What you call Freedom Number we call that your LPN (Lifestyle Property Number) I think most folks have 3 different numbers1.

Take the time to learn about yourself.5) If I hadn't gone to college and ate ramen and tuna for 4 years, I may not appreciate the lifestyle I have now.

Start listening to Del Walmsley at Lifestyles Unlimited.  

In California you're basically paying for the weather and the lifestyle.

If you want that life style stick with it and forget about money, you will never have any.The skill you most need to succeed is to be driven to do what ever is necessary to succeed. 18 hr work days are the norm.  

I've done a couple calculations though and realized that as long as I keep investing the way I am until about 50, I will have enough saved to keep my current lifestyle indefinitely. 

Over the course of 5 years, that's $36K in rent savings + $30K in equity you've paid into you home which nets you at about even.So a better answer is if you want to like the sexy life style and move around every year or two, then he's right, you shouldn't buy, but if you plan to stay somewhere longer because you have a regular job, etc. then there's a breakeven point where it makes sense to buy, especially when you add in other benefits like being able to draw a line of equity on your house and tax write offs on mortgage interest.Trulia has a great tool to calculate the break even point between rent vs buy on any property.https://www.trulia.com/rent_vs_buy/I'm curious to know what others think.   

All the items on your list is normal life style for me and have been for 50 years.

If an income source (Job or active vs passive) goes away how much adjustment in life style do you have to make?

But then I leaned from BP members about a variety of different tactics on lifestyle and entrepreneur mindset.