FIRE stands for Financially Independent Retire Early.
There are a lot of different financial “programs” out there that discuss budgets, paying off debt, saving for retirement ect. I’ve always thought a lot about finances because money is a tool that allows freedom. I wanted freedom to make healthy eating choices, the freedom to live wherever I wanted, the ability to freely give to others in need, the freedom to stay home with my future children, the freedom to either design my work, not let work design my life.
I didn’t see how any of that was possible with my salary using the traditional system especially with the current cost of higher education. In fact, after some calculations adjusting for inflation, I figured out that if I had stayed on my current trajectory with my low standard of living while saving for retirement, I would still end up broke and living in squabble after a lifetime of working and saving for retirement.
Meanwhile, the age for retirement keeps going up and who know if you’ll even live that long. If you do who’s to say you’ll actually be able to climb
that mountain in India? Nothing in life is guaranteed. It makes one wonder what all this is for anyways?
Nowadays, a lot of millennials are quitting their jobs to travel and experience more from life. They don’t want to be told that they can only take ten days off out of an entire year. One of the ways they are able to accomplish this is by finding work abroad that provides lodging and food in exchange for short term work. For example, one of our friends recently finished his masters thesis and instead of starting his career he decided to travel. At on point he lived in Spain on an olive farm with a Dutch family for a month working 5 hours a day in exchange for free lodging and food.
This is not a bad way to get experiences abroad. In fact, I think it’s pretty amazing, but its definitely not for everyone. Some people, including myself, are not as adventurous as others and would be full of anxiety if we quit our jobs with nothing else lined up. Not everyone wants children, but I do and I want them to grow up in a very stable home with food on the table and clothes on their body and a decent world-view education. I wouldn’t be able to provide that by keeping up with a lifestyle of traveling the world and exchanging work and time for room and board. That sounds more like a giant headache than freeing. If I’m to ever have a family I would eventually have to return to a somewhat more traditional way of American life. But then I wouldn’t really have anything saved for retirement when it comes to it and who would take care of me when I’m old?? I wouldn’t want to put that burden on my children. There has to be an alternative. And there is!
Some people work their whole life just to get to retirement and find that they don’t have enough to retire. It’s possible that they have a health condition requiring them to work to keep their healthcare benefits. Maybe by the time they retire, they’re no longer in the best shape to be out climbing mountains in India, or to go scuba diving, or fill in the blank_____. Still others quit their job for a while just to go back to another job when they’re finally “ready” to settle down or “get sick” of traveling. What if I told you there was another way? It’s called FIRE. Financially Independent Retire Early.
It is about being financially independent enough to only work if you choose
to work. It’s about finding fulfillment through living not working. When you are free to use your greatest asset TIME as you wish then you can detach from all things considered to give prestige and wealth because you will be more focused on doing things that bring fulfillment – Whatever that may be for you.
If you want to read more about the FIRE movement and learn how to become financially independent so you can retire early, be sure to read my post on “How to be FIRE.”