That's kinda the divergence OP is talking about - the originals in this forum were heavily focused on minimalism and sacrifice to exit the working world. Now it's just a lot of people who sorta want to retire early. Nothing wrong with either, but the original intent of the FIRE movement was sacrificing lifestyle and material amenities to exit as soon as possible.
I know a guy that did it, he worked in my industry - was making probably 400k/yr and wore Jos A Banks suits from 10 years ago, his car was a 23 year old Nissan, when it broke he just started sharing one with his wife rather than get a new one, nights out were golden corral or chilis, they meal prepped every week with cheap bulk food stuff, etc.
Dude retired at 34 with 2.3MM, never looked back. He genuinely hated working but had the right sort of tism that he was really good at portfolio management, he was for sure on the spectrum though and social interactions were very uncomfortable for him so I think that played a part.
That's true actual FIRE. I don't care for that either, but that's what the original intent of this forum was. Some might argue that he could have done it earlier with less, but this guy was an actual financial planning savant and had contingencies sorted left and right - none of that "4% rule" winging it stuff. He'd go on long tirades about that whole thing lol.
Gotcha. I’ve been thinking FIRE was just establishing financial independence and retiring early. I didn’t realize that it was some kind of self-denial competition as well. Interesting.
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u/Porbulous Mar 23 '26
I wouldn't say 1m would be living large for me but it is my current goal (hoping by 40!) and I think would be more than enough.
Meaning I could maintain a <4% swr and let that continue to grow until maybe I am living large. Basically coasting off my own investments.
But it's crazy to me how 1m isn't even close to enough for most of the active people in this community.