I think it’s fair to say the FIRE movement (Financial Independence/Retire Early) has largely fizzled out. In part, people have discovered that they actually want to work because work provides them with a sense of purpose and a source of community. Too, this sprint to financial independence just doesn’t align well with some of the realities of life.
Financially, the biggest problem with FIRE is that it strangles the biggest driver of wealth, time. Compound interest contributes a relatively small percentage of your net worth over 10-15 years, relative to saving. But over 30-35 years? Almost everything will be from growth, not contributions.
I spent my 20s being ultra-frugal, thinking that I could live off $300,000 for the rest of my life. That was my financial-independence goal. I thought I could sustain my ultra-frugal, sharing-rent-on-a-studio-apartment, never-going-out, 26-year-old lifestyle in perpetuity. So I hit 30 with a lot fewer life experiences, and less meaningful friendships than I might have had. And I also didn’t have enough to retire completely. I still don’t.
And so, I think I’m in a position that a lot of former or current FIRE people find themselves in. One part of this is a desire to make up for lost time, now that I finally do have some cash flow from my career (not my investments). The second part is realizing that life is basically not about money. It never was. Instead, it seems like I’m on some sort of journey, growing into the person I was always meant to be. Money does not solve this. Its only role is to help me on my quest.
I will still need to earn an income. This is not bad. In fact, work is probably the very thing that will lead me into a fuller version of myself. An extra decade of scraping savings together will not solve the deeper problem of my soul.
Therefore, the opportunity for me, and other former-FIRE people, is that we need to find meaningful work, but can be a little more flexible with what this work looks like. We can’t sit around and watch tv all day (not that we’d want to), but we can fill our time with artistic endeavors, or teaching, or nonprofit work. Saving and accumulating wealth is less important because we already have the wealth. All we have to do is wait 30 years to collect on it.
Thus, we can take a massive pay cut to work as a teacher, for instance, but still spend summers traveling. As a business owner, I can allow my work to become more mission-driven, rather than profit-centered. Financial advisors often educational seminars as a way to prospect for new clients. But what if the primary purpose was just education? Doesn’t that change the tone and feel a bit more rewarding?
I also see a lot of problems in my city of Albuquerque that aren’t getting fixed on their own. It’s possible that a lot of former FIRErs are ideally suited to start addressing these problems. A Barista-FIRE might still work at the coffee shop part-time, but devote a few hours weekly to local government issues. Others might opt to become teachers, in a city with a desperate need for educators.
This is still a sacrifice. Remember, we’re forgoing what we might otherwise be able to earn. But remember also who you’re dealing with. The FIRE community is not a group that is obsessed with expensive cars, big houses, or instagram lifestyles. Many of us were drawn to it because we saw just how hollow that materialistic lifestyle can become. We wanted freedom to decide how to spend our lives. And we got it. The next step is choosing wisely.