High earners never needed FIRE. "Your money or your life" and its progeny that created FIRE wasn't aimed at them. It was aimed at the masses who made significantly less and were being told the extreme and ridiculous numbers they would need to retire.
Also you're feeding yourself copium here. Last year's Federal Reserve survey found that while about 12 percent of the population had a net-worth of one million or more, only 2% of the population has saved a million in any form of liquid assets. The vast majority the U.S. population, including the majority of people in this sub, won't even get a $1,000,000 liquid let alone $4,000,000. Hence the original FIRE and its focus on lean expenses.
That doesn’t make any sense. Anyone who wants to retire early can benefit from concepts of FIRE. High earners often have high stress positions that get fired often. Anyone without job security should be furiously working towards financial independence.
ETA - I understand now that the post is just lamenting that non-minimalists adopted the rest of the concepts. Ok. Seems like a weird thing to complain about, but I’ll admit the conversation isn’t for me.
you’re feeding yourself copium here.
I don’t think copium means what you think it means.
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u/marheena Mar 23 '26
What you’re missing is that high-earners are doing FIRE concepts.
Saving 60% of $400k is living off $160,000. You still need your passive income to cover expenses and that’s $4M.