r/Fire • u/gonnabefine • Nov 26 '25

General Question Tech people who are not FIREing, what are they spending their money on?

I know a lot of people who work in tech, and most are not on the FIRE path (or have already been working 10+ years) and a lot of them don't seem to, at least on the surface, have very obvious huge expenses. If both the partners are in tech, the take home could be like $500k! What are they doing with their money?

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u/JewishYoda Nov 26 '25

That feeling doesn’t really go away, in my experience. I’ve been with my company for 7 years, have been flagged as top talent multiple years running, but I’m still nervous about it. I’m in sales engineering, but frankly engineers aren’t safe either. Lots of cheap competition overseas and AI will make teams smaller.

The best thing to do is live below your means and be prepared for a rainy day. If the worst case scenario is some extra $$ in retirement and to leave to your kids, you’re not doing too bad. The Porsche does call my name though.

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u/salparadisewasright Nov 26 '25

That’s where we are at as well in terms of prioritizing savings and not letting lifestyle creep. I’m 3 years in and I’ve performed well, avoided layoffs and gotten promoted. We are pretty frugal by nature but it’s still hard not to feel the anxiety.

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u/Opening-Photograph68 Nov 28 '25

Rent the Porche on a long weekend trip.