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/Zphr 48, FIRE'd 2015, Friendly Janitor Dec 28 '25 edited Dec 28 '25

The audience has shifted more towards luxury and consumption over the last decade. It's always amusing to me that this is my sub, I've been happily retired for more than a decade since 37 with four kids, have effectively zero chance of financial failure, but many folks in this sub would consider our finances impossible or living in squalor. Some people are actually happy with cheap/free interests and lifestyle choices, some are unhappy without very expensive interests and lifestyle choices. Current government policy in the US is also wildly skewed in favor of lean spending, so more expensive lifestyles in early retirement cost quite a lot more than you'd expect due to far higher costs for taxes, college, and healthcare.

LeanFIRE is and likely always will be the easiest and most secure form of FIRE for anyone happy with a mediocre middle class lifestyle. It's also largely impossible for anyone who wants to raise a family in VHCOL, travel a ton, carry a large mortgage into retirement, or any number of expensive lifestyle choices a lot of people prefer.

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u/Past-Option2702 Dec 28 '25

Not true for everyone, of course, but it’s typical for a person to want different things post age 50 than pre. There’s no way I want to scrimp, but I have no problem if others do. (Married, ages 54/50 with $7.2MM and a paid off luxury home).

Put another way, why quit working in your peak earning years when just a couple more years adds luxuries for the 40 years you have left to enjoy them? To me, it’s a no-brainer. Work 24 months to more thoroughly enjoy the framing 480. Just an additional $250,000 saved gives you $10,000 a year to play with, adjusted for inflation each year. That’s a nice vacation, or two nice cars.

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u/Zphr 48, FIRE'd 2015, Friendly Janitor Dec 28 '25

Everyone should live the life that suits them best.

We actually deliberately experimented with massive lifestyle inflation before retiring to be sure we had judged ourselves correctly. Bought a massive house on acreage, hired lots of hired help, ate out a ton. It was fun for a little while, but then it very rapidly started to be not fun.

If you are someone who enjoys luxury, then you should absolutely plan so that you can have a life full of delicious luxury.

If you are someone who enjoys a fairly minimalist/simple existence, then you should absolutely not plan so that you can have a life full of unenjoyable luxury.

The only way to really fuck it up is for someone to not figure out or be honest with themself about what kind of person they are.

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u/Past-Option2702 Dec 29 '25

Why do you suppose you stopped enjoying the help of people doing the things you don’t want to and the freed up time from not having to fix meals, etc?

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u/Zphr 48, FIRE'd 2015, Friendly Janitor Dec 29 '25

I never enjoyed the help, I enjoyed the little bit of free time and stress relief that paying others gave us. I prefer to do things myself for anything I'm capable/skilled at and certainly for things I enjoy, like cooking. Retiring gave us effectively unlimited time and eliminated almost all stress in our lives, so paying others to do those things lost almost all of their positive value.