Why is everybody chasing FIRE?
Is FIRE the latest obsession because people have no other passion in life? Is it because they have aced school, college, High package(due to recent surge in salaries) and now don't know what is the next mission in life?
One argument is that they want freedom to do great things, but as I see the drive to do great things comes when people are put in constraints and difficulties. Not when they have freedom..
Everyone wants Fire because they understand all that hustling and work for your passions is bullcrap and chilling and enjoying life is a much better alternative.
Hustling is an oversold concept. And why it hits people is because in people’s neural pathways in the brain - they recognise someone teaching them unimaginable discipline just like their parents keeping expectations of child to be 100% perfect.
The memories of childhood has built these neural pathways for everyone.
I don't agree with this. I'm chasing FIRE (more specifically FI) because I want to continue coding / building products but do what I want to do, build my own SaaS/software products etc instead of giving my time to someone else in exchange for money
In most cases it's mislabelling. Most people want FI and get saddled with RE.
The ones that claim to want RE need to figure out two things: a. Their raison d'etre. b. What will they do with their time?
Chasing FI is important but not critical. It just gives you more degrees of freedom in making life and career choices. The earlier you achieve FI the better, but there's no need to aim to hit it when you are 35 or 40. 55 / 60 is good enough given that life spans now are well into the late 70s early 80s.
RE is subjective. Most passions are passing fads and a whole lot of people don't know what to do with their time.
In summary, to give a cricket analogy - just like a good test match batting innings, people should learn to pace their lives. Everyone cannot be looking through a T20 innings lens to finish fast and finish big.
This makes sense. As you said we need to pace our lives.... because I feel that in chase of FI people are less willing to take risks (joining early stage firms/ starting a startup/ taking a sabbatical) which can give an even greater outcome later on.
Looking at all the layoffs around, I realise the software engineering might not be a multi decade career industry. At least not for everyone.
I'm just saving as much as possible when I'm earning well so I won't have to be too worried when the layoff hits me.
RE is just a bonus. FI is the main deal.
That’s an interesting thought 🧐. This got me wondering that 5-7 years down the line, what will the SDEs (currently in 5-10 YOE range) do. Will the Global demand + Indian Startup demand be enough to accommodate higher packages and higher YOE or will be there be fewer opportunities as the YOE of a SDE increases.
Will MBA help?
You all are watching too much YouTube. Gyaan from fininfulencers
Partially true, this content has recently increased due to people getting 50lpa salaries which makes FIRE dream possible.
Inflation is a bitch, it will catch up. So chill out do what your parents did. Don’t think so much into fire concept. Work till you can and enjoy when you get free
What is fire?
It's Financial Independence Retire Early, a concept where you have enough investments accumulated so that you can retire in 30s/40s
In that case , I'm poor af 😪
I want FIRE because I hate my job , had I liked what I was doing I wouldn't be chasing FIRE. I just want to do farming - read books - exercise and enjoy my existence once I reach that stage . May contribute to society too
There is also a realisation that for most of us - we are just bloody cogs nothing more nothing less
I am chasing fire because I don't have any passion for the work I am doing. I don't like hustling. Have hustled for over a decade.
From a tier 3 education background, I can't stand shoulder to shoulder with tier 1 folks. Not because I am not smart but because my cv does not have big college names.
My bosses from the last 5 yrs are younger than me. My current boss is 6yrs younger than me.
Not ashamed and not like I did not expect this. Education has the highest ROI anywhere. Bas numbers nai aaye school mein in spite of being an introverted nerd in school.
Job mein poor openings at 11k 12 yrs back in bpos.
Since then hustling and hustling.
I want FI for a secure mind and RE because I have no passion left for work.
Happy to kill time all day long than stress at work.
I am chasing FIRE as well. But for me RE is irrelevant. Because I'll never retire (I love engineering, tech, coding, etc).
For me FI is about time, not money itself. I want to have the time to do more work that I love and build my own saas products etc. without having to work for money 😁. (Maybe travel as well).
Slightly off topic but let's say everyone starts chasing this.
Probability distribution will come into play and some people will fare better than most but the overall number of people in the middle range will increase......does this also mean that the standard for retirement also changes (i.e increases) and therefore it takes longer to achieve the end goal ?
Food for thought 🤔
Yes you are right. More people achieving fire is not good for the overall economy as well. People who fire'd were forced to go back to work after corona because their savings were eaten up by hyperinflation.
Not everyone is chasing fire. Most of the people chasing fire will attain fire later than those people who aren't chasing. It's important to note that people enjoying what they do don't talk much and keep doing.