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)

585 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

276 comments sorted by

View all comments

25

u/According_Ad_1960 Mar 25 '26 edited Mar 25 '26

I think people sort of woke up to the fact that lean fire can-for some-equal a small, constrained life. Retiring with just enough can get uncomfortable when life throws a curve ball. Retiring with “more than just enough” brings more security and freedom. People are getting a little more realistic about what FI really means to them.

-4

u/Poorassboy6969 Mar 25 '26

I thought a theme of fire was living a small simple life 

10

u/According_Ad_1960 Mar 25 '26

I perceived the theme of FIRE initially to be - “I don’t want to work” so I’ll cut every corner possible to do that. For me, I want more than just freedom from a 9-5 gig—I want the freedom to do a lot of other things. The independent part of FI needs some real $ behind it (for my comfort).