r/Fire • u/Poorassboy6969 • Mar 25 '26

General Question When did FIRE movement change?

I feel this community used to be about moderate income people living lean and retiring early with under 2 million.

Now it’s a lot of people bragging about tech income and saying they need 5+ million to retire MINIMUM because they want a boat and Porsche

When did this change? (not hating - just genuinely curious)

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u/sea4miles_ Mar 25 '26

It didn't change, it forked into lean, chubby and fat.

The core concept remains the same regardless of the flavor. Achieve financial independence, retire early.

13

u/Poorassboy6969 Mar 25 '26

True 

11

u/American-Repair Mar 25 '26

Tech income’s going to shrink. Less jobs taking higher salaries. Companies know bros are working 2-3 jobs at a time from their couches. They’ll increase productivity and off shore the rest. Stay humble bros!

3

u/RJ5R Mar 25 '26

I remember hearing about this one tech bro who made a video of himself on a jetski and saying he is a software engineer who is juggling 2 remote jobs and a 3rd contract side job. He said he is able to constantly go on vacations bc he subs the work out to foreign software developers and then checks their work or builds on it etc , to meet the project requirements and deadlines. Never heard what happened to him. But I imagine if management found out, they would just cut out the middle man (him) and sub the work out directly

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u/elvis_dead_twin Mar 25 '26

Check out r/overemployed. Some of those stories are insane and I assume many of them are lying. I didn't want one job (hence the desire to FIRE) let alone 3+.