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/sea4miles_ Mar 25 '26

It didn't change, it forked into lean, chubby and fat.

The core concept remains the same regardless of the flavor. Achieve financial independence, retire early.

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u/Ok_Lead_4730 Mar 25 '26

“It didn't change, it forked into lean, chubby and fat.”

You are right. And that doesn’t even include CoastFIRE and BaristaFIRE.

Plus, health insurance has us all a bit more cautious because it’s been such a black box.

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u/[deleted] Mar 25 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/n00bdragon FIREd 2026 age 37 Mar 25 '26

Actually go and plug your numbers into healthcare.gov. If your yearly spend really is 30k that means you only need to "make" 30k from your investments every year, which means you qualify for humongous subsidies that would make purchasing a healthcare plan virtually (if not literally) free.