the next step.
We are taking ours.
Want more real-talk FIRE strategies for families? See what we are building right now on the On Fire page.
And if you are wondering what our actual emergency fund number looks like in practice, we wrote about that here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the 50/30/20 rule work for families with kids?
Generally, no — not without serious adjustments. The 50% for needs assumes a lower cost baseline than what most families with kids actually face. Once you add housing, food, healthcare, and childcare for two kids, that 50% is gone before you reach the things that are actually flexible. Families need their own framework, not a general one.
What percentage should a family save for FIRE?
There is no single right answer. The families that actually make progress tend to focus on the income side as much as the spending side. For us, the next milestone is 25% annual savings — but your number depends on your income, your expenses, your kids, and your timeline. Build your own plan.
Should we max the HSA or the 401k first?
We do both. But if you are trying to choose, the HSA wins on pure tax advantage. We max the HSA and max the 401k pre-tax contributions because both reduce our taxable income now, which is the point when you are building toward something on a manufacturing salary.
What if our savings rate drops after having kids?
It probably will. Ours went from 15% to 8% after Lil Spark, then to 4% after Baby Spark. That is not failure — that is the math of adding a family. You adjust. You build the income side. You find your next number. The families that keep going are the ones that do not quit when the percentage drops.
Want more real-talk FIRE strategies for families?
Get the Family FIRE Letter — monthly real numbers from our family to yours.