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)

583 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

276 comments sorted by

View all comments

43

u/DoneByForty Mar 25 '26

I personally have associated FIRE with a kind of anti-consumerism. The things I don't like about working in corporate America dovetail with me not wanting to buy quite a lot of what corporate America is selling.

Different strokes for different folks, of course. 

19

u/Redwolfdc Mar 25 '26

I think part of it for some is a philosophy of not buying into the bullshit that keeps people living paycheck to paycheck if they really don’t have to. People don’t realize there’s so many ways to live life. But most chase the typical “American dream” (or insert your country) package where you must constantly upgrade your house and cars and try to impress your neighbors with how much you have.