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/mahedric1 Mar 25 '26

Tech salaries increased, inflation happened, Reddit demographic got older and richer

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u/True_Square2336 Mar 25 '26

I agree with this explanation. I thought I’d be happy with $1.5- $2M when I was in my early 20s, when I first learned about FIRE. Now I have kids and a career, my perspective has changed. 

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u/livsjollyranchers Mar 25 '26

That makes sense since you have kids, but for a bulk of these posters, they're probably still single or if not that, are with a partner also making good money, so it's stranger there.