Not FIRE yet, but here's what I have so far.
We're in Seattle, so that's where our houses are.
First year working ("making the big bucks" - six figure income).
Had about $20k of student loan debt, $30k-$50k of credit card debt. (Honestly don't remember.) Relationship with my ex was pretty much dead. (He was always pressuring me to spend, and it became especially bad when I got a job and he... didn't.) I started getting denied for credit cards despite my 6 figure income. Enough was enough.
I saved whatever the default was in my 401k, missing out on a bunch of 401k matching.
Officially broke up with ex. Withdrew my entire $20k retirement account windfall (without paying taxes) and bought a house.
I met my now husband, who is frugal. Decided to buckle down on paying down debt. Had a roommate in my house who paid me rent to offset my mortgage. Lots of stock vested (and my company was doing well). Also the stock market shot up.
Home equity went up by $50k. Also bought a recreational piece of property and started paying for our wedding. Bought a second house (with a 401k loan for my 5% down payment) to move to and rented out the first house (without making a big profit).
We got married and merged finances. My husband didn't really have assets, but it didn't cost us any extra for two people (because he's frugal and has life skills).
Housing prices went up drastically. We also started building our 400 sq ft house.
Housing prices continue going gangbusters. We're also putting away some money into our retirement accounts. (Mostly just maxing things out--so $60k-$70k during the year.)
Move into our 400 sq ft house, rent out the other real estate. Mostly cash flow positive.
Ramped up charitable donations to $6k/year (until we quit working).
We front load our retirement accounts. And housing prices continue to rise. It's possible that it's a housing bubble, in which case we hope to buy another property (or more) when it crashes. If it's not a housing bubble, then I'm glad we have two houses.
Hope to crack $1M before 2018. We want to have some kids, and I have good maternity leave policy, so I might try to work until the kids are slightly older (and can have conversations with them), or see if I can work 9 months out of the year or something. (I like the feeling of having income.) I'd consider ourselves comfortably FI at $2M in net worth.
If it turns out we're infertile, then we'll probably call it quits in 2018.