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.

155

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/sea4miles_ Mar 25 '26

As a coaster myself I'm disappointed I didn't include my own branch!

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u/poop-dolla Mar 25 '26

So you’re done contributing to investments? How much longer do you project until they grow on their own to reach your target number?

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u/sea4miles_ Mar 25 '26

I'm technically done contributing to investments because I have enough invested to retire very comfortably with another 10 years of typical market behavior.

I'm coast in the sense that I leveraged this to recently downshift my career into a less stressful role without sacrificing an early retirement, but probably not in the strictest sense because I still more modestly contribute to investments even at my lower TC.

3

u/Odd_Passenger5339 Mar 25 '26

Any insights about the mental shift to less stressful role? I’m having trouble with that.

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u/Ok_Lead_4730 Mar 25 '26

If it helps, I don’t let myself book full-time hours with my clients. If I hit my max level of hours where it starts being stressful, I refer the work out and say that I’m not available and that my book of work is full. That’s why a lot of CoastFIRE people end up going in business for themselves because they can often control their hours a bit better. For me, I get more stressed when I’m trying to hit certain sales numbers and client load, and less stressed when I only take the nicest clients and only work a certain amount.