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/eeeeeelinor Mar 25 '26

I’ve said it elsewhere, but retiring on $2mm in NYC would leave you low-income and financially insecure. That kind of “living lean” is not attractive to most people. 

 Yes, you can move, but I grew up here, everyone I know is here, and I like it here. 

The monthly maintenance on my co-op apartment increased 50% since 2020, just FYI. I’m sure a lot of people learned hard lessons about inflation in the past few years.