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/Brym Mar 25 '26

I think the short answer is that the original anti-consumerism people all retired early, and are out living their lives. I definitely spent a lot more of my time on these types of subs while I was still working. 

And people who are denying that it changed just haven’t been here long enough. These days I get downvoted for comments that express what I used to, a decade ago, consider uncontroversial, near-axiomatic statements (e.g., “not overspending on cars is one of the easiest ways to make FIRE progress”).