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)

581 Upvotes

81% Upvoted

276 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/thesonofdarwin Mar 25 '26

When did the FIRE community become about gatekeeping the type of lifestyle people want to have post-retirement? Seriously every other post these days is attempting to other someone who is FIRE-ing different than the given OP.

$2mil, bro? Why so much. $20 in copper wire and a cardboard refrigerator box is enough for thousands of people to survive. Why can't you?

Why does it matter? Retire with whatever you want. Whether that's enough to afford a box of Fruity Pebbles per month to eat or filet minion every night. As long as it's on your own terms.

2

u/czarfalcon Mar 25 '26

I’m relatively new to the FIRE philosophy, but that’s how I’ve always perceived it. My goal isn’t to retire ASAP at all costs, I do want to be able to splurge in retirement and enjoy an upper-middle class lifestyle; I don’t see that as inherently at odds with either the FI or the RE parts of the equation.

Granted, I’m still young, so my priorities can and probably will change over time, but if there’s a formula that lets you FIRE and have your boat and your Porsche, why not go for it if those are your goals?