You may be reading into things I didn't say. First, I didn't say I was financially independent (at all) let alone based on my current spending. Second, I didn

You may be reading into things I didn't say. First, I didn't say I was financially independent (at all) let alone based on my current spending. Second, I didn't mention my current spending, nor did I call it "minimal." Third, I didn't say I couldn't afford to do things based on the money I do have. FIRE means literally "financial independence, retire early." None of that prescribes spending the absolute bare minimum just to survive. You may be thinking more along the lines of earlyretirementextreme.com, which embraces a whole different level of independence and capability and minimizing expenses and resource consumption. But you can reach FIRE simply by accumulating and investing about 25x your annual spending, whatever that spending may be. Personally, we live in a big house, have a somewhat expensive pet, drive two late model (albeit economical) cars we enjoy, travel, eat well, have nice laptops, etc. We just did and do all spending mindfully and somewhat optimally. Often you can put the Pareto principle into play, and get almost all the enjoyment of something for a fraction of the cost. Sometimes you can simply avoid waste.