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It's still complete luck at this point with no social safety net. FIRE assumes you will never have a single traumatic event set you back during the course of a

It's still complete luck at this point with no social safety net. FIRE assumes you will never have a single traumatic event set you back during the course of a 20 year career. Great for anyone who's banking on never being injured, sick, disabled, pregnant, having to care for someone, or being significantly unemployed ever.

csande17 3y ago
The whole point of FIRE is that you are planning on being significantly unemployed, a lot sooner than most people. Even fairly early into that 20-year career, you'll have an emergency fund that can get you through a lot of otherwise-pretty-dire situations. Never hurts to get injury and disability insurance, too.
_yb2s 3y ago
I was trying to do FIRE as a student making only about ~10k a year, and managed to save most of my income despite having a low income by just living really really cheaply for over a decade. By the end of my PhD program I had saved up ~100k when most people would have been that much in debt. Then I had a kid, and couldn't find/afford childcare. So I ended up using my 'FIRE' savings to pay for childcare for several years, essentially using it all up. I was paying about 100% of my take home salary on childcare for two years straight, and able to make it through. Basically the safety net I acquired worked awesome! I didn't get to keep my retirement savings like planned, but I was able to keep doing a low paying postdoc despite needing expensive childcare, which let me keep a low paying postdoc I would have otherwise had to quit... which ultimately led to a high paying and stable career where I've rebuilt my savings after all. Basically, having lots of savings a la FIRE is (1) possible even on an extremely low poverty income- you just need to make hard choices like shared living situations, no car (or a very old car you maintain yourself), home cook all meals from cheap ingredients, etc. and (2) it gives you a safety next with flexibility and options for the type of unforeseen events you are talking about. Having a massive financial safety net is great, even if you end up not being able to use it to retire early, as I was not. It's all about priorities... on almost any income level, you can ruthlessly cut un-needed expenses, and build a safety net/retirement. The poorer you are, the more likely you are to need this for some non-retirement financial emergency, which is all the more reason to do it, because those type of things are even more important than early retirement.

csande17 3y ago

The whole point of FIRE is that you are planning on being significantly unemployed, a lot sooner than most people. Even fairly early into that 20-year career, you'll have an emergency fund that can get you through a lot of otherwise-pretty-dire situations. Never hurts to get injury and disability insurance, too.

_yb2s 3y ago

I was trying to do FIRE as a student making only about ~10k a year, and managed to save most of my income despite having a low income by just living really really cheaply for over a decade. By the end of my PhD program I had saved up ~100k when most people would have been that much in debt. Then I had a kid, and couldn't find/afford childcare. So I ended up using my 'FIRE' savings to pay for childcare for several years, essentially using it all up. I was paying about 100% of my take home salary on childcare for two years straight, and able to make it through. Basically the safety net I acquired worked awesome! I didn't get to keep my retirement savings like planned, but I was able to keep doing a low paying postdoc despite needing expensive childcare, which let me keep a low paying postdoc I would have otherwise had to quit... which ultimately led to a high paying and stable career where I've rebuilt my savings after all. Basically, having lots of savings a la FIRE is (1) possible even on an extremely low poverty income- you just need to make hard choices like shared living situations, no car (or a very old car you maintain yourself), home cook all meals from cheap ingredients, etc. and (2) it gives you a safety next with flexibility and options for the type of unforeseen events you are talking about. Having a massive financial safety net is great, even if you end up not being able to use it to retire early, as I was not. It's all about priorities... on almost any income level, you can ruthlessly cut un-needed expenses, and build a safety net/retirement. The poorer you are, the more likely you are to need this for some non-retirement financial emergency, which is all the more reason to do it, because those type of things are even more important than early retirement.