4 ms·

No, the point is freedom. Liberating a tremendous chunk of our one, single life from the obligation to work in order to not starve/be homeless/etc. You can eve

No, the point is freedom. Liberating a tremendous chunk of our one, single life from the obligation to work in order to not starve/be homeless/etc. You can even keep working after you're reached your retirement number, but at that point it is because you chose to do it rather than having that choice thrust upon you.

pbrb 9y ago
This, times a million. I'm partially FIRE, because I think of it as partial retirement. I still plan to produce income, just not as regularly or as much as I do today so I have time to do the things that I want to in life.
fhood 9y ago
I guess that is fair. But as someone who works in software, the obligation to work has never loomed over me, because I always have extra money, and I know that I can quit my job and find a new one if I want. So I don't understand fixating on early retirement as a top priority. I understand that not everyone is in my situation though, and not everyone has the same motivations as me. I just think that living extremely frugally in your twenties is kind of a waste of your twenties.
- vasilipupkin 9y ago
  exactly. You are trading one job ( the job ) for another ( constantly trying to live frugally ). Just get a job you like - voila, problem solved.
  - madamelic 9y ago
    >You are trading one job ( the job ) for another ( constantly trying to live frugally )b No, you are trading a job for any job you want. You aren't required to sit out on your porch and rock your days away. It just means you have an indefinite runway to figure out next steps. Mr. Money Mustache apparently makes crazy money now despite still living on $30k / yr, because he had time to find what he loved doing. And if he suddenly decides he doesn't like it, it means he can just... stop doing it. --- Actually. Let me phrase this in "valley speak". FIRE is about building and funding a personal basic income system.
- AFNobody 9y ago
  I think you will find in your 50s finding those jobs will get harder. 30s seems pushing it for no reason but by 50 it is quite nesc.
dkural 9y ago
You are already free. The shackles are in your mind. Find meaningful work, whatever your passion is. In practice, you'll likely not starve or become homeless; but simply enjoy more modest means.
- lovich 9y ago
  My student loan debt doesnt go away if I find meaningful but low paid work. Admittedly it was my choice to take on that debt but on the other hand society had decided that I was too young to responsibly drink and had to pay higher rates on car insurance. Somehow though, I, and everyone else at that age is allowed, and encouraged, to sign up for life altering debt for a piece of paper that got me a job at a call center. Trying to get enough money to retire early now is entirely to make it possible to take on meaningful work instead of the soul crushing jobs that are mosy modern software engineer positions Note: I said modern software engineer _positions_ and not practices as I've found that most companies are incapable politically of implementing best practices if they deviate at all from how things have been done in the past 20 years on the enterprise side, while the startup side is long hours for a lottery ticket.
  - LyndsySimon 9y ago
    > the startup side is long hours for a lottery ticket. It certainly can be, but doesn't have to be. The "long hours" part varies greatly depending on your role, responsibilities, and expertise. The "lottery ticket" part varies based on whether you're optimizing for salary or equity. I have always excluded stock options from my decision-making process. Sure, it's possible they could make me rich some day... but it strikes me as highly unlikely, and I'm planning on them being worth $0. Equity I consider a potential negative if the company hasn't had their IPO, due to the tax implications. There are startups out there that offer great salaries and quality of life out there, but you've got to look for that in particular. It also helps if you live or are living to live somewhere with a low cost of living and are willing to work remotely. I live in a small town and there are effectively zero jobs here that I'd want because the market is so small that they can pay much less than I want to accept. Working remotely allows me to compete on the global labor market, where the compensation is substantially higher. I'm not making the same salary I would if I lived in LA or SF, but it's a whole lot closer to that than if I worked for a local employer. The difference in housing costs alone more than makes up for that, much less the total cost of living. Here's a comparison between my employer's location (Santa Monica, CA), and the nearest city to me (Springfield, MO). Note that I live about an hour from Springfield, and the costs here are even lower: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&country2=United+States&city1=Springfield%2C+MO&city2=Santa+Monica%2C+CA&tracking=getDispatchComparison https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...

pbrb 9y ago

This, times a million. I'm partially FIRE, because I think of it as partial retirement. I still plan to produce income, just not as regularly or as much as I do today so I have time to do the things that I want to in life.

fhood 9y ago

I guess that is fair. But as someone who works in software, the obligation to work has never loomed over me, because I always have extra money, and I know that I can quit my job and find a new one if I want. So I don't understand fixating on early retirement as a top priority. I understand that not everyone is in my situation though, and not everyone has the same motivations as me. I just think that living extremely frugally in your twenties is kind of a waste of your twenties.

vasilipupkin 9y ago
exactly. You are trading one job ( the job ) for another ( constantly trying to live frugally ). Just get a job you like - voila, problem solved.
- madamelic 9y ago
  >You are trading one job ( the job ) for another ( constantly trying to live frugally )b No, you are trading a job for any job you want. You aren't required to sit out on your porch and rock your days away. It just means you have an indefinite runway to figure out next steps. Mr. Money Mustache apparently makes crazy money now despite still living on $30k / yr, because he had time to find what he loved doing. And if he suddenly decides he doesn't like it, it means he can just... stop doing it. --- Actually. Let me phrase this in "valley speak". FIRE is about building and funding a personal basic income system.
AFNobody 9y ago
I think you will find in your 50s finding those jobs will get harder. 30s seems pushing it for no reason but by 50 it is quite nesc.

dkural 9y ago

You are already free. The shackles are in your mind. Find meaningful work, whatever your passion is. In practice, you'll likely not starve or become homeless; but simply enjoy more modest means.

lovich 9y ago
My student loan debt doesnt go away if I find meaningful but low paid work. Admittedly it was my choice to take on that debt but on the other hand society had decided that I was too young to responsibly drink and had to pay higher rates on car insurance. Somehow though, I, and everyone else at that age is allowed, and encouraged, to sign up for life altering debt for a piece of paper that got me a job at a call center. Trying to get enough money to retire early now is entirely to make it possible to take on meaningful work instead of the soul crushing jobs that are mosy modern software engineer positions Note: I said modern software engineer _positions_ and not practices as I've found that most companies are incapable politically of implementing best practices if they deviate at all from how things have been done in the past 20 years on the enterprise side, while the startup side is long hours for a lottery ticket.
- LyndsySimon 9y ago
  > the startup side is long hours for a lottery ticket. It certainly can be, but doesn't have to be. The "long hours" part varies greatly depending on your role, responsibilities, and expertise. The "lottery ticket" part varies based on whether you're optimizing for salary or equity. I have always excluded stock options from my decision-making process. Sure, it's possible they could make me rich some day... but it strikes me as highly unlikely, and I'm planning on them being worth $0. Equity I consider a potential negative if the company hasn't had their IPO, due to the tax implications. There are startups out there that offer great salaries and quality of life out there, but you've got to look for that in particular. It also helps if you live or are living to live somewhere with a low cost of living and are willing to work remotely. I live in a small town and there are effectively zero jobs here that I'd want because the market is so small that they can pay much less than I want to accept. Working remotely allows me to compete on the global labor market, where the compensation is substantially higher. I'm not making the same salary I would if I lived in LA or SF, but it's a whole lot closer to that than if I worked for a local employer. The difference in housing costs alone more than makes up for that, much less the total cost of living. Here's a comparison between my employer's location (Santa Monica, CA), and the nearest city to me (Springfield, MO). Note that I live about an hour from Springfield, and the costs here are even lower: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&country2=United+States&city1=Springfield%2C+MO&city2=Santa+Monica%2C+CA&tracking=getDispatchComparison https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...