The FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) movement encourages saving aggressively and retiring as soon as possible, effectively “escaping the matrix.” There are different levels of FIRE, as follows:
* Lean FIRE: The most basic level of FIRE. It involves saving enough to live on a very frugal budget.
* Barista FIRE: A slightly more comfortable level of FIRE. It involves saving enough to live on a modest budget. This level of FIRE may allow one to retire early, but may require part-time work to supplement income.
* Coast FIRE: A level of FIRE where one has saved enough money to cover living expenses in retirement. This means that one can stop saving for retirement, but can also keep working if preferred.
* Fat FIRE: The most luxurious level of FIRE. It involves saving enough to live a very comfortable lifestyle in retirement.
Now that we’ve covered the basics, it’s pretty easy to see the allures of FIRE at face value. Think “escaping the rat race” but with a rebrand to be more appealing. When “freed,” one can have more time to “do the things one loves,” such as traveling more, spending more time with family and friends, and pursuing hobbies.
But what if the ultimate goal, a la “FIREing,” gets in the way of doing the things we love on the path to FIRE? We preach enjoying the journey here at LTL, and I am concerned that much of the FIRE rhetoric results in a one-track mind, a sacrifice of all which could potentially lengthen (and enhance) the road between now and the objective. The contradiction lies here: in pursuing FIRE by going all in on extreme work, we potentially paint work as something evil, something that forces us to sacrifice friends, family, and hobbies. We rationalize, in our heads, that we must make these sacrifices today, in order to one day be free and to be able to spend time with friends, families, and pursuing hobbies.
A FIRE mindset is not inherently harmful. It can be a great way to maintain some focus on milestones and objectives, subconsciously assisting us in moving the ball forward. However, it's important to remember that FIRE is a means to an end. The goal of FIRE is to “truly” live, not to simply work as little as possible. An addiction to saving money in order to retire early is still an addiction, and may warrant a reevaluation of priorities and grounding in the present.
There are, thankfully, other means to achieve financial security while maintaining our humanity and sanity. Focus on finding more meaningful work. More specifically, it is beneficial to search for one’s “ikigai.” Ikigai is a Japanese concept that refers to the reason for being. It's the intersection of what one loves, what one is good at, what the world needs, and what can provide monetary benefit.
Discovering ikigai increases the likelihood of finding work that does not feel like work, a concept we discussed here. This can (should) lead to a more fulfilling and rewarding life across the board, where the goal becomes presence and enjoyment rather than escapism.
Discovering Ikigai is discovering what it means to live and work in unison. Benjamin Franklin said that “it is the working man who is the happy man, while it is the idle man who is the miserable man.” Let’s find work that satisfies our North Star and which compensates us sufficiently to have cool experiences. These experiences, after all, are what make us individual, interesting, different, and human.
Have a wonderful day.