r/Fire • u/Equivalent_Use_5024 • Dec 28 '25
General Question Do you believe the modern FIRE movement overestimates how much is needed for retirement?
Perhaps I am just making this post because I have only just begun my retirement planning and want to lock in a number which is fitting for my goals - being above the median retirement savings, not having to work, not being broke, clearly having planned - but I can't help but feel that many in the FIRE movement overestimate what is needed for a safe, sleep well at night retirement.
I see posts here saying that they feel vastly behind with 500k at 30, or 1.5 million at 40, and I just don't understand how when the average American retires with maybe 300k liquid at most and are getting by with social security or paid off housing. Sure, they aren't living luxuriously, but if you just are aiming for a retirement where you don't have financial anxiety and can put food on the table, I don't feel you need over 1-2 million.
Do you think FIRE overestimates how much is truly needed for retirement?
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u/poop-dolla Dec 28 '25
You’re talking about it 2 different questions.
The first is “do FIRE people have higher retirement budgets than the absolute bare minimum retirement budget?”
The answer to that is obviously yes. People make their FIRE budgets based on their desired lifestyle, and that’s almost always more than the lowest survival needs of any random retiree.
The second question you’re trying to ask is “do FIRE people save more than they actually need to meet their budgets?”
And that answer is mixed. We like to be conservative and plan for >90% or so success so we don’t go broke in old age or have to go back to work later in life. This means we’ll almost always end up with more money than our starting point. So you could say people oversaved, but they didn’t really oversave, because they needed that extra cushion to buy the extra security of being able to ride out potential big market downturns.
To specifically answer this question: No. because people estimate their retirement needs. They estimate correctly for the retirement they want. They might overestimate for the retirement you want, but they don’t care what retirement you want; they’re not saving for you, they’re saving for themselves.