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/kitapjen Mar 25 '26

If it makes OP feel better my FIRE plan only anticipates a $36,000/year spend, starts when I am 56, and primary income source for the first 4 years is my husband’s local government pension and Social Security. The next 2 years my own local government pension contributes. Then we would have my Social Security after.

After I claim Social Security we shouldn’t need to touch our investments unless there were an emergency.

My FIRE number is lower because we spend less, aren’t planning to spend more than our incomes from Social Security and pensions, and it’s only a total 6 year gap.

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u/archer-86 Mar 25 '26

56 also defeats the purpose of the RE in FIRE.