The FIRE movement

Source: Pix4free_early-retirement_Early Retirement by Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0

Working everyday continuously and toiling away for hours can be tiresome. Everyone wishes to live a life free of trouble and woe, and they work relentlessly for that. But for how long? You must have also wanted to leave work for some other day and just relax for a bit, right?

The FIRE movement was born from the wish of such individuals who were looking to find a way through which they can retire from such responsibilities early and live carefree after accumulating enough financial freedom.

What is this movement?

The Financial Independence, Retire Early (FIRE) movement is a movement which encourages its followers to adapt a lifestyle which allows them to retire earlier than contemporaries who are following traditional methods. This movement is followed largely by millennials as it became increasingly popular in the 2010s.

These followers spread out information about this movement by writing blogs, making forums, and organizing camps- they even have a subreddit called /r/financialindependence which has more than 365,000 subscribers! Here, they share tips, success stories, and advice with each other.

What to do?

There are three approaches you have to decide between when you want to adapt this lifestyle. By

Fat FIRE: In this approach, you will concentrate on retiring without changing anything about your current lifestyle. If you decide this is the right option for you, you will have to start saving aggressively.
Lean FIRE: This involves living in a minimalistic manner so that you can cut expenses and save enough for your retirement. You try to retire as early as possible.
Barista FIRE: This comes in between the previous two approaches. This means saving properly and also living minimally at the same time.
Coast FIRE: After saving intensively for a proper amount of time, you start investing, and then, ‘coast’ your way to retirement as your savings grow because of investments.
Slow FIRE: People who are slow FIRE devotees don’t make sacrifices to gain financial independence. They balance their work life and saving up for the future. This method takes longer than the others.

There are certain rules to this lifestyle which you have to follow at all times to become a true FIRE follower:

The key to success is saving. Non-followers usually keep the leftover money from their expenses as their savings. Followers of the movement do the opposite- they keep money aside for their savings first. FIRE devotee Justin McCurry has already retired at the age of 33 after saving 2 million US dollars and paying off his house.
Always keep a money tracker. It is important you know where you have spent your money and how. Knowing is what will help you save better.
A lot of us end up spending more money than planned because of social events and plans. I remember how this one time I was planning to use 1/3^rd of my savings for an outing I had planned with my friends. It never became a reality though- I ended up spending a lot more than I had planned and my savings plan was all foiled :(. So, advice number three is to always stick strictly to your savings plan and try to spend as little as possible in social outings.
Do anything you can on your own. Walk your dog on your own, make a lunch for yourself, mow your lawn by yourself, and clean the house without specially hiring anyone. This will also help you save money.
Only shop for necessities, never go for useless expenses. If you travel, do so frugally. Always keep this mind.

These are the key postulates you should follow if you want to become a FIRE devotee like McCurry. By doing so, you will be working towards early retirement and financial independence. You will have to keep at it until your savings are 30 times your yearly expenses. Yes, this sounds like a lot. And yes, you will have to work very hard to reach this point.

Do people like it?

A lifestyle movement like this one has faced its fair share of criticism. People point out quite a few problems with this.

Some people find it extremely difficult to live in such frugal conditions. They point out that it can be very unpleasant to live while holding back from enjoying life. While its true that frugality is not the only way to achieve financial independence, these tactics make it difficult for certain people.

Another disadvantage is that there is a lack of diversity. What this means is that not all followers have jobs which have enough income to separate daily expenses and savings. This movement gained momentum when male engineers and software developers became a part of it. While it has become popular since then, many people still can’t afford to join this movement. It is, hence, considered a privilege.

So, suffice to say- FIRE isn’t for everyone. But those who have the will to embrace it can surely do so.

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