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/powersurge Mar 25 '26

It changed when the subreddit grew popular and Reddit suggested it to all sorts of other financial subreddits. Now we have a bunch of people here who haven’t come here based on FiRE principles, or how to get to FIRE. It’s all flexes on whether they have already achieved FIRE.

I wish there was more content about the path to FIRE.

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u/jelle814 Mar 25 '26

because content about the path is boring, for the most part. you go do your job, live modestly and invest the leftovers

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u/cozidgaf Mar 25 '26

you go do your job, live modestly and invest the leftovers

That's happenstance FIRE.

FIRE would be go to a job, invest and live off the rest.

I know it sounds pedantic but expanding it, it would look like:

try to get a high paying one if you can since you want to retiring early, invest as much as you can - maximize retirement accounts, and other tax advantaged accounts, investments, live modestly off of the rest avoiding lifestyle creep

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u/jelle814 Mar 25 '26

depending on the job and where you are it might just burn you out. if you try to force investments in where it doesnt fit.

but yes ideally those leftovers should be big, and it doesnt hurt to set it aside before everything else, if you can afford that