[0wl3x]

How many people actually do this vs talk about doing it? I know Mr. Money Mustache is super popular and generally the tenets are a great idea, but I certainly don't know anyone my age (early 20s) who has become a proponent of these ideas. It seems a bit too extreme for my tastes. Why not just get a job you like, save enough that work is optional and enjoy your day to day?

[mark212]

it's that middle bit that seems to cause all the consternation: "Save enough that work is optional". It also could be (and I don't mean to sound like an old grump or condescend so apologies in advance) that people in their early 20s haven't been soured on employment sufficiently yet. I was much more idealistic and had a greater tolerance for work-related BS when I was in my early 20s.

I'm nearly 50 now and after being burned several times I made a vow to myself never to be dependent on anyone else again. Even if you work for an incredibly well-funded company, that doesn't mean some dweeb with an MBA in some office in another city / state / country won't wake up one day and decide to wipe our your entire division just because she needs to make a bigger bonus.

I've seen pensions disappear overnight, industries collapse quicker than anyone ever thought, and vibrant cities crumble when big employers shut their doors. Painful and stressful in the extreme.

I've also blown $10k on something stupid instead of buying another bunch of Apple stock, reasoning that I'd make it up later in life easily enough. That was 1997. The $10k would be well over $1 million now.

The biggest thing to learn is that money doesn't equal happiness. That, for me, is the repeated lesson of MMM and related authors. Freedom to make decisions without reference to finances is a massive, amazing thing.

[bhaak]

That's the FI (financial independence) part of FIRE. The retire early part is optional for many that are pursuing this goal.

There's an active community on Reddit at https://www.reddit.com/r/financialindependence/

One point that often comes up is that people shut their mouth about FIRE because if they bring it up, the reaction is often negative. There might be several people you know working towards FIRE but they don't evangelize it.