FIRE is not a movement.
FIRE is not a religion.
FIRE is not a community.
FIRE is simply being a bit more deliberate with your spending, so that you can save and invest more than average, in order to buy your freedom a bit earlier than most.
That’s it.
Just like FIRE, money isn’t any of those important things either.
Money is a tool and it’s nothing more than a tool.
It’s not your purpose. It doesn’t give you happiness. It doesn’t give you anything besides the freedom and ability to do the things that DO give you purpose and bring you happiness.
My favorite example is from Nick Maggiulli’s latest book, The Wealth Ladder.
In it, he compares money to salt.
Salt doesn’t actually change the flavor of a dish, it just enhances the flavors of the ingredients already in the dish.
The same goes with money. Money doesn’t automatically improve your life (once your basic needs are met). But you CAN use it to improve and enhance an already good life.
It’s not how much you have; it’s how you use it and who you use it with.
Wrapping your identity up with FIRE and immersing yourself in the the FIRE community makes as much sense as an aspiring chef spending all their time researching and talking about salt.
Sure, going to FIRE events is beneficial when you’re first starting out. Meeting others pursuing FI allows you to see that it is possible (so that you don’t think you’re crazy), and you can pick up ideas about how to do it better/quicker.
But at a certain point, you figure out the big stuff and everything just goes on autopilot for years.
At that point, it doesn’t make sense to stay immersed in the FIRE world.
What I see happening, though, is everyone who’s good at pursuing FI tends to latch onto that identity and that community, usually at the expense of all other interests/communities.
Because it is easy to talk about FI all the time, and everyone is friendly/welcoming/interesting at FI events.
But are they really doing what you want to be doing after you achieve financial independence?
You’re pursuing FIRE to have the time to do what brings you joy, gives you purpose, and provides meaning to your life.
So doesn’t it make more sense to meet up with the people who are already doing THOSE things?
Because even if those other communities are harder to interact with at this stage of your journey, it makes more sense to do that, because then you’ll have that community there when you have more time to fully pursue those things.
And if you don’t know what those things are yet, it’s much more important to figure that out than it is to save another dollar for some unknown future.
Because if you’re just hanging out with salt experts all the time, and reading everything you can about salt, you’re not going to know where to source the best ingredients. You’re not going to have chef friends who can suggest interesting ways to combine and season your ingredients. You’re not going to have any of the other skills or contacts to effectively use what you accumulate.
Again, I understand that it’s hard to figure out what your real purpose is, what your true hobbies are, and what things will bring you joy when you have unlimited free time and freedom to pursue them. But the sooner you figure that out, the better your pre-FI life will become, and the easier the transition into post-FI life will be.
Does that mean you should stop reading Mad Fientist blog posts and stop listening to Mad Fientist podcasts?
YES!
Even though that’s the exact opposite of what a successful blogger/podcaster should tell his audience, that’s what I believe.
I don’t want to be in your ear every week regurgitating the same ideas.
I want to give you useful information when you need it, but then I’m happy for you to forget about me when you’re all set.
The best emails I receive are the autoresponder messages that say, “Thanks for your email, but Bob has retired and is no longer with this company. Please forward your email to some other poor schmuck who is still grinding it out.”
Those are the best because I feel like they got what they needed from me, and now they’re off living the amazing life they’ve always dreamed of.
So that’s another reason I don’t post often, and that’s why I’ve withdrawn from the FIRE community in recent years.
The habits that got me to FIRE are the ones that I’m currently trying to unwind, so it doesn’t make sense to hang out with people who are still driving towards FIRE at the fastest rate possible.
I’m trying to unlearn those inbuilt saving/hoarding habits, not reinforce them.
So rather than focus on money, I’m instead going out to search for the best ingredients that can be enhanced by the money I already saved.
And that’s what I encourage for you. The sooner you do that, the better.